Thinking vegetarian..

**missyali** · 11-27-2008, 09:52 PM

I know that it is a healthier life-style as well as ethically and environmentally better. I have a hard time seeing my meat and potatoes dh and carnivorous kids making the switch. Not to mention the cost I am envisioning. Any suggestions for a starting point? I have instilled ONE meatless meal per week, but I need to do more as I imagine I will FEEL much better making more changes. One problem, my FAVORITE food is cheese! I know that will make things difficult.... Oh the whole "I want"vs. "I should" dilemma.....

**Drgnfly423** · 11-27-2008, 11:26 PM

Do you want to eat vegan or vegetarian? If your vegetarian you can still eat eggs, cheese, and butter if you choose. If you eat vegan you can't eat any animal product at all.

I eat mostly vegetarian. I'm a cheese lover, too. I just don't think I could permanently give that up, either!

I think cooking a couple meatless meals a week is a great starting point for getting used to eating vegetarian. I don't usually eat meat with my breakfast or lunches either. If I have meat it will usually be with my dinner only. That way it makes it more restrictive for me. I just found a great vegetarian cook book, The Vegetarian Bible. It has great, uncomplicated recipes in it. Sometimes vegetarian recipes can seem really big and confusing. Congrats on making a change. =)
Good Luck!

**vigilant20** · 11-27-2008, 11:40 PM

Working up to it is an excellent idea. I went overnight, but I didn't have a family to worry about

If the family isn't behind you as you ramp things up, there's always other options if you want to continue. Lots of dishes can be made vegetarian and have meat adding when serving. Or just served as your main dish and their side dish so they can have chicken or whatever. Doing OAMC for yourself so you can eat your own veggie meal without fixing two different things each night is another option.

**Palooka** · 11-28-2008, 01:18 AM

Originally Posted by missyali

I know that it is a healthier life-style as well as ethically and environmentally better. I have a hard time seeing my meat and potatoes dh and carnivorous kids making the switch. Not to mention the cost I am envisioning. Any suggestions for a starting point? I have instilled ONE meatless meal per week, but I need to do more as I imagine I will FEEL much better making more changes. One problem, my FAVORITE food is cheese! I know that will make things difficult.... Oh the whole "I want"vs. "I should" dilemma.....

I can't believe I missed this thread. One thing I just want to say is humans are not carnivores. They are omnivores. Not trying to sound mean but this gets mixed up so many times. We have teeth to eat flesh and carbs..Carnivores would be like cats teeth. They are natural hunters. Herbivores are like cows that should graze on grass.

First not a problem with cheese as that is one of my favorite foods. I am a vegetarian and not vegan. I could never live up to the vegan lifestyle and I tried and it is more than just a diet.

This may sound like a hard thing to do, but this is about how you feel. right? Why don't you start with yourself first. If that means cooking different meals and keeping the family happy, so be it. You will be learning a different lifestyle for you. Don't even think about trying to change you kids or dh. Think of you. Maybe if they see the change in you, they may like it or not.

It does not work for my dh as he is a big meat eater. He respects me so very much and I respect him too because he is his own person and that is his personal choice.

One meatless meal a week is a huge starting point. Good luck and make it work for you first.

**The Muse** · 11-28-2008, 09:38 AM

I went vegetarian about 6 months before my husband (who said he'd never be a vegetarian). I took a bunch of cookbooks out of the library, found some recipes on vegweb.com and started cooking. At first, I made vegetarian version of omni favorites...tempeh reuban sandwiches, tofu bacon BLTs, TVP sloppy joes, tempeh marsala, tempeh cheesesteak sandwiches, BBQ chickenless pizza, etc. Soon my husband realized that he wasn't missing meat and felt a lot better. Maybe a similar approach could work for you?

I think one meatless meal a week is a great start. Don't worry about cheese. I love cheese, too. I do find though that I crave it less and less.

**JerryG** · 11-28-2008, 01:23 PM

Many years ago, I was vegetarian and bought the "Moosewood Restaurant" cookbook. Many many ideas and very adaptable. Even tho I eat meat often now, I use that cookbook alot.

**MoonMommy** · 11-28-2008, 01:56 PM

If you are doing it for environmental reasons, there are other ways to eat meat that are healthier for the environment. One is to buy from your local farmer (the meat doesn't have to travel as far therefore, less pollution). Also, I hear Bison is a great alternative to beef and is better for the environment.

I am not a vegetarian. I do LOVE morningstar farms Veggie Burgers (and so does my hubby who is not a real big veggie lover). I love that you can see actual chunks of vegetables in them. I find it is easier to eat more veggies in the summer because I have alot more fresh stuff available to me and I also seem to crave it more in the summer.

**Palooka** · 11-29-2008, 03:04 AM

Faux meat is a good start but it can be expensive. I really don't eat much anymore as I used to. Maybe once a month.

Morningstar makes the best IMHO.

