Would LOVE some help becoming a vego..

[blip]

For my own health i would love to go vegetarian right, but whenever i say Im going vego!.. a day or 3 later i see a HJ ad on tv and i need a double whopper or something liek that... and i think oh i stuffed up forget it.

I dunno what im asking really lol just basically if there are some good simple vegetarian recipes i can try for a week so i can get into the whole psychee of eating only vegetables. The thing with salads are that there is nothign to really chew, bite into. Oh also i dont want to buy frozen vegetarian stuff from woolies for example.. i have tried them and its all processed filth!

Lately all i eat for dinner is a bowl of boiled rice with those steamed packets of vegetables/sauce form .... woolies lol. I love rice so rice would be in alot of stuff.

This post is a little incoherant sorry guys.. ive been in a wierd mood as of late. But i know i want to look after my body and eating only fruits, nuts, vegetables.. things that are naturally produced by the earth will really make myself feel good Not to mention the satisfaction of growing my own food and knowing that i have grown and cooked that nights dinner... ahhh a good sense of self satisfaction will swoop over me

[coin]

i know of a lot of resources and i'm sure a lot of others here will have good ideas

will come back to this tomorrow evening

it's conscious eating that makes a major difference...you don't have to worry that during some transition that you eat some meat/seafood now and then...every change is significant.

some people are fine with being "flexitarian" : ) a plant-based whole-food diet is the way to go, but you shouldn't feel uncomfortable with this being your primary "dietary philosophy" that may include some meat as you see fit

"all or nothing" can be way too extreme and is often self-defeating

maybe you can elaborate on your reasons for wanting to adopt a vegetarian diet?

from what you've said, it sounds like a health thing mostly?

Edited April 27, 2009 by coin

[Chiral]

When you really get into it your main types of foods becomes pasta's and rice and potato dishes. It's a relatively simple lifestyle choice ...I'm questioning why you wish to do it first...my reasons when I took it up was because when I arrived in London in 1991 mad cow disease was becoming rampant and so it was simple choice...once I had adapted and all my hippie friends where also vego it was very simple. There are many types of vego's...some still eat fish..some still eat products that come from animals like honey and dairy. I found that I put on weight being vego because of all the pasta meals I ate.

I used to order organic vegetables from Wales home delivered...this was after my squat times....I actually got a council flat when kicked onto the street so for the first time I had a legitimate address...anyways the vegetables and fruits where delicious but would go off very quick...things like Pizza can still be eaten as there is soy cheese and many types of toppings like mushroom and tomato and eggplant etc.

I was basically a fishatarian..in that I ate fish but no meat from a land animal...it's a great way to live and it makes you think about your choices ...buying a big mac is lazy, bad for your health and simply makes you feel sick afterwards...thick home made muffins with home made blueberry jam, pita bread stuffed with soy cheese baby tomato's, olives and watercress for lunch...pasta with homegrown tomato sauce seasoned with herbs from your garden like garlic and chilli..served with fresh baked bread rolls...see it's not that hard and very healthy.

H.

H.

[Evil Genius]

Hi LSDreamz! Vegetarian food is great! But you need more time to make yourself a great meal! Vegetarian food is more than just salads and Fruits! Im a vego since 10 years now! And i rarely feel that i lack something! Think about all the great stuff that you can eat! Like chips, Potatoes, Chocolate, Pasta, Pizza, etc! I hope you dont wanna become one of these hardcore vegos that dont eat cheese and eggs? Another option would be that you dont eat meat but fish! Thats what i do! This way i can still eat fish burgers in the fast food restaurants! Get yourself a cool book about food and recipes on the net and try to learn how to cook! You will need years to get this handled but as soon as you learn new meals, you cant get enough of that! Think about how impressive it is when you have a date and you make that chick the best meal of her life! You´ll be the man of her dreams! ;-) by the way, vegetarian girls prefer other vegetarians as sex partners! Thats a whole new market which is opening there for you! bye Eg

[Jack]

I have been vego over the years, being of southern italian origin going vego wasnt too difficult as there are many traditional dishes that dont require meat, we used to eat things like Minestrone soups, lentil soups, borlotti bean soups, pasta with brocolli, pasta basil and napoli sauce, eggplant baked dish (similar to lasagne), Antipasto (olives, cheeses, marinated vegetables) bread, fried rocotta cakes, marinated roasted sweet long peppers, bruschetta, fried potatoes with peppers and onions, fritata, caponata, mushroom risotto (or any risotto for that matter), stuffed capsicums and there are many many more dishes.

