Vegetarian Living

[sugarhigh]

Has anyone read The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone? I flipped through it at B&N and it seemed pretty interesting and informative. She's a vegan, I am not but I am trying to become a vegetarian. Mostly for environmental reasons - I have read Fast Food Nation and Food Inc. and both made me never want to eat meat again. I've also found lately that though I can eat cooked meat, I just get grossed out even thinking of it raw and having to cook it. So I figure if knowing that meat is dead animal flesh grosses me out, I probably shouldn't be eating it.

Aaaanyway, I have been eating and preparing meat most of my life and I don't really have any idea how to prepare vegetarian meals and still be satisfied. Any recommendations/recipes/advice?

[HotLips]

sugarhigh, I became vegan a few months after reading the Kind Diet and a book called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. The Kind Diet is informative and there are some good recipes in there, but the Safran Foer book is the one that really affected me. I can't recommend it enough. I wish everyone would read it.

There are some fake meats that you could try if cooking real meat is grossing you out. Gardein is good. They make Gardein beef, Gardein chicken, etc. They sell it at Target. I also like Boca crumbles for tacos.

[yournamehere]

Nov 4, 2010 22:54:16 GMT -4 sugarhigh said:

Has anyone read The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone? I flipped through it at B&N and it seemed pretty interesting and informative. She's a vegan, I am not but I am trying to become a vegetarian. Mostly for environmental reasons - I have read Fast Food Nation and Food Inc. and both made me never want to eat meat again. I've also found lately that though I can eat cooked meat, I just get grossed out even thinking of it raw and having to cook it. So I figure if knowing that meat is dead animal flesh grosses me out, I probably shouldn't be eating it.

Aaaanyway, I have been eating and preparing meat most of my life and I don't really have any idea how to prepare vegetarian meals and still be satisfied. Any recommendations/recipes/advice?

It depends on what 'satisfied' means.

Do you mean, in terms of 'feeling full' or 'want the texture of meat'?

Many health food stores (and even grocery stores) sell a good deal of meat substitutes these days (tofu, tempeh, seitan) that you can prepare like you would meat. There's an obvious consistency change, yes, but that can be dealt with given the right recipe.

My best advice to you is go back to B&N and flip through some of the vegetarian magazines they have. Take mental note of some of the more appealing recipes and seek out 'like' recipes online maybe incorporating the same ingredients or flavors that you find appealing.

If you really, really want to be a vegetarian, you should make it into a positive change, not into an 'I'm running from the alternative' thing.

Believe me when I tell you, I run into a lot of "I wish I were vegetarian"'s. I tell them all the same things: People seem to think it's a nice ideal, but they always sound half-hearted, like instead of gaining something, they're only not doing because they're afraid they're losing something.

I will say this (and I hate to sound like 'that chick'): vegetarianism has been a huge positive for me. I have to work a little harder for my choices in food, but the things I discovered in the process (yummy alternatives, feeling clever and creative every time I manage to find a decent substitute) make me feel like it was never a bad choice.

But this is why I'm huge on supporting vegetarianism for people who want it. It's not easy for anyone starting out.

ETA: Other books you might want to check out are ones that are from modern and exciting vegetarian restaurants. You probably can't get them locally but a few that you might want to find from Amazon are:

The Sublime (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) Cookbook
The Rebar (Victoria, BC) Cookbook (not all vegetarian, but veg-friendly)
Spread (San Diego...they say they will, but they don't have one yet. That's one I'm looking forward to. They serve delectable tapas.)
Veggie Works (Belmar, NJ) I used to eat there and still do occasionally (though it's evolved into Kaya's Kitchen. Different but still good.)

There's also a cookbook from the chefs the now-closed Down to Earth (Red Bank, NJ) restaurant. The original book was called Down to Earth, but the current name escapes me.

[Sunnyhorse]

My mother's birthday is on Halloween, and we had the family out for dinner. I made two pans of lasagna -- one with real Italian sausage and the other with Match Meat Italian sausage. Other than the fact that the Match Meat had a lot more aniseed in it, you absolutely could not tell that one pan was vegetarian and the other wasn't, and that's straight from my meat-eating family members. And the Match Meat sausage mellowed in taste when the pan sat in the fridge overnight -- the aniseed aroma/taste became much less pushy. I've got a block of the chicken flavor in my freezer now -- can't wait to try it!

[sugarhigh]

Do you mean, in terms of 'feeling full' or 'want the texture of meat'?

I mean feeling full. When I think of veggie meals I always think of lots of salads (I know that's not all vegetarian recipes consist of) and those aren't usually filling to me.

Thanks for the book recs. I will check out B&N this weekend and mark some recipes.

[Shalamar]

Beans and variations on beans are my daughters' best friend. She found a recipe for baked ziti that used whole-wheat pasta, Daiya "cheese", tomato sauce, and chickpeas that was extremely tasty and filling.

I agree about the Gardein "meat" - their beefless strips are very good, and my daughter swears by their stuffed faux-chicken breasts. We've had some good luck with the Schneider O! Naturel Meatballs; I made some sweet&sour mealtballs for a party and no-one could tell that they weren't the real deal.

[LAX]

I am going to have to find some of this Match Meat. I make a lot of casseroles and crock pot dishes like shepherd's pie, lasagne, and chile, but the meat substitutes I've been using just don't do well in them. They either disintegrate in the sauce, or develop a weird texture when the recipe involves long cooking.

When I first became a vegetarian it involved a transition period. The best book I ever owned was called Almost Vegetarian, which includes recipes you can make vegetarian, or include a meat or seafood if you so desire. I tried nearly the recipes in the book and didn't have a single one I didn't like.

I am a fan of tofu, and think it does the job in keeping me satiated, and if prepared in certain ways can even give you the firm, meaty bite you want in some dishes. I find too many restaurants in my area prepare their dishes with the squishy, medium-soft, tofu, which I don't like at all, so I prepare it myself. Experiment with brands because all tofu is not created equal. A fellow Greecie recommended This Can't Be Tofu by Deborah Madison, and this has been my go to book for tofu recipes.

Vegetarianism is definitely more than lightweight veggies and salads. I have found so many satisfying and tasty meals that don't include meat, I have zero desire to go back to eating meat.

[Sunnyhorse]

I think you'll really like the Match Meat, LAX -- I was nibbling pieces of the sausage while browning it, and the mouth feel is exactly like that of ground meat. I need to find a recipe to use my chicken "meat" in now ...

[LAX]

Darn, no Match Meat is sold in my area. I'll have to talk to my local markets about that. Just not stupid Safeway, who not only reduced the number of vegetarian products they carry, they eliminated the Yves veggie line yet kept the yucky Tofurky line.

[Sunnyhorse]

I had Yves hot dogs not long ago, but they were only good on the grill, not steamed in the microwave. Nothing holds a candle to the late, lamented Morningstar dogs, which seem to have been (sob!) discontinued.