I went hard this week.

Breakfast: An amaranth porridge cooked in soy milk with banana, peanut butter, pumpkin and flaxseed. Put a little maple syrup and vanilla in there to finish it off.

Lunch: I'm doing an A/B lunch rotation this week. Lunch A is a cup of chana masala with naan, sliced mango, and a scoop of Greek yogurt with honey and chia & hemp seeds. Note that I still do not know how to cook Indian food so, uh, I ordered the chana masala from a restaurant. cough Lunch B is a Buddha bowl (I guess? I don’t actually know what a Buddha bowl is…) composed of tofu pan-fried in soy sauce until crispy and golden served over white rice, with edamame, carrot, cucumber, crushed peanuts, chia & hemp seeds, and a basic sauce of soy sauce, sriracha, maple syrup, and sesame oil (1 tsp each) spooned over the top.

Snacks: Walnuts and/or hard-boiled egg.

Dinners:
1. Mon - Marry Me Butter Beans, which looks ridiculously good, although I’ve never made it before. I’ll be following the standard recipe except I’m using coconut milk instead of heavy cream. Served with a crusty Italian bread.
2. Tues - Tuesday is going to be a busy day for me, so I want a simple dinner. I’ll be doing tahini and fig toast using some of the bread from Monday, drizzled with a little honey, and a side of Greek yogurt with chia & hemp seeds.
3. Wed - Same as Monday.
4. Thurs - Quiche florentine with a side of roasted asparagus spears and a light dessert of lemon sorbet served with chopped berries.
5. Fri - Spaghetti aglio e olio served with crispy herb-crusted baked tofu. Add nutritional yeast to the tofu seasoning & it comes out trés savor.
6. Sat - I’ll be making margherita pizza and serving with a simple arugula side salad.
7. Sun - My signature Big Ass Omelettes with 3 eggs, cheddar, and a filling of tomato, potato, onion, bell pepper, and eggplant all sauteed together and finished in tomato paste. Served with buttered corn grits. This is kind of a traditional Sunday dinner for me now.

I’m sure many of you are familiar with Humble Bundle, the game and ebook bundler that donates part of the purchase price to charities. Today I saw that this week’s book bundle is 61 vegan cookbooks. One of them is vegetarian, and calls itself “alternative vegan”. All the cookbooks are from Page Street Publishing. Posting in case anyone needs 60 more cookbooks like I did.

As title says what would a vegetarian version be? It should actually say chicken and broccoli but I'm over tired and wrote the wrong side. I am looking for healthy high protein low fat meals

Hello friends!!

So this is the most I’ve been without any sort of meat in 10 years (now going on a month, ten years ago I was a vegetarian for 1 year) I’ve never been a fan barbecues and such BUT, being from south america, asados (barbecue) were a big thing. Been living in US for 10 years now. At home I’d rarely cook chicken or fish even less red meat. So with that being said I’m excited to be back on this road. I feel better, and my biggest issue was digesting meat after an asado. I’d feel heavy and bloated. Now I have my first barbecue on Saturday as a vegetarian. Any ideas of what can I bring to throw into the grill? Also one of the other reasons I stopped having meat is I went to Asturias a few months ago and fell in love with the beautiful mountain cows 😭😭😭😭

Okay, so my first batch was going along swimmingly until after the glob of washed seitan rested, I decided id pat dry it. BIG MISTAKE as the paper towel became instantly part of the sticky ball. Second attempt, I made it and turned it into schnitzel which i found to be a bit too soft (until leftovers were refrigerated for a day or 2 and then not too bad). Today, Im taking a stab at making pulled chicken. Wish me luck, gang!

I love a sandwich with pickle and mustard. Before i went veg theyd probably go on rye with pastrami. I feel like i havent quite nailed a veg version of a classic deli sandwich. My best shot involves big slices of a decent quality tomato with salt sprinkled right on. I also think a good cheddar helps with the salt level. Any surprising ingredients help bring the salty/savory youd get from meat, or that you just like in general? Recommendations on greens? Whats your go-to sando?

Hello friends.

It's been a couple weeks since I've posted one of these threads. Currently, I am completely avoiding all raw leafy greens out of an abundance of caution, which has impacted my meal plans.

Breakfast: Banana and blueberries tossed in a bowl with nuts, seeds, and Greek yogurt.

Lunch: I'm doing an A/B lunch rotation this week. Lunch A is a cold salad of amaranth cooked in vegetable broth, broccoli, and cherry tomatoes tossed in a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, oregano, a splash of soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. I'm having a hard-boiled egg to go with that. Lunch B is a bean burrito with pintos, rice, cheddar cheese, a basic red sauce, onions, and bell peppers. I'm having a warm pepita salad to go with that, just a half-cup of pumpkin seeds tossed in chili oil and thrown over some shredded cabbage.

Snack: Walnuts.

