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Is a vegetarian diet as tasty as a non vegetarian diet?
I am just debating in my mind if I should try out vegetarianism or not. I do believe that it is healthy and that there are some unhealthy aspects to eating meat. I thought that a vegetarian recipes might be more difficult than non vegetarian recipes but I have no evidence that that is true since I have never got into vegetarianism. Vegetarian recipes seem complicated but there again I say that with no personal experience.
Also, I would like to have a few extremely simple vegetarian recipes to start with if anyone has any like that.
Thanks for any response to the above
Of course it can be as tasty, depending upon what you are eating. There is some delicious vegetarian food available.
Unless you eat NOTHING but meat, you probably already do eat a lot of vegetarian foods. The problem is that often the meat is set up as the centerpiece of the meal and everything else revolves around it, but that doesn't have to be. Once you get past that mindset, it is easier.
I suggest starting by have vegetarian days when you consciously choose to build meals without meat. There are many vegetarian cookbooks and recipes online.
Things to watch out for are eating too much cheese and eating too many French fries. I love French fries and salad as a meal, but French fries are probably the worst thing for packing on pounds. Also, unless you are going vegan (plant food only, no dairy or eggs), watch out that you don't eat too much cheese. I did, and my cholesterol went up over 200 for the first time in my life after I quit eating meat.
Try having spaghetti but putting sauteed mushrooms in the sauce instead of meat. Try some of the veggie burgers available at your supermarket.
An easy standard for me is something I call "Mixture", lol. It is cooked rice, a can of black beans, and a can of diced tomatoes. Just cook the rice and mix the beans and tomatoes (I like the ones with diced chilies for a little pizazz, but not everyone likes spice) and heat it through. That's just the base. I normally start by sauteing onions first, but I love onions. From there, you can add corn, or spinach or another vegetable that you like, and you can leave it that way and have a vegan meal or put shredded cheese or sour cream on top if you want to use dairy. It's good, and I've brought it to potlucks to share and people who aren't vegetarian like it, too.
Go to some Indian restaurants, they have lots of vegetarian dishes, and try those out. The spices and flavor more than make up for lack of meat. I haven't eaten meat in 25 years and don't miss it.
Vegetarian recipes are not any more complicated than any other types of recipes, other than, often lots of chopping is involved (chopping onions, carrots, etc).
Go to budget bytes website and type in vegetarian or vegan, those recipes are simple and inexpensive.
It's *VERY* easy to find vegetarian recipes. So, take something you already like, and search for a vegetarian version of it. More or less, you will find that it's simply a substitution of veg protein for meat protein.
I do my best to include 1 or 2 vegetarian dishes in my weekly cooking. Easier through the winter as that's soup season, but not exactly difficult other times. VERY easy to make a vegetarian pizza, just for example.
I've been a vegetarian since I was a child. I don't have special recipes; I simply leave the meat off my plate. Husband eats the meat, I eat everything else. For instance, if there is meat in a soup, I dish up whatever else is in the soup, and leave the meat in the pot. During a meal, I eat the vegetables and side dishes, everybody else eats the meat.
Is a vegetarian diet as tasty as a non vegetarian diet? ... I thought that a vegetarian recipes might be more difficult than non vegetarian recipes ... Vegetarian recipes seem complicated ...
Also, I would like to have a few extremely simple vegetarian recipes to start with if anyone has any like that.
Thanks for any response to the above
I find that increasingly I don't need any recipes. Just for example, for years I put plenty of salt, oil & vinegar on salad vegetables, but lately I just leave them out a few hours at room temperature, sometimes in direct sunlight, then eat them raw as is. And I discovered how tasty they are by themselves, especially organic tomatoes, green or red bell pepper, fennel, cucumber, celery, carrots, no need to drown them in acidic and fatty liquids and mouth-drying minerals and spices, they have plenty of those things on their own inside.
I still moderately spice up boiled grains and legumes with oil (olive and avocado) and all seasoning (like adobe), sometimes with just some sauteed onions or slightly steamed kale or arugula.
