Vegetarians - how do you reconcile ...

[Cindy in C-ville]

... a desire to eat lots of veggies, whole grains, etc and not used processed products. Lots of "kid friendly" veggie meals seem to have fake meat products in them. I'm not really interested in going more processed, just more vegetarian.

 

Through Easter, our family is "Daniel Fasting" which basically means no meat, eggs, cheese. I guess that would be vegan - right? We're eating lots of beans/rice, salads, stir fry, homemade tortillas and veggies with hummus, banana bread, homemade granola, smoothies (green and otherwise).

 

So, are there vegetarians who don't really care about how processed something is as long as it doesn't have any meat? I'm just trying to get my hands around all veggie hot dogs, burgers, and such. And, then, are they doing it for health reasons, animal rights reasons, or something else?

[prim*rose]

We're more whole foods people & I try to avoid processed foods. I make my own veggie burgers with black beans & rice, or sometimes sweet potatoes & rice, or whatever I can throw together. I subscribe to a few foodie magazines that help me come up with some great recipes without using processed stuff, and that helps a bit too.

 

I do let dd have some of the processed veggie foods, but only about once a month or when we've had a really busy day and there aren't any leftovers :)

[LittleIzumi]

I am mostly vegetarian (only eating meat in times of need, like being pg & nursing in winter), and dd is allergic to dairy & very sensitive to soy. So we can't use most of the fake meat anyway. I don't want to overload myself with soy either, so I will only have veggie burgers that are the fake stuff on occasion (like the one time at work they had a vegetarian option for our company lunch). Normally we cook things that just don't call for meat--that provide the protein in other ways. We make a lot of Indian food and some Mexican food too. Right now we have the leftovers of a crockpot full of veggie curry w/garbanzo beans in the fridge, and serve it over rice. My little girls ate it right up--my 2-year-old had seconds. We love curry here. I use some of the crockpot recipes on fatfreevegan.com, as long as I avoid any soy recipes. Costco also has veggie burgers in the meat section--that are veggies. And breadcrumbs. And that's it! Actual VEGGIE burgers, lol. They taste kind of like stirfry. (Which we also make sometimes.)

[Ellie]

... a desire to eat lots of veggies, whole grains, etc and not used processed products. Lots of "kid friendly" veggie meals seem to have fake meat products in them. I'm not really interested in going more processed, just more vegetarian.

Just say "no" to processed foods. :-)

 

When I became interested in more whole foods (not vegetarian, just *whole*) I went to the library looking for cookbooks. Many of them included recipes with ingredients like brown sugar (which is just white sugar with molasses added), mystery meat products that had hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and more. Blech.

 

Through Easter, our family is "Daniel Fasting" which basically means no meat, eggs, cheese. I guess that would be vegan - right? We're eating lots of beans/rice, salads, stir fry, homemade tortillas and veggies with hummus, banana bread, homemade granola, smoothies (green and otherwise).

It would be vegan if you don't have butter or honey--no foods that are animal by-products.

 

So, are there vegetarians who don't really care about how processed something is as long as it doesn't have any meat?

Yes.

I'm just trying to get my hands around all veggie hot dogs, burgers, and such. And, then, are they doing it for health reasons, animal rights reasons, or something else?

I could never get into mystery-meat-replacement foods, but my dd, who was vegan for awhile, didn't care, as long as there were no animal foods in her diet. Yes, it was animal-rights for her.

[bettyandbob]

I think it's about convenience not ethics or health. And it's easy to feed kids something they recognize their friends eating.

 

I'm not vegetarian, but for health reasons we've been dropping meat based meals. If we eat meat it's on the weekends when dh makes meals. 2 of my dc have celiac and 2 have soy allergies, so we can't eat the majority of processed foods. Most fake meat products have soy or gluten so that's out for us. Most non veg processed products for kids have gluten and soy as well. So, my dc know they don't get what other kids eat.

 

I do like convenience. For that reason, I have and continue to develop a repetiore of vegetarian casseroles and keep my freezer stocked with them. I can spend one day a month preparing 3 pans of 3 different dishes (9 meals) to keep in the freezer because there are a few nights a week life interferes with cooking.

[Quiver0f10]

We don't eat processed foods and no fake meats except maybe once or twice a year we will have seitan, which is made from wheat gluten. Just because something is vegetarian doesn't make it healthy LOL. We eat just as you described beans, rice veggies, smoothies, whole grains etc.

[StaceyinLA]

I can tell you, we won't be eating fake meats. Sure, I use the occasional tofu in a recipe, but I stick to veggies, whole grains, legumes, nuts and fruits. The only subsitutes I use right now are for butter (Earth Balance), sour cream (Tofutti) and cream cheese (Tofutti), none of which I am using much of at all.

 

I'm loving quinoa, brown rice, couscous, millet, homemade whole grain breads, whole grain pastas, beans, smoothies, nuts and nut milks, fresh and juiced fruits, etc.

 

I don't planned to add meat subs in, certainly not on any regular basis, but I have purchased (and I'm sure I'll continue to do so) a few "fast" food items. Amy's makes a wonderful, vegan, roasted veggie pizza!! I've gotten some good frozen waffles, and I keep a few yummy vegan treats on hand (Uncle Eddie's vegan choc chip walnut cookies are to DIE for).

 

However, overall I am just eating REAL food, and leaving out the animal products.

 

ETA: We are also experimenting with milks because I do not really want to drink soy. I'm using coconut milk and enjoying it, but I've also bought almond (which I love), and a rice/soy combo just to use occasionally. I have been making "mylks" as well with nuts, bananas and coconut water from this raw food cookbook. They aren't the type of things you could put on cereal, but would be wonderful to use in fruit smoothies!!

Edited March 8, 2010 by StaceyinLA
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