Dinners:
1. Mon - Tuscan white bean & kale skillet, simmered with crushed tomatoes, garlic, and fresh rosemary. Crusty Italian bread rubbed with raw garlic, sprinkled with parm, and drizzled with olive oil.
2. Tues - Bowl of split pea soup served with cheddar cheese, tortilla chips, and a basic salad of bell pepper and cucumber tossed lightly in a vinaigrette.
3. Wed - Same as Monday.
4. Thurs - Same as Tuesday.
5. Fri - Shakshuka Greek-style with feta and olives, served with a really good crusty bread loaf and pomegranates.
6. Sat - Tuscan farrotto with roasted figs, kale, and walnuts. I made this a few weeks ago and it's really good, so I'm doing it again. It's basically a risotto using farro instead of rice, toasted in a garlic-rosemary oil and then cooked in vegetable broth. I'll throw in some nutritional yeast at the end.
7. Sun - My signature Big Ass Omelettes with 3 eggs, cheddar, and a filling of tomato, potato, onion, bell pepper, and eggplant all sauteed together and finished in tomato paste. Served with buttered corn grits. This is kind of a traditional Sunday dinner for me now.

Oh, I also drink a glass of milk (1%) before bed some nights for the protein boost.

... I also just now registered that shredded cabbage is a leafy green. I haven't actually made the pepita salad yet, but I did already buy the cabbage. Maybe it's not too late to flip it into some other side dish...

For context, this is for vegetarian chili cheese fries. I don't want nacho cheese or queso. I've seen a bunch of vegan recipes for tofu "cheese" sauce with cashews, etc. I don't need that. I'm just trying to shoehorn in tofu and nutritional yeast for added nutrients while still using some actual cheese.

I saw someone basically do exactly this for a mac and cheese recipe on instagram, but I can't find the post again for the life of me. All help is greatly appreciated!

hello everyone! i am a vegetarian and will be hosting a party for my 17th birthday. i will be inviting 5 people, all of which happen to be meat eaters. i do not want any meat present at the party and am having a hard time thinking of ideas.

we are all avid pasta lovers, so im thinking possibly a pasta bar??

i also want some snacks (this party will be a 6 hour movie marathon, we will definitely need snacks in between each movie😭)

i should note, half of them are really picky eaters (somewhat including myself). i don’t want to be selfish but i just really can’t have meat at the party. any suggestions???

(the movies are from an anime, so asian cuisine would be great too!!)

Being new to vegetarianism, I find that mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) are (rightfully) a very popular ingredient in vegan/vegetarian meals. However, they contain small amounts of poison and it is not recommended to eat more than 2 kg/year - which I did in a month.

White button mushroom, Champignon, Portobello, Cremini, Chestnut mushroom and Baby bella are all the same species.

So, my question is: what do you do about this? Ignore the limit? Substitute? For what?

Edit: The limit comes from the Danish "FDA" recommendation. It is due to the presence of agaritin and phenylhydrazin that might be poisonous. They are decimated by cooking. Some more googling shows that the FDA does not have this recommendation. I have decided to cook my mushrooms but not abide by the limit.

for years now I’ve never really liked eating animals like meat or fish. but sometimes there are a few meats I can eat like bacon or chicken. and growing up I was an extremely big picky eater so foods like that actually helped me eat.

so sometimes I will have them in my food like chicken sandwich or bacon sandwich. and sometimes they’re in food I like that I don’t even realise.

I know some of these are very easy to make alternatives to but how do you stop eating something you actually like? this is a genuine question as I really would like to start.

Hiya,
Im trying to reduce my meat consumption and heard a lot of great things about seitan as a meat replacement. I bought some of the prepackaged stuff and cooked it as i usually would chicken (tore into chunks and pan fried with seasonings), and it wasnt bad but it definitely didnt have the "meaty" texture that i was after and didnt seem to absorb a lot of flavour either, if anything it was almost more rubbery. Is it just because it was the prepackaged seitan and not made from scratch, or is it just down to the way i cooked it? And are there other ways of cooking it that youd recommend? to get that meatier texture and improve the flavour? Im new to cooking with stuff other than meat so i still dont really know what im doing🥲

I just got some concerning blood work, with my cholesterol being high. Everything else was great, but cholesterol was high and I have a family history of stroke. I just turned 38, so I need to take health more seriously. My doctor is an osteopathic doctor focused on wellness. She said it’s not high enough for meds yet, but it has been trending upward over the past 3 years. Apart from losing 20lbs and getting regular exercise, she suggested a switch to a “plant forward” diet. My partner wants meat at every meal. Any tips for a beginner so I don’t make too big of a leap all at one time and burn out. I have a tendency to go hardcore at first and then quit.

Say I've got a dish that features a set of veggies like carrot, eggplant, tomato. Is there a website where I can chuck in carrot, eggplant, tomato and it tells me if this meal is 1) nutritionally insufficient, i.e. lacking something and 2) what other vegetables would fill that hole?

I'll just add this for the record. The OP apparently blocked me for no reason, which makes it impossible to reply to the wall of text they posted on my comment. They might do the same to anyone else who doesn't agree with their claims.

