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What are your favorite..
PremaSagar
Veteran
vegetarian meals ?
I want to become a vegetarian but first I want to know some good recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I want to become a vegetarian but first I want to know some good recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
0
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tofu is pretty good if it's prepared right.
Pizza! Just leaving off the ham.
French Fries! Cooked in vegetable oil.
Ice Cream! It's already vegetarian! woohoo!
Yum, all my favourite foods are easily transformed to vegetarian.
www.lionsgatebuddhistpriory.ca has it here for a free download but they have really published it to support a building fund.
Cheers
A serving of pasta cooked and drained.
Coat pasta in olive oil
Slice a proportional amount of cherry tomatoes
Slice a proportional amount of black olives
Chop Fresh herbs of your choice
Mix and add splashes of red wine vinegar (RWV) to taste. This makes a dressing by combining olive oil with RWV.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
You can use whatever pasta but I think pasta that tumbles perhaps spirals or bow tie is best.
Favs:
Baked brussels sprouts with onion
sauteed kale with garlic and sea salt
sweet potato pie
French country breakfast: a crockpot of yams, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, asparagus, and egg on top
buckweat noodle w/ veggies n peanut sauce stir frys
Lots of recipes and "how to's" here:
http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/
Nachos or tacos, with beans.
As an example to get you started, a baby spinach salad with cheese sounds like a good meal because you're getting iron from the spinach, as well as calcium and protein from the cheese. Protein and iron are hard to come by in a vegetarian diet. However, spinach doesn't really have much iron. The iron that it does contain is non-heme which is much harder for the body to absorb. On top of that, the calcium from the cheese inhibits the absorption of iron even further.
Someone suggested beans... The thing with beans (and grains and nuts) is phytic acid. What this does is bind the minerals (magnesium, iron, zinc etc) found in the bean (or grain or nut) so while they're in the digestive tract, the body can't absorb them. This can lead to deficiency. The back of the packet says you're ingesting this amount of mineral, which technically you are putting into your mouth, but your body isn't then absorbing it. You have to prepare beans in such a way that the amount of phytic acid is reduced, making the minerals available, which will never be 100%.
Aside from that, the amino acids that make up the proteins in beans aren't the same as those found in meat - they are "incomplete proteins". The only grain that I'm aware of with a complete protein is quinoa.
Then there are the lectins found in grains and legumes which mess with your insulin resistance. Not a good thing.
The other problem with the vegetarian diet is that it tends to be very high carb (thanks to all the grains and legumes) which is disastrous for your body, playing havoc with your insulin levels and fat stores.
Then there are all the hideous vegetable oils - hydrogenated and full of trans fats. (Opt for an extra virgin cold pressed nut oil and olive oil - I like coconut because it remains stable at high temperatures and can be used for cooking as well as used raw.)
Then there are the meat substitutes which are mostly soy based (tofurkey etc.) which are basically just sugar and MSG. I'm not a soy fan because research seems to be pointing to the fact that it's very unhealthy, however, there hasn't been anything conclusive. Yet. Until the jury is out I'm staying away from it and would advise others to do the same. The same with the beans, a fermenting process reduces the amounts of anti-nutrients, so opt for tempeh, instead.
Definitely try to avoid processed foods. They're just so terribly, terribly bad for you.
You have to know this kind of stuff to make good food choices and remain healthy. We all like a good, tasty meal, but it's much more important to ensure that our bodies are running as well as they possibly can. When we opt for a vegetarian diet this means investing the time in educating ourselves about our physiology as well as the foods we intend to eat because it's harder to ensure we're getting everything we need.
Just something to consider before you make the switch.
I've been reading Scott Jurek's East, Sleep and Run, and he's an ardent life long vegan. He runs ultra marathons of 100+ miles and is one of the World's fastest at these mentally long distances. Much of his book is donated to vegan recipes and he talks about how easy it is for him to fulfil his protein requirements - and not only that - he attributes much of his athletic prowess to his vegan lifestyle.
And this guy is an amazing ultra runner too and he only eats fruit (fruitarian):
There are 20 amino acids (or maybe 21, I can't remember) which join together to make various proteins. Some of these amino acids aren't created by the body and so must be provided by diet. These are essential amino acids. A complete protein (meat, fish, poultry etc) contains all of these essential amino acids.
An incomplete protein (beans, grains etc) is missing some of these essential amino acids.
So it's basically about making sure that you have enough variety so that your body can break down these proteins and combine the complimentary amino acids resulting in optimal intake of the essential amino acids.
The "frutarian" looks very unhealthy to me!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textured_vegetable_protein