Stir frys (try adding shallow fried firm tofu)

You could look into middle eastern foods, dips flat breads, fallafel ect. ect.

One of my faverout traditional dishes: Pasta with brocolli

Get a head of brocolli when you boil your pasta in plenty of salted water add brocolli and boil with pasta in the meantime whilst this is cooking get a pan with a plenty of olive oil, add 5-6 cloves of garlic finely chopped and a chopped chilli cook till garlic changes colour, when pasta and brocolli is cooked, drain water and add pasta and brocolli to pan and toss in the chilli garlic mixture making sure you break up the brocolli as you toss it. serve with some fresh parmesan cheese.

If you need any more info/help just ask.

[ThunderIdeal]

people who don't eat dairy or honey are not vegetarians, they care called vegans.

i would take coins advice at least for now, i personally ummed and ahhhed my way into vegetarianism for a while but it's been six years since i had meat, fish or egg. i've got some crunchy ideas for you, also hungry jacks vege burger is pretty good. the cheese is opiates :D

ultimately, being vego lets you enjoy food more than anybody because you can literally eat several tons of food at each sitting.

NUTRITION: i don't know how well you handly dairy but it really insulates you from most deficiencies until you get your diet sorted out better. don't worry about it YET, but a good overall supplement especially for protein is spirulina, then consider taking b12 and iron although dairy provides b12 and a good diet will provide all your iron (greens and beetroot for instance). i never go more than a few months without spirulina, i usually take it throughout the day.

FOOD: not all of the frozen stuff is terrible, but much of it is. try some of the products made by "frys" if it's available. dunno about the healthiness of these products but most don't even need to be cooked really.

get into frying mushrooms, it's easy and can replace meat in a lot of meals. since i started doing this, i fucking love it, as long as i have something else to eat it with. fresh is also good, but i usually peel the skin off the cap to use fresh.

maybe you should grow sprouts? a small quantity of sprouts on a sandwich is good and they're very nutritious and easy to grow. definitely grow tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.

make salad sandwiches or rolls, and don't use white bread because grain tastes much better with more texture. get one of those tall plastic containers for beetroot (you open it, then pull up this handle which lifts the beetroot out of the liquid) and always put beetroot and greens on the sandwiches (if you like them). cheese, avacado, tomato, the lot.

get tossing. obtain large box-shaped containers and fill them with stuff like noodle salad (these are awesome). the best type come in a pack of loose noodles about an inch long, with some kind of delicious powder on them. add stuff like baby lettuce, shallots.... crunchy.

noodle stir fries with lots of cashews or other nuts... crunchy

vege bakes are good, if they're cooked enough the top cheese layer will have a bit of crunch. roast vegetables in general are nice, especially sweet potato.

tempeh is supposed to be very healthy.

Edited April 28, 2009 by ThunderIdeal

[Conan Troutman]

mmmmmm double whooper

hot tip* get a hari krishna cook book dang can they cook a vego meal

[naja naja]

Maybe become a moral meat eater instead. Don't cut it out altogether, just eat it only when it's morally right too do so. For example, fishing and catching the fish urself and eating it I find morally fine. Raise sum chickens urself so u know they have a good life, u get eggs and meat both morally. And if u go sumwhere and u r offered meat that would otherwise go to waste if u didn't eat it, then eat it because it's more morally wrong to let an animals life go to waste.

Just a thought to make it easier.

Also good vego food doesn't try to be vego, mexican for example and I could and almost do live entirely on spinnache,recotta and fetta

Peace

[ajna]

i would like to second most of what coin has said, don't be so hard on yourself during the transition especially, allow yourself the occasional treat but put in an honest effort for the rest the time. if it's purely health reasons perhaps you could even choose to stop junk food instead of meat at first? or be a moral meat eater like naja said. i dont think meat is unhealthy full-stop, just quality, quantity, ethics etc come into it.

i used to be vegetarian, these days i occasionally eat meat. but being vego was great for getting the habits needed to feed myself without relying on meat, and i still prepare vego food most of the time.

foods to replace meat: mushrooms, eggs, lentils, baked beans, cheeses, yogurt, i would say tofu but i think it scares a lot of people away at first hehhe

so for breaky instead of bacon n eggs you could fry up some mushrooms in butter, a couple of eggs, some slices of haloumi, throw in some garlic and herbs and maybe even some of last night leftovers on a couple of pieces of wholegrain toast and you got a feast to be reckoned with!

