Need advice for turning vegetarian

Ok, DH and I decided last night that we hate the thought of eating animals (even though thats typically what they are bred for - our consumption) and that we just feel sick thinking bout where it came from in the first place.... especially when DH was pulling the meat off the chicken last night, he was getting quite sick from the thought that it was once a bird flitting around the farm....

Anyhooo..

What kinds of things do I need to make sure are in our diet so we aren't missing out on having meat? I'd particularly like enough meals for a different one every day of the month - is this reasonable, or is there only so many vego meals you can make?

I'm also worried about the kids - currently I serve up meat and vegies and they only eat the meat - so have to have stuff for them too that they will actually eat.

I've only got a few recipes for vegetarian stuff, vegie burgers (which are delish but the kids don't touch) and a vegetarian spag bolg (which the kids love cos they love spaghetti). I've got a good recipe for zucchini quiche - but its got bacon in it - any suggestions as to what I can use instead of bacon?

Um I think thats all my questions for now... help!

My SIL is a veggo and I googled and came up with a whole heap of recipies that I printed for her when she had her bub. I also bought her some really great books for x-mas - I think one was a Womans weekly one that was great!

Beans - like kidney beans, butter beans, etc.
Lentils
Mushrooms
Spinach

No doubt you can do a different meal everyday of a month...A good way to start might be by replacing your staples with vego alternatives - like bolognaise with tofu or beans instead of mince, lasagne with veg instead of bol sauce, sausage rolls with mince beans instead of sausage meat....

Urgh LS - ditching the mushies, hate them.. LOL... just the smell of them cooking makes me wanna hurl.

The lasagne idea is a good one though, could use the spag bog sauce definitely.

Never tried tofu though..

Thanks kate - I'll have to start googlin I guess! :D Can't afford the recipe books.. LOL

My SIL eats a meat "substitue" thats amde into snags and mince - she says it tastes great! Not sure what its called but I can find out if you like??

Yeah sure Kate, that would be awesome :)

My gf is vegan, her husband is vego, check out her blog, she puts up recipes all the time and def worth a try!
The Thoughtful Kitchen
She even makes ace cupcakes and things.

One of my fav is what we eat at the temple is a fried noodle dish. Not really sure the exact quantities but here goes:
* pack of dried vermecilli rice noodle (the small ones), cook it slightly soft first
* Shredded cabbage
* Oyster mushrooms from the can - shredded
* ****ake mushrooms - undried and shredded
* Those long mushrooms which i forgot the name of (long shoots)

Fry mushrooms and cabbage in a wok
Add noodles
Add soy sauce a bit of sugar and salt to taste

YUMMMMMMm served with some chilli sauce and extra soy sauce

YUMM!!

Oh, Mel, hooray!!!! I'd love for you to join us!

I eat a different meal every day of the month, except for maybe a few meals that we love soooo much we have a little more often. And that's as vegans, so you can definitely do it.

For your zucchini slice, you can probably just leave out the bacon.

Oh, man, I have so many zillion ideas, I don't even know where to start.

If the kids love spaghetti, you can use that and do some different stuff. Pesto is great, and you can add a bit of extra protein by using chickpeas instead of pinenuts. Lately we're also loving crushed garlic, grated zucchini and homegrown tomaoes as a pasta sauce too - as a vego you could probably chuck an egg through it too, for your B12 hit.

I really love risotto, although haven't had one for ages. Mushroom is my fave, but I guess that's out for you! My fave vegan option is pumpkin and sweetcorn with wholegrain mustard and chives.

Gotta go call the ILs. Will kickstart Vegetarian Chatter again, and get you veging!

Woooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooo!

Thanks guys.

Mum2 - eww too many mushies in that recipe for someone that hates them.. any other ideas? LOL

Audax - was hoping you would pop your veggie noggin in here. You need to write a book and send it to me ;)

There is a pretty good range of 'fake meats' - for bacon you can get 'not bacon' - it's by Sanitarium and I get it from Coles (in the refrigerated section). That would be nice to use in your quiche. It tastes pretty bacon-y to me!

Best of luck with going vego!

ETA - got the name wrong. They're called 'vegie delights - bacon style rashers'.

Woo hooo to you Mel! Vegetarianisim is definitely kinder on the planet. As you know my kids go to a vego school & I was a vegetarian for a very long time. I am now slowly evolving back to vegetarianisim for the same reasons you & Mr Mel are... It's just not a funky thing to eat our furry friends. :cry:

I make a mean vegetarian lasagne that true blue meat eaters love. It's made with brown lentils (soak overnight about 2 cups)
Fry onion, garlic, oregano and basil. Add chopped finely carrot, saute until semi soft add finely chopped zucchini , a couple of cans of tomatoes diced, some vegetable stock and red wine and then add the drained and washed lentils... Just gently cook over a low heat for about an hour... Use as bolognese sauce or as the base to a lasagne. YUMMO!

