In reply to thatsnowinnebago :
came here to say shakshuka - but the kind Ive made is mostly tomato-based so it is red.
I also love black bean soup with eggs. and the combination of peanut butter and banana. and the combination of yellow mustard and cabbage.
Trader joes sells excellent veggie burgers in frozen patties. Very tasty and quick to throw something together.
also, plain greek yogurt is excellent as a topping on almost every dish.
I go for interesting sauces over rice , pasta or potatoes etc. And throw some veggies in ......
curry sauce , mexician salsa or chili sauce , Chinese red chilli sauce and many others..,
Trader Joe's has a good selection as does Smart and Finals and Aldi , all at good prices , The Chain grocery stores seem to charge a premium for being 'exotic '
mtn said:Shawnb said:Former vegan here...
if you end up on a vegan diet long term, make sure you understand what you’re body needs. Do the research, and get periodic blood tests.
Out of curiosity, what would you be missing from a balanced vegan diet other than B12? I haven't found anything, assuming that you aren't eating only 1 thing.
“Balanced” is the key word here, and everyone will have slightly different needs.
vitamin B12, calcium, iron, and zinc are a few nutrients some have issues with. B12 obviously being the big one.
After 6ish years, it just wasn’t sustainable for me.
Most pork recipes should work well on vegetarians, just cook low and slow so the collagen has time to break down.
Cows are vegetarians and they are my favorite meal. A nice bone in ribeye is what I recommend.
I make a really good lentil soup that is vegan by happenstance.
Thanks for all the good suggestions everyone!
So far I've tried one of the recipes from the Moosewood cookbook (as called Mac & Cheese, but more accurately should have been called a macaroni casserole or the likes) that was good but that the Dancer suggested some good modifications to and out of curiosity picked up a package of 'Nut Tacos' from the store that were actually not half bad- definitely not quite taco meat but tasty and wasn't particularly high in sodium.
Last night was the trickiest (and tonight likely will be too) since it's a show weekend and the Dancer is expected to go out after the shows to eat with the rest of her co-workers and I'm usually along as well. The place we ate at though had an interesting grilled cheese sandwich that I got which was good but I learned that I'm not overly fond of pickled beets, of which there were a number piled onto the sandwich. Knowing her boss the dinner tonight will be at a Mexican place which should have a decent number of meatless options, but getting things with low sodium content may be more challenging...
I’ll be honest, I don’t even try when I go out to eat. Helps that I don’t go out often.
Roasted cauliflower
Roasted cabbage steaks
Indian and Italian have a ton of options where you don't miss the meat.
wae said:We try to do some different things for Lent each year (other than fish or grilled cheese) and I've had the most luck with looking to ethnic things. I've never been happy with a recipe that tries to mimic a real meal by substituting something for the meat, but things that were designed to be meatless are much more satisfying in my opinion.
I had a lot of vegetarian friends in and just out of high school, and this is the general conclusion we came up with.
Indian, Chinese, Mexican - good vegetarian food. Adulterated mushroom patty thing that is pretending to be a hamburger - bad vegetarian food.
Does Pizza count a vegan?
In reply to dean1484 :
Only if it does not have any cheese.
I forget what the general vegan stance is on yeast, although there probably as many opinions as people. I do remember that vegan muffins sucked in ways that cannot be espressed.
Roast an acorn or butternut squash until its soft- an hour or so, depending on size. Sautee a large onion, chopped, a fair amount of garlic. Add two or more heaping tablespoons of red Thai chili paste a minute before the onion is done. Add three or four cups of veg broth, or chicken if you consider chickens to be vegetables. Peel and chop a couple of carrots, scoop the seed guts out of the roasted squash, peel and chop the rest of the guts, cook over med/low until the carrots are squishy. Blend to smooth, immersion blender is good, regular blender works well but makes more dishes to wash. Add a can of coconut milk...which is kinda where the low fat portion of this goes a bit sideways, but what the hell. They do make low fat coconut milk. Reheat, add a couple of limes worth of juice, serve topped with cilantro or crushed peanuts or what ever spins your pin. Better the next day, probably.
