Thursday, November 5

getting vegucated about the cowspiracy

i recently watched 2 documentaries on Netflix: Vegucated, about 3 New Yorkers attempting a vegan diet for 6 weeks and the education provided by the documentarian about the environmental and humanity reasons for the lifestyle; and Cowspiracy, an environmentalist documentary about the huge detrimental impact animal husbandry and fishing has on our environment.

both documentaries shed a lot of light on how much of a detrimental impact humans make to sustain an omnivorous diet.  ultimately, both documentaries conclude that a vegan lifestyle, wherein animals are not raised in mass quantities for human consumption, including milk and eggs, is the best solution.

like the participants in Vegucated, i've never been able to understand vegans. vegetarians, i get (a little) but veganism seemed so extreme.  however, these documentaries point out how little we, at the top of the food chain, have to do in order to help the environment by embracing a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. our only sacrifice is what we ingest. it's really not that hard when you weight the benefit to the environment vs. my sacrifice to not eat delicious yummy proteins.

so, beginning November, Sandlot and i decided to give vegetarianism a try. it's week one, but we've already gone all-in with commitment. the only animal items we're allowed to eat are eggs and dairy and we went on a massive grocery shop in order to feed our new diet and avoid temptations.

Sandlot likes Aldi's vs. Trader Joe's, and since they're technically related companies (owned by brothers, each running one entity), i decided to give it a shot. Trader Joe's has an abundance of vegetarian and vegan options, primarily in the frozen foods section, but still a very varied selection. alternatively, Aldi's doesn't really have a lot of vegetarian/vegan meat alternatives, although their gluten-free options are very abundant.  we left with lots of beans varieties and cheeses.

to supplement our choices, we stopped into Costco, located in the same shopping complex.  although i was expecting more options, Costco's choices weren't disappointing. in terms of ethnic vegetarian food e.g. hummus, stuffed grape leaves, cheeses, tofu, there's definitely a lot of choice.  in the frozen foods section, there were some choices e.g. vegetarian quiches, edamame, vegetable ravioli, but the big ticket items i was hoping for like tempeh and soy hot dogs were sorely missed. we did pick up some Morningstar Chipotle Black Bean Burgers, which i have yet to try but which Sandlot says is surprisingly tasty. still tastes like a veggie burger, but the chipotle aspect helps to add some nice smoky flavor.

so far, we've been making most of our meals and lunches at home and have been doing well with options and variety. but then again, it's been less than a week so far....