Cows, pigs, and chickens oh my!

So I did not make any New Year's Resolution as most people do. The one thing I have been wanting to do for long time though is go vegetarian. Yeah, that's not going to happen, at least not instantly.

When I was about 5 or 6 years old there was a street vendor selling baby chickens, chicks. They had been sprayed with coloring. I only remember one was red. The color of the others escapes me. So to a little kid, like I was then, they looked awesome right, so my mother bought them for me. I took them home. It was summer so we were staying at my grandmothers house in Mexico. I took care of them and had them in one of the kitchen counters in a box. The chicks grew, so they were then kept outside where they used to keep chickens years before. One day one of my uncles decided that they were grown enough, so he killed them to make them for dinner that night. I could not eat them, they had been my pets. I was sad that day.

When I was around 10 years old one of my uncles, not the same one that killed the chickens, bought a lamb. I knew why he had bought it. They were going to kill it and eat it. I did not know this however until the lamb was on my grandmothers backyard. My grandmother's back yard is huge... So they kept it there a few days, my guess was getting it ready to kill it. I kept asking when they were going to do that so that I would not be there. The day came when they were to kill it, and I happened to be there, so I went into hiding in one of the rooms. That did not help, as soon as they slit the throat I heard a loud squeal from the animal. So sad. In Mexico they make a dish out of lamb in which they cook it in its own blood. So when they cut the throat they had a bucket or bin of some sort to catch all the blood and then they cooked the meat of the animal with it. Still sad thinking of it.

So these 2 encounters with animal cruelty would have turned me vegetarian if it was not that our meals always included some sort of animal flesh. So you kind of get used to it and and end up liking it.

The one thing I started doing this past year is switching to incorporate humanely treated animals. That would be organic and/or natural raised animals. My goal is to eventually stop eating meat altogether. This may take several years for me.

Cows: I don't like beef, and only rarely eat it, and I have never liked milk. Even a quart of milk goes bad on me when I do get it as I don't use it or drink it. I am happy to say that I have completely stopped drinking cow milk, I never really did. Soymilk is so much more tasty and much more healthy than cow milk. That was an easy switch.

Fish: I don't like most seafood, except for salmon, catfish, tuna, canned mackarel and shrimp. I don't buy it too often but when I do it's mostly cans or pouches of tuna.

Lamb and goat: I don't like. I don't buy.I don't eat it.

Pigs: Only occasionally do I buy pork loin or chops, but I do buy bacon. I'll need to find an alternative to bacon. Any suggestions?

Chicken: You would think that after my traumatic childhood encounter it would be the one I least like, however it is the one I like the most including eggs. This is the one that will be the most difficult to eliminate. I have however switched to eggs from chickens raised cage free and fed organically. If you eat eggs you should definitely switch to these, they are so much better than the eggs that come from inhumanely treated factory farms.

Turkey: Love turkey sandwiches and cook a whole one once a year during the holiday season. So this one too will be difficult to eliminate.

Good thing is I like most vegetables. :)