Ramen.

If you've been to college in the past couple of decades, you're certain to know what ramen noodles are. Like spaghetti but coiled up and longer, it usually comes with little flavor packets. Needs a smaller pot to boil in than spaghetti as well. It's surprisingly nutritious, and it's cheap.

Ramen is also an amazingly boring meal, if you have to eat it day after day. Luckily, it is very easy to spice up. Add meat to taste.

[The_8472] meat slurry mixed with starch syrup!

I'm there!

"Salad?! ...I'm starving!!" - John Pinette

A proper chef's salad is much like what Mr. Creosote is served - salad and main course, all mixed up in a bucket. Many variations abound! The meat of the matter could be composed of rolled cold-cuts, fried chicken strips, honey-baked ham, or other alternatives. The salad itself could be the usual lettuce, or baby spinach, or any mix of greens. Hard-boiled egg is a common ingredient, as are many vegetables. Fruits, such as apple or citrus, could be added. And the cheese, oh, the cheese... Shredded or rolled around the meat, American, cheddar, even bleu cheese. Bacon? Anchovies?? Experiment!

A traditional chef's salad.
An Italian variation.
Kosher chef's salad (cheeseless).

IT'S BACON!

Our first informational post is brought to you by the ultimate food, which can do anything - yes, it's bacon. This flavorful pork-belly product can be used in all sorts of recipes, but let's focus on one in particular: The BLT.

A classic, descended from Victorian British tea sandwiches, these sandwiches tend to range in bacon content from 4 standard to 6 thick slices (less than 1/4 lb to almost 1/2 lb before cooking), and often include extra ingredients like arugula and avocado.

Heidi Dehncke-Fisher shows how to make the ultimate BLT
Five different BLT varieties from MrBaconpants.com
A nice BLT with olive oil mayonaise
The ranch BLT chicken sandwich - maybe too meaty for this site? --- nah!

This website was the result of a brainstorm sparked by this Times Online article. "Give up meat to save the planet!" “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

The hell you say!

Still, it got me thinking... I'm rather skeptical about the global warming theory, with so much new evidence pointing towards solar-driven climate change being a greater factor than carbon dioxide. Still, reducing the market for meat would produce less pollution and increase the total available calories for human consumption (and fuel generation for that matter). Many people don't have enough vegetables in their diet, and much fast food is sparse in veggie content and high in fat. I like fast food and eat it often, and if you switched my 100% beef patties for vegetable burgers, I'd get *tick* really testy.

On the other hand, what if they weren't 100% vegetable? What if they also contained a significant dose of yummy, yummy beef? Might it be possible to create masterpieces with even more taste than a simple patty of ground meat?

That's what McDonalds has already been doing with their french fries, after all; crisp fried potatoes, with the added umami of beef tallow.

And the Unvegan concept sprung into being. Reduce the meat content of meals significantly, but not eliminating it. No moralistic argument to vacate the desire for animal flesh. No being chided by one's mom to eat one's vegetables. And they're starving less in Africa!

Yes, I know; everyone's going to hate it. :-)

To follow will be expansions on the concept and tasty recipes. Stay tuned!