vegetarian for a week challenge

[janie1234]

Hello everyone. I'm thinking of going vegetarian for a week and would like some advice for maybe a weeks worth of food recipes. Does anyone have any references, book recommendations, or websites that might help me make a menu? I know that some food items are not considered vegetarian that I would have thought are vegetarian. For example vegetarians do not eat anything with butter and eggs, . . .right? Thanks in advance.

 

[Afreet]

It depends...

Hooray for you! I think you'll find this a pretty enjoyable challenge. I just wanted to chime in on your question about what is vegetarian and what isn't. The answer is: it depends. Most vegetarians are "lacto-ovo" vegetarians, meaning they will consume dairy products and eggs.

Vegans consume no animal products at all - no dairy, no eggs, no honey (bees make honey, therefore it is animal product), leather, wool, etc. This is usually an ethical decision, based on vegans' rejection of the assumption that humans are entitled to use animals for their own purposes.

So you can decide what kind of vegetarianism you'd like to try. Here's a website that has 2 weeks of vegan menus with recipes.

If you do a search for "vegan" on this forum, you'll probably turn up some threads that have lots of suggestions for vegan and vegetarian protein sources, websites, blogs, cookbooks, etc. I like fatfreevegan, veganyumyum, and veganplanet for ideas and recipes about what to have for dinner. And dessert.

 

[kathryn]

Good for you, Janie!

www.vegsource.com has a lot of info (recipes, etc).

If you do a web search for "vegetarian meal plan," there are quite a few sites that come up.

Rather than necessarily follow a plan designed by someone else (though it is good to look over those designed by dieticians, to see what a balanced veggie diet is like), I suggest basing your meals around foods you already like that are vegetarian or easily made vegetarian.

Easy sources for ideas for vegetarian dishes are:
1) foods you already like that are vegetarian (your morning oatmeal, if that's what you eat; chili with beans and no meat; pasta with marinara sauce, etc.).
2) foods that you already llike that could easily be made vegetarian (a spaghetti sauce with meat that you could use soy crumbles or chopped and sauted veggies to replace the meat, for example)
3) dishes from other countries (many Mexican, Chinese and Italian dishes are easy to make vegetarian. Tabouli, falafel, hummus and baba ganoush are all vegetarian.)

You might want to take a look at "The New Becoming Vegetarian" by Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina. Maybe check and see if your library has it.

 

[babindy]

Welcome Janie!

Kathryn and Afreet have already posted some terrific information.

I will just add that, for me vegan, was not so much an ethical choice as it was a choice for my body. Personally I just prefer not to consume meat. I've never enjoyed eggs. And while I would love to consume dairy it messes with my sinuses. (and in my opinion there is no dairy-free cheese that is a good substitute cheez-whiz and cheese spread yes, but not the chunk of cheese kind. sigh)

So no matter why you're doing this, I think you will find you'll feel better.

 

[LaughingWater]

I don't have much to add. Have fun and let us know how it goes.

 

[janie1234]

Wow! Thanks so much for all the advice and information! My hope is "clean out my pipes" so to speak I find that when I eat more veggies that I am more regular, . . I'm pretty regular to begin with but if there is one thing to be said about eating vegetarian, . poop smells much better than when you eat meat. (sorry if this is gross), . . that I have more energy. I first noticed the energy burst when I traded things like my coffee, eggs,and beef and traded it for wheat grass and green tea and veggies and brown rice. I do better when I follow the "rules" and when someone has something planned out for me. I will be sure to check out all the information given to me. Thanks so much I'll let you all know how it goes. I start on Saturday. Tomorrow I'll be off to the farmers market and library to check out some vegetarian books. Thanks again!!