Vegetarian help?

Amo_Angelus

My wonderful husband seems to delight in making life hard sometimes. I have a rather severe food phobia prohibiting me from eating fruit and veg almost entirely so he's decided to become vegetarian. Nothing bad about that except that he works all day while I'm the housewife and feeding him is my job. Ah, well here's the kick, because I can't eat fruit and veg to any real degree, I have absolutely no idea how to cater for his new found vegetarianism >_< I'm finally able to touch it without screaming like a two year old, so I can prepare his meals, but...I have absolutely NO idea what to make for him! Can anyone reccommend anything? Or any websites of vegetarian recipes? Please and thank you!

LittleMissDover

He'd either be cooking for himself or eating cheese toasties every day here :laugh:

I honestly don't know what to suggest, there are plenty of vegetarians who don't eat veg around but I couldn't do it myself, I'm pescatarian and eat veg with basically every meal.

Could you get the frozen steam bags of veg? Serve it with couscous, potatoes and Quorn fillets/ veggie burgers, stuff like that. You don't have to touch/prep any beg then.

Amo_Angelus

Yeah, currently he's getting quorn "meat" served exactly the same way my real meat is, but with a side of veg. Get's pretty boring though, so I'm on the look out for interesting things for me to make (I love cooking) and for him to eat to break it up :P

_VoV

Believe it or not, there are vegetarians who don't eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I'm not advocating that, at all, by the way. I'm just curious: Has your husband been eating fruits and vegetables all along?

I would like to point out a whole world of beige plant foods:

1. Grains (breads, baked goods, pasta, cereals, flatbreads, pizza)

2. Nuts and seeds

3. Beans (think hummus, refried beans, baked beans, curries)

4. Dairy and eggs (if his goal isn't to become vegan)

5. Fresh fruit (which doesn't need to involve you.)

Amo_Angelus

haha I like that, beige plant foods! I'm so stealing that! But yeah, he actually really enjoys fruit and veg.I make "Chicken" salads for him to take to work, which he absolutely adores. Of course I've always made it with real chicken before, dunno how it's going to taste with quorn chicken, but that's what he's getting now. And quorn bolognaise. But he loves it all, which is I guess part of why he's decided to go vegetarian, the other half being his rocket blood pressure :P But he can't give me ideas on what to make and I have a very limited fruit and veg imagination.

It doesn't matter about the prep, I can now bring myself to touch it which is brilliant and I want to keep doing that as the more I touch it, the more likely I am to try it, and it could actually be very good for me too. God knows I need more fruit and veg in my diet :P But yeah, mind blank when I sit down to plan the weekly menue/shopping trip :P

Bentley2718

Perhaps you should seek the help of a qualified professional to deal with your food phobia. Living without fruit and vegetables is unhealthy for you. Also, it sounds like you're assuming your husband went vegetarian just to spite you (despite the myriad of good reasons to become a vegetarian), perhaps there are other underlying issues in your relationship that could benefit from professional help.

Amo_Angelus

Wow that's a tangent. Did I say I wasn't seeking help? Did I say he did it just to spite me? No. No I did not. I asked for help finding recipes to accomodate him mrs Know it all, holier than thou.

jrbb03092

There's a really good cookbook (huge thing) by Mark Bittman called How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. It's basically like a vegetarian cook's 'bible' and it covers everything from how to prep various foods to how to cook them in a million different ways but it's laid out very nicely and is very easy to read/use.

There's a website I love - and I have her book too - called Peas and Thank You. It's a little more family-oriented but I actually really like it for that reason because the recipes are simpler (versus all the 'gourmet' veg stuff that seems to be out there these days) and rather comfort-food-oriented (as well as healthy and nutritious): http://peasandthankyou.com/

Lastly, there's a week-long vegetarian challenge put out by the Toronto Vegetarian Association. You do not have to live in Toronto or even Canada to join up. If you sign up here: http://veg.ca/content/view/26/56/ they will send you a week of newsletters answering questions about vegetarianism, providing resources, recipes, etc. When you finish the week, they'll ask if you want to join up for a further month. If you do that, you'll receive twice weekly emails with a full month of recipes and meal plans, grocery lists, etc. It's great and it's all FREE.

rainbowbow

Believe it or not, there are vegetarians who don't eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. I'm not advocating that, at all, by the way. I'm just curious: Has your husband been eating fruits and vegetables all along?

