Going Vegetarian

Try laptoplunches.com it's a great site.
They sell Bentoware lunchbox systems but also have lunch ideas and a monthly newsletter you can sign up for that has more ideas, inspirational stories etc. Many of the ideas are vegetarian, fun and look delicious, but some are also a bit more work.
Good luck!

There's always the option to go to Better Health or Whole Foods and get tips, suggestions. I know there are magazines available there on the subject.

I am not vegetarian, but have family and friends who are, so my cooking reflects that. Don't fall into the soy substitute trap of having tofu this and tofu that for every meal. Too much plant estrogens to begin with, and tofu hot dogs get old pretty fast.
If you are willing to eat dairy or eggs, cheese and eggs can go a long way towards your protein needs. If you are going strictly vegan, your best friends will be nuts and legumes. Nuts like almonds, pecans, etc, can put a lot of texture and protein into foods.The legume family has peanuts and beans. If you combine rice with beans, you will get all the amino acids you need (complete protein). They are both incomplete proteins, but together are complete. The variety of legumes is huge: chili style, pinto beans, kidney beans, navy beans,lentils,Chickpeas, the list goes on and on. If you think Mexican, Indian, Middle eastern, Asian and peasant cuisines, you can get some great ideas. Peanuts are not just peanut butter, either. Peanut butter sauces are important in a lot of African recipes and Thai food, and chopped peanuts (or pine nuts or pecans or almonds for that matter) can add a lot of protein and flavor to a rice pilaf. Nuts and peanuts can make a lot of dessert foods more nutricious too. Even a spoonful on top of ice cream (if you do dairy) or baked into a cookie helps.
Another word of warning: make sure you get enough essential fatty acids if you are cutting out meat and especially if you are going vegan. Good sources of vegetable fat are avocado, olives, coconut. They add a lot of flavor, too.
good luck, L.
Good luck with the transition

I am a mother of two and have been a vegetarian for 14 years now. I don't do any of the "protein combining", as I have read that if you eat a well balanced diet, you will be fine. My kids like almond butter and jelly sandwiches (we try not to do a whole lot of peanuts), cheese sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, eggs, hummus, indian food, middle eastern food, etc.

I highly suggest joining a food co-op to cut down on costs.

Some of our favorite recipes come from:

Vegetarian Meat and Potatoes

The vegetarian Slow Cooker

Better Homes and Gardens vegetarian

Hi J.,

Funny you ask this question. I have been doing research myself and trying so hard to find good healthy nutritious meal for my one year old son. A co-worker of mine who is a vegetarian has recommended I read Eat To Live by Dr Joel Fuhrman. I've starting reading and found some very interesting information. He also has some recipes in his book. There is another book I'm planning on reading that he wrote, it's called Disease Proof your Child. Hope this helps. Gook luck. I've heard the transition is tough, but well-worth it!!

L.

Hi J.:

Try going to Prevention.com. Do a keyword search for "vegetarian" and "vegetarian recipes." The website offers nice tips and advice for people who have decided to go vegetarian. Here is a link to one of their articles:

http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/vegetarian-diets/d9...

Good luck!

Good for you! It is kind of a scary adventure when you first start off, but I know you'll have GREAT success!

Is your decision based on love for animals or health concerns? Are you planning to be lacto-ovo or vegan? I grew up in a vegetarian house, where we'd eat meat at restaurants, but not in the home. I married a total vegetarian so I've decided to give up meat permenantly for health reasons. We're experimenting with veganism, not totally there yet, especially when eating out, but trying.

I keep a recipe blog (martasrecipes.blogspot.com) that I've just started. I'm trying to find more vegan friendly meals, that aren't totally weird tasting, so that's been my focus. But I'm sure you'll see more dairy recipes come up as time goes on.

As far as protein is concerned. Don't freak out about plant based proteins not being "complete" because over time or even with other meal elements, you get the other parts of the protein. We love beans, tofu, vege-meat substitutes (easiest to find in the freezer section of Walmart/Meijers/Hardings, or also at the health food stores - though they're more expensive). We also make homemade gluten, which is pretty easy, but takes about an hour to bake and then boil. Remember that vegetarian animals get ALL their protein from plants, so most vegetables have protein in them, especially green leafy vegetables and legumes.

If you're concerned about the switch from meat, the easiest way is to either plan meals that can easily be meat free (like pasta dishes, Mexican food or Chinese) or use a meat substitute. Vegeburger (the freezer kind) browns really well and substitute well in recipes. The chicken/beef strips have kind of a weird texture, I like to fry them crispy or bake them to fix this issue, but they substitute easily as well.

