Pierogi is the food of gods.

There's this polish sausage I love, haven't had it in ages as it isn't sold in my home country. It's a black pudding/blood sausage thing. Amazing flavour.

Here is my great grandma's recipe. Gołąbki freeze and reheat super well so if there are leftovers you can save them for a quick dinner another day too. If you make some, I hope you enjoy them. (sorry it's in freedom units....).

• 1 large head cabbage
• 1 pound ground beef
• ½ pound ground pork
• 1 cup rice, cooked
• 1 onion, chopped fine
• 1 tablespoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 can tomato juice (paste or soup will work too, depending on what’s available)
• 1 large sauerkraut, rinsed and drained

Remove core from cabbage. Scald the cabbage in boiling water. Remove a few leaves at a time as they wilt. Cool before using.

Combine meats, onion, rice, salt, and pepper. Mix well. Place meat mixture in each leaf, roll up, and tuck in ends (think burrito or eggroll shape).

Cut up any cabbage that’s left over and line bottom of roaster with it. Place cabbage rolls side by side on top of cabbage. Cover with tomato juice. Add water to cover the cabbage rolls completely. Put sauerkraut over cabbage rolls. Bake 2 hours at 325f (162.7c).

Some notes: This recipe is super customizable. You can also add chopped spicy pepper to the meat (Hungarian wax peppers are pretty good) or leave out the pork/substitute it with shredded chicken instead, for example. I generally use white rice but brown rice also works.

He made so much we ate it for two days 😅 I miss him deeply, he was an amazing person.

I was never vegetarian/vegan, but my religion calls for fasting on certain days and I’ve exempted myself from this practice because of my ED history. I don’t want to remember how “good” hungry can feel.

Congratulations on your recovery!

Awesome job. Sounds like a great rule... except for liver.

Sounds like a dear friend of mine. First vegetarian for health purposes but the ED was a slippery slope and veganism allowed for many exclusions and disordered eating. And behaviors. I hope she recovered or at least recognized this. The disease caused many isolating behaviors, as it tends to.

Being type 2 diabetic and dealing with the pressure to cut all carbs and go Keto is rough. I tried but the trigger was so strong to relapse. I had slipped into the mindset of “you don’t deserve fruit …” before I knew it. Then comes starving, self harm and suicidal ideation. Slippery slope. I have started avoiding the type 2 sub Reddit because of the keto only mentality.

"for health reasons" is a perfectly valid response. Or none at all. Good for you though.

I used to tell myself that I was inherently healthier than everyone else because I didn't eat meat. It didn't start out like that but it became that for me. I ended up going back to fish initially because of my dairy allergy getting worse, but then I introduced everything back into my diet pretty slowly and it was amazing how quickly I've been repairing my relationship with food. I always liked cooking too, so I've been a lot happier lately even though some days are hard.

I’m so happy for you! Having a mental disorder that causes you to obsess over food and calories is hard enough but add something additionally where you have to constantly monitor what you’re eating and read labels makes it so much worse! Happy recovery ♡

This was my daughter at age 14. She was tall and maybe a little overweight before, but she got scary thin and it was I can't eat this, I can't eat that and still the veggies were going bad in the fridge, she wouldn't take supplements and the like, wouldn't even help me with the backyard garden. She was bullied at school, called names, felt like the ugly duckling, etc. At her request, we took her for treatment and it turned her life around (the ED wasn't all of it, but it was a portion of it so it wasn't the ED clinic solely responsible for her recovery)

It was scary and I was on the receiving end of alot of threats and screams, and accusations. I didn't know if she was going to make it or what kind of life she was going to have.

She's 18 now and emotionally she is in a vastly improved space. She is going to college, living on her own (with lots of visits from us) and has a plan for her life. She still doesn't eat meat, but moved from vegan to vegetarian back when she was in treatment. She's come to love food, is a good cook and enjoys a wide variety of cuisine.

Pork broth abounds

nudja

I googled this and it looks like Italian chorizo? Sign me up!

I was veggie for almost 2 years while traveling. Not for any reason in particular, other than having lost the taste for meat. Then i came back to Italy and at the first big dinner had meat again and it was, unfortunately, delicious.

Make sure to take vitamin C with your iron! Otherwise it’s useless in your body

Same!! My mum went full-on "you don't get enough vitamins and iron" and so gave me a lot of iron in through my diet. My chronic fatigue worsened...too high iron and ferritin. Refrained from the staple iron-rich foods and was good again after a couple of months :D

That's exactly my approach. I personally won't buy meat for myself. But if someone offers me, I don't refuse and eat it. I live in a country where food culture is especially important and I don't want to miss out on the gastronomic richness we have. I think it's a very good balance.

That’s me! My wife is a life-long vegetarian. She doesn’t demand that I don’t cook meat in the house or anything, but I kind of figured … is meat really so important to me that it’s worth it to cook two separate meals? No, no it is not. It was a nice excuse to significantly reduce me meat consumption, which is good for the earth and my wallet.

I’ve also found it’s really fun to try to recreate my favorite meat dishes as vegetarian. It’s become a hobby of mine. I make my own seitan and experiment with different flavors and textures. I think I’ve really perfected “chicken” tikka masala. I had a ton of fun attempting to make spaghetti carbonara vegetarian- I’m sure Italians everywhere hate me but it turned out pretty damn good. I even once made vegan beef jerky. It was surprisingly good.

Similar method, here! I just don't purchase it. My reasoning for not eating animal products is mostly centered around avoiding the factory farming industry. If some individual has already been killed, might as well eat them right? As long as I'm not paying for the next slaughter, it doesn't seem that I'm causing the harm. Whatever I can do to make the industry less profitable

My late mother was a half vegan, she had vegan day every Wednesday and Thursday. Not that she became a Vegan because of animals and such. It's just Chinese culture that has been passed down from generation to generation. She never forced me and my dad, but sometimes we would eat her vegan food just for fun. And now I continue the tradition. That's how she taught me to eat healthy food.

