One Pot Soups

I love a bowl of good potato soup.  It’s a fan favorite this time of the year.  If you are a potato soup fan then I think you will enjoy this recipe.  Before going vegan, hubby was a true meat and potatoes man.  I mean really.  He only ate meat and potatoes and very rarely vegetables.  Which was a surprise to me when he announced in the middle of eating the biggest Turkey Wing that he was no longer going to eat meat.  Of course, I thought he was joking and proceeding to cook meat the next and to my surprise, he did not eat the meat that I had cooked.  I thought this would be short-lived phenomena as his other ideas, but no he was serious.   He would only eat fish and shrimp.  Then came the next surprise.  I am no longer eating fish, shrimp or eggs.  I was startled.  I have always gone intermittently for months without meat.  It’s something that I believed in heavily, but to stop altogether.  That, was a bit much for me and my household.  I have been so reluctant to get completely vegetarian because of the complete protein that is available in meat. That is not to say that there are no plant-based complete proteins.  I know that there are.  They are just no so readily available in my area.  Also, Jamaican Oxtails is the best dish that I cook.  So, how could I give this up?

I immediately told my husband that this meatless journey would be his and his alone.  I would continue to do “30 days no meat several times a year as my form of detoxification.  As his journey continued my husband lost a lot of weight.  He wasn’t eating meat and he didn’t particularly like vegetables. His drug of choice has always been junk food.  So he began consuming even more amounts of junk food.  This worried me and I knew that I had to find a solution.  I started researching more health options of meat substitutes and found myself making delicious meals without meat or with alternative meats.  I started digging deeper and I wanted foods that heal and create a healthy lifestyle.  I jumped on the no meat wagon.  Now I don’t believe entirely of no meat.  In fact, a recent vacation I had a beef burger and chicken.  I got amazingly sick and it got me to thinking.  Do I really want or need meat?  I am not a vegan advocate.  I do hate the process of meat and it is not a necessity in our diets.  However, if you get meat that is humanely butchered and raised grain/grass-fed without hormones and pesticides.  I say go for it.  The choice is yours!