The Meatatarian’s Vegetarian Cooking Blog

I love meat.  Meat tastes better the vegetables. Meat should be the center of every meal. Vegetables are just the obstacles that help create a balanced meal according to the food pyramid plate. However, the modern day Sports Bar Joe needs to be more LeBron than Shaq to survive in today’s changing culinary context. After 26 years, I have to admit, vegetables are important. We need to learn how to cook them.

I wish I could resist change. 

Let’s be honest, there is nothing better than a barbeque burger with bacon cheese fries and a beer. Or a Krispy Kreme Burger with Bacon. Or Fried Chicken and Waffles.

Meat is also easy to cook. Want to save kitchen time? Bake chicken for the week. It requires five minutes of effort (something delicious does have to go on the chicken after all) and 40 minutes of homework playing FIFA to make sure the house doesn’t burn down.

Alas, change is a necessary evil. 

Meat is on the decline and the Whole Foods/Trader Joes Foodie Elitist is on the rise. Thank god beer is here to stay. Men and the few awesome resistant women need to adapt or die** early and alone. A few facts:

• While there are healthy meats, you shouldn’t eat (especially red) meat that often. Some elitists have told me no more than two days per week.  That would be the two days I go to the sports bar.
• Even if you eat meat healthily, vegetables are even healthier. Cholesterol, diabetes, and submitting to social pressure to look swell for potential partners are all valid concerns.  
• And the most pressing concern: the rise of this weird dating animal called the “Friendly Vegetarian.” Have you checked the right side of OKCupid profiles lately? It’s ridiculous. These friendly vegetarians might be friendly, until you want to show off your cooking skills and your go-to dish is Meat Loaf.

Given the changing landscape of food, I’ve decided, with the help of a bunch of vegetarian foodie elitist friends, to provide an intervention. Here are a bunch of vegetarian recipes that even Mr. Chicken-Baker can cook. THIS WILL BE UPDATED FOREVER (or Until I Get Bored/Lazy).

This wouldn’t be a Sports Blog without an arbitrary scoring system, so here is the scale. At the end of the year, we will have the ultimate Meatatarian-Approved Vegetarian Dish.

Criteria	Description
My Opinion (Max 10)	Do I Like It?
Roommate’s Opinion (Max 10)	Do the Westmaaster, the Mild Minnesotan, or Thunder Like It?
Easy To Cook (Max 10)	0=Food Network Difficulty 10=Baking Chicken Easy Boiling Water is a 9.

*By die, I mean increase the probability of dying, but that wouldn’t sound good on a blog.

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Recipe 1 (Click Link for Recipe): African Groundnut Stew

Source: The Healthy College Cookbook

	My Opinion	Westmaaster’s Opinion	Ease to Cook/Live	Total
Score	8	8	6	22

It’s not easy going first, but this is a solid dish and it creates many meals. Good both hot and cold. It’s the vegetable equivalent of Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans, except most of the vegetables taste good! And the broth is like a tomato-soup type deal. The problem: I chopped vegetables for at least a half hour. Too much work.