Lenten sacrifice prompts family to try vegetarianism

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By Sharon Short, Contributing Writer 4:57 PM Friday, February 26, 2010

A few days before Lent, Oldest Daughter said during lunch: “What would you think about becoming vegetarians for Lent?”

We were having hamburgers.

Husband gave his hamburger a tenderly loving look, and then said: “You mean... give up meat? All meat?”

Oldest Daughter replied: “We could still have fish. Lots of vegetarians include fish in their diets.”

I said: “Well, if we could still have fish, that doesn’t sound too bad. We love fish!”

Youngest Daughter said, aghast: “Fish... every day?”

I said: “Of course not! We’d want variety. There are lots of vegetarian foods. Like ... chocolate!”

Husband added: “And ice cream!”

Me: “Sushi!

Husband: “Cheese pizza!”

Me: “Eggs!”

Husband: “Baked beans!”

Me: “French fries!”

We’d have kept going on like that for a while, but Oldest Daughter jumped in: “Mom! Dad! The whole idea is to not only give something up as a sacrifice — but to try healthy foods we normally wouldn’t have.”

Husband and I gave each other a look: Wow, see what happens when the kids turn into young adults? But Youngest

Daughter misinterpreted our shared look as confusion.

So she clarified: “I think what sis means is... if you’re going to be vegetarian, you’re going to have to eat vegetables.”

Me (a bit offended): “We do!”

Well, not at this particular meal. Unless catsup counts as a vegetable. Which I adamantly think it does not.

Oldest Daughter: “Sure, we have veggies as side dishes... but the idea is to truly try to be vegetarian.”

Husband, looking at Youngest Daughter (now back to happily munching her hamburger): “What do you mean, if ‘you’re going to be a vegetarian...’ Aren’t we all doing this?”

Youngest Daughter: “Are you kidding? I’m going to the grocery and getting a steak!”

Still, both daughters had a point. Being vegetarian would mean cooking, serving and eating vegetables... as the main dish.

It’s only been a week and a half, but so far we’ve learned a lot about going the vegetarian route.

I put out a “help!” plea on Facebook, and received lots of good tips and recipes.

I thumbed through my own recipe collection and found that, actually, I have quite a few vegetarian recipes that I’ve just neglected.

We went to the library and checked out some excellent vegetarian cookbooks.

We ate out at one of the usual restaurants — and discovered that eating vegetarian there was quite a challenge. So we’re looking forward to trying, or revisiting, several restaurants that offer more vegetarian options. (Sad as it is, one can only eat dessert as the main course so many times.)

We’ve come across a philosophy, in one of the cookbooks, that the vegetarian style of eating means switching from the mentality of one main course and several supporting sides, to thinking of a meal as several dishes, all of equal value.

We’ve gone to the organic section of our grocery. Giggled at a few things. And decided to try a few others.

So, rather than being a drag or something to get through, this “let’s be vegetarian for Lent” experience is fun. And tasty! So far, anyway. After all, we have about four and a half more weeks to go.

But Youngest Daughter hasn’t run out to buy a steak just yet.

Sharon Short’s column runs Monday in Life. Send e-mail to sharonshort@sharonshort.com.

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