Switching to a vegetarian diet

[Syllavus]

I've recently decided that I'd like to try switching myself over to a vegetarian diet for an unknown period of time. I've decided that I'd rather not contribute to the industries that have to mass-produce meats, eggs & milk for our large and hungry population, so for the time-being, I'm going to try my best to eat a meat-free diet.

There is a local farm with free-range hens that I can get eggs from, so I've got eggs from happy hens covered. There's also a local dairy farm that I can get milk from, so happy cows are covered, but it doesn't seem like there's any way for me to get meat that isn't guaranteed to not be from a mass-production type facility, so I'm going to try just cutting meat out all-together until a cruelty-free option presents itself (my husband and I will probably raise our own hens once we have the space for it). I suppose I'm probably a bit odd in wanting to switch to a vegetarian diet since I have no problem with eating meat, I just have a problem with eating meat that comes from an industry that has gotten so big that it has no choice but to treat living things as product.

I've never done a vegetarian diet before, but I know that there are several snopesters who have so I'm looking to see if anyone has any pointers. I'm so used to making meals with meat as the main ingredient that I know it's going to take some adjusting to change my cooking and eating habits. I know that one has to be careful with making sure that you get adequate nutrition as well. If anyone has any pointers, suggestions, or recipes that they'd like to share, I would greatly appreciate it.

[Lainie]

Rice and beans are a staple for me (not necessarily together). Beans are very versatile: they can be cooked in soup, mixed into a salad (or used as the base for a salad), mixed with rice, pasta, and other grains, etc. Beans or brown rice or mushrooms can all substitute for meat in casseroles, soups, stews.

[candirockstar135]

Good luck! I've been vegetarian for over a year and a half, vegan for over a year.

Basically, when you're an ovo-lacto vegetarian, you don't have to supplement anything (vegans supplement B-12). Just make sure you're eating a wide variety of foods, and not just eggs and cheese (that's how many ovo-lacto's diet seems to be to me!).

Expect to feel hungry for a little bit because plant-based foods are not as heavy as animal based foods. No problemo! That just means you eat more. Eat, eat, eat until you are satiated. A lot of people will ask you if you are getting enough protein. If you are getting enough calories, you will be getting enough protein. Everything has protein, except for fruit. There is no such thing as a protein deficiency in anyone that isn't suffering from malnutrition.

Pick up the book Becoming Vegetarian.

When you are eating out, be careful. Remember that soups' bases often aren't vegetarian, and don't assume a vegetable soup is vegetarian. I personally do not trust ANY soup in a restaurant. Watch out for oyster sauce in Thai dishes and fish sauce in Japanese dishes.

Watch out for gelatin in mints and marshmellows. If you insist on still eating cheese, make sure you find a brand that uses microbial rennet instead of animal rennet. This is a good guide: http://cheese.joyousliving.com/

Try all the delicious and tasty vegetarian foods that you never tried as an omni! Even stuff that sounds exotic to you. Try bulgur, quinoa, seitan, tofu, and tempeh! You will find new favorites. Also try all the tasty meat alternatives in the grocery store nowadays.

Hopefully eventually you'll decide to go vegan for the animals and for the environment. Remember, male chicks at free-range egg farms are still macerated to death, and dairy cows at any farm become hamburger and their babies are still separated from them and become veal. Please read this about the deception of free-range farms: http://www.peacefulprairie.org/freerange1.html

[Jay Tea]

Pick up a few Indian vegetarian recipe books would be a good start, or have a sniff around pages like this one. I'm not a vegetarian but my love of Indian food keeps my meat intake at a healthy level, as so many wonderful traditional recipes are meat-free - and so many that call for meat are barely affected (and often improved) by making them vegetarian. Also, once you get used to the combinations you can branch out into similar/related cuisine with confidence - veggies, pulses, fungus and fruit are so very versatile, but we often forget this if we focus on meat as the centre of our meals.

I've also found that eating this way gives me a renewed appreciation of chops and sauce and roast chicken etc, so even if your experiment doesn't lead to total vegetarianism you may well find yourself eating a lot less meat and appreciating new culinary horizons.

[Ellestar]

Also, you might want to look in the meatless hamburger/chicken/whatever patties and products they have in the freezer section of your grocery store. They're not perfect imitations of meat products, but I like some of them.

Personally, a favorite dinner of mine for the past few years has been bean burritos. I use either black beans or refried beans on, mix in guacamole, rice, hot sauce, and sour cream, roll into a tortilla and top with lettuce and tomatoes. So GOOD!

