Any other vegetarians out there?

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shannmara
shannmara Posts: 5
in Food and Nutrition
I’ve been a vegetarian for a few months and really enjoy it.
If you’re a vegetarian, what kinds of meals do you incorporate in your diet?
Also, do you find the the lack of meat makes you feel more healthy and light, as I do? Sometimes, however, I struggle with eating too much breads and starch to fill me up. Any suggestions on how to not crave this so much?

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  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    Yes. I have been vegetarian since I was 13, so 20 years now.

    I eat all sorts of things! Most meals are adaptable to be vegetarian pretty easily. TBH as I have never eaten meat as an adult, I just don't think about it. I don't register meat as food at all.

    I also like bread and starchy things, but at the moment I am not eating them. I guess that's a will power thing.

    I cook the children a lot of pasta and egg based things, usually with vegetables hidden in. I eat a lot of salads and soups, and I love cheese in all forms.
  • JanerZzz
    JanerZzz Posts: 276
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    Hi,

    I like to be a Part Time Veggie..I love seafood!!! (and an occasional steak) So at dinner I usually end up eating some kind of meat.

    Anyway, just wanted to share some of my lunch meals I've been having lately, that are vegetarian, filling and not starchy.

    1. Veggie Burger Wrap - i use Light Flat Out bread, Veggie Burger patty, lettuce, alfa alfa sprouts & hummus.
    2. Mushroom Barley soup - very filling, very tasty. Basically mushrooms, barley, carrots, celery, I add kale if I have it...
    3. Southwester style salad - lettuce (anykind you like obv), tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, black beans, veggie patty & salsa as dressing.

    See ya.
  • jacqueline12463
    jacqueline12463 Posts: 4 Member
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    I was a vegetarian for 20+ years. I now eat some fish (I'm a pescatarian).Two of my favorite veggie products are NASOYA cubed super firm tofu and House Foods tofu shirataki. look them up on line. One reason I know I gained weight was all the carbs I was eating. The shirataki noodles have 40 calories in 8 oz ! Hope this helps.
  • jsmjboertlein
    jsmjboertlein Posts: 267
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    My son is vegetarian. He's the only one in our house. He likes a nice gluten free veggie pizza and rice pastas. He's a HUGE fan of anything straight from the Earth.
  • Eskimopie
    Eskimopie Posts: 235 Member
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    Vegetarian for 10 years here. Like the above poster, I don't see meat as food either as I also gave it up at 13. I eat a lot of eggs, organic tofu, black beans, avocado and other filling foods to avoid a bread overload. I stick to small quantities of dairy, things like kefir and greek yogurt, and also drink almond and hemp milk to keep down my soy consumption since though I don't think its bad for me, I dont' want to build my diet around it either.

    Bread is definitely easy to overload on! I struggle with that daily...I just try to watch my portions and still eat the good stuff, because I love it wayyy too much to give up.
  • favoo
    favoo Posts: 3 Member
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    I think the best thing to do is buy a really good veggie cookbook that has reasonable recipes you can make quickly. I've got a cook book with 30 min recipes (inevitably they take a bit longer but still). I can recommend

    - how to cook everything vegetarian by mark bittman
    - The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen
    - Delia's Vegetarian Collection: Over 250 Recipes by Delia Smith

    They've all got great recipes. I do a lot of stir frys, and home made curries, soups and things like that. I love salads too - with just about any vegetable you can think of included!

    There are tons of recipes online too

    http://www.moosewoodrestaurant.com/recipes_archive.html
    http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/vegetarian-food/?page=2
    http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetarian-recipes

    Lots and lots of lovely things to cook!
  • Bootzey
    Bootzey Posts: 274 Member
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    I have been been a vegetarian for 11 years now. You just get used to it. I like to cook and collect cookbooks. I also like variety. So I'm really satisfied with most of the meals I prepare at home. My difficulty lies in eating at other people's homes. They don't get it and tend to lie thinking that that will make everything okay. But it's all kicks and giggles until you come down with food poisoning. People act like it's so hard to accommodate us and it's not. Oh well.....
  • Jazzy_Maria
    Jazzy_Maria Posts: 34 Member
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    I grew up a vegetarian from the time I was born until I was 18. I tried meat for a few years and now have gone back to mostly veggie.

    I try to incorporate some kind of soy product into every meal for the texture/base and the protien.

    -I LOVE seitan. you can buy it packaged but I have also started making it at home because it's way cheaper. I add it to everything. it's great in stir frys and also pasta dishes so you have a little less of the carbby pasta but still have the substance.
    -Morning Star Farms meal starters are also good (they have ground "beef", "chicken" strips, and "steak" strips)
    -Lightlife products are also great! Italian Sausage... YUM!!!
    -There are so many options out there besides tofu which doesn't have a huge amount of versatility.
    -Beans are also a great souce of protien. (black, cannallini, chick peas, etc)

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