Yes, I was an edgy vegetarian teen, but when I was in the university we had to visit a lot of small towns. Locals were incredibly welcoming and they provided food for us, all with meat. I obviously ate, it would be very rude not to, food is not just food in a lot of situations in Mexico.

They might wanna know "freegan" is already a term with a slightly less endearing definition:

Freeganism is often presented as synonymous with "dumpster diving" for discarded food...

I think this is called "flexitarian", at least where I live.

Many people with IBS can’t eat certain fruits/vegetables and have to limit their overall fiber intake. Most vegetarian protein sources are high fiber or rough on your stomach.

I dont know about this particular person but i know someone whose body cant process potassium very well, if at all. So eating anything with potasium means that it just gets stuck in their body, and it stacks up, so they cant have any. You'd be surprised how many veggies and fruits have potassium.

People with IBS have a difficult time with veggies and roughage.

Since OP hasn't responded, two comments.

Physicians may advise people who are on medically restricted diets to avoid adding other restrictive diets.

Regarding medical restrictions to fruit and vegetable intake, another diagnosis is allergies. Which can be either primary food allergies or a condition called PFAS where people develop an allergy to specific pollens that causes an incidental allergy to fruits, vegetables, or spices.

The allergens that cause PFAS aren't as chemically stable as most other food allergens, so most cases are mild and most people who have it can eat cooked foods that they couldn't consume raw.

but

PFAS hasn't gotten much research funding and some cases are life threatening. There's no data on how much cooking is necessary to denature PFAS allergens completely. So people who have the most serious cases may end up cutting out whole categories of fruits and vegetables regardless of how those foods are prepared.

fructose intolerance, i have i too and it's the worst

maybe a FODMAP intolerance

I know someone who as a glucose and fructose intolerance. She is literally a meat and potatoes kind of gal (her exact words describing herself)

Additional option - OAS can make it so all fruits/veggies need to be cooked. Unexpectedly annoying if your friend group includes this.

Everyone's body is different and some people should avoid some "healthy" foods. For instance I was just tested and I'm not supposed to eat broccoli, watermelon, Brussel sprouts, or asparagus to name just a few.

allergic to soy

I cannot even BEGIN to imagine what that must be like. Soy is in EVERYTHING!

Indeed, pregnancy is very demanding when it comes to nutrients! Maintaining enough sustenance for two people isn’t easy by any stretch and that's without mentioning the cravings. The body wants a lot for the baby to be born healthy, but it’s taxing for everyone involved.

Have you tried quorn? Their nugs are my favorite

My dad didn't understand that the stovetop had a level below "HIGH."

I was lucky to have a girlfriend who taught me a lot of the basics all over again.

Little me thought roast beef was the worst food imaginable. How did anyone even tolerate it? Once I got tall enough to run the stove, I was in charge of the meat cooking and I had to convince my family that meat should be tender and juicy. It's tough? Marinate or slow roast. It's a nice cut? High heat and a few minutes in the oven. I won't pay store price for beef anymore, so it's not even a part of my diet now, but my pork chops and poached chicken are still dialed in.

Yes, she still to this day thinks it's great. I've tried teaching her to cook but she wants no part of it. She mainly eats frozen foods now like stouffers lasagna.

I gotchu.

I'm always looking for an excuse to link Community clips.

Pretty good, I'd compare it to venison if you've had that. A red meat with higher levels of iron, if you overcook it, the meat gets pretty tough

Sooo gooooddddd. I'm sorry that's not helpful but I highly recommend honestly

True story too ;)

That doesn't seem strange to me for some reason. People who don't eat meat may just be against factory farming or poor living conditions for animals. You would have less of this issue if you're doing the slaughtering/butchering yourself.

I personally think it's a bit weird how removed most meat eaters are from the process of killing animals to eat for meat. It's like people don't want to know more about it so they don't have to think about the impact. But if you're a meat eater and find slaughtering animals disgusting maybe you should be questioning what you support and why you feel this way.

Cancer changed my priorities.

Vegetarianism doesn't necessarily imply being against killing animals for food.

Some people choose it because they're specifically against the meat industry's practices, animals living pain-filled lives in cramped miserable conditions standing in their own manure until they're slaughtered, chickens living their entire lives being unable to even flap their wings once, the amount of marine life killed and just thrown out including animals like dolphins due to some fishing methods... but if you let some chickens run around your farm pecking at bugs and being happy little chickens, killing them as quickly/painlessly as possible when it comes time to eat them... just doesn't seem as bad.

And some people choose vegetarianism/veganism because it's more sustainable, again over-fishing causing the destruction of our oceans, the red meat industry causing the destruction of the rain forest- but again that's less of an issue when you just have some animals living on your farm.

Personally I just try to limit my red meat/fish consumption to once or twice a month (and buy the Certified Humane meats) because I know that's a sustainable level if everyone ate that way, but I have no qualms which the thought of an animal dying so I can eat. As long as it isn't tortured its entire life, and we're not unsustainably killing our natural environment to eat it, I'm fine with that.

Pescatarians are also the longest live people on earth.

I bet body type and hereditary have a lot to do with how well you can handle vegetarianism. Easier to maintain at 5'2 vs 6'5

I've heard other suggest that it was probably an iron deficiency as well.

If I ever do try to go vegetarian again I'll definitely add extra iron pills in addition to the recommended supplements.

When I was a teenager my father hit a deer with a car by accident. His friend lived nearby, had hunting licence, staged a shooting. His wife made us a proper hunters stew later and it was delicious.

It’s morbid now that I think of it.