1. I go 100% vegetarian about 95% of the time. That means pectin candy instead of gelatin candy, puddings from scratch instead of gelatin-based pudding from a box, and also grilled cheese sandwiches or whatever, instead of steak.
2. That was not a confusing use of percentages.
3. I am currently trying to cut down my dairy consumption, and I do my best within my budget to buy locally produced dairy, and lower-cruelty eggs. So, caged-free eggs at the least, and eggs from folks' pet chickens at best.
4. Death comes to all life, and minimal-cruelty slaughtering practices matter. Even when I'm not buying meat, I still want to encourage the best possible practices be applied when animals are harvested for their meat. I also come from a rural background, and I respect well-run, minimal-cruelty farms very much.
5. I will sometimes break my vegetarian prohibition of the consumption of meat, for culturally important occasions, although I still prefer to fill up on meatless dishes.
For example, one of my cousins is from Oaxaca, Mexico, and he works in a restaurant, and he prepared chicken mole tamales for the family and friends on Día de los Muertos this year, and you'd better believe that while I filled up on the homemade black bean soup that he similarly prepared from scratch (he is a badass!), I also ate a tamale, because of course I did. I will also, a couple of times a year, eat a burger from Dick's Drive-In, because they take good care of their employees, and I consider that to also be a higher-good thing. This is higher-good kinda stuff, right here.
6. While I try to stay within close proximity to vegetarian sources of protein, if my blood sugar is dropping, I might eat meat if a meat eater offers some of their food to me.
7. I also taste meat dishes when I'm cooking for omnivores, which is especially important because from what I've observed, my husband reports feeling uncomfortable if he goes meatless for longer than about 18 hours at a time.
8. I don't really know what to think about eating fish. I definitely have a strong taboo against eating cephalopods, because they're too much like cats. (Google that.) I'm originally from a very small island in the Pacific, just a little bit off of the coast of Washington State, way north of Seattle. So I respect fishermen. But right now I don't fish, because killing fish wigs me out. And I haven't eaten fish for a while, because I just haven't wanted to. I still eat mollosks when my family prepares them. My dad has an excellent technique for grilling oysters, and they're too much of a tradition to take lightly.
9. Tofu is genuinely fun, according to me. I also grew up eating tofu, prepared in ways adapted from the recipes of the American South, so it's a sentimental comfort food for me.
10. I don't have a prohibition against eating foods that were prepared alongside meat. For example, I love it when my husband makes breaded and fried cubes of extra-firm tofu for me while he's making breaded, fried chicken for himself. It's REALLY GOOD.
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