I'd be happy to share more recipes with you or answer any specific questions you'd have. Hope this information was helpful!

My daughter decided to go no meat 5 years ago when she was 9 years old, our family is not real big eaters but we include meat in our diet. Her school class went to a museum and showed her the pig skinner, she has not eaten meat since.
We feed her wheat bread, pasta,she loves mac and cheese, peanut butter, beans on tostadas or tortillas or with corn chips. She loves fettucini, salad, grilled cheese, fruit smoothies, broccoli, corn on the cob, strawberries,raspberries. We love summer for all the fresh veggies and fruit. I actually think she eats quite good. Her doctor does recommend a multi vitamin and iron. She is beautiful, healty and actually growing taller than me.

Although we are not vegetarians we had to reduce our meat intake and I have always tried to reduce processed foods for my family when I researched it found beans to be such a great source of protein and fiber. All beans. My kids now 8 and 12 love beans really any kind they have been eating them plain since they were little .....an emergency meal at our house always consists of an open can of beans and if you get them dried and rehydrate them yourself they are even better. If you read the labels on those Frozen Veg products ....Morningstar I believe that is the brand that is made by Kellogg .....yes the cereal company. Guess what is in it? You can make some of that stuff and make it even better for your family if you have the time. Good luck on your research.

Try www.allrecipes.com . They have a wide variety of recipes that "real" people submit. I am not a vegetarian, but I know that they have ways to search using different ingredients, too, if there is a certain ingredient that your family likes. Good luck!!!

By the way, I think that it is great that you are researching instead of just jumping into this. THat way you can be sure that you are all stil getting the right nutrients and such.

La Leche League has 2 recipe books of healthy recipes, incl. quite a few vegetarian ones, focused on children. They are WHOLE FOODS FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY and WHOLE FOODS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD. Some bookstores carry them, and you can always order them through their website www.llli.org.

Hey J. - we are doing the same! I'm glad you posted this question. Giving up meat has been over a 2 year process for us, but this past June we finally made the complete switch and it feels great. Our quest all started because I read the Eat to Live book listed in one of your other responses - it's a fantastic read. It sounds like you've already got your inspiration, but if you need more fuel to keep you going... I also read Disease Proofing Your Child and found it handy. A lot of the same message though as Eat to Live.

Anyways, we are always learning and becoming more comfortable in our new way of life. I've come to realize that ethnic foods are the best for vegetarians. Mediterranean Cuisine has quickly become my favorite - it's flavors are wonderful and so bold. I never knew how much other tastier things were out there to eat!

My recommendation is to find a variety of sources for new recipes. Different types of cookbooks and internet sites for you to rely on. It's hard at first to get past the old recipes you grew up on. We do our grocery shopping one day a week so we meal plan which is great. My goal is to make one new recipe per week and to have salad for dinner at least 2 times/week.

Make sure you try to stick with whole foods and not processed. People can be vegetarian and also not be healthy, so be careful of the convience foods. Everyone uses these at some time, just be aware.

Our weekly shopping staple list goes something like:
lots of beans, all types
yogurt, cheese
pita bread, sandwich bread/english muffins
fruits
stuff for salads
fresh vegetables (frozen veggies are always in the freezer)
zaziki
stuff to make hummus and a basic spicy bean dip
tofu
salsa (I sometimes make my own) and tortilla chips
raisins and oatmeal
+ any other ingredients we might need for recipes

Instead of making ground beef tacos we now make bean tacos, they are very easy and just as fun. We love them. Also,
1/3 apple juice (or other juice) to 2/3 sparkling water makes a great bubbly drink substitute for pop!

Oh, and by recommendation I just ordered VegLife vitamins from http://www.evitamins.com/product.asp?pid=5447. We will all be taking them.

A few other thoughts...typically we have oatmeal for breakfast. It's easy to make a huge batch and reheat as you need. We ALWAYS add a tsp. of flax seed oil, a nice rounded Tbsp. of a ground nut (almond, cashew, walnut, sunflower seed, or hazelnut), cinnamon or nutmeg, and raisins or fruit. It's a great way to get in nuts regularly as long as you know allergies aren't an issue.

I hope I've helped you at least a bit more. If you'd like to know the sites or cookbooks I've really enjoyed let me know. I'd be happy to share.

Good luck and rock on walking the vegetarian path!!!