lots of good dinners suggested, currys were my secret weapon, i still cook them a few times a week but it used to be a freakish obsession haha you get all the exciting flavors of the spices and can throw in just about any combo of vegies and lentils, so don't worry about it being all dull salads and steamed spinach from here on in.

it's probably fair to say that eating when you're out is the hard bit, choices can be limited. but in a sense it's a good thing, because you get more used to bringing food from home and are less inclined to eat something you wouldn't normally want to. i pretty much take snacks with me everytime i leave the house, here's where things like fruit and nuts are handy, and if it's not off to a day of strenuous work that often sees me through til i get home anyway (provided i started with a breakfast like above! ).

good luck with it anyway

[Genesis]

FUCK THAT, you know my opinion on vego-ism LSD, lol. Tired and failed, never to try again... Power to any one that can live an all veg lifestyle. I, myself, eat meat 4 or 5 times a day, some kind of animal product every meal and snack be it meat, eggs, milk or cheese.

My ex was a veggo and I loved cooking veggo meals, not hard to make fresh produce shine and it can some times be a bit of a challenge.

A mate of mine recently started chemo and doctors advised she become a Vegan. After some searching we found a few Vegan/Veggo recipe pages linked off the PETA website so maybe you wanna check that out. Some pretty nice sounding stuff.

I was always of the opinion that if you can't kill it yourself then you shouldn't have some one else do it for you. I have no problems killing a sheep as long as it is used and not wasted, same applies for chickens, fish etc.

Meat isn't bad for you, if you plan meals and cook things right meat can be AMAZINGLY good. Protein... No muscle without it

Gen

[ThunderIdeal]

Tired and failed

stop talking about yourself

No muscle

stop talking about yourself

[Chiral]

Shaman, natives, jungle dwellers have eaten meat since they could hunt...our teeth are designed to eat to meat and it carries essential vitamins and oils for our health...hunting and killing your own and consuming the whole beast is the way to go...there is nothing worse than seeing huge chunks of wasted meat getting slung in the bin out the back of every kitchen everyday...it's disgraceful.

[Evil Genius]

Well, i tend to agree to a certain point Hunab! But meat eaters dont live healthier! Vegetarians even live longer! But a diet consisting mostly of vegetarian food and a small percentage of meat, is the healthiest diet i can think of! Not because of the Vitamins but due to the fat and the Proteins! Fat is transporting the Vitamins though your body! The healthiest people on the planet are the Inuit, who eat a lot of Seal fat! Our closest relatives in the Animal kindgom are Apes! They are vegetarians! Another point is that we dont have fang teeth, we have grinders what also speaks for a vegetarian diet! Due to its lenght, the human bowel is a perfect equivalent to the bowels of plant eating animals! A bowel that is not designed for decomposing large amounts of rotting meat! Our gastric acid contains just a tenth of the salt Acid of Predators! Humans need protein, not directly meat! But its an easy source of it! Meat does not contain any Vitamine or Proteine, that you cant cover with a balanced vegetarian diet! Another important point of a healthy Diet are Amino Acids! You gotta make sure that your intake is sufficient!

Though im a vegetarian, i think that eating meat can have some Advantages if you do it right and in the appropriate amounts! First of all, people who eat a lot of meat eat less carbohydrates! In my Opinion, Carbohydrates are one the worst parts of nowadays food and therfore i am a friend of any low carb diet! But not every meat is Advisable! Pork and beef are proven to cause bowel cancer in the long term! Chicken and Turkey dont! So i dont see a reason why people shouldnt eat that meat if they feel like needing it! Apart from the ethical reasons! bye Eg

Edited April 28, 2009 by Evil Genius

[coin]

that's what i was trying to say - is that if it's for health reasons ... go "whole-food, plant-based" as at least 70% of your diet... it's when you deviate from this rule that things go wrong because these other foods cause nutrient displacement / have low nutrient densities. (i.e. you eat a lot of it to feel satisfied, but the ratio of calories to nutrient is way off, and they have very little fiber). When I say nutrient here, I'm meaning vitamins, minerals & important phytochemicals.

my diet is very "indian" i guess you could say...but my style of cooking blends african, mediterranean & asian traditional (vegetarian) whole-foods from times when people ground their own spices and grains on a stone slab...definitely not restaurant-style indian food. it's pretty much what some people call peasant food...massive amount of non-starchy vegetables, lentils legumes beans (some are split/hulled, which i use when i want to cook them quickly, which i suppose you could say is not a whole-food technically, but they're still loaded with fiber and I prefer these to canned products, only based on texture)

i have to say that i find a pressure cooker is my most treasured kitchen appliance. even if it's just to make my own hummus...but there are dishes I crave at least once a week that would take 3-4 hours to cook in a pot, wherease with the pressure cooker it's closer to 1 hr (you can do other things while they're cooking). i've also been using a slow cooker a lot lately.

