Ana and Eva are both more-or-less vegetarian

[conuly]

Neither of them is 100% on the no-meat front, but they're sincerely trying to cut down on how much of that they eat. (Alas, my mother wants meat at every meal, and while I say "If I can't make everybody happy I'll have to settle for making myself happy instead", in practice I've started trying to alternate meat nights with no-meat nights, with the missing-out party having to eat the sides.) Today we had pasta with vegetables and pancetta, which is great because everybody will eat it and it's easy for me to just serve the kids first and then dump the pancetta in the pot for the rest of us.

Eva, perhaps predictably, ate her pasta, nibbled her peppers, and went to eat an orange. "Why'd you put spinach in this!?"

"Because spinach is good for you. It's got lots of iron, calcium, vitamin c, and fiber. Oh, and potassium too!"
"Blech."
"Well, you know, Eva, vegetarian means you eat vegetables."
"But spinach isn't a vegetable!"
"What?"
"You can't cut it, and anyway, vegetables are more fruity."
"More... fruity?"
"Like bell peppers and cucumbers. They have seeds. Spinach is leaves."

I don't know where she got this interesting idea from either.

Comments

[conuly]

I'm not entirely sure how she thinks, to be honest. I now feel the need to drag her into the produce section and ask her about each item individually.

[notasupervillain]

Can you ask her about beets?

Also, if I may evangelize, I was just introduced to seitan, which is my new favorite meat substitute. It's gluten protein, comes in a jar or a can at a health food store or a Chinese grocery. I mostly use it in stir fries. It's pre-seasoned and the texture is right. And it's so easy that I prefer cooking it to cooking meat - no worries about undercooking it or marinating it. I still eat meat, and I'm very mistrustful of fake meats, but this stuff is worth eating on its own stead, even for omnivores.

[conuly]

I will absolutely ask her about beets.

[notasupervillain]

As an adult, I am still confused about potatoes and corn (vegetable or grain?) but I'm fairly confident about beets.

[conuly]

Corn is a vegetable if cooked as a vegetable, and a grain if cooked as a grain. However, honestly, even if cooked as a vegetable I put them both in a different category, namely, "starches".

[notasupervillain]

What's Eva's opinion?

[conuly]

That she's bored with this topic. Strange child.

[notasupervillain]

Children are like another species.

[bibliofile]

A local restaurant (Indonesian) makes their own seitan, served mainly in an appetizer of seitan chips. It's pretty tasty.

I don't eat beets very often, but I know people who do. (And don't.)

[notasupervillain]

Seitan chips? Tell me more!

[bibliofile]

Seitan sliced about 1/4" or a little less, then baked? The menu doesn't say.