Veggies for beginners!?

Question

i'm contemplating going vegetarian, or at the very least cutting out most meat from my diet. my question is, what are other high protein options? i should add that i'm not big on tofu. any good vegetarian cookbooks or websites you'd recommend? thanks!

Answer 1

That's great you're interested in going veg or eating less meat! Aside from tofu, good vegetarian protein sources include almonds, black beans, cashews, fake meats, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, peanut butter, pinto beans, seitan, soybeans, soymilk, sunflower seeds, and textured vegetable protein (TVP).

Vegetarians meet all of their nutritional needs by getting enough calories and eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and grains.

Check out these sites for more info:

http://www.tryveg.com/

http://www.chooseveg.com

http://www.vegcooking.com/searchRecipes....

http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/i...

Good luck!

Answer 2

Must be the number one catagory question from non-veggies. The big protein concern. I just fielded another onslaught yesterday on the homefront lol.

You don't need all that much. If you're a meat eatter, your body is so acustomed to getting loads of the stuff that it just throws it away out the other end, but when you're a veggie it uses what you eat and the body gets all it needs. Yes, beans have a lot of protein but really, most vegetables have  more than enough. The problem, and it's a minor problem, is vegetables don't have "complete protein" like meat does, so you have to be eatting a variety of foods, rice, corn, nuts, fruits veggies ect. If you're eatting a full balanced diet, the protein is there many times over.

As an example, I didn't eat any beans at all for several years because they gave me gas. Then I found out just how good the veggie burger is and I get very little gas if any at all. I eat them for pleasure not for protein, I already get all the protein I need.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Well actually I went vegetarian for a while and I liked it for the most part.  It gets a little tough if you like to eat out because you will eat a lot of salads and pasta.  And it was also kind of hard because I really love sandwiches.  But I LOVE chicken and so when I went total vegetarian, I would eat the chicken strips from Morning Star.  They are frozen.  They are actually really good.  It took a while to get used to because the texture was a little more "squishy" than regular chicken but it comes with seasonings already on them.  

But now I am just cutting out red meat because it was pretty hard to go without chicken.  

I hope that helped =]