Turning over a new leaf

Let your library put food on the table

Ihave a confession to make. I (dramatic pause) am a failed vegetarian. World Vegetarian Day is celebrated on October 1 and it has me reminiscing about times gone by. I spent about 5 years living a vegetarian lifestyle, well, a horribly unhealthy version of a vegetarian lifestyle. I was a terrible cook (not much has changed) so limiting my ingredients didn't really work in my favour.

In my defence, this was almost 20 years ago and the variety of fruits and vegetables readily available wasn’t what it is today. Vegetarian sausages were the only faux meat available and to be fair, they took a little getting used to. But, get used to them I did. And refried beans, so many cans of refried beans!

Even finding vegetarian recipes was a problem back then. These days there are hundreds of titles of books and magazines to support a vegetarian diet.

For an endless supply of digital veggie reads, I recommend you download the Libby app and login for

free with your library card. The latest issue of VegNews claims to have “cracked the code” for vegan eggs — not sure how I feel about this but with the price of eggs these days, perhaps it’s worth a look!

Many people are considering the impact of their dietary choices for a variety of reasons. Vegetarianism certainly has seen a boom in popularity

as people consider their health, ethical concerns, environmental factors and the influence of media and role models. As these motivations continue to gain traction, it’s likely that vegetarianism will remain a prominent dietary choice in the future.

As for me, 5 years into my meatfree life, I fell off the veggie wagon headfirst into a plate of barbecued

ribs and haven’t looked back. However, I still love vegetarian meals and am always looking to incorporate more of these into the weekly meal plans.

So whether you're a hard core veggie, would like to add more meatfree meals to the menu, or would simply like to celebrate World Vegetarian Day in style, come on in to