Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day 44: "Living Among Meat Eaters"

    Today I finished another one of Carol J. Adams great books; "Living Among Meat Eaters". The last book of hers I read, "Help! My Child Stopped Eating Meat!", was more written towards parents coping with their children's new life style. This book "Living Among Meat Eaters" is great, for it is written for vegans and vegetarians who are learning how to deal with the "meat eaters" in their own life.


     If you want to know the reasons behind why people will go out of their way to make such a big deal about your change in diet, this is the book for you. Adams goes in depth about the various different types of responses many vegans/vegetarians get from "meat eaters", and how to go about dealing with them. In this book Adam also describes "meat eaters" as various different types of blocked vegetarians.

    Along with all the great advice on how to handle some of these sticky situations, in the back of the book Adams also includes a list of her favorite recipes. I decided to try her famous kale soup with a side of seasoned diced baked potatoes, since I had some extra kale in the fridge.


      This simple soup was absolutely amazing. It reminded me almost of the type of soup you might order at an ethnic Chinese restaurant. The kale was soft and tender like how cabbage is in most Asian soups. The vegetable broth and soy sauce gave it a warm salty taste that made me think of chicken noodle soup.

Kale Soup

3 cups of roughly chopped kale leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup minced onion
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 (14-ounce) cans of vegetable broth
1 tablespoon soy sauce


    Step 1: In a large sauce pan or soup pot place the oil and turn the heat up to medium-high. Add the onion and cook until it begins to brown; stirring occasionally.

   Step 2: When the onion is golden brown add the garlic and cook for approx. one minute before adding the broth. Bring the broth to a boil then lower the heat and add the soy sauce.

   Step 3: Add the kale to the broth and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.

(Serves 3 to 4)


6 comments:

  1. What exactly is a "blocked vegetarian?"

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  2. In her book Adams said that you should see all "meat eaters" as blocked vegetarians. What she means by that, is despite knowing that a plant-based diet is better for them, they have decided not to change. They could be blocked for numerous reasons. It could be because they think being vegetarian is too hard, gender reasons (someone might accuse then of being gay), health reasons (they don't know if they will be able to stay healthy on that diet), and the list goes on. Adams also said sometimes the block comes from something that happened in their childhood. Many children, including myself, wanted to be vegetarians when they were younger but were met with no support from family members.

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  3. I have never personally been accused of being gay, I am just quoting some of the reasons in the book. Many people think of eating meat as a "manly" thing to do, and by rejecting that it sometimes makes people question your sexuality. I know it has no correlation, but many people have been accused of being gay for less.

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  4. Well meat eating isnt unhealthy.... i would never give up meat

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  5. I am not asking you to give up meat, but why do you think eating meat is healthy? I have read tons of articles that state that it is actually bad for one's health. Have you read any that have seriously condoned eating large sums of meat?

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  6. "A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral." --Leo Tolstoy

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