Eating more vegetarian....

[lukenick1]

After watching Food Inc. I am now grossed out by meats. How can I become vegetarian? I have no idea where to begin. All the stuff we usually eat includes some sort of meat. Ugh!!!! We love beans so I'd like to find some good bean meals. Any suggestions for us??
Thanks

 

[JuneCleaver]

My kids wanted to do the month of January completely vegetarian to see what it was like going meat free. I found a ton of great recipes on www.foodnetwork.com and also on Martha Stewart's website. Rachel Ray has quite a few as well.

We ate really well however, I found it takes more prep work to prepare tasty meals (and I am an every night cook who likes to cook). We had broccoli ricotta calzones, veggie lo mein, black bean soup, black bean tostadas, pasta dishes with beans, lentil soup, roasted red pepper paninni's, peppers stuffed with orzo, veggie nachos, etc.

I bet if you start a vegetarian recipe thread you will get a bunch of good ideas.

June

 

[VBsHustla]

I've found a lot of great ideas on vegweb.com. I'd definitely recommend checking their recipe section out.

I've been vegetarian since I was 11 years old and am now vegan, and I've found that I like to keep it simple. In the 12 years I've been vegetarian, I've never once tried a meat/cheese substitute or anything like that and personally have no desire to. I basically eat fruit in the morning and vegetables the rest of the day, with some whole grains and beans. For breakfast, I've been eating oatmeal with a banana, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries lately. Sometimes I have Cheerios with fruit. For lunch, I eat leftovers or veggie wraps (corn tortilla, hummus, carrots, black beans usually). I eat a lot of pasta for dinner. I like to saute some of vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, spinach, carrots, zucchini, etc.) and eat them with pasta, tomato sauce, and kidney beans. Tonight I'm having a "quesadilla" (tortillas with grated up zucchini, onions, and black beans) with rice.

I hope that might give you some ideas, and I'd be happy to help if you have any questions at all!

 

[not_minnie]

I'm not vegetarian but we eat meatless several times a week (I don't cook raw meats/fish/chicken because it grosses me out ). A couple more resources:
PETA vegetarian "starter kit" (pdf file)
Vegetarian Times (pdf also)
Meatless Monday is affiliated with Johns Hopkins Univ.
All these have really good info to get you started, especially with regards to protein.

And if you google "vegetarian recipes" or "meatless recipes" you'll get more than you can try in a lifetime or two! Have fun exploring

 

[etoiles]

I have been a vegetarian for 13 years. I find a lot of recipes that I like by using Allrecipes and then using the advanced search feature that lets you type in specific ingredients and search for only vegetarian recipes. I do like Morningstar crumbles and add those to dishes where ground beef would be and my nonvegetarian DH likes that as well.

Some other easy dishes that we prepare when we need quick dishes:
- tacos or taco salad/burritos with refried or black beans
- Quesadillas - can make different versions of these
- sandwich night
- spaghetti
- black beans and rice - cooked all together in one pot, easy!
- Spaghetti with tomato sauce (can always add veggie crumbles or white beans for protein if you want). You can make this in the time it takes to boil the water. I microwave the sauce while the pasta cooks.
- Baked potato with toppings such as veggie chili

 

[Colleen27]

I'm far from vegetarian myself, but we do one or two meatless dinners a week. I don't often use specific vegetarian recipes, though. I do a lot of stir-fry with in season or frozen veggies over rice, naturally meatless dishes like spinach/veggie lasagna, pierogi and spanakopita (sp?), or meals where the meat can easily be left out (chili, pizza) or replaced (portobellos instead of chicken in fajitas or beef in bourguignon).

Since you mention this meat aversion being a consequence of seeing Food Inc, you might also want to think about finding alternative sources of meat that you're more comfortable with. The kinds of farms featured in Food Inc gross me out too, but we buy our beef, pork, and chicken from small farms in our area that are NOTHING like what you saw in the movie. Free range/grass fed meat is a little more expensive but it is a LOT more humane. So if it is the way the meat is raised/processed rather than the killing of animals that you object to, that might be an alternative to going vegetarian.