Even baked potatoes, yucca and especially yams (sweet potatoes) taste good by themselves, and yes you can bake them just fine as is with drowning them in stomach-agitating liquids, and clean up is a lot easier. Sometimes I throw rosemary and Dijon mustard on potatoes after baking.
An easy standard for me is something I call "Mixture", lol. It is cooked rice, a can of black beans, and a can of diced tomatoes. Just cook the rice and mix the beans and tomatoes (I like the ones with diced chilies for a little pizazz, but not everyone likes spice) and heat it through. That's just the base. I normally start by sauteing onions first, but I love onions. From there, you can add corn, or spinach or another vegetable that you like, and you can leave it that way and have a vegan meal or put shredded cheese or sour cream on top if you want to use dairy. It's good, and I've brought it to potlucks to share and people who aren't vegetarian like it, too.
I make that, too, but without rice. I make it with corn, diced mild green chilis, black beans, fire roasted tomatoes, diced carrots (which I nuke for a few minutes in the microwave so they're cooked when I add them and just have to heat the other ingredients), and diced roasted red peppers. I like it kind of spicy so I add some special smoked chili powder I have. I make big batches and freeze single- or two-serving sizes of it. The days I volunteer at the hospital from 2-6 pm., I have one thawing in the refrigerator for a day so that when I get home and I'm tired, I can just nuke it. Sometimes I put some guacamole on it, but your cheese and sour cream suggestion would work too. Add a salad and a warm low-carb or regular tortilla and dinner is served.
Oh, and as far as the "tasty" question - my mother insisted on cooking meat until it was dead a second time, and there isn't much that has less flavor than a well-done steak.
Sure, lots of flavor in food that doesn't have meat.
I'm vegan now, so I also don't eat any dairy or any other product from any creatures. For me, it's a matter of avoiding bad fats and cholesterol.
Easiest vegan food: Taco Bell. Order a bean burrito fresco. Actually, I think you can order anything "fresco" and that means with no meat or dairy. The black bean "fresco" is super healthy, made with whole black beans instead of refried beans that probably have oil in them. The bean burrito fresco, just doesn't have any meat or dairy, and they add more veggies like a chunky salsa.
If you like Mexican, I do what someone else mentioned above. Mix brown rice and beans and veggies together. I particularly like to use peppers (bell peppers green and red) and squash. I usually also add some chopped spinach, onions, whatever veggies I have that sound good. I like my taco mix hot, so I usually add some jalapenos.
But, basically, just mix rice and beans and some veggies. You can even buy frozen cooked rice at Trader Joes, throw it in the microwave to thaw out, toss it into a sauce pan, add some canned beans with the juice from the can, throw in a can of diced tomatoes (I agree the tomatoes with peppers - usually the Ro-Tel brand is available in stores for cheap):
This mix is good just eaten plain, or you can put it into tortillas.
For breakfast now, I just eat some instant oatmeal with fresh blueberries. You can buy a huge box of instant oatmeal and fresh blueberries for a good price at Costco.
For dinner tonight, I ate pasta with a spaghetti sauce I made with tomato sauce, sauteed onions and red and green peppers, canned black olives and mushrooms, with lots of basil and other Italian spices. Delicious.
I eat lots of homemade soup, too. But, just think of all of the vegetable soup you probably love - broccoli cheese (if you want to eat cheese), minestroni, potato, corn chowder, tomato, etc. If you make split pea soup without ham, just add some liquid smoke and it makes it taste kind of like it has smoked ham in it.
There are a few vegan frozen foods at Trader Joe's that I like, such as a frozen Chinese fried rice with vegetables. Trader Joe's also has some vegetarian easy frozen food options like enchiladas and tamales that you can just heat in the microwave.
If you like to cook and are wondering how to make a good broth, I think onions are the key - a good basic veggie broth is onions, carrots and celery, and any other veggies that sound good, spices and salt and pepper.
Oh, and as far as the "tasty" question - my mother insisted on cooking meat until it was dead a second time, and there isn't much that has less flavor than a well-done steak.
Your mother must have gone to the same cooking school as mine.
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