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Is anyone vegetarian or vegan?

JuniperBug

JuniperBug

Rainbow Bird of Friendliness
I'm a picky eater but I'd really like to stop eating meat.

I try to choose non meat as often as possible but often the non-meat choice is just too foreign or has an icky texture (yuck tofu)and I go with the comfortable and familiar.

When I do eat meat, it makes me feel extremely guilty because I have a lot of compassion towards the animals.

So is anyone here successfully vegan or vegetarian? Why don't you eat meat? How do you maintain it? Do you have any tips or super easy recipes to share?

I suppose what I have to do is find a vegan food to love and obsess over so I can eat it everyday. Any ideas? Thanks!
 
You could try quorn, there's all different types that substitute different meats. The gap from normal to vegetation is smaller than the gap from vegetarian to vegan so I'd say don't try going vegan right away, going vegetarian first will be easier.

As for what recipes - what stuff do you like?
 
Good for you for wanting to be vegetarian! I am one because Ibelieve animals have souls. I take a kind of Buddhist approach. Vegetarian is better than vegan because it gives you a lot more options, plus you can eat cheese.
I cook a lot of St Ives veggie ground round, which you can cook like ground beef and put in casseroles, spaghetti etc. It tastes very similar to beef.
Tofu has no flavour but it acts like a sponge and soaks up the sauces you are cooking it in.
As long as you are creative with your cooking and choose good recipes you will probably find after a while that you ddon't miss meat.
Make sure you take iron and zinc supplements and also vitamin b . These will be lacking in your diet.
 
I have started eating a bit of meat in the last two years, but had been a vegetarian for over twenty years before then. I was also a competitive bike racer and skier, and all around outdoor sport athlete. With properly balanced nutrition, you can maintain a very active lifestyle as a vegetarian. Never tried vegan, too hard to stick to while roaming around.

Leafy greens, yams, cruciferous vegetables, healthy oils like olive oil and flax oil, seaweeds, avocados, fruits of all kinds, whole grains like oats, quinoa, teff, and beans beans beans. Avoid sweets, and anything close to junk food, chocolate is good though. I drink a lot of tea (green, black, and herbal). Coffee is trouble for me, but beer, good, especially a malty Scottish ale.

Hope you give it a try, and good luck if you do.
 
unsurewhattoname said:
Especially iron. Iron is mainly found in red meat, and since you'd no longer be eating it you can get anaemia if you're not careful.
Click to expand...

Yes but you should be careful not to overdo iron too. Too much can be dangerous. You should have your levels checked from time to time by a doctor.
 
Yes, vegetarian. I would like to be vegan, but that's much more difficult. Reasons... it feels right and the meat industry is disgusting, I guess. I don't really know. The texture of meat is also really disgusting to me and it doesn't even taste that great, so it's not much of a loss to not eat it. It's only bothersome because other people get mad at my dietary limitations (which is what has stopped me from becoming vegan). I get weak very easily and start to have problems if I don't eat enough food and sometimes people don't have vegetarian food to offer when I'm away from home.
 
I was vegetarian, and then vegan, for years. I highly recommend the books by Mollie Katzen and Isa Chandra Moskowitz if you are willing to be cooking for yourself most of the time. All other issues aside, being vegan was very good for me, as it forced me to use fresher ingredients, a minimum of processed foods, and pay a lot more attention to the nutritional content of everything that I was eating. The only downside was that it was expensive and time-consuming; I would definitely recommend starting out as just lacto-ovo, and from there you can decide whether to go all-out vegan.
 
I'm mostly vegan. I have 2 suggestion since you don't like tofu
1. protein shakes
2. tempeh (nicer texture than tofu)
 
I'm not vegetarian or vegan now but, I was raised Vegetarian (lacto-ovo meaning we did use eggs and dairy products) I do have two vegetarian and one vegan friend whom I cook for sometimes and, my daughter is vegan.

All of them love my homemade gluten steaks and, since they are made from enriched, unbleached, bread (high gluten) flour, they do have a good bit of nutrition. Easy to make and, can be any flavor you like too, and they have a meat like texture so, you miss the meat less.

Just mix 6 cups bread flour, 2 TBS Kosher, Gray or Sea salt (can use regular but I prefer better salt.) 1/2 cup vegetable oil (canola, safflower, sun flower, olive, grape seeed, walnut, whatever cooking oil you have or like is fine) and, enough warm water to make a stiff dough, like bread dough. knead it for 10 minutes on the counter then, keep kneeding it in a large bowl of water, changing the water when it gets milky white, until the water is almost clear. Roll the remaining dough into a 2-3 inch diameter log and slice it 1/2 an inch thick. Boil those steaks in your favorite stock for 15 mins at a rolling boil. (vegetable or vegetarian beef, chicken or ham flavored stock works well)

Store the steaks in an air tight container for 2 days in the refrigerator, or freeze for up to a year. You can bread and fry them, cube them for casseroles, slice them thin for stir fry, whatever you like. Use them instead of firm tofu in any reciupe calling for firm tofu.

Other good things to incluse plenty of are dark green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, soy beans both dried and fresh, nut milks, nut and seed butters, nuts and seeds, citrus, avocados and, root vegetables other than potatoes.

Good beverages are rice milk, soy milk and, almond milk. I actually prefer almond milk to cow's milk and, rice milk with a little cinnamon, vanilla and sugar makes Horchata, a refreshing Mexican beverage that is delicious.
 
Vitamin B12 can be hard to get as a vegetarian/vegan. My favorite vegan source of B12 is B Fresh gum. It has vegan B12 added to it. Here's just one type, they also sell it in bottles which is cheaper.

B-Fresh_Gum_Mixed_Fruit-12-p.jpg
 
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