Vegetarian/vegan meals

[Tiggeroo]

dh and I want to do one month of vegetarian. We would like to occasionally include some fish and a little bit of cheese or eggs, but not too much. We don't care for meat substitutes. The goal is to do this and then after the month, or Thanksgiving actually, to incorporate small amounts of lean meat into our diet and some more fish. We want to eat healthy and a bit more environmentally friendly.
I am feeling overwhelmed with the information out there. Can anyone suggest a simple resource. We are not terribly adventurous. I need to create a week's worth of a menu so that I can do some shopping. I don't want to increase our food bill so I don't want to get alot of hard to purchase items. I will be driving past a whole foods and trader joes tomorrow so I can do a run there if needed.
Oh and we are watching our weight. I don't want to do any white food or sugars. So we are not looking for a bunch of baked pastas with cheese.

 

[disneychrista]

It is not too terrible difficult to "go vegetarian." You can use eggplant, mushrooms or tofu to substitute for the meat. Or really just skip the meat all together. Pasta is a very easy meal to make vegetarian. Chili is great this time of year. Homemade soup (use V-8 for a hearty brooth). Mexican can be made using refried, pinto or black beans.

Now just to be technical if you are eating fish you are not eating vegetarian. A true vegetarians eat "nothing with a face." Vegans eat NO animal produts - no dairy, eggs & even honey is off limits. There are so called "pesco-vegetarians" that eat fish.

 

[Tiggeroo]

It is not too terrible difficult to "go vegetarian." You can use eggplant, mushrooms or tofu to substitute for the meat. Or really just skip the meat all together. Pasta is a very easy meal to make vegetarian. Chili is great this time of year. Homemade soup (use V-8 for a hearty brooth). Mexican can be made using refried, pinto or black beans.

Now just to be technical if you are eating fish you are not eating vegetarian. A true vegetarians eat "nothing with a face." Vegans eat NO animal produts - no dairy, eggs & even honey is off limits. There are so called "pesco-vegetarians" that eat fish.

I know I wasn't being technical. I would guess we will be pesco-vegetarians in a limited way. DH is trying to raise his good cholesterol and we are trying to incorporate a little fatty fish. I don't care for eggplant or tofu. It's a texture thing. So I would rather eliminate meat all together then try to re-create it. I like the idea of soup with v-8 in it. I have found a few good enchilada recipes. I want to avoid too much pasta. We will try to limit it to small quantities with alot of veggies or once or twice a week.

 

[Northstar]

Are you happy with brown rice? Brown rice with stir fried vegetables sounds like it would suit your needs and make a change from pasta and enchilada/bean based dishes. Throw unsalted peanuts or almonds (for protein/iron source) into your stir-fry if you don't like tofu.

Hummus is another great staple to try. Wraps with hummus and salady-type vegetables, accompanied by a vegetable soup (in my family, often miso soup or carrot soup) make a quick dinner.

 

[etoiles]

Try this board. I am vegetarian and visit there. It has a thread about what you are having for dinner tonight that has gone on for a long time and might give you ideas of what to eat. I would not mention that you want to eat fish there, though.

I also use allrecipes.com since the advanced feature allows you to check off vegetarian or vegan when searching for recipes.

On another note, people who eat only fish and no other meat are called pescetarian.

 

[Tiggeroo]

I love brown rice and hummus. I'll do some whole wheat pasta. I like the tip about allrecipes.com and checking vegetarian. We may find after doing this a bit that we are comfortable dropping fish. I'm not sure where we are going with this. We just feel that the meat is not healthy for us and want to elminiate or dramatically decrease it. I only buy certain fish from places I know are careful in their practices. So that means we won't have fish too much either.

 

[PrincessAndie]

Mexican can be made using refried, pinto or black beans.

You have to be careful with the refried beans, some are non-vegetarian, I believe some contain lard...eew.

I am a vegetarian also and have been for 6 years. Believe it or not a meal of just straight up vegetables is pretty good. I also go toVeg Cooking for many good recipes. I get their weekly news letter with many great ideas in it. I hope this helps you, good luck!

 

[LisaR]

This is the absolute best website for vegan meals:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/05/skillet-gardeners-pie.html

I linked you to the Shepard's pie (Gardener's pie, actually). I am eating a big bowl of it as I type. I haven't made a recipe from this website that has failed yet. The chipotle red bean burgers are another one of our favorites. Look around on the site at the different recipes. You should find numerous things that appeal to you.

 

[Tiggeroo]

This is the absolute best website for vegan meals:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2008/05/skillet-gardeners-pie.html

I linked you to the Shepard's pie (Gardener's pie, actually). I am eating a big bowl of it as I type. I haven't made a recipe from this website that has failed yet. The chipotle red bean burgers are another one of our favorites. Look around on the site at the different recipes. You should find numerous things that appeal to you.

I love that Shepard's Pie recipe. It is going to be one of the first things I try. This is the kind of thing I"m looking for. Good tasting veggies but no artificial stuff. I'm trying to stick as close to nature as possible.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Get the cookbook Veganomicon. It is amazing. They tell you what to buy to stock your pantry and spices and they don't use ingredients that you have to take the train to the plain to the boat to the moose to get. It is also a great read. The recipes are pretty simple too and they even have desserts!

 

[bicker]

My favorite vegetarian thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2190346

Contains lots of ideas about how you can eat very happily as a vegetarian.

 

[LuvOrlando]

That sounds like fun. I would think someone could easily create a fantastic diet by drawing the best non-meat meals from across different cultures. Italians have Pasta Fagolia, Pasta, Calzones and Rice Balls, Greece has Spinach pie, India is big on Lentils, the Middle East has Hummus, Babo Ghannouji (spelling?)& Falafel, Poland has Pierogies, and then Quiche, you can't forget quiche. Never mind all the soups you can find by vegetable. The list goes on & on. Please post any yummy new discoveries you find.

 

[teacups]

Why not ask here for recipes? Seems like you could get a ton to pick from. I have a carribean black bean chili that is really great. BTW, I like your idea! We do veggie three times a week.