February 27, 2011

Bring On The Veggies!

I have been quite busy with my professional blog/website Vocalize (in French). But I have a new subject to talk about here:

I am going vegetarian, voilĂ , I said it!

I have never been a big meat eater and my meals were already including soja, soja milk, soja yogurts, tofu, tofu steaks, lots of nuts (almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, macadamia...), brown rice, whole weat pasta, cereals, vegetables and fruits.

But I grew up eating fine French food and that includes delicious stews, sausages... and I liked the taste of it a lot even if it was not on a daily basis.

So it took me a while (until now so quite a while lol) to reach that point when I can say I am going vegetarian. The trigger seems to be the animal killing I cannot bear to be a part of anymore. They don't show those awful videos on TV with the cows or pigs screaming like crazy...

It is like a new life starting now and a whole universe to discover. I will still eat dairy products for the moment, milk and eggs and maybe someday I will go vegan. My concern is to eat healthy and to avoid any lack (iron, proteins, D vitamin, calcium...) because last December my doctor said I was having anemia and prescribed iron tablets. And I would rather not have those tablets but eat healthy.

To celebrate the day, I had:

For lunch
  • a fresh carrot and leek soup
  • two cereals bread slices
  • oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar
For dinner
  • my first homemade dal with green lentils
  • tender dried figs from the market
Here is the pic of my Dal With Green Lentils and Coconut Milk


  1. Cook the green lentils (3 cups of water per 1 cup of lentils) for 25 min in cold water + add 1 tea spoon of baking soda
  2. Diced 1 potato and 1 carrot and cook them (I microwaved them with water for 7 min)
  3. Heat 2 table spoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, add 1 chopped onion, then 1 big tomato chopped bite-sized, 1 minced garlic clove. Add the potato and the carrot. Add spices (ras-el-hanout powder, fresh coriander).
  4. Add the drained lentils to the mix, reduce heat and simmer for 10 min to blend flavors.
  5. Pour some coconut milk and simmer for 2 min.
Et voilĂ , my non spicy Dal with Green Lentils, the pic is not as yummy as the taste of it :-)