[Banrion]

Originally Posted by Syllavus

There is a local farm with free-range hens that I can get eggs from, so I've got eggs from happy hens covered. There's also a local dairy farm that I can get milk from, so happy cows are covered, but it doesn't seem like there's any way for me to get meat that isn't guaranteed to not be from a mass-production type facility, so I'm going to try just cutting meat out all-together until a cruelty-free option presents itself (my husband and I will probably raise our own hens once we have the space for it). I suppose I'm probably a bit odd in wanting to switch to a vegetarian diet since I have no problem with eating meat, I just have a problem with eating meat that comes from an industry that has gotten so big that it has no choice but to treat living things as product.

I can't help with the veg question, but I see you are in MA, and I found this really great farm in Vermont that does deliver to most of eastern Mass, and is based on a CSA model, and is open for visits should you want to make the trip. Or if you don't want to subscribe to the CSA they do sell whole or half animals if you have freezer space.

[chillas]

There are also some very good meat substitutes out there now. We even managed to fool a friend once (who is an avowed carnivore) with Morningstar Farms chicken (Chik'n Strips) in a pasta dish.

Boca makes some pretty tasty products, too.

[RCIAG]

My fave Boca product:



Boca's stuff is great. Those chicken patties even look like chicken when you pull them apart. I forget it's not really chicken.

There's also some pre-packaged Indian dinners we buy, can't recall the name right now, but they're excellent too. They're better if you have some rice to go with them.

[rangerdog]

Please read a few books to ensure that you get enough (complex) protein. Beans (legums), nuts, dairy.

See also the yumminess of:

Red beans and rice
Hoppin' John (Black-eyed peas and rice
Feald peas and rice
Black beans and rice
any bean soup

[Chloe]

Originally Posted by rangerdog

Please read a few books to ensure that you get enough (complex) protein. Beans (legums), nuts, dairy.

It can't be that hard to get enough protein. I've never given it any special thought, and I'm still healthy nearly 28 years later.

[Sue Bee]

Have you checked Local Harvest? You may be able to get other foodstuffs locally that are grown without some of the various ickyness of mass produced foods.

Since you are still eating eggs and milk, your choices are a lot wider as far as the kind of things that you can eat, like Italian foods (pesto, etc) and Indian and stir fry and what not.

[lyra_silvertongue]

I suppose I'm probably a bit odd in wanting to switch to a vegetarian diet since I have no problem with eating meat, I just have a problem with eating meat that comes from an industry that has gotten so big that it has no choice but to treat living things as product.

I don't think that's that odd, and I think there are a lot of people coming to similar decsions recently. That new Jonathan Safron Foer bok Eating Animals is getting a lot of press, Alicia Silverstone's book about living vegan has been selling really well, Oprah's vegan chef has a best selling cookbook right now.

All of the advice so far has been great, especially the advice to try new things. It's so frustrating to me when people ask, "So, what do you eat then?" when they find out I'm vegan, because I feel like I eat a lot more different kinds of food now than when I was an omnivore. Quinoa has become one of my absolute favorite foods. Keeping a variety of grains (quinoa, rices, cous cous*) and beans on hand, along with a bunch of vegetables (even frozen) you can whip up a decent main dish anytime. Experiment with different spices, try adding nuts.

Morningstar and Boca products are adequate, personally I like the Amy's veggie burgers the best out of the mainstream packaged stuff. There's a new brand of veg food called Gardein, developed by the chef Oprah used for her vegan experiment, and they're supposed to be pretty good. I can't wait until the next time I'm near a Whole Foods so I can hopefully pick up the stuffed "chicken" breasts.

The Fat Free Vegan blog has a lot of amazing recipes and a lot of stuff that's super easy to make (there's a section devoted to super easy recipes). I'm also a huge fan of Isa Chandra-Mosowitz. She's got quite a few vegan cookbooks out, including Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (my favorite) and a brand new cookie cookbook. Her cookbooks are written like you've got a friend in the kitchen helping you cook, there's lots of cool extra information about ingredients and stories behind some of the recipes.

ETA: I don't know where in MA you are, but I heard about an awesome sounding vegan pizza place that opened up in Boston recently.

*technically not a grain, more like a pasta, but similar is use to rices and such

[Errata]

Originally Posted by Syllavus

I've never done a vegetarian diet before, but I know that there are several snopesters who have so I'm looking to see if anyone has any pointers. I'm so used to making meals with meat as the main ingredient that I know it's going to take some adjusting to change my cooking and eating habits.

There are lots of great vegetarian recipes you can pick up, but in order to help ease the transition, there are meat substitutes that you can use in many of your favorite recipes. TVP can be used in place of ground beef. Firm tofu can be used like chicken. It's all in how you season it. Soy protein doesn't have a lot of flavor on it's own, but there are lots of ways to prepare it with things that do have flavor and it soaks that flavor up.