I would like to point out a whole world of beige plant foods:

1. Grains (breads, baked goods, pasta, cereals, flatbreads, pizza)

2. Nuts and seeds

3. Beans (think hummus, refried beans, baked beans, curries)

4. Dairy and eggs (if his goal isn't to become vegan)

5. Fresh fruit (which doesn't need to involve you.)

Sounds like me. *sad face* LOL

some things that I make pretty often that are high in protein/vegetarian-

Chili Cheese Fries-
Potatoes chunked, olive oil, salt & pepper, baked
topped with vegetarian chilli (Morningstar 3 bean chili is FANTASTIC and has about 20 grams protein for 270 cals)
1/4 cup shredded cheddar

Whole thing (ming you this is a LOT of food) about 500 calories and 25 grams protein

Meat/Beans/Rice- recipe (2 variations)
Variation 1
Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers crumbles whole bag
chopped up onion/peppers
can of black beans
garlic
salt & pepper

makes 2 HUGE servings (seriously cannot eat all of a hald serving) about 480 calories and 45 grams protein

Variation 2
Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers crumbles whole bag
chopped up onion/peppers
can of black beans
garlic
salt & pepper
Can stewed tomatoes
1 cup cooked rice

makes about 3-4 servings. about 400 calories (ALOT of food) and 30 grams protein

Tofu Stir Fry-
1 block extra firm tofu (I weight it down/press it covering it with a paper towel and sticking a pot on it)
1 bag frozen stir fry vegetables
3 tablespoons stir fry sauce
(I use the dry-fry method of cooking the tofu and then soaking it in the sauce. While it's soaking in the sauce i cook up the veggies till almost done and then toss in the sauce and tofu. This makes about 2-3 servings 400-500 calories a peice and 20+ grams protein. The tofu is seriously crispy and has a GREAT texture not gummy or nasty at all.

God, I have so many more as i've been a vegetarian my whole life. And hey, I like convineince like anyone else without having to chop/prepare everything at the end of the day.

Amo_Angelus

AWESOME! I'll have a look for that book next time I'm out. I'm off to visit the website now. Thank you so much. I look forward to trying the new inspiration ^_^

LittleMissDover

For the salds, I quite often have quorn sticky BBQ /chilli ginger and lime fillets with couscous (I buy ready flavoured dried ones for ease) and salad and it's really nice.

Falafel and couscous is another great lunchbox meal.

Veggie chilli's, curries, spag bol etc made with quorn or just veg and/or lentils are really tasty.

jrbb03092

Oh and one more thing - from the Peas and Thank you blog - here's a whole list of lunchbox ideas (complete with recipes). It was compiled for kids but a number of the ideas would do well for grown-ups too

http://peasandthankyou.com/2012/08/30/40-vegetarian-lunchbox-ideas-giveaway/

Bentley2718

Wow that's a tangent. Did I say I wasn't seeking help? Did I say he did it just to spite me? No. No I did not. I asked for help finding recipes to accomodate him mrs Know it all, holier than thou.

Actually, you said "my wonderful husband seems to delight in making life hard sometimes." Saying someone "delights" in making your life more difficult sounds like you are implying spite to me. Moreover, you were mute on the issue of whether you were seeking help for your "phobia." I neither claimed to know much of anything, nor did I imply than I am better than anyone. By the way, the internet is full of vegetarian recipes, all you have to do is go to google and enter the search term "vegetarian recipes" so maybe I am a know-it-all.

Bentley2718

Oh and one more thing - from the Peas and Thank you blog - here's a whole list of lunchbox ideas (complete with recipes). It was compiled for kids but a number of the ideas would do well for grown-ups too

http://peasandthankyou.com/2012/08/30/40-vegetarian-lunchbox-ideas-giveaway/

I love Peas and Thank You. She also has one (possibly two by now, I know a second is/was in the works) cookbooks.

