Any vegetarians out there?
Recently converted…NOT due to moral or ethical issues. It’s strictly a health thing.
I’m tooting a little more than normal. As Sean pointed out to me, may have to find a protein substitute. Other than that…what’s the big deal? I didn’t eat a lot of meat anyway, and I love pasta, bread, cereal, crackers, rice, eggs, cheese, veggies, fruit, nuts, etc. 
Indian, Turkish, Middle Eastern foods are awesome for you veggie types.
my fiancee is vegetarian. with the exception of the occasional steak for me, i pretty much plan our meals around her diet. cooking vegetarian meals makes you a better cook because it forces you to be more creative and find ways to make meals without a main protein component more exciting.
Don’t forget about cous cous! So easy to make and so good. You can do so many things with it.
Portabello mushroom steaks are awesome. Just buy the big caps, pour olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic, and oregano inside the cap and bake at 375 until soft. Usually 20-30 mins. Tastes and feels just like steak. Can be put on a bun and eaten like a burger. You can do lotsa variations i/e fill it with cheese, spinach or bell peppers, and whatever spices you like and then bake.
If you feel yourself craving a burger, Boca’s “flame grilled” veggie burgers hit the spot.
Experiment with different ways to cook tofu. Done right, it’s really delicious. They also have meat substitutes that resemble ground beef, so you can still have speghetti, burgers, taco’s etc.
if you have time, you can make a killer veggie lasagna. Save time by buying speghetti sauce. Cut up portabellos, bell peppers (any kind you like. I like red and yellow), zuchini, onions, and broccoli. Put the veggies and sauce in a pot on the stove. Cook them on medium high for 30 mins or so. Add whatever spices you like or leave it as is.
While you’re doing the veggies, boil 6 lasagna noodles for just a few minutes. I find cooking them all the way tends to make them easier to break. They will finish cooking in the oven.
Also, while the sauce and veggies cook, here’s an optional, but delicious step. Chop up some spinach and broccoli, mix it in with a big tub of cottage cheese and some parmesean. It will make your filling green and VERY tastey.
When your sauce is thickened enough, get a rectangular dish, 9x13 is plenty big enough. The sizes are written on the bottom 
Spray cooking spray then put down 3 lasagna noodles the width of the dish. On top of the noodles, spread half of the filling (or enough to lightly cover noodles. Half may be too thick and it won’t cook) on top of the noodles, gently so you don’t rip them. Then half your red sauce. Then 3 more noodles, other half (or enough to cover) of filling and the other half of the sauce. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Until you see the sides boiling like crazy. Throw some shredded mozz on top and bake 5 more minutes. Sooooo good and with just you, you can eat it for a few days with a salad.
Good luck!
My girlfriend’s a veg head.
I am a carnivore.
I will, from time to time, try and eat a veggie meal.
Thing is, I don’t consider it a meal if it doesn’t involve meat. It just doesn’t compute in my head.
But I have fun cooking with her and some of the morning star shit isn’t too bad.
We make tacos with the fake ground meat and the italian sausages aren’t too shabby.
It isn’t always healthier, their are a lot of ways to unhealtasize a veggie meal, but for the most part it’s pretty good for you.
I see it as: More meat for me!
i was a cook at a vegetarian restaurant for a while, was a vegetarian for a while… back in like 97’-98’… my wife was a vegetarian for some 10 years (not anymore)… the bottom line is its not the best diet for everyone. in fact i feel its not the best diet for most people. if you don’t supplement properly you will end up deficient in certain vits, minerals and of course protein. the typical american diet is bad enough and deficient enough in essential nutrients and then add being a vegetarian and you lose out on more nutrients. Plus most vegetarians don’t do it right, then end up eating grilled cheese all the time or all those supplemental fake foods like veggies burgers, tofurkey, etc… overdose on dairy or end up eating a diet with less variety… then they start to get sick, lack energy and eventually deplete their vital force.
in the beginning the change can give you more energy and the novelty of it all is exciting but I rarely see people do it long term… once the novelty wears off and their body starts to crave what its lacking they go back to eating meat. i think a better diet is a whole food diet… cut out processed foods, fast food, junk drinks… eat whole food that are in their natural state, go organic if you can afford it… esp the organic meats… which I don’t do… supplement omega 3’s… eat less gluten and dairy (or none) and eliminate white sugar… eat good fats like olive oil. a diet like that will nourish your body, keep the weight off and cholesterol low and keep your juices flowing 
then on the other hand I’ve known a few people to do well on a strict vegetarian diet… like… small old ladies… 
eh, find out for yourself, thats what life is about.