also, i thought i might add - (as a vego myself) that the studies showing that vegetarians are healthier / live longer, etc, as far as I know, are pretty insubstantial or inconclusive, and some studies show the opposite. the studies funded by various animal-based industries and the billions of dollars they spend on advertising to convince the general public that they cannot be healthy without consuming these products are far more spurious though.

i definitely avoid getting too involved in any debate about these issues these days...for me it comes down to an ethical decision, and i'm still transitioning to a diet that is somewhat closer to vegan. but man it still irks me when i hear someone say they've been vegetarian for 10 years - they just eat fish for their protein....please!! lol .. if you are eating something that has eyes ......

as far as i see it: health? ethics? environment? you assess your priorities and you do what you can i can respect that, but i still don't like it when some guy on the train right next to me is eating a stinking 2 day old kransky out of a greased up brown paper bag that he bought at flinders st station kiosk....shudder

Edited April 28, 2009 by coin

[Chiral]

I don't think it's possible to say vegetarians live longer than meat eaters...that is almost impossible to come to that conclusion...what I will say though is that our grandparents ate real foods with a lot less preservatives and sugars than modern families do nowadays...grandparents who lived to late 90's that ate meat and consumed butter..not margarine which is full of "trans fatty acids"... and vegetables bought from road sides from peoples own gardens...there used to thousands of these stalls back in the 70's and 80's...people are too lazy nowadays and head on down to Woollies or Coles and load up on all the junk. Older folk like our grand parents and there parents back in the day actually ate real food...today's groceries are somewhat of a disgrace and mass produced chemically charged nonsense...My mum used to use real butter, dripping, home made jams, beef and veg stew made with fresh killed beef from a farmer who we would split the cow with friends and freeze it...whole grain flours etc ...everything used to be made from scratch by my mum and her and my other older relatives and none of them have ever been vego's...they are all living well into their late 80's still and they even smoke and drink some of them too.....I don't see it a being healthier at all, it's simply a choice, sometimes morals play a part but in it but there is no indication one is better than the other....most people not eating meat have to supplement themselves with vitamins which to me is no where near as good as the real vitamins contained in the foods you are not eating which contain them.

interesting topic with many varied beliefs....I don't believe vegetarianism has been around long enough to substantiate any real statistics..particularly with sooooo many variables to consider with each persons own health and gene pool....it may be healthier for an obese junk food eater to go on a vegetarian like diet to help them regain their proper weight and give them back some essential vitamins etc but 2 normal individuals who are the same age and exercise just as regularly as each other ...I think it would be impossible to say which is healthier....in fact the vegetarian may develop some weird bowel desease and die before the meat eater and vise versa... so I cant believe the "its better to be vego" philosophy myself...it's all about balance...ask Buddha he will tell you...

H.

[ajna]

again well said coin

and yeah, animal foods are some of the most nutrient dense foods available when they are in their pure, unprocessed form. i don't discourage vegetarianism because i think it's usually a step in the right direction towards more conscious eating/living, but in reference to

"also, i thought i might add - (as a vego myself) that the studies showing that vegetarians are healthier / live longer, etc, as far as I know, are pretty insubstantial or inconclusive, and some studies show the opposite...."

i usually refer people to the Weston Price website. it's all about traditional whole food diets, raw dairy etc, they advocate eating animal products for good health but their philosophy is more akin to the vegetarians than one might think, unprocessed, organic, local produce being the ultimate goal with biodynamic nothing's-wasted farming methods. they agree that with eggs and dairy people can happily live on a meat free diet, but emphasise that especially the fats from animal products are difficult to obtain from vegetables alone (they are also anti low-fat diets, and i concur). but yeah it's also not something i like to argue about, and as i said i admire the decision to take on a vego diet, it's just some info i find interesting and others may also when pondering this kind of thang

here's a good page to start with, the website tour for vegetarians. http://www.westonaprice.org/tour/vegtourindex.html

some points of interest on that page -

the ethics of eating meat

myths and truths about vegetarianism and modern soy products

environmental impact of eliminating livestock from farming

letter to vegetarians from weston price foundation

[ThunderIdeal]

buddhist argument goes against eating meat in terms of karma, although i agree with the point of your post, hunab.

another aspect of that is farmland degradation. broadscale farming just doesn't give back, over 50 years a significant amount of humus disappears and isn't returned, that's why fertiliser use has to increase.. i think it's pretty well established that lots of broadscale fruit and veg doesn't contain the best yield of vitamins and minerals. the answer to this conundrum is to grow your own, buy somebody else's homegrown, or buy organic/biodynamic (pricey though). coles/woolies veg isn't quite the same and it's pretty easy to taste the difference in some cases, like tomatoes.

