Any Vegan/vegetarian Advice, Tips & Recipes to Share?

The Moosewood cookbook is classic. Can't recommend it enough. Also a couple blogs to subscribe to:
www.101cookbooks.com/
peasandthankyou.com/
Good luck! We're pseudo veggies meaning we do mostly veggie stuff and I think it makes us feel much better.
I would say though - try and avoid all those processed veggie foods. (Morning Star, Gluten, etc) While they taste great, they don't offer much nutrition and are hard to digest! Keep it simple. Nuts and beans offer a lot of nutrients and PROTEIN!

My son and I are vegetarians, too (lacto-ovo: dairy and egg) and love it. Well, I do - he's 4 and doesn't know the difference! :)

I love vegetarian times but even though I have a subscription, I can't afford to make most of the recipes in there. With a "shopping at Aldi" budget, a lot of the specialty foods or substitutes are out of my price range. Fun to dream about, though!

We do simply substitute "fake meat" for the meat in most regular recipes and make them the same. Quorn products are the tastiest, but again, very expensive. Boca and Morningstar Farms are our staples, especially when Target has them all on sale for $2.99/box. I stock up! I make a lot with the ground beef and sausage substitutes - meatloaf, meat balls, lasagna, tacos, goulash, bean stew, pizza toppings. Most of the big names in vegetarian substitutes have recipes on their websites. Morningstar Farms has a pretty extensive section.

Lentil recipes are good, too, if you remember to allow time to soak.

Shopping for your veggies at farmer's markets will help enhance the flavor and nutrition and actually save money, too. Unless the closest market is really far away and you burn your money on gas to get there.

I joined eDiets for a month simply to access and download the vegetarian recipes they had - and it was a lot - and most of them are terrific and easy to make! Well worth the money for me.

Since you will be eating fish and chicken, you won't be vegetarian and some of your options will be better than those of us that are. For instance, I have to watch for gelatin, chicken broths, animal rennet, beef fat (found in places you'd never think of, like hostess pies, can you believe it?), etc. in food but unless you are committed to cruelty-free and not just the nutritional aspect, you won't need to worry about that. However, a switch to vegan will require removing a lot more (and reading labels a lot more - eggs, dairy and honey are in things you'd never realize!)

Good luck and good health! Even if you aren't doing it for animal reasons, the animals you save will thank you!

Good for you first off... but I will caution you that most Vegetarians and MANY vegans are so for animal rights issues and not health. So they can be very opinionated and sometimes just mean! I learned the hard way and I was a person who became a veggie for animal rights issues as well as meat processing issues in this country.
So when you say you are going to eat fish and maybe chicken don't be shocked to get blasted :)
We this summer decided to eat some fish and let me tell you it can get nasty out there! So we now will call oursleves pescetarians- those that only eat fish when it comes to meat. Although our fish intake is very low and only during the summer!

Anyhow for sure google vegetarian and even pescetarian recipes. You will find many! The key is to read up on what to expect and realize that it isn't a hard journey, but it will have challenges! We are raising our 2 and 3 year old in this lifestyle and we get lots of people saying how we are harming our children and how they need meat to be healthy. It is all nonsense. Just read up and make sure you have a good understanding of what our bodies need. I will suggest vegetarian for dummies! It is a GREAT source for understanding what you will need. I checked mine out at the library! It will tell you what kids need and how to supplement things certain vitamins ect.... REALLY read this book!
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Vegetarian-Dummies-Suzanne-H...

Next I will say the library is a GREAT place to pick up cook books to try things out. Don't run out and spend lots of money on cookbooks that will only have a few recipes you will enjoy. When you do the library you can find a good variety of things that will fit in your lifestyle.
I also subscribe to vegetarian times magazine! It is great and I love how they keep up with the seasons and have good ideas on things.

I think the biggest issue many new veggies have is eating junk. I will say being a veggie has forced me to be more planned in my shopping and takes more work, but in the end it has been great! My girls are GREAT veggie eaters and I know they are super healthy on all levels. The fact that we use new spices, odd veggies and really explore what is out there has made them more well rounded in what they can and will eat. I am proud of them for sure.

Good luck in your journey...

Any recipe works almost just add fake meat, or mushrooms, or veggies. There is no real trick to it. You can fake out the kids by giving them veggie dogs and veggie nuggets available almost anywhere etcc. Dont believe the hype about soy and estrogen, I promise you that the real estrogen pumped into the animals is much more relevant to be concerned with.

