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

[low_delta]

She's right, though - cucumbers and peppers are fruits.

For the food groups at dinnertime, my wife puts potatoes and corn into the starch category, along with breads. She always tries to have a meat, a vegetable and a starch.

[conuly]

They're botanical fruits. They are not fruits in a culinary sense. Neither of which has anything to do with whether or not spinach is a vegetable.

I presume that if you had a vegetarian over and served eggs those would be, for the sake of meal planning, slotted in the same place as "meat". What about if you had cooked dried beans?

[low_delta]

They are not fruits in a culinary sense

Certainly. Everybody knows you don't put tomatoes in a fruit salad. But they are technically fruits, so when Eva said vegetables are more "fruity," well, most vegetables are more fruitlike.

[mindstalk]

> tomatoes in a fruit salad

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/1s9l2g/dd_stats_explained_with_tomatoes/

[low_delta]

A classic! :-)

[conuly]

I was thinking that too!

[conuly]

I seem to have been extra pissy at you this post. Dunno why, but I am sorry.

[low_delta]

It did seem like you were arguing with me. *shrug*

[conuly]

Yeah, I don't even know why. Really sorry.

[low_delta]

Yes, eggs are protein, so they fill the meat slot. But if I had a vegetarian over, I wouldn't presume they would eat eggs.

Dried beans. I don't know. They're plant, but relatively high in protein. Vegetables are mainly used for fiber and vitamins. I'm not sure where legumes stand on that count, but I wouldn't substitute them for vegetables if I wanted a healthy dinner.

[alatefeline]

I am mostly vegetarian and have some dietary restrictions that mean most processed food are out, so some kind of nut, seed, legume, or whole grain is usually my protein or 'meat slot' at a cooked meal; it may or may not overlap with the starch, but I try to have a mix of protein, carbohydrates, a healthy fat, and some veggies or fruits that are more vitamin-y than anything when meal planning. Example meals-made-of-several-dishes: quinoa with apricots and pecans, and apple slices; brown rice, veggies in peanut sauce, and cooked spinach; jasmine rice, plus sauteed carrots and mushrooms; cashews, dried cherries, celery and carrot sticks, and cooked sweet potato. What I actually eat often isn't what I plan to cook though ... I have defaulted to lara bars a lot recently when overwhelmed by trying to manage batch cooking and portioning.

[low_delta]

Avoiding processed foods is smart, dietary restrictions or no.

[alatefeline]

There are times when convenience takes priority, but it's good to be able to make an informed choice, and for me the easiest thing is to know that I am eating a food made out of food-ingredients I am able to digest.

[conuly]

Oh, you don't mean that literally. Even the most die-hard still buys butter at the store.

[low_delta]

I guess there are different definitions of "processed." I think of food that's made of "ingredients," and that you purchase in the store. Like box-mix foods. When I make my own bread of flour, yeast, milk, butter and salt, I don't really consider that to be processed food.