About 40 years ago, I finally had to accept the fact that I could no longer digest meat. An operation had destroyed my system’s ability to handle it.
For a long time I searched for something I could digest that satisfied my desire to eat something delicious, something that could substitute for the meat I grew up with. It took me years to discover a high-protein vegetable product that was so versatile that I could make it into delicious-tasting high-protein meat substitutes that even fooled guests into thinking that they were eating meat.
So I used this product to create vegetarian recipes for entrees I had always loved, like lasagna, pizza, burgers, and meatloaf, before branching out to try making more ambitious dishes like teriyaki, barbecue, curry, and fajitas. My husband acted as my taster; if he said an entree I devised didn’t taste enough like real meat, I discarded it and tried something else.
By the time I had created nearly a hundred recipes for my own use, I realized that other people could use my ideas, so I prepared a book-length manuscript based on my work. In 2001 it was published, and I had the satisfaction of learning that it helped many people with heart disease who had been directed never to eat meat; they told me how thrilling it was to be able to eat pizza again! My recipes also aided those who just wanted to cut back a bit on meat by having one meatless meal a week, and it proved helpful to those who were already vegetarians who wanted to be sure they were getting enough protein.
The most popular recipe in the book, against all odds, proved to be cabbage wraps, a homely European dish. The filling for these wraps is perfectly delicious. As for me, I still prefer the meaty-tasting spaghetti sauce. It’s my all-time favorite. Guests in my home, however, dote on my recipe called Poker Pizza.
Now something new has happened to this book. An eBook publisher, Thinker Media, has requested the electronic rights to the book and has just republished Meatless Meat as an eBook, thus opening its solutions to a whole new audience: those who like to cook with a hand-held computer as the source of the recipe.
So the book that has assisted many of the print generation to see vegetarian food as healthful and delicious is now available to younger people used to finding and reading their recipes in an eBook. This gives me a lot of satisfaction.
To check out the new electronic version of Meatless Meat, you might want to view the publisher’s promotion page about the book.
If you happen to be a book reviewer, I can give you a secret code that will enable you to download a free reviewer copy of Meatless Meat. To find out how, email me at dorothyjanemills1@gmail.com with your email address and the name of the magazine or newspaper you review books for. I’ll tell you the secret code.