If you are a vegetarian, can you come in here?

[camibami]

I have been thinking of becoming a vegetarian for a long time. I think its time to take the plunge and just do it.

 

But I am far from a decent cook as it is, LOL. I am sort of afraid I will starve- I have a hard time keeping weight on as it is. I need your best cookbook/website recommendations please! And any info on veggie kids, too, since as I do most of the meal prep, the whole family will be joining me in this. Unless they want to cook meat for themselves, which they won't badly enough to actually *do* it, I'm pretty sure.:glare:

[anissarobert]

I have not eaten meat in 25 years, and my dc have never eaten it. Unless you decide to be a vegan, it is not that difficult. Just eat everything but the meat. :001_smile: My favorite vegetarian cookbook is The New Laurel's Kitchen. It has simple food, that actually work for families.

 

Good Luck!

[myfunnybunch]

We're not vegetarian, but one of my favorite cookbooks is Vegetarian Planet (Didi Emmons). Several of our family favorite recipes have come from that book.

 

Cat

[fivetails]

I've been a vegetarian over half my life (I'm 31) - dh and the kids are not.

 

Ha, dh is the farthest thing from a vegetarian as he can get. :tongue_smilie:

 

VegWeb is a site that I've gotten recipes off of before...

 

I'm not a very healthy vegetarian though. (At least I'm an honest one!:D) There are other ones here who can give you excellent advice about how to balance your meals....:)

[Haiku]

We are vegan and I have to disagree that being vegan is difficult. It takes more creativity sometimes, but that's good for your health, anyway. And, like any change, you get used to it and it becomes matter-of-fact.

 

My suggestions are Compassionate Cooks and the book How it All Vegan. Both are vegan resources, but the nutritional information and the wealth of creative ideas are ideal for anyone, whether they are omnivores, vegetarians, or vegans. For kids, I recommend the book Vegetarian Baby by Sharon Yntema. It's misnamed because it's got nutrition information and recipes for everyone in the family.

 

Tara

[Peela]

I was a vego for many years....dh is one now, he hasnt eaten meat in maybe 10 years, the kids and I are not. I do not thrive on vegetarianism, however I do know how to be a fairly healthy one.

 

My dh is not a healthy vego though. The danger is getting sugar addicted- if you dont eat enough protein, and eat healthily, you start getting sugar cravings. So get enough protein- beans and rice, dhal and rice, tofu/tempeh, cheese, eggs, whole milk,yoghurt and nuts are all good protein sources- even good bread has a fair amount. If you have protein with every meal, and an abundance of whatever else (salad, vegies), and healthy fats, you wil be fine.

I like Indian food a lot and cook curries most weeks, and dhals. Once you get the hang of that, it opens up a whole world- since a large % of Indians are vego their whole lives so there is an amazing array of dishes there.

Mexican food I find is also easy to adapt to vegetarian style- we use tinned mexi-beans instead of meat for tacos, quite often.

We use TVP as a substitute for mince meat sometimes, such as for spagghetti bolognaise- no one can tell its not meat- but dh's system reacts violently to it. I suspect TVP is not that healthy.

I make smoothies often- based on an Indian lassi. It has plain yoghurt, juice, fruit (berries, mangoes, bananas, whatever is in season or in my freezer), protein powder, an egg or two if no one is watching (no one can taste the egg, it adds extra protein, but they wont drink it if they know its in there!), and a green powder.

 

I have many vegetarian cookbooks. My favourite is called Meals Without Meat but I dont know if its still in print. I would just go to the library and get some out browse through them and try some of the recipes. When I do that, I usually only find one or two recipes that appeal to me from any one book, but I have a file I keep my favourites in. Soups are a good place to start.

The Hare Krishna cookbooks have some great recipes.

 

Enjoy the vegetarian adventure. I cook a vegetarian meal for for between 15 and 20 people twice a week for income. I just browse the internet and cookbooks for recipes I can cook in one pot plus rice or bread. I have favourites- Thai Green Curry is an easy standby. So are various soups- minestrone, pumpkin, Thai sweet potato, cauliflower cheese soup. One they really like is Bean Stroganoff- made with beans instead of beef.

