Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I never liked meat as a kid, but was forced to eat it anyway. I'm a big animal lover, and the thought of eating them, combined with all the tastes I didn't like anyway, made me a vegetarian for several years. When I was in my mid-20s, I was posted to Moscow, without access to most of the foods I was accustomed to eating (including fresh vegetables, bread, dairy products, etc.). I soon realized that I was on an all-potato diet. I finally decided that, in the interests of my health and sanity, I would have to start eating meat. When I finally returned to the US, I got married to a meat-eater, and then had two kids. I haven't gone back to my vegetarian ways, but I generally eat only a small amount of meat and fill up on vegetables, pasta, rice, etc.