I'm not trying to start a debate, so let's not go there, okay? I'm thinking of going vegetarian for health reasons. I've never been a huge meat eater anyway. It wreaks havok on my digestive system, too. So are there any other vegetarians here? Care to share some favorite recipes? Any tips?

By Colette on Friday, June 1, 2007 - 03:30 pm:

My dd has been a strict vegetarian for about 6yrs. You have to be very careful to make sure you get all the protein and vitamins that you need. It's very easy to change almost any recipe to vegetarian - using tofu, beans, tempeh, etc. for the protein. I can give you a couple of book names if you want.

By Cat on Friday, June 1, 2007 - 03:34 pm:

I'm actually not finding it hard to get enough protien. I've not going vegan--just no meats. So I'm still eating cheese, milk, yogurt, etc. I'd love the names of the books! There are so many out there it's hard to know what's good without a recomendation. Thanx, Colette. How old is your dd?

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, June 1, 2007 - 04:05 pm:

I'll ask Scott when I get home - he has a number of cookbooks and websites to recommend. He has been vegetarian off and on for months at a time, and says yes, you can be very healthy, as long as you watch the protein and minerals, and there are lots of veggy sources for protein.

By Colette on Friday, June 1, 2007 - 04:18 pm:

My daughter is a very independant 16yr old. She could not eat meat, I thought it was a phase but it was not. I know she has one called the Clueless Vegetarian that dh bought her a while back and then someone gave us stacks and stacks of Vegetarian Times magazines. Dh and I eat vegetarian often as well. I will look for the cookbooks this weekend to give you some ideas, but there are also a lot of websites with good vegetarian recipes, but it's really pretty easy to do.

By Shellyg on Saturday, June 2, 2007 - 10:01 pm:

Me, me! I was Vegan for years but now I eat fish and dairy because I was anemic and my doctor ordered it. Just be very careful of your protein intake, make sure you have enough of it. I've been a vegan/vegetarian for over 10 years. Sometimes its hard when you want to grab something to eat. I also don't eat any fast food or anything fried. Meat has always grossed me out, even when I was a little girl. I still can't look at a whole cooked chicken without gagging...ICK!
It gets easier as time goes on.
What kind of recipes are you looking for?

By Cat on Sunday, June 3, 2007 - 08:54 am:

Thanx, Ginny. Websites would be great! I'm more likely to look something up online than trying to find a book and look it up.

I'll take a look at those cookbooks, Colette. I like the sound of the Clueless Vegetarian! lol I'm sure our library has lots. I just need to look.

Shelly, I don't know that I'm looking so much for elaborate recipes. For now I'll probably just substitue stuff in the recipes I already have. I've never eaten tofu in my life, let alone bought it. I really am clueless there.

Dh isn't on board with this, so it's all me. I'll probably basically be making his and the kids meals seperate from mine (or seperate things like spaghetti sauce before adding hamburger, etc). For dh, a meal isn't a meal without meat. We went to a friends for a cookout last night and it was a "bring your own meat" thing. Dh wanted to get the biggest, baddest steaks he could find! lol I told him I didn't want steak and that I'd really like to try veggie burgers. He was like, "Really???" So we got his steak, I got my veggie burgers and we took regular hamburgers for the kids (they'd rather have those than steak). The host steamed some salmon for an appetizer so I tried a little of that (didn't like it--too strong). I had some chicken Thursday night and we had fish and shrimp for dinner Friday night. I don't know yet if I'll go totally meatless yet or if I'll just cut red meat for now and limit fish and chicken. Really the red meat is what gets to me. Although, KFC can be pretty gross! lol The veggie burger last night was good. I thought it tasted like a regular hamburger, but the texture was a little different.

I'm also trying to cut sugar and soda. I haven't had a soda since Friday!!! And then it was only one instead of my regular 2-4 a day. I'm trying to eat more fruits, veggies and nuts for snacks instead of other junk (chips, candy, carmel corn--I love Crunch and Munch!, etc). I'm also trying to cut the whites--bread (dh won't eat anything but white bread), pasta, rice, etc. It's going to be hard because dh and the kids are so picky!!! None of them like to try new things. The boys have really taken after dh in that sense. I'm a lot more adventerous than he is! lol We'll see how this goes.

By Karen~admin on Sunday, June 3, 2007 - 09:52 am:

Jen went years without eating meat. When she was in high school, she stopped eating meat and would tell us the most disgusting things about it and what it does or doesn't do once it's inside your digestive tract. UGH! For a while, I tried to *make* her eat it, but that didn't work. She just started eating meat again the last 6 or 8 months, and I *think* it has something to do with the fact that she was chronically anemic, and had tried everything else and it had not worked.

She does love sushi which I cannot stomach - I am allergic to seafood and just don't like fish much - and she eats a lot of sushi.

I have always gone through periods where I can't stomach meat - particularly beef! DH loves his beef, and very often when we grill beef, I just eat the salad and vegies, and NOT the meat. I would rather eat chicken than any other meat, but much of the time, I just do NOT want to eat meat.

Good luch with your vegetarian recipes!