I make yummy red lentil patties. Soak then boil red lentils until soft. (overnight soaking for legumes is best). Add chopped onion and loads of garlic a hand full of chopped parsley and a cup of grated cheese. Roll in some chick pea flour and egg and flatten out Fry in olive oil... YUMMY!

I personally am a lover of whole foods so I don't favor the fake meat products - I've tasted them & not much liked the taste.

Vegetarian cooking is limitless you definitely will be able to have a different meal for a month - but like meat dishes you'll find thsoe that are your staples. Vegetarian risottos are great. Chickpea curry have you got a good recipe for that?
Dahl?

Good luck! :hug:

Hehehe sorry mel we're such a meat eater here at our house but I know there are alot of meat substitutes like the other ladies have suggested. How about veggie lasagne with grilled egg plant and capiscuim of stirfry hokkien noodles with heaps of veggies yummmm

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One thing to consider if you don't want to go completely vego is to have the occasional meal of organic meat. At least you know that the animal has been treated with respect and has has a good life. You can give thanks to the animal for their contribution to your life.

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Ahhh thats true - but its the fact that they were murdered just so they can feed us that bothers us ;)

Inanna - those recipes sound good - do you have measurements for those ingredients? I'd like to start writing some stuff down :)

Do you eat curries? There are some good curry recipes out there using lentils.

I make one where I fry up a brown onion, finely diced, add a tablespoon of red curry paste (add more or less depending on how hot you like it) and cook for 1 min. Drain and rinse two tins of brown lentils and add to pot, stir to combine. Add 1 cup of chicken stock. Simmer for 20 mins (until liquid reduces). Add some green beans that have been topped and tailed, cook until bright green. Remove from heat and stir in a squeeze of lime juice. Serve over rice with some low fat natural yoghurt and papadums.

This recipe will serve 4.

You could add sundried tomatoes to the zucchini quiche if you want to add a bit more flavour (or corn or pesto or pine nuts or pumpkin).

I use pumpkin heaps and love red lentils. Red lentils don't need to soak as long as other lentils. A combo of onion, red lentils, and tomatoes (tinned) with stock/water makes a great sauce. You can have pumpkin mixed in (so it's mushy and the whole mix is smooth) or have bigger bits of pumpkin, broccoli etc in the sauce. Mix up whatever herbs you want.

frittata is a good easy meal (if you eating eggs)

Yay Mel!!

I found a really good book very cheap at the local bookshop and I have found the recipes really easy to follow so I will see if I can pick up a little gift for you ;)

OOh kate sundried tomatoes is a good idea. And yup, we'll still be eating eggs.

Nai - aw thats so sweet :hug: You don't have to get me a gift or anything ;)

A great kid-friendly veggo meal is chickpea burgers. Puree a 400g can of chickpeas and add 1 egg, 1/4 cup self-raising flour and some chutney (to taste). This makes about 4 fritters (the mix will be like thick pancake batter rather than a burger as such, but they turn out lovely). My boys are big meat eaters and love these.

Well done on being a thoughtful consumer! :thumbsup: I became vego when i was in my late teens because my stepfather (a butcher) forced me to help in his shop plus he also used to kill animals while i was around without really warning me (we lived on a farm for a while)... the moment I saw a sheep's neck slit I made up my mind that i was turning vego as soon as i could! I had to wait until my mother left him though. Interestingly my aunt and uncle had a poultry farm and i witnessed the killing of chooks and that didn't bother me because I trusted them as adults. I even helped to pluck them. So i was vego for about 5 years, between 18 and 23. My DH was too. Then when i fell pregnant I started craving fish. So DH and I had a talk and we decided that we would start to eat seafood and poultry because if it came to it we know that we could actually kill them ourselves. We figure that if you can't do the killing (or help with the carcass preparation) then you shouldn't really eat it... but enough soapbox.... just want to agree that I share your motivation.

My kids have never eaten red meat and are very healthy specimens! They eat a lot of eggs though... nearly every breakfast they have an egg and will eat them done in all ways. They also love quiche and frittata. We have a hen and eat her eggs so they certainly know what they are eating! and are fine with it.

Like Inanna I'm not overly keen on meat substitutes... but that's just me... i don't like it when something is pretending to be something that it is not... eg 'mock cream' or chemical 'sugar'. BUT my kids seem to like a vego deli roll (by Sanitarium) on their sandwiches so i buy it for them... the Smoked flavour one tastes like devon... it's in the cold section at Coles.

If you find you don't like tofu then try Tempeh... it is made of whole soybeans and has more flavour... we love it diced into small cubes and fried then added to stir fries... very yummy.

