Vegetarian Adventure

[silkiecharm]

(This message originally posted September 2006)

Millipede,
I was a vegetarian (vegan) 10 years ago and I really want to migrate back to a vegetarian lifestyle.

What do you and your family eat for main meals/snacks on very busy days? when you went on your long driving trip, what did you have for your meals? When you're very sick, like with the winter flu for a few days and don't feel good enough to cook, what do you eat on those days? If I can figure out how to eat right, the vegetarian way, on busy days, that's more than half of my research done. I'm constantly looking for new sources of "fast protein" since I have low blood sugar (aggravated from going for too long without food).

Thanks!
Silkiecharm

[millipede]

Through this topic and others, I will do my best to help you out... though I am far from where I'd like to be myself as far as eating healthy goes... well, not that far I guess.

We're not 100% Vegan... We're vegan in the sense that we don't eat most meats and no dairy products... but we do keep some fish in our diet... partly because it's healthy and partly because it's just tasty.

My wife does most of the cooking, even though she works.. She just loves to cook... lately she's been finding more and more recipes that work to fit our diet and still taste great.
One example would be lentils. We've had those in our diet for a LONG time now. We use to add different spices, and often just ate them plain. They're very good for you, and they're cheap.
It's kind of funny. This girl my wife works with never heard of lentils when they met... but a while back this girl brought some lentils to us that she cooked, this was after we had our son... they were delicious. Tasted like something in a taco. My wife has expiremented a few times, but it hasn't quite been as good as that girl made for us... So, we'll be asking her for that recipe.

I'll start trying to post more and more recipes here... and when I do, I will try to add nutritional info when I can.

As far as meals go. We eat fish now and then, especially salmon. We eat lentils, rice, split peas... potatoes cooked several different ways. We have a recipe for making some really good tortilla type bread. Lots of different types of breads and rolls(all homemade of course). veggies of course. Oatmeal... I couldn't believe how healthy oatmeal is. My wife finds that she has more energy when she starts her day off with oatmeal... then again, she adds peanut butter to it.
fruit of course... uh... i'm sure there's more

As far as snacks go, we eat fruits and nuts... occasionally I'll get some chips that use the healthy, non-hydrogenated oils. Applesauce is good. Raisins.
Some of the lentils and stuff we eat, isn't so bad cold... so we'll make a pot of it and get a few meals out of it, and when we're in a rush we'll just eat it cold.
Pizza... Maybe that can be one of the next recipes I share. I am cutting back, but I occasionally still eat a little cheese now and then... but my wife and ids eat pizza without it, and love it. Basically a nice dough with sauce on it, and most often veggies like mushrooms and onions.
My kids LOVE it.
My wife even makes some cookies that are healthy... she loves them, the kids love them... but I haven't quite acquired a taste for them yet. As much as I want to, whole wheat flour doesn't always taste good to me... so sometimes my wife will split the flour, half white, half wheat.

Anyway.. I suppose that's enough for the moment.
I'll try to get more info here as I can... let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to get some good recipes up soon.

[silkiecharm]

Thanks Millipede,
Last month, I stayed away from meat for about 3 weeks. I didn't have time to try some bean recipes. Then last week I got run down, felt anemic and started eating meat again. Now I feel sluggish from the extra stress the GI tract goes through to digest meat.

I'm going to learn how to cook lentils. I love them anyway. I'll look for some nice Greek, Indian (India) and Italian recipes. If I find some good soups that become staples, I'll consider buying a crock pot to make the soup cooking easy.

I'll also start cooking pinto beans. Refried beans on a tortilla is available for a quick lunch. I love chili so I can make a bean chili and freeze some of it.


I can buy day old organic bread very cheap at $1/loaf. I like your pizza concept. That really is a fast meal and easy prep with a toaster oven.

I think once I get a routine in place and learn how to have soup in the refrigerator at all times, I'll be on my way. Thanks for sharing your family's tried and true vegetarian quick meals and snacks.