[Syllavus]

Thanks for all the great suggestions everyone, I knew that snopesters would have a wealth of information.

Luckily I'm not much of a picky eater and I like a very wide range of foods, Indian is one of my favorites already.

I've heard a lot about quinoa, but I've never actually tried it. Does it cook similarly to rice?

There's a tofu dish that I usually cook with minced pork and chicken stock, but tonight I'm going to try it out without the pork and using a veggie stock to see how it turns out.

[CSGirl]

I'm mostly vegetarian, and DH has stopped eating a lot of meat recently for the same reasons as you, Syllavus.

Now, I don't like the texture of meat which is the main reason I don't eat it, so meat substitutes do nothing for me. But, as Errata mentioned DH eats TVP. His parents used to eat it, and made tacos with a few times before his sister realized it wasn't beef. He also was getting some soy hotdogs and sausage, I think. I know they were from Stop&Shop, I can ask him.

The program Banrion mentioned looks really cool, and if we could afford it (and hopefully we'll be able to at some point...) I'm sure DH would be interested!

ETA: Oh, and I'll second or third or whatever Indian food. They definitely do have vegetarian food that's *designed* to be vegetarian, and not just have some kind of meat substitute.

I also thought it was interesting both Next Iron Chef and Top Chef had vegetarian challenges this week.

[ElectricBarbarella]

I am linking this only because it is what I use. Yes, I will admit upfront that if you sign up, I get a bonus, but I do NOT work for them, I just use this and have used it now for about a month or so and I have to tell you, my family has actually eaten healthier since we switched.

http://www.e-mealz.com/amember/go.php?r=68047&i=b0

We use the Points plan, but they do have a vegetarian plan available. You basically get, for $5 a month, a weekly meal plan as well as full on shopping list (with prices if you select a store). I can honestly say that there has not been a single meal we've been disappointed with. I just made crock pot fire chili with italian sausage as the base.

This may help you ease into the transition for going full vegetarian--especially since it gives you a full shopping list AND recipes.

[Gayle]

Quinoa is a little nuttier tasting than rice, but you use them pretty much the same way. I mix it with broccoli & sprouts for a side dish.

[RCIAG]

Originally Posted by lyra_silvertongue

It's so frustrating to me when people ask, "So, what do you eat then?" when they find out I'm vegan...

Our friends are vegetarians & they get the same question only it's "You drink beer? And eat junk food?"

There's also the "Wait, but you eat chicken & fish right?" question, because some think that vegetarian means "no red meat."

Yes, some potato chips are cooked in lard, but some aren't & at last check, beer was pretty much alllllllll vegetables.

It reminds me of when River Phoenix died & there was all this press about him being a vegetarian (or vegan I can't recall which) & "OMG! How could he take drugs & be a vegetarian?!" Like not eating meat precludes him from having a drug problem. Most drugs aren't meat based.

Granted lots are tested on animals but that's another story.

I know some super strict vegans won't even used meds tested on animals.

But our veggie friends took the middle road & said "I know that the medicine I'm taking was probably tested on an animal but I need it to stay sane/alive/awake/asleep/etc.

[Dr. Dave]

Originally Posted by Syllavus

I've heard a lot about quinoa, but I've never actually tried it. Does it cook similarly to rice?

Originally Posted by Gayle

Quinoa is a little nuttier tasting than rice, but you use them pretty much the same way. I mix it with broccoli & sprouts for a side dish.

Yes, cooks more or less the same way- maybe a bit shorter time to simmer. Same 2:1 water to "rice" ration, you can season the water (a veggie bullion cube, other spices, etc.) My kids live it when we serve it as one would serve rice. You can make a dish as you might make couscous- cook the quinoa and mix with veggies and seasonings. If you get a box, there are suggestions.

Like Gayle said, it is a bit nuttier, but still pretty mild (IMO) and it is not a starchy as rice, so maybe with Chinese food it does not absorb the sauce the same way, but still yummy.

[Foxy Lady]

I'm so glad you started this topic! I too decided to go vegetarian after reading an article last week about Jonathan Foer's new book Eating Animals. I'm a lifelong (50 years old) meat-eater so it's a drastic switch and hubby is still coming to terms with it. But I'm very happy about my decision. I appreciate everyone's suggestions; my daughter, who's not a vegetarian but tries to eat less red meat for health reasons, has recommended Boca so I'm going to try that.

Has anyone tried seitan as a meat substitute? I've heard it can be quite good but I haven't bought/tried it yet.

I definitely plan a trip to Whole Foods this weekend!