Edited April 29, 2009 by ThunderIdeal

[Genesis]

stop talking about yourself

stop talking about yourself

I hate you so much man, lol. That was also meant to say TRIED.

I am going to become a cannibal and bite your face off... High in protein and ugly, the two things you need to become big and strong

Gen

[Undergrounder]

lsdz just so you know, if you become a vego, i will become a meato and only eat things that have caused as much pain and suffering as possible...

you know, just to balance out the karma... ying and yang and stuff like that.

I have stocked my fridge with battery eggs and whalemeat in preparation..

[Stonehenge]

Go into it gradually, not cold turkey. Cut back on meat and eat more delicious veggies. Broccolli, cauliflower, carrots, it makes me go yum. And a big baked potato for a treat.

I've been veggy for about 30 years but not totally fanatical about it. I use butter, cheese and eat a little salmon. The main pitfall of it is going overboard on sweets and flour. Sugar in any form is not good for you and flour turns into sugar in your gut. So just gradually go into a better lifestyle and one day you will barf at the thought of fast food. It's crap after all.

[apothecary]

How come vegetarians claiming ethical considerations (especially "karma") for their food never consider the hundreds of thousands of small animals and insects which are injured or killed by crop harvests?

After the meet on Sunday, me and Yowie went to Maccas and smashed big macs and chicken nuggets. Damn it was tasty.

[GingaNinja]

How come vegetarians claiming ethical considerations (especially "karma") for their food never consider the hundreds of thousands of small animals and insects which are injured or killed by crop harvests?

How come meat eaters always make false generalising statements about vegetarians?

After the meet on Sunday, me and Yowie went to Maccas and smashed big macs and chicken nuggets. Damn it was tasty.

What a stupid thing to say in a thread where someone is asking for help to stop doing something.

Do you do the same with people trying to get of a drug?

[ThunderIdeal]

zing

[coin]

kilo for kilo there's far more harvested crops being pumped into livestock, no?...it's just minimising the harm

of course life feeds on life.

it's not just karma, it's cultivating an attitude of non-violence..whether that's addressing your own direct tendencies or your incitement of those tendencies in others. it's about looking at your life and seeing what improvements you can make

also some will argue that insects have a totally difference type of nervous system and don't feel such intense suffering?

chicken nuggets eh? ;) most abused/exploited animal on the earth ?...the poor ol chicken

[apothecary]

How come meat eaters always make false generalising statements about vegetarians?

Generalising would involve lumping all vegetarians together in some "false" blanket statement don't you think? Considering I pointed the query directly at those vegetarians who are so for ethical reasons (rather than health reasons for example) I'm not sure how this is a generalisation about vegetarians. Would really love to know why you think my statement is false: I'm unaware of any crop (short of those which are hand-picked) which doesn't generally involve the injury and death of lots of small animals - ground-nesting birds which make their home in the crop since they have been displaced from habitat especially - and insects who have spent a season living in the miniature ecosystem provided by the crop. The point being, even if you don't eat a cow, some animals are suffering and dying for your sustenance. If you are an "ethical vegetarian" then you have either never considered this point, or are a hypocrite for claiming to not eat animals to provide dissent against and hopefully abate their suffering (without even getting into the animal suffering involved in clothing, sheltering and entertaining you).

What a stupid thing to say in a thread where someone is asking for help to stop doing something.

Do you do the same with people trying to get of a drug?

The range of views presented here has no reason to be less diverse than anywhere else on the internet, and just like in the threads where people ask for help to get off drugs the end choice and action is solely by the person involved regardless of a few lines of non-vegetarian devil's avocado which you would think shouldn't be able to sway anyone with any conviction at all.

Last night for dinner I had asparagus, mushrooms and wholegrain pasta. *gasp* I really hope no aspiring carnivores read that and decided to become vegetarians based on my description of a tasty dinner.

Are you one of those people who thinks suicide websites should be censored because some unsuspecting Tom might come along and top himself based on what he reads?

Edited May 6, 2009 by apothecary