by Peggy C.
(South Bend, IN)
I've wanted to go meatless for quite a while and I'd read up on the subject a bit. But I'd been reluctant to really make the change since I'm still in charge of cooking for my husband and two children.
After reading through this website, I got an idea that has turned out to be a great family compromise for us.
When I was a kid, I was a bit finicky about eating my vegetables, like most kids. Some I liked, like corn on the cob, baked potatoes and three bean salad. But a serving of peas and carrots, stewed yellow squash or steamed broccoli just didn't excite me at all.
Ironically, I recently remembered that I always looked forward to lunchtime when I was in high school. Every day they had a pot of fresh "homemade" vegetable soup. I had it every day and loved it.
Looking back now, I realize that all the veggies I was never excited about were absolutely delicious in those hearty high school soups and I came up with a plan.
I discussed what I wanted to try with my husband and he said that he was not yet ready to go totally meatless and would probably still order meat entrees at his business luncheons. However, he agreed with me that it's probably a healthy idea to go meatless and didn't see any problems with the kids if they genuinely liked the foods that we served them.
So I decided to follow your advice about making a big pot of homemade soup on a regular basis and it's working miracles for me in three ways.
1.) My family loves the soups and now we're all eating lots of veggies.
2.) It saves me time in the long run preparing healthy mealess meals for the family.
3.) Soup is now the backbone of my meal plan, we're all eating meatless at home and everyone loves the food.
Also I'd like to mention a fourth benefit that hasn't yet had time to come to fruition. I feel sure that when our kids are grown and gone years from now, they'll remember and really cherish these home-cooked meatless meals.