CalhounSq said:

you tried the gardenburger grilled chicken? or the boca spicy breaded chicken? i recommend both highly, especially if you like spicy food - boca doesn't mess around.

I'm not a vegan, but I am moving more and more towards a vegetarian lifestyle. Boca and Morningstar Farms do produce some incredible meat substitutes. In fact, my wife (who loves beef....insert joke here) has even become hooked on them.

Red Robin offers Boca and Garden Burger patties as a substitute for any of their burgers. Their mushroom burger ROCKS with a Boca pattie!

JediMaster said:

very cool!

my husband is a meat eater, and he also loves a lot of the meat substitutes.

I have yet to find a fake chicken product that isn't completely disgusting I've tried, they all taste like friggin' cardboard

I'd like to find a good one though

Couldn't even imagine eating meat anymore, it's just not food to me anymore. So that's not a problem, the problem for me has always been to be able to find a pair of combat boots that aren't made of leather (I'm an old rivethead, and am not giving up on wearing combat boots no matter what). It's almost impossible. Once I had to walk to whole another city to find a reasonably priced pair.

how do i do it? i don't know anymore. it's just second nature, because i've been doing it for 17 years now.

i do have my limits, as i think everyone does. i think anyone who decides to go veggie/vegan/cruelty-free/etc. has to decide at what point their lives have to come before the lives of other life just as a matter of survival. this is why i try not to judge anyone else for the choices they make in their lives, just because they don't match up with mine.

sometimes i will buy a leather belt or leather shoes. but i will wear the hell out of them and make sure they aren't wasted. i'm very VERY spare about doing this, but i've been living in big cities most of my life and i need shoes/boots that will endure new york city blocks and chicago winters. most of my shoes are vinyl or canvas, though. it doesn't make a difference to me when the weather is okay.

as for food, it was and still is easy. once you give up meat for a month or two and really give vegetarian cooking a chance and have fun with it, it's not hard to give up meat for good.

I've got a few old coats that were passed down to me that I won't give up wearing for anything. One's leather with fur trim, and the other's rabbit fur. I figure it's fine to wear them because none of my money went to toward the company's that made them. In fact, they were both second-hand when my mom bought them 30 odd years ago. God knows how old they really are.

Also, fur is nice and warm. Winter's coming up and I can't afford to go buy a new winter coat.

I wouldn't buy fur or leather new though.

meow85 said:

actually, i think that's very reasonable.

I do like those "veggie" burgers from Burger King. No clue what they're made of though. My best guess is a soy/mushroom deal.

I wonder if BK cooks their veggie burgers on a separate grill?

I prefer eating veggie the vast, vast majority of the time.

How do you do it.

CarrieMpls said:

I'm kind of in the same boat. I've tried eating an entirely vegetarian (and later even vegan) diet for several months, but it made me feel unwell and unable to keep up my weight. (You've seen me... you know that I can't afford to lose any pounds. ) However, I seem to do well on a diet that includes maybe one meal per day with a small amount of meat. And once every few months or so, I'll go ahead and have a double cheeseburger.

Since adopting that diet, I feel much better, and my cholesterol has actually dropped to 145. That compares to over 150 with a vegetarian diet.

I'm a J.D., not an M.D., but I believe it's the settled judgment of science that humans are biological omnivores. And while some people seem to do well on plant-based diets, others (such as myself) don't. I've talked to several physicians about this (including my vegan-friendly former doctor), and they all seem to agree.

On the opposite side, I've been toying with the idea of finally making the commitment of going veggie all out. I've been mostly veggie for a few years now, progressively cutting out more and more meat all the time... We'll see...

IrresistibleB1tch said:

I've known a couple of folks who subscribe to this philosphy, and only buy fur or leather second hand. Hey, I can't find fault in it!

meow85 said:

There have been two versions, at least in the U.S. The original BK Veggie contained mushrooms and other vegetables, but no soy. (BTW, soy is one of the more common food allergies.) However, it didn't taste like a hamburger, and it didn't even taste good (IMHO).

The current version is soy-based and made by Morningstar Farms. I haven't yet had a chance to try it, though, as BK has relatively few locations in Seattle.

Natsume said:

I don't know about the current version, but the original BK Veggie was cooked on the same grill unless the customer requested otherwise. BK restaurants were (are?) instructed to heat the patty in the microwave if asked.

I'm told that in India, where many people don't eat beef and/or eat a vegetarian diet, McDonald's has a vegetarian-friendly menu and is very careful to avoid "contamination." Employees who handle meat are not allowed to handle the vegetarian products, and vice versa. The vegetarian products are cooked on seperate equipment, and the employees who prepare these items wear special green aprons.

Wasn't there a big kerfuffle not long ago because certain McDick's in India weren't adhering to the "no contamination" rule?

I've known a couple of folks who subscribe to this philosphy, and only buy fur or leather second hand. Hey, I can't find fault in it!

here are some alternatives:

http://www.mooshoes.com/p...ry_id=4286

http://www.vegetarian-sho...boots.aspx

http://www.veganline.com/...cing-vegan

hope some of those will work for you!

IrresistibleB1tch said:

I've known a couple of folks who subscribe to this philosphy, and only buy fur or leather second hand. Hey, I can't find fault in it!

JediMaster said:

That makes sense to me, and I have done the same. There's great bargains to be had at thrift and charity shops. It's frugal, humane and less wasteful to shop this way.

I have trouble with the idea of buying plastic & vinyl shoes... I don't think this world needs more PLASTIC, know what I mean?

I got some rubber boots for outdoors tho. I live in the country.

Heiress said:

On the plus side, the plastic shoes could be in your family for generations to come! Your great great grandchildren will have legends about where they came from!

meow85 said:

McDonald's U.S.A. got into legal trouble because they claimed to have switched in 1990 to pure vegetable oil in their deep fryers, but didn't disclose that the oil still contained beef flavoring (whatever that is). See:

http://www.cbsnews.com/st...1109.shtml

You might be thinking of India because some of the plaintiffs in the U.S. litigation were Hindus, and India's "no contamination" procedures are due to the large Hindu population.

Today the official word from McDonald's U.S.A. is, "No products are certified as vegetarian; all products may contain trace amounts of ingredients derived from animals." See: http://www.mcdonalds.com/...index.html