Amo_Angelus

Oh I love it! *has her pencil and notepad out and is starting on this weeks menue/shopping list already* Some brilliant ideas! And a lot more appetising than the only other vegetarian food list I have...which is actually a WWII rations recipe list :P

couscous...must look for that, never heard of it, but I made a brilliant mediteranean veg and falafel pie the other month (aparantly, I didn't eat it). but both the falafel and veg were pre-prepared so I won't take credit for it :P

Amo_Angelus

Wow I feel really bad for you if you read that and your first thought was that. That says a lot more about you than it does me. The fact that I called him wonderful actually hints at exactly the opposite. A humourus exasperation.Which is what it was. So sorry for your cynical attitude, but that's on you, not me. And the reson I didn't go into details was because the thread isn't about MY eating habits, it's ideas for him, I mentioned my phobia only as far as I needed to in order to highlight the fact that I am a complete novice at anything to do with vegetarianism >_<

Bentley2718

Wow I feel really bad for you if you read that and your first thought was that. That says a lot more about you than it does me. The fact that I called him wonderful actually hints at exactly the opposite. A humourus exasperation.Which is what it was. So sorry for your cynical attitude, but that's on you, not me. And the reson I didn't go into details was because the thread isn't about MY eating habits, it's ideas for him, I mentioned my phobia only as far as I needed to in order to highlight the fact that I am a complete novice at anything to do with vegetarianism >_<

Keep telling yourself that.

perfectingpatti

VoV gave you some good suggestions. Is your husband just wanting to cut out meat from his diet? If so, there are lots of meals you can make without using meat that you can probably ejoy with him.

I didn't sense you were upset with your husband at all. I sensed that you want to learn what to make him since he's changed his diet. Ignore the cynical people.

Sharyn913

If you have a medical reason for not eating fruits/vegs, than that seems reasonable. Phobias are irrational fears, so that seems to be your issue, not his. Men are pretty simple and will eat just about anything put in front of them. Stock up on different seasonings to get interesting.

Amo_Angelus

I think so yes. He seems to think that cutting out meat will help with his BP and Cholestrol. Well I don't know enough about either thing to say either yes or no, but I'm happy to help him with it.

Thank you ^_^ I'm glad you read it as it was meant. I do indeed want to learn and I'm so happy to have a starting point now with the peas and thankyou site, printed out some nice recipes to have a go at this week ^_^ It's a pretty steep learning curb though. But cynics aside, there are some really helpful people on here and I'm sure that I'll get enough help to meet this new challenge lol

perfectingpatti

There are lots of Mexican dishes that are made with no meat. You can do all kinds of pasta dishes with no meat. Good luck!

yourenotmine

My wonderful husband seems to delight in making life hard sometimes. I have a rather severe food phobia prohibiting me from eating fruit and veg almost entirely so he's decided to become vegetarian.

From these two sentences, I concluded that you believe your husband became a vegetarian to make your life hard. That might not be what you meant, and the rest of the post sounded like you were happy to try it for him, so I didn't think you were trying to say that you hate your husband. But these were your own words, so maybe don't be quite so hard on people responding to them?

Anyway, it's very simple, just google "vegetarian recipes". You can even google specific types of vegetarian recipes, and recipes that you'd like to see vegetarian-ized (ie: vegetarian meatloaf). Allrecipes.com has a good veg section. When you do this on the internet, you can immediately look up ingredients that you don't recognize, and make it easier to figure out if it's feasible to make something. Good luck with your search.

rivka_m

What about frozen veg? It's not clear if prepping them is a problem for you, but personally I just use frozen veg most of the time since I'm lazy and I hate all the peeling and chopping. They're just as nutritious as fresh and you wouldn't have to touch them much.

Fruit he can prep himself since it's generally just washing and maybe peeling (and some are available frozen which is nice for adding to his oatmeal and such). Presumably he's not asking for complicated fruit salads.

But as you know, a healthy omni should also be eating lots of fruit and veg, so I wish you luck working on the issue just for your own health.

Saezimmerman

I'm not a vegetarian, but I am having a vegetarian lunch today. I made some Quinoa (rice pilaf style) and mashed sweet potatoes (which were on sale this week). Actually rather tasty.

At my house, we also do a lot of bagged salad (which he can fix himself) with loads of tomatoes, carrots and yummy stuff from the olive bar.

Amo_Angelus

Thank you. I'm mostly ok with the prep...except onions. Onions I hate! They make my eyes burn!
I don't think he actually knows what a complicated fruit salad is. He's making the transition from as much take-away as he can get past me to vegetarianism and his only idea of vegetarian meals was the helpful "Well you can use quorn instead of meat....dunno" a shrug and then changing the subject lol But I love cooking so some complicated options and some easy options are good ^_^

I know. I'm working on me. I had an apple today! I feel really sick and have only just managed to stop gipping about it, but I had an apple! And I ate the whole thing despite the urge to vomiit occuring half way through! But my problem has been there since I was about 8, so I've got a rather long journey ahead of me to overcome it. But I'm making progress. Just slow and steady.