TEEN WRITERS TELL THEIR OWN STORIES ABOUT GOING VEGETARIAN

Inspired by the subject of our article, we chose to take up vegetarian diets for a week to see what it was like. For both of us, it has continued beyond the experiment.

It wasn't hard for me to adopt the vegetarian diet. My family doesn't eat much meat anyway. So, naturally, it also wasn't difficult for my family to accept my new eating habits. (Pasta is one of our favorite meals.)

I never really craved meat unless we went out to dinner, and there was something on the menu. But, trying this new diet helped me discover a lot of good dishes at restaurants I've never tried before. At The Onion, for example, they have this great stir-fried vegetables dish. I am a huge sucker for broccoli! While observing our vegetarian diets, Rachel and I searched for a restaurant that would serve our needs, and that's when we found Mizuna, a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Spokane. Places like Mizuna are not extraordinary finds in larger cities. But in places like Wyoming, Nevada and Utah (where we've been on vacation recently), everything on the menu has meat. We can only hope that the Inland Northwest will have more options for vegetarians in the future. We also used some of the recipes in "Vegetables Rock!" to satisfy our cravings. One of our favorites is Roasted Mushrooms with Brown Rice Gravy, which is great on mashed potatoes. Right now I'm continuing the diet for health reasons. I feel healthier now that I'm not eating meat.

Copyright 1999 Cowles Publishing Company
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