Going Vegetarian

[fatale]

I was thinking about going vegetarian for a while and last week was the first "meatless" week for me. It's easy for me, since I'm not a big meat eater anyway. I still drink milk and eat milk products - no eggs though!

I need some help with our "dinner plan" now. My family still eats meat and I don't think I should force my diet choice on them. Please, I need some meal ideas that are easy and fast and I can substiture meat or at least leave meat out in a small serving for myself. I already use boca products, but like more info on how to cook with Tofu - my cooking experiments didn't turn out as great as I hoped - luckily still eatable! Also, things have to be easy. I work full time and have three kids (hungry kids)

Though, I found some good web sites, many of the vegan/vegetaraian pages out there are somewhat militant. I'm not going to join PETA or so. I just don't want to eat meat anymore (and maybe sneak some veggy meals into our family dinners)

[Dark Waters]

I suggest getting a Asian style cookbook. They have a lot of meals that use Tofu or Soy products instead of meat.

Good luck to you though, me personally I am a big meat eater. and really like straightforward simple meals. I couldn't last very long on a veggie diet.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Ah. Veggie isn't hard at all. Lots of meat replacing products out there, plus you can make your own. Basically, anything with meat in it, you can replace with these things. Try Veggie Ground fom Yves, their veggie dogs, etc etc etc. Yves is a great brand. Expensive, but they taste awesome. Most can't tell any difference at all, even eating their food straight.

Try www.vegweb.com

Also, any books by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard are awesome!!! Their meals are absolutely wonderful. How It All Vegan and The Garden of Vegan are my favourites.

I have lots of recipe ideas. Veggie cooking is a lot of fun. Now VEGAN can be quite hard, especially for non-vegans, but very creative and lots of fun!

[fatale]

Thanx a lot!

Actually, I started out with Asian recepies but (as much as I like asian food) it gets boring if you eat it too often.

I'm not sure if I'll ever go completely vegan, maybe. For now, we take it step by step. My husband liked the tofu in the noodle sauce. When he first saw it, he thought it was chicken. My kids love it - where we live the word "vegetarian" still has a high shock value!
My husband and kids are supportive of me being a "carrot biter" as long as they can have meat like twice a week.

vegweb seems a pretty good side, good recepies - let's get some dinner ideas! I'm not sure if we have Ives products, not in the store I shop in.

CHL - I'll keep on bugging you with questions, I know you'll know!

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Yay! I love veggie questions. Cooking or non-cooking is one of my favourite hobbies!!! Ask away and I will do my best!

[Willow]

Italianfood is very eaqsy to add meat too at the last minute,

Cook ground beef on the side then add it to the sauce

Or do chicken parmesan, they use the real stuff, you use fake breaded stuff.

Soups are always good too, you can fry the meat on the side and add it at the last minute.