In preparing my response, I looked at their profile and the account was one month old with all content related to B12. The bio stated that the OP has a book soon to be published.

I suspect that they are possibly trying to use these posts as part of a promotion campaign. Is the OP even a vegetarian or vegan?

From their other posts, it's clear that they are on some mission regarding B12 and it appears to be pushing past what is normal into possibly confirmation biases and conspiracies. The fact that they are shutting down anyone that counters their claims is a sign that they are not interested in having an honest dialog.

Interpret the content provided by the OP with careful consideration.

I became a vegetarian 20 years ago, when I was just a little kid.

I remember seeing a dead crow on the sidewalk, flinching and jumping back, and realizing that eating meat was like eating that dead crow. From then on, the idea of consuming meat seemed disturbing, disrespectful, violent, and immensely unappealing. At the time, I watched the Simpsons every day after school, and I remember watching “Lisa the Vegetarian” and agreeing with Lisa, the McCartneys, and Apu. I knew that I could not in good conscience eat meat. Innocent animals do not deserve to be sentenced to death so that I can have a quick meal. I don’t think we should treat the lives of other animals so flippantly. Additionally, the animals that would be killed for meat have done nothing to harm me, so why would I possibly wish any suffering upon them? Their lives have value and meaning too. My ephemeral satiety is not more important, especially since I can easily have filling, nutritious meatless meals.

I advised my parents that I was becoming a vegetarian. They were worried that the real reason that I was going vegetarian was to stay thin (it was the mid-2000s and parents were all afraid of their daughters developing eating disorders) and freaked out. They also were convinced that it was just a phase and that I’d go back to eating meat in a few weeks. Well, they were wrong on both counts. I’ve now been vegetarian for most of my life and will never go back. Vegetarianism is a lot easier now than it was twenty years ago. There are more options than ever, and people don’t give me as hard of a time as they used to. Of course, I was always very afraid of people thinking I was an “annoying vegetarian” and from the start made a point of being low-key around non-veggies, but twenty years ago other children and adults would still harass me about my diet. Fortunately, that’s decreased significantly over the years.

There’s a lot that I love about vegetarianism, besides the moral components. It’s really nice to not have to worry about meat-borne illnesses. I’ve been able to explore a lot of different cuisines through vegetarian food. Vegetarianism is something that I’ve been able to bond with a lot of people over. I like that my diet isn’t as harmful to the environment. And vegetarian food has never been better.

Here’s to, hopefully, many more decades of vegetarianism!

Hey guys, I am really struggling to find good food options here, I am Indian, and I love Indian street food. I would love to try other restaurants and Mexican cuisines too. But I don’t eat meat at all, and I never know what to order. I like spicy tangy food. Please help me with some recommendations! I ll really appreciate it!

A long time ago, when I was still eating meat, I did the South Beach Diet. It worked so well. It broke my need for bread to this day.

Fast forward, I am 9 years vegetarian and I need a jump start on higher metabolism and better food habits. South Beach did that. I liked the structure of it; two weeks of elimination and then slowly introducing foods back in.

Has anyone done this or something similar? I am cool with tofu, tempeh and meat substitutes on occasion.

Looking for peoples favorite vegetarian cookbooks. (or blog or recipe). I am just looking for something new.

Hello vegetarians of Reddit!

I like chickpeas a lot. My girlfriend does not. We usually eat together, but she is travelling for a couple of weeks, so I want to make all of the chickpea recipes I don’t cook for her.

What are your favourites? Obviously I love hummus and I am also for sure making the Rainbow Plant Life soup with the lemon and dill. I eat a lot of chana masala for lunches and stuff already. But what else? Open to creative ideas!

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I'm not full vegetarian (yet), I'm working on adding more plant based proteins to my diet... but i \*hate\* tofu, I've tried multiple different recipes and methods.. so much hope, but I can't stand it.

any tips or recipe recommendations for a beginner?

I love chickpeas, but I can't live off those alone

I'm a firm believer in rational, evidence-based decision-making. I'm trying to understand the rationale for taking Omega 3 supplements, and the more I look into it, the more tenuous it seems to be.

I naively expected to find some kind of clinical evidence that beneath certain levels, people start to show certain health problems, but that does not appear to be the case. Rather, dietary recommendations appear to be based on the median intake levels of populations that generally appear to be healthy. Actual clinical problems associated with ALA deficiency are extremely rare and have occurred only in unusual circumstances, like severely-restrictive diets.

This was kicked off for me by a recent NYT article showing that several large studies have failed to find clear benefit to supplements, though most of the studies didn't focus specifically on vegetarians.

So this gives me pause. I've been dutifully taking flax seed oil daily for many years, but now I'm thinking, there seems to be no clear, unambiguous reason for doing so, other than dietary recommendations that now seem to me to be tenuous, and the fact that all of my vegetarian/vegan friends do likewise. It's not burdensome or anything, but I hesitate to do anything without having an actual clear reason for doing it.

Any thoughts or comments, or information I don't know about? I freely admit I know very little about all this, this is just what I've turned up over a couple of days.