29440573 d048a0eaabe9945b38b273e283a973df kindcook http://gravatar.com/kindcook kindcook http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/d048a0eaabe9945b38b273e283a973df http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/d048a0eaabe9945b38b273e283a973df thumbnail http://1.gravatar.com/userimage/29440573/ed7162baa68d307c8e6d3b17814d5b7e kind-cook I have been a vegetarian most of my adult life. Back and forth. Married to a meat eater for awhile and having produced two meat-eating children, who are just coming around to appreciating my values, it wasn’t easy. Always the argument of how animals were put on the Earth to provide nourishment. The whole humans at the top of the food chain mindset! Oh, and “It’s dead already, no sense in wasting it!” I was finally able to break away from this mental bondage, and now I am true to my beliefs. I haven’t had meat in 7 years! I studied nutrition in college. There was another challenge! My chosen major was dietetics in a small town in Texas. Newly a part of the U.T. system and still largely a community college, I was often referred to as "weird” because I didn’t want to participate in assignments that included food tasting and critique as most of the students chose meat as the focus of their creations. Not only was I branded “weird,” but my professors didn’t “get” me and I truly believe there was discrimination. I changed my major to biology. I first worked in a biological control laboratory dedicated to the study of beneficial insects and then the medical field. I lost my job to India last year so I have had a lot of time to experiment with recipes and develop some new ones. My dream is to open a vegetarian restaurant or bakery and café, as there is only one here in San Antonio, Texas, with simulated meat as the predominant offering. So here I am, inventing myself again as the vegetarian I have always been in my heart and from here on out will be. Now I will attempt to explain my passion for cooking. I have always loved to eat. I was a chubby child; husky is the politically correct term. I started helping my mom cook when I could just walk a little. Pork chops and meatloaf!!! Ugggh! Well, once the chub, I grew taller and thinner, despite packing in the pasta! I love the outdoors and so I get enough exercise which helps tremendously with weight control. Yes, that's right, I love food! I am not the type that reads a book at the lunch counter. Would you read a book making love? No, I want to savor every mouthful! I kind of go into a trance when I eat, my taste buds are working overtime analyzing each ingredient. Even if it has been added just by trace, I will pick up on it.