Ive been a vegetarian for 20 years almost so my kids have been given the option to eat my way, or their dads way (which is meat very rarely) Noth children opted for my way so far (knocks on wood) Kids go to a vegetarian diet more easily because their palates are new and dont associate the taste of meat with comfort the way adults do. Meat tastes 'dead" and flavorless with a bad texture to children not accustomed to it.

I second the recommendation for vegetarian times. Looking in your grocers breakfast section very thoroughly you will find vegetarian options where you never noticed them before. For some reason grocers ,lump them with the waffles and pancakes, lol.

Good luck, and dont dive in to fast...gradually figure out the life, dont go vegan quite yet, i want to keep you on my team.

Congrats! My husband and I decided to go vegetarian almost 4 years ago and I've never looked back. Our 2 1/2 year old son has never eaten meat. I found most of my recipes online initially. Some of my favorite sites are fatfreevegan, busyveganmama, vegandad and yourveganmom (all blogs that you can search for). Busyveganmama doesn't usually have recipes on her blog, but she tells you which cookbooks they came from, so you can check some out from the library or even buy a couple. I also liked the Vegetarian Food for Thought podcast for lots of useful tips when we were getting started.

For us cooking at home was an easy transition because we were excited to try lots of new things, but eating out was a challenge. Keep in mind that if you do ethnic food (chinese, indian, thai, japanese, ethiopian, etc) you will have a much better shot at finding veggie options. Italian is also usually ok for vegetarian, but difficult for vegans. You have to be proactive and don't be afraid to ask them to modify a dish for you. I've also found this to be more feasible at locally owned places, chains tend to not be as willing to modify a dish for me.

There is so much information out there, all you have to do is look for it!

Never eat anything that has had a mother.

I was vegetarian before and between having my babies and am now one again. I subscribe to the magazine Vegetarian Times and LOVE it - they will give you tons of ideas and involve what's in season. Buy a share to your local farm CSA...you can get a box of fresh local organic produce each week. Most farms that offer a CSA also have a newsletter with weekly recipe ideas for their fresh produce. I live for my summer and fall veggie boxes!!! I had a winter share once...might do that again. It was amazing when I was making all of my baby's food because I used tons of squash, eggplant, etc.

I know this will sound crazy to you, but check into your local 7th Day Adventis church. No you don't have to join, but they are great at helping people out in converting to the vegan way of life. The one here has cooking classes open to the public and sells crates of delicious fruit from Florida in the winter. They also know where to get really cool vegetarian products. The great thing is they don't even try to convert you to their religion. I went to one of their cooking classes and got recipes for making your own vegan cheese cheese spread out of cashews and pimentos, vegan brown rice pudding, vegan chicken flavored rice, (Yeah, it's kind of weird how you can put certain spices together and wind up thinking you taste chicken in it somewhere.) and making your own frozen whole wheat waffles. I have to get back to my peco-vegetarian diet, so I can keep my cholesterol down so thanks for reminding me. Anyhow, here some of the stuff I do: (I'm not vegan so I do eat eggs and low-fat dairy products.)
1. You can make great tacos or sloppy joes out of those vegetarian crumbles you can get in the frozen vegetarian section of your local grocery store. Just use your own recipe and substitute the crumbles for ground beef. It comes out great and no one knows the difference. I like to put bean sprouts in mine. (I get the bean sprouts from the local Chinsese grocery store and while you're there you can buy some fried tofu in the refigorator section. You just throw the fried tofu in your pan with a little oil so it doesn't stick and season with salt. It's really good.) All ways cook your bean sprouts and tofu. (Learned that from my Chinese MIL...Her saying is, "You cook-a the dofu or you crazy, get sick-aaaaa!"
2. Tofu and veggies. Just buy the extra firm tofu. (We never use the silken stuff.) Wash your tofu! (You rinse it just like you do a can of tuna.) Never just take it out of the package and use it, because it's been sitting in that water for a long time. If you get the fresh tofu, make sure you change the water everyday to keep it fresh. Back to cooking the stuff. Dry it off really good with a little gentle squeezing motion. Cut it up into bite sized pieces and cover with a paper towel to absorb the water. Heat up your frying pan or wok, add a little oil and heat up the oil. Now add fresh sliced ginger, if your daughter is ok with it, if not forget the ginger. Cook a little. Add fresh chopped garlic and tofu. When tofu browns, you can add the fresh veggies like brocoli, peppers, carrots, zucchini, etc. It's finished when the veggies are the texture you like.
3. Making your own fried tofu. (tastes like egg whites) Get some extra firm tofu. Clean and dry completely. It is important to keep the tofu very dry. Slice the tofu into thin strips. Prepare your wok. (You can deep fry it, but you don't need as much oil for deep frying in a wok like you do in a regular deep fryer.) Heat the wok, put enough oil in it to cover the tofu. Once the oil is heated up, fry the tofu. When golden brown, put tofu on a paper towel and salt right away.
4. Micro-tomatoes. Slice fresh tomatoes and put in a micro-wave safe cassarole dish. Top with mozzella and italian bread crumbe. Nuke for 30-45 sec. and enjoy.
5. Zucchini, the most versitile vegetable. You can make bread, cookies, salad, etc. with it. I like to fry it or bake it. To fry it, you just slice it into little ringlets, dipp in egg and Italian bread crumbs, then just fry it. Drain it on paper towels. Kids are crazy about it cooked this way......To bake it, I just coat my pan with a little oil and make layers of zucchini, mozzella, riccotta, and tomato sauce. Then top it with mozzella and parmesan and bake at 400 it until it's done.