 

[Ember]

My favorite after work snack is a veggie wrap heated up in my panini press. I use a bit of cream cheese and then whatever veggies I have on hand (carrots, zucchini, peppers, onions, tomatoes, etc), a little grated cheddar and a whole handful of spinach. Toast it up a little and Mmmm! They're also great with rice and black beans. And the best part is that they're fast, because I'm always starving when I get home.

 

[WDWBarb]

I've been a vegetarian for about 22 years now (oh, I am so old...)! At first the part that was hard was I was trying to fit my meals around the meals of my family/friends. For example, if dinner was pork chops and potatoes, I ate the potatoes and then yearned for the "blank" space on my plate to have ... something. I leared that you have to take care of your individual need to have something that fills you and gives you the proper nutrition. So go the extra mile and prepare yourself something yummy!!

Good luck! It's not as hard as you might think and just think of how good you will feel!!

 

[LisaR]

Food, Inc seemed to have this effect on a lot of people. It is important to remember that vegetarian eating can be very unhealthy. Many people I know turn to meat substitutes that are full of chemicals and sodium. Vegetarians are also famous for gorging on high fat cheese. There is a belief that they will not get enough protein so they slather cheese on everything. I would make the claim that cheese is just as harmful, if not more so, than the meat.

If health is your number one priority, I suggest books like The China Study, books by Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. McDougall and websites like this one:
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/

Good luck to you.

 

[Wall-E1]

I've been a vegetarian for over twenty years. If you are just starting and not sure how to have a balanced diet, I would suggest going to see a licensed nutritionist. They can help get you on your way and make sure you are getting everything you need in your daily diet. After that, you can play around with different recipes and such.

 

[disneychrista]

Make what you normally do minus the meat.

Add beans, tofu or "meat" substitutes.

 

[Vegcentric]

Food, Inc seemed to have this effect on a lot of people. It is important to remember that vegetarian eating can be very unhealthy. Many people I know turn to meat substitutes that are full of chemicals and sodium. Vegetarians are also famous for gorging on high fat cheese. There is a belief that they will not get enough protein so they slather cheese on everything. I would make the claim that cheese is just as harmful, if not more so, than the meat.

If health is your number one priority, I suggest books like The China Study, books by Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. McDougall and websites like this one:
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/

Good luck to you.

You have some good advice here in this quote, and also a big generalization that I want to address. I'm an ovo-vegetarian, mainly because dairy IS just as bad as meat on several levels (cruelty-wise, and health-wise), but I know many vegetarians that don't slather cheese on everything.
A lot of vegetarians just transitioning to the lifestyle use the meat analogs are a crutch, or like training wheels until they ease more into the lifestyle. It can be tough, and those meat analogs can be helpful for those just starting out, though you're right - they're NOT good for you. Eating whole foods is a lot more nutritious!

Also that book you recommended is GREAT. Major points for you for that one.

 

[LisaR]

You have some good advice here in this quote, and also a big generalization that I want to address. I'm an ovo-vegetarian, mainly because dairy IS just as bad as meat on several levels (cruelty-wise, and health-wise), but I know many vegetarians that don't slather cheese on everything.
A lot of vegetarians just transitioning to the lifestyle use the meat analogs are a crutch, or like training wheels until they ease more into the lifestyle. It can be tough, and those meat analogs can be helpful for those just starting out, though you're right - they're NOT good for you. Eating whole foods is a lot more nutritious!

Also that book you recommended is GREAT. Major points for you for that one.

Not trying to generalize at all. Simply basing my opinion on the numerous vegetarian websites, books, message boards, restaurants and people in real life that I know. DH and I went to a vegetarian restaurant last weekend and walked out without ordering. Aside from a salad (minus their high calorie dressing) there wasn't anything we found to be healthy and filling. I am not a calorie counter and never have been but their stir fry had enough calories in it for the entire day and enough sodium for two days. I have three vegetarian recipe books sitting in front of me at the moment. I just checked them out of the library yesterday. I will be lucky to find three recipes between the three books that I would consider healthy. Of course, healthy is subjective so someone else may find them to be the greatest books ever written or the best restaurant on the planet.

