Missions
Introducing simple vegetarian meals to my meat-loving omnivorous family
How did the week go?
When I first shared with my parents about my plan to cook vegetarian meals for the family on a few days of the week, their jaws dropped. There could be 2 main reasons behind their reaction. Firstly, I am not a good cook - I have average cooking skills that enable me to survive on basic-looking meals on a daily basis. Secondly, the thought of not having meat for meals could have lowered my parents' apatite.
I quickly seek some advice from a friend who has been cooking for his parents for a long while, as to learn on how I can introduce the vegetarian meals to my folks. His suggestion of planning out a 'climate-friendly diet', showed me a different perspective of approaching climate action from a diet point of view. Before hearing about climate-friendly diet, I have come across a few diets that accommodate to different health situations and weights but some of them are either good or bad for our climate.
Vegan Diet (reduces climate change) - eliminates meat, dairy, eggs, and animal-derived products, such as gelatin, honey, albumin, whey, casein, and some forms of vitamin D3. This is the most strict diet of vegetarianism.
Plan-based Diet (reduces climate change) - focuses on eating mostly plants such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. Does not necessarily eliminate animal products.
Ultra-low-fat Diet (reduces climate change) - mostly plant-based and has a limited intake of animal products.
Paleo Diet (fuels climate change) - whole foods, lean protein, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, while discouraging processed foods, sugar, dairy, and grains. Some more flexible versions of the paleo diet also allow for dairy like cheese and butter, as well as tubers like potatoes and sweet potatoes.
High Protein Ketogenic Diet (fuels climate change) - similar to the standard keto diet in terms of fat making up the majority of one's daily macronutrient intake, but requires eating a higher percentage of protein
After reading about these different diets and comparing them to a climate-friendly diet, I realized that my parents and I have our misperception about having a specific diet to reduce climate change. Perhaps we have been exposed to many debates on veganism whereby we have always thought that one must completely omit meat and dairy products from our diet, hence this misperception held my parents back when I suggested to start eating vegetarian dishes, especially in the middle of Ramadhan when my parents would obviously need more than just vegetables, legumes and fruits to gain energy.
Having a climate-friendly diet doesn't mean that one has to strip away all the animal products, it actually means that we choose lower-emission meals to have a smaller food-related carbon footprint in the long run. In my opinion, although the climate-friendly diet is similar to the plant-based whereby meat products are reduced on the plate, the climate-friendly diet is a more structured and disciplined diet due to its consideration of carbon footprint produced by food.
Here are some practices of a climate-friendly diet in which I believe my family would be able to gradually make them into their lifestyles.
Eating less industrial meat and dairy
Eating less industrially produced food in general
Eating food grown locally and seasonally
Eating less processed and packaged foods
Reducing waste from food by proper portion size, recycling or composting.
Now that I understood more about climate-friendly diet, I began to cook simple dishes that has more plants but still attractive and fits my family's appetite for our 'buka puasa' dinner, whereby we still have meat, poultry or fish products as one of the dishes. Compared to previous times, we used to have a lot of meat products for our meals, however a typical meal for us would now consist of 1 portion of rice, 1 portion of vegetables and 1 portion of meat/poultry/fish. At the same time, by having some home-cooked meals, it actually helps to manage our food purchase at the Ramadhan bazaars. Instead of buying too much dishes from the bazaar, my father would now only get one meat product and some desserts. Through this approach, we are able to have a good-sized meal without having to waste food.
Though it seems like a small effort, I'm glad that we made a rough start to reduce our food-related carbon footprint. Nevertheless, frankly speaking, my father is still not satisfied with the meals I cooked so far.
This week's dishes
- Vegetarian Noodle - - Stir-fried Cauliflower - - Stir-fried Spinach with Oyster Mushroom & Snow Peas -
What Did I Learn So Far?
Before starting the Mangetout Moment challenge, I thought that it would have been easy to practice a vegetarian or climate-friendly diet as I managed to be a vegetarian on a weekly basis throughout my hostel life in university. However I was wrong to assume that such practice can be pushed onto my parents easily. I learnt that on an individual's capacity, it is more convenient to plan, manage and take action in altering one's diet as nobody else is involved in the change. It is a different case if we live with others (family, friends, spouse etc) under the same roof as they are part of the home's society whereby everyone's values, norms and practices need to be taken into consideration.
In my case, I come from a multiracial family background that influences our tastes and food preferences. My father who is Javanese-Malay loves to eat spicy food in gravy, the Malay spices are what keep him happy while eating. My mother is Chinese and she prefers Chinese-style food, especially the ones with soup, although she has a liking for Malay food. As for me, I eat all sorts of food but have grown accustomed to Japanese food after living in Japan. These are some of the values that I have to remember when preparing our climate-friendly meals for my family to ensure that no food goes to waste due to the taste that is not compatible with one's preference. Not everyone is used to only having plants on their food plate, therefore there is no harm in having some tolerance by having a balanced portion of vegetables, fruits, carbs and meat.
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