**RetiredVeryEarly** · 12-01-2008, 12:18 AM

Spaghetti is a good vegetarian transitional food. I made some today for lunch, contained: onions, green pepper, mushrooms, and garlic sauteed in canola oil, and organic butter, plus canned diced tomatoes, whole milk mozzarella, black olives, a can of corn, fresh rosemary and oregano, dried basil, salt, and pepper. My sister (not the vegetarian one) said it was so good she hardly noticed it didn't have meat in it.

Spaghetti is something meat eaters probably already like, so it won't seem weird. Any casseroles with corn and mushrooms seem pretty "normal" too. Mexican food with beans and no meat are very ordinary so easy to pass off to a meat loving family. I also recommend falafel highly, it is so meatball like and tasty. Also very easy to make, but perhaps a weird new thing they might need to work up to.

Ditto to Morningstar Farms making the best veggie burgers. I like the Vegan ones or the Grillers which taste totally like beef hamburgers in my opinion. We have had meat lovers not just like them a lot but really love them, the most famous was a kid who thought they were meat saying it was the best burger he ever ate.

**LastDragonfly** · 12-01-2008, 12:29 AM

I'm going to try to wean myself off. I know I cant go cold turkey. My DH throws a fit every time I even say VEGETARIAN so my best bet is to have a vegetarian meal on the nights he is at class.

**cheles2kids** · 12-02-2008, 08:42 AM

I agree with everyone above-you've gotten some really great suggestions!

I think that you are discussing, asking questions and considering going veg. is a huge step. Just the fact that you are becoming more aware of it really does go a long way on your journey.

Eating meatless one meal a week is the way that I went veg. before, I personally couldn't quit cold, but I admire those that do.
Also I don't think most people just decide one week that they want to become veg. and then the next week are eating veg. the entire time.

The biggest mistake that I made was that I got tooo overzealous the first go around. I tried to jump in and start cooking completely differently and that was a disaster for me.
You have to remember that you've grown up eating/cooking a particular way, so you can't expect yourself to change everything you've ever known, overnight.
Don't be too hard on yourself once you begin.

Another thing that I've noticed is that if I take the meals that I fix regularly and rethink them, it's much easier for myself.
As RetiredVeryEarly already mentioned-pasta. Pasta is super easy to veganize, and it tastes just as good (better, actually) than the meat version.

What about chili, fajitas, stir-fry?
All of those are easily veganized-meatless chili (replace meat with extra beans),
fajitas (use portobellos in place of the meat), stir-fry (just eliminate the meat altogether and add extra veggies).

Once you get started, it really isn't as hard as you'll imagine it being.

As far as cheese, I still eat cheese, I just try to eat it sparingly (it's soo full of fat). I've found that I really don't need alot of it to get that cheesy taste that I might feel like I need on tacos or such.

Continue to research, check out books (if you have a good library system), ask questions, visit veg. websites (veggieboards is a good one) and just educate yourself.

Oh & don't discount eating just one meatless meal a week, because it does make a huge difference, not only for yourself but for the environment as well.

I have a veg. challenge over on the challenge board, if you'd like to join in.

**cheles2kids** · 12-02-2008, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by Penascodragonfly

I'm going to try to wean myself off. I know I cant go cold turkey. My DH throws a fit every time I even say VEGETARIAN so my best bet is to have a vegetarian meal on the nights he is at class.

This is how I was able to go veg. before, just slowly adding in an extra day every week. It took me about 6-8 weeks to start eating only veg.
Now I'm a retransitioning veg.

Make something that he wouldn't even miss the meat in and don't even mention the vegetarian word, some people have strong feelings when that word is mentioned for some reason?

Good Luck on your transition!

**RetiredVeryEarly** · 12-03-2008, 12:24 AM

cheles2kids mentioned portobello mushrooms instead of meat in fajitas. That is an excellent substitute. Brush the caps with olive oil and spices and broil them a few minutes on each side. We did that one year for Christmas along with things like lentil meatloaf and so on. They were so successfully meatlike that my vegan niece was unable to eat them! She said they looked and tasted too much like meat!

Also we have confused many people with fried tofu. Cut in cubes and rolls in spices (especially salt and pepper, cumin and garlic powder are great in there as well) and fry in oil until crispy. People can't quite identify the "animal" but often think it is meat. It will seem like a ton of spice on them but most comes off in the oil. Substitute that for meat in stir fries, soups, casseroles, whatever. Also, if you have never had falafel, make some.

**peanut** · 12-04-2008, 11:02 AM

I'm not vegetarian, but aspiring. It's taken years, but I've finally got my meat eating husband down to vegetarian, fish, chicken, with 1/2 - 1 lb. of beef a week. That's not great, but it's a lot better than the liver, steak, etc. we were eating!

The only thing I can add to the excellent advice you've been given is that you might want to cook recipes where meat is only one ingredient of many. I switched to a Mexican Skillet Dinner, which is really just a fancy name for Hamburger Helper with vegies. I find they like the low meat dishes just as much as a hunk of meat.

Also there is a drop down dead delicious vegetarian lasagna recipe out there somewhere you can prepare and freeze, and then thaw and bake. My daughter (the carnivore) liked it so much she learned to cook it!

Jean