Vegetarians

I've been veg for years. I'll add you as a friend and you can check out my diary. You have tons of options beyond pasta, beans and eggs.

Check out the Vegetarian Times website, they have amazing recipes.

littlemoron

There are lots of good things. Quinoa has protein, pulses, beans, dark green veggies, protein supplements like shakes and stuff are great. Tofu, Quorn and Linda McCartney are great brands for veggie meals and substitutes and they are yummy! Let's see - nuts and seeds are important. 9 bar makes a great flax seed bar.
Yes - many many things. I have also been vegetarian for a long time - 14 years. I was not as good at having proper nutrition as I am now. I always make sure to reach my protein goals for the day although sometimes I am not that good at my 5 a day fruit and veg
Best of luck!

If I was to give up meat what would I eat? The only thing I could think of was pasta, beans, and eggs.
Thanks

:noway:

There are literally thousands and thousands of dishes that do not include meat!!
I assume you are looking for meat *alternatives* though?

Start surfing some food blogs for ideas. There are tons out there.
ie:
http://www.tastespotting.com/
http://happyveganface.blogspot.com/
http://www.yourveganmom.com/
http://www.neverhomemaker.com/
http://ohsheglows.com/
http://www.theppk.com/

yes! i agree. I've also been vegetarian for years, and since it coincided with my learning how to cook, I've always had plenty of recipes in my arsenal. Granted, I do eat a lot of beans, eggs, and whole wheat pasta, but there are a ridiculous amount of recipes out there. Just don't fall into the fake meat / veggie burger trap. It's easy to start out with, but all that super-processed stuff is terrible for you, too. Vegetarian Times is wonderful, and also VegWeb.com, which has thousands of user-submitted vegan recipes (although some of them end up involving really strange / hard to find ingredients or are just as unhealthy as some non-veg recipes). Epicurious has a lot of excellent recipes that are vegetarian / can be veg-ified.

I default to whole wheat pasta primavera, veggie chili, or soup most times. Or stir fry with brown rice, tofu, edamame, and lots of veggies is great. You can also toss any variety of cooked veggies in with quinoa, which is an amazing source of protein, but also a little annoying to prepare. Basically, you can make anything vegetarian. Just take out the meat (and the meat-based broth). adding a lot of fresh or frozen vegetables helps, too.


I hope this helps!

Just a couple of cookbooks with a great variety of recipes:

How to cook everything vegetarian
Vegan with a Vengeance
Veganomicon

I went Vegetarian back in August and haven't looked back since! I wrote a blog about it that desperately needs an update to tell everyone how great it is. You may find limits in certain places when eating out, but it's made me really think before I eat, and virtually cut out all impulse eating and fast food. There are TONS of options out there. Some of my favorite foods now are new things I discovered as a vegetarian. Beyond the eggs, beans, tofu etc.... I LOVE seitan - it's a wheat based product that can be made to taste like beef or chicken. It's amazing an my non-vego hubby loves it too! I also love Lightlife brand Smart Strips - they also come in beef and chicken styles and flavors and they are AWESOME! Great in tacos, fajitas, pasta, salad, snadwiches - really anything you can imagine. Quorn brand also makes some awesome and versatile things to use in place of chicken, turkey or fish. Veggie Patch makes awesome hot dogs and meatballs that taste like the real thing. Tempeh is also a great soy option. Search around for vegetarian recipies.... you may be really suprised at all the options. I'll tell you - rrealizing all the options out there made the transition so easy for me - I thought I was going to feel deprived, but instead, I have found a whole new world of foods I never even knew existed.

Just be careful of some of the premade veggie burgers and portabello burgers. I find the sodium content REALLY high. Good luck, it is not as hard as you might think.

You have to be creative. I do eat a lot of beans, but there are loads of more options theses day. A bid help is I buy quinoa pasta. Quinoa is a grain that's also a complete protein, so you get the mouth feel of pasta, but the benefit of a protein. I eat greek yogurt over regular yogurt because it has more protein. I also add flax seed powder when juicing or making smoothies or even in pasta sauces. You can buy fake meat such as tempeh or seitian. I make my own veggie burger using burger molds and start with bean as my base and add whatever veg I like and again a touch of flaxseed powder.

One cook book I really like is called the Vegan soul kitchen.

We make a lot of indian, chinese and mexican food in this house :-)

Linda McCartney has some great cookbooks that seem to be very family friendly.

There are tons you can eat, you just have to get used to it. (My oldest has been vegetarian since birth, I just went back after a 3 years hiatus...I don't think my body likes meat. I do eat fish though. My youngest eats chicken but no other meat.)

49 LBS !!! Great job. But I really want to ask - what is a pescetarian. I am not sure what that means. Thanks.

pescetarians eat fish, but not meat or poultry