I can’t remember where I saw it, but I feel like today is a good time to revisit the concept of “Vegan + bacon”.

clew

historical rhyme; lots of northerly peasant food is vegan with only a little bacon and buttermilk because even if they could raise meat and dairy they had to *sell* most of that -- little lardoons of bacon, and the buttermilk left over after making butter for market, is the home food

Also delicious so

@raptor @danirabbit

Zimmie

@chewie @danirabbit Learning how to use spices also helps tremendously. I recently discovered lemon ginger rice. Chickpeas take spices a lot like chicken. Curries, tikka masala, vindaloo, North African tagines, and more generally do really well with chickpeas instead of meat.

Chewie

@bob_zim @danirabbit very true!

I love veggie curries. They don't need to be "hot" spicy, but they taste really nice.
We have a good selection of takeaways and restaurants locally, as we have a relatively large Indian population.

Helle, Queen of Dissociation :verifiedplural:

@danirabbit I mean until my health issued forced me back on meat, I never had chicken anymore, it is the most trivial thing to replace and pork I only had bacon or dried sausages

like yeah, we still ate some amount of beef and fish, but 5 out of 7 days tended to end up meat free by chance

(sadly health issues have made chicken kind of mandatory, best amino acid balance for humans, and given how little I can eat, I kind of need that)

Phil Thane ✅

@danirabbit
I'm getting there. Still got Android on this phone because it was cheap and there's no AOSP based OS for it. And still watch YouTube (via FreeTube) for entertainment.

Elio Campitelli

@FinalGirl @danirabbit Or "ham" reduction, in this case.

greenpepper22

@danirabbit big +1 for just going for a more vegetable heavy diet. They’re wayyy hardier in the fridge so I deal with way less food spoiling on me, and my insides felt way better when I gave up eating meat everyday.

When I was a little kid every Sunday my dad would get up early to make everyone eggs and sausage and the nostalgia of how much I still enjoy that for breakfast sometimes is hard to let go, but I can def have veggie pasta for dinner like 3 nights a week

Twotired

@danirabbit For a few years while transitioning to a vegetarian (not vegan) diet, I described myself as an ovo-lacto-pepperonio vegetarian.

raptor :C_H:

@clew @danirabbit exactly so!

Rolf Blijleven 🔻

@FinalGirl Fully with you on this.

@danirabbit

Opticacia

@danirabbit
I don't actually hate this but it's just reinventing the idea of vegetarianism.

& maybe that does need some rejuvinating & maybe that'll do some good in the world, still it's really not veganism.

I don't think it's cool to benefit from the moral associations of veganism without the hard work (being an animal use abolitionist).

I guess vegetarianism is kinda lame nowadays (now we say plant-based or plant forward or 'vegan'), & part of that is because veganism makes it look obsolete, but you can't just take the name without doing the work.

Danielle Foré

@Opticacia I don’t know if you know this but bacon is not a vegetable

Jonathan Frederickson

@danirabbit And you might just find that it was worth it for more reasons than you first thought.

I've become a regular at one of my local coffee shops, and at this point I've gotten to know the owner, employees, and some of the other regulars well enough that I go there as much for the community as the coffee at this point!

Kim Possible :kimoji_fire:

@danirabbit once I learned this, it became much less pressure. Just add a little exercise. Read one chapter of a book. Eat less meat.

Danielle Foré

@jfred yeah I know most of the names of the people at my local coffee shop now and when they’re not busy we chat and catch up. And I know they care about paying a livable wage and ethically sourcing their coffee too! I miss PSLs, but I’ve gained much more than I’ve lost

datarama

@beecycling @danirabbit Isn't this pretty much exactly the definition of vegetarianism?

(specifically, "ovo-lacto" vegetarianism - but that's what I think most people mean when they say "vegetarian".)

That’s a moray

@beecycling @danirabbit TBF the vegan versions of eggs and cheese and yogurt usually have almost zero protein, which we need for loads of reasons, so the real thing will keep you healthier.

datarama

@SordidAmok @danirabbit I'm sort of "morally lucky", I guess: I've been vegetarian for 33 years ... and I actually never liked meat. When I was a kid, I *hated* having to eat meat - in part because of not liking the thought of what it was, but also simply because I found the taste and (especially) the texture revolting.

So when I discovered that there was a magic word you could call yourself and then the grown-ups would stop trying to make you eat meat, I was *so* relieved!

(I generally don't use meat substitute products - I'm not opposed to them at all; if people can go vegetarian or vegan by replacing actual meat with that, fine by me! But some of the current ones are so convincing that I get the same "yuck!" factor if I try to eat them.)

lxskllr

@danirabbit

You see it a lot with everything. The $solution isn't perfect so it isn't worth doing at all. I'm thinking specifically of renewable resources here. "Solar doesn't cover 100% of our energy needs, so we'll just keep burning gas, and throwing some more coal on the pile".

A tiny bit better is still better, and it equals a lot when 350 million people make trivial changes. At that scale, it's no longer trivial, and can be further improved over time.

Dan Morris

@danirabbit my sister was a "bacon vegetarian" for a long time. Now.... she's back to meat and my wife has gone full-on vegan.

but, eating "less" meat is still an improvement. I almost never buy red meat anymore, after spending the vast amount of my life eating beef and pork as a requirement for meals.