I have been vegetarian for about 1 1/2 years. It was a relatively easy transition for me but we have not decided if our daughter is going to be on a completely meat-free diet (hubby still eats meat when we go out). The Morningstar Farms products are great and even my husband eats them as I don't buy or prepare meat at home. The chix patties/nuggets ane good with pasta, I use the 'bacon' for BLT wraps, the sausage links are also really good, there are corn dogs and mini-corn dogs too that work great as snacks or a kid-friendly quick meal. I've just recently started to chop up the Boca burgers to put in spaghetti sauce. I find that to be more "realistic" than the crumbles unless you are doing tacos. Like most of the previous people said, if you are planning to eat dairy and eggs then you should have no problems getting all of your protein. Good luck!

I'm not vegetarian anymore, but I was for 8 years. Molly Katzen's first two cookbooks, The Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, have great recipes I'm sure your whole family will like. If you plan on including eggs and dairy in your diet, you'll have no problem getting adequate protein.

You've gotten lots of great advice already. I just wanted to add another couple of books that i just recently ordered from Amazon.com:
"Simply Natural Baby Food: Easy Recipes for Delicious Meals Your Infant and Toddler Will Love" and another entitled "Super Baby Foods". They are geared for infants and littles ones but they are packed full of great info. I thought we ate pretty healthy but there are many vegetarian protein sources that we have never tried.... legumes and such. The recipes are pretty simple and i am pretty excited about the books. Best of luck!

I'm not vegetarian, but I do cook with lentils at least 1-2X a week to cut down on costs.. there are good recipes online at recipe zaar and I'd never had lentils before last year and now really like them. THere is lentil meatloaf, lentil bakes.. very good and veggie and cheap!

I have been vegetarian all my life so I can't relate to the transition, but I do know about this lifestyle. There really is so much variety, but give yourself time to adjust and find the recipes that your family likes. Don't expect it to be a perfect deal right away cause I'm sure it will take some time for everyone to get use to the switch.

There is lots you can do for protein....beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, tofu, and dairy. You won't suffer at all for protein! There are even plenty of "meat" substitutes in the veggie world if you choose to try them.

One of the meals that my kids really like (ages 2 and 4) is something we call haystacks. It's like taco salad, only stacked. Corn chips, beans, cheese, lettuce, tomato, olives, avocado, peppers (any or all of these) and then topped with a dressing like ranch or sour cream.

There is always spaghetti, lasagne, mac and cheese, burritos, pizza, pot pie (and use meat substitute in this), scallop potatoes, sloppy joes (they make this veggie too), pasta salad, etc, to name a few.

If you're interested, I could send you some recipes by email. You'd just have to give me your email address. Good luck with this transition. I think it's a great decision and a very healthy choice for your family!

Hi J.,
Many years ago, an overweight friend gave me a subscription to Veggie Life (actually, someone subscribed to it for him and he gave me the mag each month--not sure he ever looked at it). I wasn't a vegetarian, but tried to cook healthy for my family. I found some absolutely delicious recipes which we still use to this day (plus I've kept all the issues and still look thru them when I need a good recipe). There are also plenty of articles about all kinds of things, plus a glossary of terms at the back of each issue, etc. I just went to the veggielife.com website and it's a veritable wealth of info. Hope this helps.

Well we went vegetarian about 4 years ago and are still going strong. My first child was 9 months. We now have three children and we are all vegetarian. To started by picking up the book "Vegetarian Baby"-Sharon K Yntema and Christine H Beard. Even if your children are older this book is filled with great information about foods and the nutritions they give us. Great information about different protein substitutes as well. The first thing I did was to pick up a few vegetarian cooks books and made menus from for my first week. We still use dairy so most of my staple foods are cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt (plain), Nutritional yeast, TVP (textured vegetable protein) We just also introduced Sitan ( gluten and nutritional yeast) Online there are some great recipes. I also use all whole wheat noodles so we do not always get a solid protein in our meal, but we do usually get a dairy and the whole wheat has some protein.
Beyond the Moon - Ginny Callan This is my favorite cookbook.
Indian cookbooks are great too.
Like I said before start with a menu and go from there, try not to do all intense and new recipes. Maybe two or three that have a lot of prep. Make your first week easy. Or you will also give up. Now is the time though because there is so much great fresh produce. My garden is going strong with Zucchini and yellow squash great just steamed (my kids and daycare kids love it this way) or put it in a tomato dish. There are a few great zucchini curry recipes out there with brown rice on the side.
I use tvp in place ground beef in things like tacos and spaghetti sauce. Just add a little olive oil and vegetable broth for added flavor. I love garlic so I add that to almost everything. Let me know if there is something special you are looking for I probably have done it or have a recipe for it.