[HootyTooty]

Do you have access to a good library? If so, you might want to walk/drive over and take out some books about vegetarian cooking.

 

I like books by Deena Burton and the book Veganomicon.

 

Someone already suggested vegweb.com I would also do a search on allrecipes and recipezaar in their vegetarian category. That is how I found some of my favorites.

 

If it helps you might want to try out some vegetarian convenience food. Be warned that some of it isn't that great and at times filled with a lot of filler.

[Saille]

I have always liked Nava Atlas's cookbooks. I also like Moosewood's New Classics, The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and a children's cookbook called Better than Peanut Butter and Jelly.

 

The trick is to eat a lot of variety, and to focus on the nutritional powerhouses, like whole grains, dark colored veggies (winter squash, dark greens, berries), and good protein sources.

[rafiki]

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[kalanamak]

I need your best cookbook/website recommendations please! .

 

What kind of food do you like? I know lots of cookbooks.

Anything by Nava Atlas will be easy and tasty. V. Cooking for Everybody is the Joy of Cooking for veggies. Cooking Under Pressure and Veg Cooking Under Pressure by Sass is good for PC cooking.

 

Tell my your tastes.

[mrsdash]

I've been a vegetarian for 24 yrs. and I promise you wont starve :)

As far as books, I liked Veganomicon and a good website is VeganYumYum.com

 

If you just keep in mind that vegetarian foods are easy to find and right under your nose, you'll have no problem. If they are found on our trees and/or grown from our Earth, it's vegetarian. Think natural. We're surrounded by good, healthy food :)

 

My daughter (16) had a vegan dinner party with her girlfriends and none of them knew the entire meal was vegan until the very end and all enjoyed the meal. They had grilled sourdough bread w/ sundried tomato and kale hummus, salad, spicy lemon linguine w/ broccoli, vegan chocolate oreo cupcakes from the cookbook Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. The rest of the meal was courtesy of VeganYumYum.com

 

Good luck!

[Country Mouse]

Our family is vegetarian. The two cookbooks I use most often (almost daily) are Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison and Better than Peanut Butter and Jelly by W. Muldawer and M. Mattare.

I do not find being vegetarian difficult at all. I often will use traditional recipes and substitute soy crumbles or other "meat" replacements for the meat. Last night we had veg sloppy joes and broccoli. We have pizza loaded with veggies. I make a lot of bean soups and casseroles with beans. Pasta with sauce full of veggies. Veggie pot pie. Spinach lasagna. We have a very traditional Thanksgiving meal each year but eat Tofurky instead of turkey. For any recipes that calls for chicken stock, I replace it with veggie broth.

Anyway, there are lots of choices without meat and as pp said, you won't starve!

[LauraGB]

I found that you can replace a lot of meat in casseroles and such with beans; kidney beans for burger, black beans for tacos/mexican dishes, or just toss in a can of cannelli beans into many dishes without really noticing to increase protein intake. One book that I really use a lot because its so versatile is American Whole Foods Cuisine by Nikki and David Goldbeck. When you are first starting, making the transition using recipes from places like Weight Watchers, Better Homes and Gardens, Good House Keeping or Cooking Light is easy because the recipes are not exotic, using staple ingredients and big on flavor. Some online places are Allrecipes (check the Vegetarian and Meatless Main headings), Cookinglight.com and Vegetariantimes.com. Also, Vegetariantimes.com has a lot of info for newbies.

 

Good luck and have fun tweaking recipes. It is hard at first not to thaw some kind of meat for your main course every night, but you get used to it - and your grocery bill will probably decrease some!

[caitlinsmom]

I love checking out vegan dads website. He has some great ideas. We love is tempeh burgers. I also have used Laurels kitchen and while it was good I thought it was too heavy on soy. I second the idea eat what you do without meat. One of my families fav meals is mashed potatoes, stuffing, and veggies. If you are going to eat dairy and/or eggs you especially wont have to do anything special.