Curries are great... get into lentils and split peas... you will also save a fortune in your grocery bill!

Also if you are type A (blood) then you should notice an especially great improvement in your health... Google 'eat Right For Your Blood Type" for more info on this. Basically types As really benefit from a vego diet.

Thats interesting Bath, I think DH is an A blood type - but I'm a B+ - just my luck I thrive on red meat.. LOL

Mel - I'm an O blood type and I am supposed to have red meat apparently. I have been veg for 18 years and still donate blood, have had 2 babies and BF for over 12 months with both so it hasn't hindered me or the girls thriving at all.

I tried to get the book at lunch time for you today and they have sold out :(

So Bath just as an aside have you noticed improvement? I am A pos....

Actually it's really the Type O's that apparently thrive on red meat... they have the "Oldest" blood type... the same one that cavemen had in Africa... so their digestive systems can readily cope with processing meats. After o's came the "A's" which developed when man started to get food from Agriculture ie grains and vegies and fish. Bs are even more recent and can process lots of foods... but don't really need meat as much as O's. Getting a bit offic topic though :) i have a thread about this somewhere, i'll have a look. BTW the blood type thing is only a theory.... most medical people just laugh when i mention it.

Inanna: yep, as well as the ethical reasons i had for giving up red meat i also always felt physically uncomfortable when eating it... it did kind of sit in my tummy for a long time (the blood type theory says this is because type A's have low stomach acid levels... i never get heart burn or feel acidy... so this rings true for me). I am A+ too.... lots of Northern Europeans are.

Nai: DH and DD are type 0s too and they are very healthy. DH does complain of feeling "acidy" in his tummy a lot though after eating certain foods especially ones with garlic.

Bath - garlic upsets my tummy a bit if I have too much so there may be something in that.....

and I love garlic... it never upsets my tummy... if it wasn't for worrying about being stinky I would eat a lot more of it! So yep... i think there might be something to it. Sorry for taking this OT Arimeh! I'll find my blood type thread and link.

ETA: HERE is the link to the Eating for Your Blood type thread.

I'm bumping/hijacking this thread (sorry!)

I want to eat vegetarian. I don't enjoy meat, and I just feel horrible thinking that I eat helpless animals when there is perfectly good veggies etc to eat instead. I have been thinking about it for about 3 years now, and it just feels like something I have to do, and I feel like now is the right time.

So... Where do I start? At the moment I am living with my grandparents, and Nan does pretty much all of the cooking. I'm hoping I can find recipes I can cook on the weekend and freeze, so Nan doesn't have to cook anything separate for me during the week. (hah I sound like a spoilt brat.... I work full time and Nan loves cooking, she won't let me help her cook during the week lol but I do help on the weekends!). I'm thinking something like spag bol but with lentils instead of mince, but I'm a bit stuck as to how to prep the lentils? And maybe some veggie curries for myself (my grandparents probably won't eat curry unless it's super mild)... So yeah. I just don't know where to start really... I don't want to be an inconvenience to my grandparents kwim?

Also should I be taking supplements or something?

Sibbie - we are into week 3 of our new vegetarian ways, and its pretty good so far. All recipes I have tried have been super yummy, but the prep does take a bit longer than just your standard meat and veg meals.

I make spag bol with red lentils, I get these indian ones from coles and I just have to rinse them. There are others that you have to soak overnight and stuff like that, but I haven't needed to, I just follow the directions on the packet. No doubt they are the more expensive ones, but I also have to consider ease in my cooking, since I have three youngin's!!

We had lentil and sweet potato pouches last night and they were sooo yummy, but took about an hour and a half to do in the kitchen!!!! Well worth it though, but definitely a weekend type meal when I have DH on hand to watch the kids for me so I can cook without interruptions and little ones wanting "up" !!!!

Hey AE,

Before I fell preg I was vegetarian, still ate eggs, milk, cheese etc. I've been eating meat but plan on getting back to my vego ways once she is here.
Sorry if I repeat what PP have said, I haven't read them all.
I made sure that I used lot's of lentils, beans, chickpeas, mushrooms, spinach, tofu etc in my cooking.
I love a good ol green smoothie hehe my fave is to blend a bunch of parsley, lot's of baby spinach, 1 pear & 1 banana, little bit of apple juice & water all together. It may not look appealing but it tastes great and packs a punch of healthy goodness, be brave and give it a try :D

Hey Mel, I ahve found some yummy recipes here www (with no space here ;)!).taste.com.au/recipes/collections/vegetarian/47.

Whilst we're not going veggo, I am trying to have 2-3 meat free meals a fortnight to try to cut grocery costs, and also to be healthier, and to be a bit nicer to the environment!

oooh ripper, thanks Kel.

Mel, yes I do want that recipe :D please......