Not Eating Meat Is Easy...

I think that my love and awe of the natural world and it's inhabitants are a pretty big part and inspiration in my artwork and wanting to lead a kinder lifestyle is a big part of it all. Jonathan and I are lacto-ovo vegetarians, but usually we just say 'we don't eat meat' instead of calling ourselves vegetarians because we do eat dairy and some fish (being the lacto-ovo bit). We are lucky in that we both love to cook, so when one doesn't feel like cooking, the other happily picks up the slack. We both cook different types of foods and we both have our different ways, Jon never uses recipes and is great at whipping things up from whatever is in the kitchen but I on the other hand need recipes, every ingredient on that recipe and nice big pictures, oh yeah and defiantly I have to have jazz playing whiles I cook, ha ha. I always find it funny when people say 'it must be hard to be vegetarian'...well yes it is somewhat more difficult in a meat and potato type of town such as where we live, but it's so worth it...to have that whole less-guilt thing going into our tummies. I also laugh when I hear people try to knock veggie heads down with things like "Oh you must starve" etc...well just look at some of our recent delicious meat-free meals we've enjoyed... This was a dish Jonathan made, it had mushrooms, zucchini and veggies mixed with red rice, topped with sauteed garlic 'chicken' strips with mushrooms and spinach with a side of homemade minestrone soup... mmmm good:D I made this potato and leek frittata.with a side of hot house tomatoes it was sooo good... I made this zucchini, red pepper and breadcrumb spaghettini not long ago, it was easy and so tasty... Jonathan makes great noodle dishes, this was a fantastic noodle soup with crispy won tons....you can get vegetarian soup base that tastes like chicken stock, we usually get ours at any bins & bins store....

Our first landlord/friend in Toronto was Jewish and whenever we were sick she'd bring us a pot of mottsaball soup, since then it's always been a comfort dish for me...but now I make a vegetarian version of it and it tastes just as good...

A couple weeks ago I made some homemade sauerkraut with 'sausage'...sided with my fantastic lentil soup...there's usually a pot of lentil soup on at least once a week in our house...

And this is my favourite recent dish of Jons...more noodles but this time with stir fried veggies and delicious basmati rice topped with curried tofu and almonds....soooo delicious and he whips it together pretty quickly too.

So really! does it look like we starve, ha ha...not with all this goodness and yumminess going into our bellies ...We feel healthy, we feel strong and we feel pretty good about what we put into our systems, espeacially when we face four furry little hearts everyday:D

Just wanted to share this little tidbit of our lives....Have a great and extra kind weekend all.