I feel horrible when I don’t eat meat.
My wife was vegetarian when I met her. She was terribly unhealthy because of it. Once we got her eating meat again, she started feeling a lot better.
I’d listen to the phish, the goldphish. A good balance of whole foods is where it’s at dumping processed foods, reducing dairy and white sugar all as Jeff said. I’d also recommend doing it gradually. Radical changes to eating habits that your body has gotten used to can have any number of side effects from triggering allergies to aggrevating nerve endings to swings in temperment.
Diets are for wrestlers and athletes who need to play with changes in weight for competitions. What you want is a lifestyle change, and those habits need to be worked at and come natually, gradually.
Then again, I’m sixty pounds overweight, so what do I know? But that’s mostly because of one habit I can’t seem to kick. Cookies!
Life just wouldn’t be the same without em 
^haha nice fone cookies have always been my vice too. 
yep. vegetarianism is touted as a healthy diet but its generally a myth. most vegetarians wind up becoming carb/dairy junkies. thats a terrible diet.
We buy our meat local, and only have it a couple times a week. It’s a pretty nice balance. Last year we bought a quarter pig from a local farmer and stuck it in the freezer. It was great; had high quality chops, bacon, ham, and sausage from a good source whenever we wanted it. My dad raises meat chickens so we get a few from him, and we have layers, so we get about 3-4 eggs a day. I think you can a eat healthy, sustainably grown diet with just a little thought and planning.
MMM…I am sure there are veggies in the seasoning at least.
I always thought it would be fun to be a vegetarian for awhile, but I don’t think I would want to cut out meat permanently. Just too tasty.
Speaking of food though, I’m headed to Alinea in Chicago next Wednesday, a 15 course meal. I’m sure we’ll get some little veggie courses, as well as some funky proteins. Any foodies out there??
I am going to hunt a lot more this Fall. And fish. And see Phish, hopefully…
But seriously, nothing better than cooking up some fresh deer loin, or quail, or crappie, etc.
two words:
Heady Fallafel
i’ve been veggie for a few years now (still eat fish on occasion) and yeah. The best things to put where your meat used to go i’d say are chickpeas (in all forms- hummus fallafel, etc.), PORTABELLA MUSHROOMS, Eggplant, extra black beans and guac on your burrito instead of the dead animals.
an occasional tofu based thing is cool from time to time. Usually bust out the veggie dogs and “fake meats” in bar-b-q or picnic situations.
most important supplement is B-12.
also, If you can find a good price on flax seeds or hemp seeds, they are super foods with lots of vitamins, proteins and minerals (basically all the stuff in meat that’s actually healthy but without the stuff that makes your digestive system rot. I like to grind them in a coffee grinder and sprinkle it on my oatmeal in the morning as well as sandwiches and pastas. Hemp seed is just expensive at most places. Luckily my brother found this random bird store in Orlando that sells big bags of raw hemp seed for cheap.
I did a detox diet two weeks ago and I have not introduced meat back into my diet and I feeling great. I am just trying to do as goldphish said and eat whole foods but I am not sure when to bring the meat back or if I even will for a while. I don’t have that sluggish feeling any more and I don’t feel like shit after I eat anymore which is nice. I need to get some sort of vitamins or do some more research, but like I said i am still in the honeymoon phase so I feel great!
^that’s similar to how it started for me as well.
about 5 or 6 years ago both my brother and my best friend went vegetarian and I was spending almost all of my time with either one of them, making me vegetarian by association and i noticed that i just felt a lot better the less and less meat i was eating.
I wound up phasing it out over time; first eliminating pork, then beef and then finally poultry. Seafood is actually healthy for you so i kept it around (plus I live in South Florida so there’s lots of great seafood all around). It helped me in knowing that being vegetarian greatly reduces the risk of colon cancer which has claimed a few members of my bloodline in the past.
I heard once that is has a lot to do with your blood type. Not sure if that’s true or not… but it would make sense.
I know a lot of people who, like steve-o, “feel like shit” after a meal. Personally, that has never happened to me while eating meat… although, it has happened after some veggie only meals.
I think it has a lot to do with a person’s chemical makeup and whether or not their body needs/craves certain things.
