Going Vegetarian

[Anonymous]

Hi all, I am considering going vegetarian for health reasons but I'm not really sure where to start. Any good books or websites to recommend?

[Anonymous]

My gateway drug was Diet for a Small Planet, but that was decades ago.

[Anonymous]

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (Deborah Madison) and Mark Bittman's cookbook are both really good. 101 Cookbooks has fantastic, highly nutritious (and tasty!) recipes on her website. You might also try the Meatless Mondays website.

[Anonymous]

OP, when I stopped eating meat five years ago, what I did at first was just to eliminate what could easily be cut out - chicken from soups, bacon from breakfast, etc. I didn't call myself a vegetarian - I just tried, without totally rocking my world, to cut out what was easy to do so. It was fall when I did this and I still ate turkey on Thanksgiving, for example, and I still had beef broth in onion soup that Christmas. I just got rid of what I could without totally turning my world (and all my cooking) upside down. This lasted for a couple of months, until it got to the point that I didn't miss or want any meat at all. So then I got rid of all of the meat in my diet. In that first year, I still used a lot of my old recipes, but I substituted -- beans for veggies for chicken in burritos, for example, or spinach for chopped meat in lasagna. Once I knew I was happy being meatless, I bought Mark Bittman's vegetarian cookbook, and that helped broaden my horizons. I also joined a CSA and started cooking seasonally, and I got a lot of meatless, seasonal recipes off epicurious and other websites.

Overall, I found it much easier to phase out the meat than to be drastic about it. By the end of a couple of months, not only did I not miss meat but I couldn't stand the taste of it anymore (a server accidentally gave me an omelette with bacon last summer and I nearly threw up), so at that point it was easy to be all-in about being vegetarian. But it would have been hard to have gone "cold turkey" from the start. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

Six o clock scramble (both but I use the first cookbook more) has tons of vegetarian or vegetarian-adaptable recipes.

[Anonymous]

what are your health reasons? vegetarianism isn't all that healthy.

[Anonymous]

DW and I went pescatarian (sp?) about two years ago (we eat sushi about twice a month and shellfish about once a Week). We did like a pp mentioned - just skipped meat at various points. Chipotle? Veg burrito awesome. Subway? vege sub (for work lunch options when go with friends) Bacon? Don't need it. It became remarkably easy for us, but them again we were never big meat eaters to begin with.

We've talked about going vegan but that is a whole new level. Sister in law went vegan and looks awesome and has tons of energy. Lost the circles under her eyes etc.

There's a lot of us out there. Best of luck!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what are your health reasons? vegetarianism isn't all that healthy.

OP - try vegdc for a great resource on vegetarian restaurants in dc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what are your health reasons? vegetarianism isn't all that healthy.

Yeah, like eating the dead carcass of a mammal that lived a miserable existence can possibly be good. Go eat your bacon and leave us healthy vegetarians alone.

[Anonymous]

the kind diet is a great book as well