[Firefly]

We are not strict vegetarians, but I'll chime in anyway :D. For me the biggest transition was how I looked at meal planning. I read many excellent vegetarian cookbooks, learned lots of great recipes, but how to put them together? It was hard to get out of the meat-as-the-main-dish and two smaller sides frame of mind I grew up with. At first I replaced meat with other protein "main" dishes (beans, lasagna, tofu etc). After a while you will get the hang of different varied combos. I used a vegetarian food pyramid as a guide and that really helped, too.

 

Also, the Moosewood cookbooks have a lot of interesting vegetarian recipes, in case they haven't been mentioned yet...

[Haiku]

I forgot to add that Joel Furhman, MD's book, Disease-Proof Your Child, was very helpful to me in thinking about the kinds of things I should be feeding my kids and thinking about creative ideas for building meals. I have been veg*n all my adult life, but sometimes I get in a rut and need some fresh inspiration. DPYC did that for me.

 

I'm going to start a Feeding Your Veg*n Kids thread, so hop on over there.

 

Tara

[battlemaiden]

Dh would never go meat free. My rule is if the meat has bones or needs more attention other then sticking in dish and crocking on baking, it's his job. He'll often cook double on Sunday's to last the week. The smell of meat has always bothered me. So even though meat is available at every meal, I also make extra side dishes and stick with eating those. I stick with typical recipes minus the meat.

 

:D I'm nodding in agreement here. I've been a vegetarian for 19 years except for during the past three pregnancies. I'm returning to vegetarian eating just now-two months after our last baby was born. Dh is not a vegetarian but he appreciates alternate meals to lessen his meat intake.

 

I have a simple meal plan: Bean based meal-mainly black bean, pasta based meal, and soup with healthly breads. We have pizza often, and I make some meals that call for ground beef with vegi crumbles (morning star meat substitute).

 

I know you want to dive in, but maybe you could ease into it.

 

The cookbooks I mainly use are Monastery soups, 1000 Vegetarian Recipes by Gelles, and crockpot cookbooks.

 

Good luck to you. I don't think it is too difficult and I am not the greatest cook. It just takes some toying around with what you like.

 

Jo

[dragons in the flower bed]

I am sort of afraid I will starve

 

You won't starve. Chocolate is vegetarian.

 

I could never try a whole week's worth of new recipes at once. That would be overwhelming and impossible. Rather than going out and buying a cookbook, take stock of what you already know how to cook. Many popular dishes can be modified, especially ethnic foods. Lasagna is already vegetarian. Plan to have pizza one night your first week. A hearty potato soup with a salad makes a whole meal.

 

Once you've listed the veggie meals you already know how to make, figure out what you can modify. If you serve meatballs or meat sauce with spaghetti, just get veggie crumbles or meatlessballs to use in place of the meat. Tacos can also be modified by using veggie crumbles or black beans in place of the meat. We're making chili with three types of beans and no crumbles at all, these days, but you can use them in that too.

 

Now you should only need to find five or so recipes to have a good long rotation. Go to Google. There will be many vegetarian recipes that look yummy. Since you're a beginner, only print out those recipes that have less than five steps and don't have any ingredients you've never cooked with before.

 

Let us know how you do!

[camibami]

Thank you all very much! I have a neat little list of things to look for now in cookbooks.

 

I *love* Thai and Indian curries, but DH couldn't eat them often. So we're looking at regular ol food, sans meat, I guess, for the most part. There are lots of choices there, I now realize, thanks to this thread! I still would a few cookbooks though, because I have a feeling there are squash soups and broiled veggies and things out there that would make great dinners.

[magistramom]

If you truly have starvation worries, try starting out as a flexitarian. Choose one or two meats (preferably chicken/turkey and fish) and cut everything else out. As you build up a recipe file, you can fully transition "over". Good luck! Here's to healthy choices!

[Laurel]

I highly recommend Moosewood's Simple Suppers. It will be great for you if you don't cook much. The recipes are simple, and generally quick to make (30 minutes or so on average I would think), and use basic ingredients. I think they have a pantry list in the front, with good staples to keep around the house.