 

[bicker]

Wow, that's not our experience at all. While I cannot talk about a restaurant that you haven't named, I can say that I've found vegetarian meals even at regular restaurants that are healthier than the other options at this restaurants, and that the vast majority of vegetarian recipes my wife and I have in our recipe database are healthier than the average meal we made before we became vegetarians.

Let's test something. Here's a random recipe that I've posted to our Vegetarians - Virtual Meal Plan Swap Meet thread:

Mayan Black Bean Soup

Is that something that you would not "consider healthy"? If indeed you don't consider that healthy, I would be curious to know what recipe you would consider healthy. I couldn't imagine any meat-eating recipe to qualify, since they generally already start off by being higher in saturated fat.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

Since you mention this meat aversion being a consequence of seeing Food Inc, you might also want to think about finding alternative sources of meat that you're more comfortable with. The kinds of farms featured in Food Inc gross me out too, but we buy our beef, pork, and chicken from small farms in our area that are NOTHING like what you saw in the movie. Free range/grass fed meat is a little more expensive but it is a LOT more humane. So if it is the way the meat is raised/processed rather than the killing of animals that you object to, that might be an alternative to going vegetarian.

I was surprised to hear that Food, Inc. had this effect also. To me it wasn't about NOT eating meat anymore, but more about being responsible about where the meat comes from.

We now get our meats only from the local "Grass" farms in our community. The taste is incredible, and it helps to know that the animals are not treated like they are at the factory farms.

As to the OP, there is a lot of information on meatless dishes out on the Intrawebs. Make sure you do your research, though, because you want to make sure you get a collection of recipes that will fulfill all of your dietary/nutritional needs. I've known some vegetarians who ate the same things over and over again, and wanted to know why they felt rundown and tired. Turns out they needed to add 1 or 2 new ingredients to their dishes because they were missing out on some important vitamins/minerals.

 

[paintnolish]

Are you grossed out by the conditions the animals are raised in (in commercial processing places), or have you simply made the connection that animals are use for meat? I'm not being snarky. I know you knew where it came from but seeing it ia another story. If it is the conditions, you can always look for local, free-range and organic meats.

 

[bicker]

For many vegetarians, the trigger is the realization that there is simply no need to sustain ourselves, any longer, through taking the lives of other animals. So it isn't necessarily the making of the connection, which was as you allude to, always pretty obvious, but rather making a new connection, i.e., that there is an alternative.

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

With regard to 100% grass fed beef, not only is it kinder (although that's weird to think of, the animal still dies, eh? ) but it's healthier for human consumption. It does taste better and there is a marked tendency to eat less (it's more "filling" so to speak).

With regard to vegetarians, I don't know any who slather everything with cheese? Many I know don't use cheese as it too is an animal product...

Moosewood Restaurant cookbook is the Grand Dame of vegetarian cooking. Old, but still very good.

 

[LisaR]

Wow, that's not our experience at all. While I cannot talk about a restaurant that you haven't named, I can say that I've found vegetarian meals even at regular restaurants that are healthier than the other options at this restaurants, and that the vast majority of vegetarian recipes my wife and I have in our recipe database are healthier than the average meal we made before we became vegetarians.

Let's test something. Here's a random recipe that I've posted to our Vegetarians - Virtual Meal Plan Swap Meet thread:

Mayan Black Bean Soup

Is that something that you would not "consider healthy"? If indeed you don't consider that healthy, I would be curious to know what recipe you would consider healthy. I couldn't imagine any meat-eating recipe to qualify, since they generally already start off by being higher in saturated fat.

Yep, I would eat that in a heartbeat. I would serve it over brown rice and have a nice big salad with it and consider that a complete meal. I don't have a single problem with that recipe.

 

[bicker]

With regard to vegetarians, I don't know any who slather everything with cheese? Many I know don't use cheese as it too is an animal product...

When we first became vegetarians, we did fall back, very heavily, on cheese. It was just poor intention on our part. It lasted a few months. We fixed it. We have cheese very infrequently now, usually as a sprinkle over dishes -- practically never as the main protein of a dish.