My family and I are not vegitarian but I made a great Zuchinni Lasagna last summer. I don't know where the recipe is right now but I found it on cooks.com.
Blessings, K.

Hi J.,

I've been vegetarian for a few years, but I only have one child. He's 15 months old, so he pretty much eats whatever my husband and I eat. I don't know how kid friendly my suggestions are, but I'll help as much as possible.

If you eat conventional produce instead of organic, look for a Joe Randazzo's market in your area. They have really inexpensive produce, but they don't usually sell organic (There's one in Macomb, Roseville, East side of Detroit, Westland, Redford).

In my house we eat lots of bean dishes. You can get a bag of dried beans for about a dollar, soak them overnight, rinse them in the morning, let them cook in a crock pot during the day, and use them for dinner. They also freeze well. They make great soups, put them over salads, cook them with vegetables, put them over rice. Beans offer lots of fiber and protein. When you combine beans and rice, they are a complete protein just like meat. I buy brown rice from Randazzos when I buy fruit and veggies. $3.69 for a 5 lb. bag. You can also use beans in burritos, taco salads and lately I've been making lots of wraps (using black or pinto beans, rice, sauteed veggies, and homemade guacomole).

We do stir frys. Sautee some fresh veggies (or frozen veggie blends) w/ onions and garlic, a little firm tofu cut into cubes (doesn't really taste like anything -- offers protein). We like bell peppers (colored ones are nice :), mushrooms, broccoli, green beans, peas. Whatever you have on hand. You can buy stir fry sauce, or I make a sweet & sour sauce w/ water, a little ketchup, white vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice, and a little cornstarch to thicken.

Spaghetti w/ lots of veggies (peppers, mushrooms, olives...). Occasionally I use ground boca or morningstar crumbles as a meat substitute. Some say be careful giving too many soy products to children. I've heard conflicting advice about it, so I need to do some more research. You may want to as well.

Spinach or veggie lasagna. Sautee spinach or some other veggies and mix them in w/ your ricotta when you make lasagna. You may use veggie crumbles here as well. Stewed canned tomatoes are nice.

I don't use a lot of canned vegetables, but canned tomatoes are excellent. Some say they are better than fresh b/c they are actually vine-ripened instead of ripened in a box on the back of a truck somewhere.

If you do eggs and dairy, those are also great sources of protein. For some reason, we have this protein obsession that we don't need to have. Eat a variety of foods and don't worry too much about it. You'll get plenty. We can get protein from the same places the animals get it.

If I think of anything else I'll write more later. Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions. Good luck!

H.

While no way my husband would go vegetarian, I've found allrecipes.com have recipes like Black Bean Lasagna, etc. that sound way too yummy not to try. Morningstar makes a tasty veggie crumble designed to substitute for ground beef -tacos, sloppy joes, the whole ground beef world at your fingertips.
I will say that the taste and even texture is different, of course (a tad more creamy), but with creative seasonings, you really can't tell that much. It is an acquired taste, though I will say my tacos came out more like Taco Bell tacos than any I've ever made with ground beef because it was a finer texture - tasted like they were made with lard, but much healthier!
I haven't really tried tofu, though I hear it's also a good substitute for meat. I guess I have a way to go too.......

J.,
I'm not vegan but I do have a recipe for an eggless, milkless, butterless cake. It is also a good recipe if anyone you know is allergic to eggs or milk.

Wacky Cake

1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tblsp cocoa

Make a hole in flour mixture and pour in:

6 Tblsp of oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cool water
1 Tblsp vinegar

Mix and pour into a square 8 x 8 ungreased pan. Bake 350 degrees for 25-30 min.
This recipe may be doubled using a 9 x 13 cake pan.
If you use this recipe for cupcakes I don't know why but if you bake the cupcakes then freeze them overnight they hold together much better, otherwise they tend to be a bit crumbly.

We have been making this recipe in our family for years, my mom and my grandma as well as all my aunts make this cake. We think its very good! Good luck to you.

I would recommend subscribing to Vegetarian Times. They always have excellent recipes. Also, the book, The NEW Vegetarian Baby by Yntema is a wonderful nutritional source- I've been a veggie for 16 years and even I learned a lot from this book about a veggie diet (esp. for children). This site may be helpful, too. http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/startingsolids/vegetaria...
Some basic foods stuffs I'd recommend getting familiar with are: lentils, quinoa, molasses, nutritional yeast, kale, TVP (texturized veggie protein) and tempe. These are very versatile. I've found very few meat dish that I can't make veggie someway.

You may want to search some Yahoo groups. There are some great message boards out there that have files sections loaded with recipes.