[Nan in Mass]

If you are worried about weight, you can think of a meal in terms of a starch base with something on top. Spagetti is an example - noodles with sauce on top. Or rice and curry. You need eat milk, cheese, beans, tofu, eggs, or nuts along with the starch to complete the protein, but it doesn't take much milk, etc. to round out the starch into a protein like meat. So, your base is potatoes, rice, bread, corn, sweet potatoes/yams, or squash, and then you make a mix of other vegetables and some milk, etc., to go along with it. I use mushrooms as a substitute meat. Somehow, they seem to fill out a dish the same way chunks of meat do.

 

Some common things we eat:

pizza

spagetti

mac and cheese

stirfry on rice (add peas, tofu, or nuts, or make edemame sp? as a side)

curry on rice

scallopped potatoes and corn

baked beans and brown bread

lentil soup and bread

bean and corn souffle

omlet and bread

stew and bread

stew over noodles

rollups with refried beans from a can, corn, and chopped red pepper

 

Tacos and quiche would be an option, too, if I weren't so lazy about food. I have found that being (mostly) vegetarian has simplified my life. Cooking isn't something that I ever was interested in, and being vegetarian has made it easier. Meat is messy and time consuming. This style of eating is quicker and easier.

 

I'm usually too lazy to make salad, but I cut up carrots and cucumber or pepper or celery, or do frozen peas or green beans or edemame most meals.

 

We have lots of milk, milkshakes (frozen fruit, an egg, and milk), yoghurt, and icecream.

 

I keep a bowl or a can of nuts on the counter, along with fruit, and encourage everyone to eat some every day.

 

I have gymnast teenage boys who don't have huge appetites, and they burn off everything they eat fast, but we still do fine. I think the trick is to get enough starch. They eat lots of toast when they feel hungry. We go through lots of bread each week, and lots and lots of milk. And lots of icecream.

 

HTH

-Nan

[Haiku]

Nan gave some really great meal suggestions, but I would caution against feeding too much starchy food to kids. The bulk will fill them up but they might not get enough other essential nutrients that way.

 

Tara

[dragons in the flower bed]

The bulk will fill them up but they might not get enough other essential nutrients that way.

 

And they might become carb addicts like my 8yo.

 

If you're going to go with a pattern for meal planning, like starch/veggie/dairy or meat/carb/veggie, it's probably a healthier idea to make the base of each meal a vegetable and determine what would be a yummy, filling way to serve it.

 

Here's what we eat these days.

 

* saag paneer with white rice

* corn chips with chunky salsa, avocado and cheddar cheese

* corn tortilla, monterey jack and spinach quesadillas

* triangle-cut tofu and mixed veggies seared in olive oil with curry powder

* Abuela’s chik peas and yellow rice recipe

* rosti served with leafy greens

* bell pepper omelettes

* rectangle-cut tofu seared in wheat-free tamari sauce and molasses mixture, served over rice noodles with lots of fresh scallions

* corn bread and three bean chili

* rice and broccoli (or any other leftover veggie) fried in butter with a coating of egg

[camibami]

Dragons, you are making me vveeerrryyyy hungry! Yum!

 

I think my worry about my weight cutting out all meat is probably unfounded. I have struggled to keep it on my whole life. I dont eat a great deal of meat as it is though-really, I can't imagine that replacing the meat in my diet with something else will make a difference, calorie-wise. As long as I replace it. I already eat lots of eggs and dairy and healthy (and not so healthy) fats, so logically it shouldn't make too much difference as long as I keep an eye on protien. I already have to watch what (and how much) I eat as it is to keep weight on, so that wouldn't change.

 

Thanks all, this is great!

I promised my 10 year old she could still have bacon, she just had to get the microwave kind she could make herself.Or tofu bacon, to which she promptly burst into tears. The horror!!!!:lol:

[LoriM]

A website you might enjoy is http://www.drmcdougall.com/ Dr. McDougall has several great cookbooks that are very simple recipes. Less is more. Sometimes a meal can be nothing more than a big bowl of brown rice with a steamed veggie of choice, and some soy sauce splashed on top. If you love to cook, then the recipes in Vegan Vittles are terrific, as are 150 Vegan Favorites.

[Saille]

Laurel, I hadn't seen that cookbook! Now I'm drooling. I need the library to fill some of my holds, so I can place more!!!