I cannot express how good this stuff is.
Quinoa is great. Use it instead of rice, chicken, or other things. Pick up some McKays bullion mix. It mixes up exactly like the flourescent yellow fake chicken broth in Ramen noodles but it's vegetarian (maybe vegan).
Better Than Bullion is your friend. Get some of their vegetable bullion paste. Delicious. High in sodium, but use in moderation.
Also get nutritional yeast. Braggs is my pick, but Bob's Red Mill is good as well. Nutritional yeast replaces the B-vitamins you miss from some meats.
Miso paste is amazing. It can be found in low-sodium versions.
Use any of the above flavorings with any non-meat base (quinoa, beans, rice, tofu, whatever) to replace the meat in your dish.
Fave ideas:
- Quinoa boiled in some veggie broth used as a replacement for fish in fish tacos. Add cabbage, lime, tomatoes, and some dill mayo
- Take kale greens, mix in a little coconut oil and douse liberally with nutritional yeast. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes until the edges of the greens get crunchy. Impossible to eat just one. The yeast is so nutty and yummy.
- Pretty much anything with Miso paste involved is lovely. Dilute some in warm water and use as a marinade on something. If you're not avoiding meat for moral/ecological reasons, fish is a far cry from a steak when it comes to nutritional value. If you're willing to eat meat, but are just choosing not to for health reasons, fish might be a good way to wean yourself off the fleshy things. White fishes, salmon, Tuna, and Swordfish are pretty healthy forms of protein and their fats are skewed toward the healthier end of the spectrum.
Sodium is big, so are nitrates and nitrites. Ditch the processed foods completely. That really helped my BP. Also helped me lose about 40-50 lbs.
This is by far my favorite Lasagna recipe. I'm actually going to make it for a work potluck this week.
I like it better than most meat lasagnas that I have had as well. Lots of no bake steps makes it much much easier to deal with.
The recipe comes from Cook's Illustrated, but they have a paywall so here is the same thing on a different site.
My wife was a vegetarian for the last 14 years (I've know her for 12). She recently started eating meat after figuring out she cannot tolerate many FODMAP in her diet. As many vegetarian proteins are high FODMAP, this change was out of necessity. She really struggled with energy levels before but now feels 100% better.
I am not a vegetarian but she is a great cook so I never minded eating veggie when she was cooking.
Someone already mentioned shakshuka (awesome) so here are some of her other favorite recipes.
Pasta with broccoli, edamame, and walnuts
Quinoa w/ butternut squash and Brussel sprouts
Sesame ginger tofu and veggie stir-fry
I haven't done any in a while, but we were doing stir fry a lot for a while. You can buy or make whatever sauce you want. Use rice or noodles, fresh or frozen vegetables. Sometimes we would add baked tofu (extra firm tofu, place a towel on the counter, put tofu on towel, put another towel on top & then something heavy & waterproof on top of top towel. Leave for 30 minutes. Remove tofu & cut into 1/2" cubes. Place parchment paper on baking sheet & spread tofu on parchment paper. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes then flip tofu & bake for 15 minutes longer.). Tofu ends up kinda chewy and has lots of surface texture for sauce to cling to. Mix into stir fry.
Sorry. Really.
In a hot skillet with a small amount of coconut oil, add ample chopped garlic along with kale, chard, or other greens of choice. Once garlic shows signs of browning, add about half a cup of water mixed with veggie Better than Bullion to taste. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the skillet to get any caked on garlic. Once greens have picked up the liquid and gone tender, remove and add more oil, and one can butter beans, drained. Cook till beans are browned.
Serve on riced cauliflower.
If you're watching your sodium, go nuts on the garlic instead. Like others have said, stay away from fake meat. Most is very salty. Mrs Dash and tofu or and tempeh is a good alternative.
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