Hope this helps.

We use Boca Crumbles (in the freezer section, usually near the veggies) for tons of recipes. I use it as a replacement all the time for ground hamburger in just about any recipe. We love it for tacos and with taco seasoning it has even tricked our most meat-loving relatives :).

We also use a lot of beans for protein. Beans in chili, beans in burritos, beans in taco salad, beans on salads. Our one-year-old loves beans in all forms!

There are lots of wonderful vegetarian cookbooks...Moosewood is a good one. I second the recommendation of the magazine Vegetarian Times-it's great!

We are trying to do the same thing. I found some great recipes on allrecipes.com. The first one I tried was for lentil tacos (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tasty-lentil-tacos/detail.aspx). They were delicious. You can substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

mexican works well- burritos with beans cheese rice, some veggies, salsa.
Tostadas, veggie lagsagna, veggie pizza (make your own with w.w. crust.), all sorts of soups like coconut curry carrot, african peanut, butternut squash soup. Rattatoulle, stir fry, asian noodles, pho, panini with roasted peppers and mushrooms, hummus, dals, falafel, ...

I make many of our old recipes substituting the meat with tofu, boca crumbles (beef substitute) or beans. It's been pretty easy transitioning to being a lacto-ovo vegetarian and I feel a lot better! Also I've cut down a lot on crackers, simple carbs and dairy too. My sinus congestion has cleared up a lot not eating much dairy. GL.

Avocado is a super food. Kale is 10 out of 10 on the nutrient density scale. Quinoa is a possible substitute for rice or couscous that is really high in protein. All are delicious! Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has a couple of really nice vegan cookbooks you can find on Amazon.
Almond milk is probably a better choice than soy, especially for men.
Good luck!

In my household, we eat lots of bean stews/soups served over rice or other grains, peanut butter or houmous/other bean paste sandwiches, and pastas. I cook chicken/fish about once every few months--just not part of my typical repertoire. The kids and my husband do eat meat out pretty often--cheeseburgers, etc--however I figure at least they're getting at least half their food at home, so their diet is healthier than most. For inspiration about things to cook, look at Middle Eastern, Indian, and East Asian cuisines. They have great tasty non-meat-based foods. It can be harder to get the ingredients for the last two if you live in a small town like we do, however there is the natural food store or occasional trip to the big city to stock up.

For kitchen equipment, a rice cooker has been essential, and a food processor has been really helpful too. Some people swear by slow cookers, though I have never needed one. I buy dried beans and grains in bulk and store them so I have the basics on hand when I want to make something. It does require a little planning to make sure I start soaking the pintos, chickpeas, or whatever the night before they're needed for the dish, however it's easy to develop the habit. I also have a big variety of dried herbs and spices so I can season dishes the way that works for me. They keep a good while in closed bottles.

For cookbooks, I use the Moosewood Cookbook (mentioned by another poster) a good bit for several very reliable recipes. My go-to book for basic 'how to cook vegetarian' ideas and easy recipes is Laurel's Kitchen. It's old (1970s) so some of the nutritional information is probably outdated, but it has some great basic principles and lots of less-complicated recipes which my family eats about once a week. I looked on Amazon, and there is a new Laurel's Kitchen Recipes from 2004; I haven't seen it, so I can't say what it's like. To decide which book works for you, borrow the books at the library or ask the library to get them from another library if they don't have them. Good luck!