Red Beans And Rice

Ingredients:

1 pound red beans, dry
8 cups water
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
4 bay leaves
3 Tablespoons chopped garlic
3 Tablespoons chopped parsley
2 teaspoons crushed, dried thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup chopped green pepper

Instructions:

Rinse and sort beans before mixing them in a five quart capacity pot with the bay leaves, celery, onion and water, bringing everything to boil before reducing the heat, covering the pot and then cooking for around 90 minutes until the be`ns are tender. Once they are tender, you can stir and mash them in the pan before adding the remaining ingredients and then uncovering the pot. Cook everything in this manner until the mixture is creamy, before removing the leaves from the mixture and then serving everything over rice.

Chickpea Tacos

Submitted by Carrie Lauth http://www.naturalmomsrecipes.com

Ingredients:

2 cups or 1 can chickpeas, drained
2 cups salad greens
1/2 cup organic sour cream
1 avocado, chopped
fresh cilantro to taste
1 cup salsa
juice of one lime
one clove garlic
corn taco shells

Instructions:

Place avocado in bowl and mash. Add chickpeas, cilantro, garlic and lime juice. Add sea salt, cumin and pepper to taste.

Fill taco shells with chickpea mash, top with greens and sour cream and salsa. These are excellent with the rice recipe below.

Why People Become Vegetarians

Many nonvegetarians wonder what drives vegetarians to give
up meat and adopt an entirely different lifestyle.
There is no single answer to this question. Nonvegetarians
become vegetarians for a number of different reasons – some
even for multiple reasons.

Most vegetarians claim that they became a vegetarian for
one of three reasons.

The first reason, which most vegetarians claim, is that
they have ethical problems with eating meat. Most disagree
with how chickens are debeaked, forced to live in small
cages, and are then slaughtered when they do not produce
eggs fast enough.

Most vegetarians also disagree with the crowded and
stressful environments animals are forced into; and
the hormone-laden feed used to make them grow faster
and produce more.

People who become vegetarians for this purpose often
draw ethical boundaries in different spots, depending on
their personal beliefs. For instance, some staunch vegans
wont consume yeast, wear wool, or even eat certain
vegetables, such as carrots, that require killing the
plant to harvest.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, some vegetarians–
sometimes referred to as pseudo-vegetarians–will actually
eat fish and chicken on a regular basis.

The second biggest reason vegetarians claim for not eating
meat is that it conflicts with their dietary preferences.
Some of these vegetarians simply do not like the texture
and taste of meat; others do not eat it because it is high
in cholesterol and often contains high concentrations
of hormones and preservatives.

The third and smallest group of vegetarians cite
environmental reasons for not consuming meat. They complain
that consumption of meat causes farmers to continually
deforest land to create grazing land for cattle.

In addition to these three major groups, there are a number
of other smaller groups of vegetarians who stopped eating
meat for entirely different reasons.

The Top Five Nutrients Vegetarians Lack

Both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets have advantages.
Vegetarian diets tend to be rich in antioxidants, certain
vitamins, and healthy fats. Non-vegetarian diets, by
contrast, tend to contain more protein, iron, zinc,
calcium, and vitamin B-12.

If you already decided to adopt a vegetarian diet,
it is essential you learn how to increase your intake
and absorption of these nutrients to avoid short-term
and long-term health complications.

In the next few paragraphs, I will explain how you
can regularly assimilate larger portions of these
nutrients into your regular diet:

1. Protein. Different types of protein are made up
of different permutations of amino acid chains.
In order to create a “complete protein” or a
protein that can be assimilated into the human
body as tissue, you must consume foods that contain
complementary chains of amino acids.

Wheat, nuts, and beans are three types of vegan-friendly
incomplete proteins; however, wheat is hard to
digest and up to 50% of its protein is lost
during the process.

Isolated soy protein, which you can get from a number
of sources (including soy milk), can be digested
efficiently-enough to match the animal protein yields.

2. Iron. Plant sources contain a significant amount of
iron, but in nonheme form, which is more sensitive
to inhibitors than iron that comes from animal products.
You should do two things to increase your blood-iron
levels: 1) consume more plant iron; and 2) avoid absorption
inhibitors, such as tea, coffee, and fiber.

3. Zinc. Whereas non-vegetarian diets seem to enhance
the absorption of zinc; vegetarian and vegan diets
do the exact opposite–they inhibit it.

Nutritionists suggest that you can overcome
this by consuming more foods that contain zinc,
such as soybeans, cashews, and sunflower
seeds while reducing your intake of inhibitors
by washing vegetables and grains.

4. Calcium. While vegetarians can easily consume
an adequate amount of calcium without any dietary
additions, it is important that vegetarians avoid
consuming certain foods that are high in oxalates,
which inhibit calcium absorption.

Dietitians suggest that vegetarians do not consume
spinach, beet greens, and swiss chard as the
calcium component of a meal plan. While they are
rich in calcium, they also contain high amounts of
oxalates.

Rather than consuming those foods for calcium,
vegetarians should consider other options, such as
soy yogurt, tofu, beans, almonds, and calcium-
fortified foods.

5. Vitamin B-12. Many vegetarians lack
vitamin B-12 simply because it does not exist
naturally in any non-animal forms. Vegetarians
should seek out vitamin B-12 fortified foods,
such as certain soy milks and cereals to
supplement what they lack.

As I outlined, there are a number of nutrients
vegetarians can lack of they do not research
and plan. This is not meant to discourage
people from becoming vegetarians, but instead
to encourage them to spend time planning a
health approach to their vegetarian diet
before starting it.

When planned adequately, a vegetarian diet
can not only make up for what it lacks from
animal products, but it can far exceed
the healthfulness of most non-vegetarian diets.

Important Non-Meat Sources Of Protein For Vegetarians

Although most vegetarians consume a considerable
amount of protein, they often do not absorb as much
as they would on a nonvegetarian diet. This is because
plant proteins are considerably less digestible than
animal proteins, which contain amino acid chains that
are closer or identical to human amino acid chains.

Consuming animal proteins might yield close to a 1:1
absorption ratio, while consuming plant proteins, such
as wheat, might only yield 50% of the amino acids needed
to build a “complete protein” or a protein that can
readily be assimilated into the human body.

In order for vegetarians to absorb a healthy amount
of protein, they must consume a variety of plant proteins
to form complete amino chains. By eating vegetables,
legumes, seeds, nuts, fruits, and whole grains, vegetarians
can increase the amount of complete proteins they create
by combining a number of varieties of amino acid chains.

Vegetarians must also consume more foods that contain
proteins because plant proteins are generally
harder to digest. While a nutritional label may suggest
that pasta has 5 grams of protein per serving; you may
only be able to digest 2-3 grams of that protein, which
means you must complement the pasta with other sources
of protein.

In addition to natural sources of protein, vegetarians
should also seek foods that are “protein-fortified”–
or artificially-infused with protein.

For example, many supermarkets offer a variety
“protein-fortified” pasta and bread. I have seen pasta
that contains as much as 12 grams of protein per serving.

Soy milk is also a good source of protein for vegetarians.
Studies on isolated soy protein show that it can be
absorbed nearly as well as animal proteins, yielding close
to a 1:1 protein absorption ratio.

For non-vegan vegetarians, yogurt, milk, and
eggs (which contain complete proteins) are all
excellent sources of protein.

As a vegetarian you have a number of options to
boost your protein intake – and you should consider
taking advantage of all of them. You should diversify
your food selections, drink more soy products, and
eat “protein-fortified” breads and pasta.

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