Oh, I definitely used to love my meat. I'm a Texas girl, whadya expect?!

I eat fake meat products every once in a while; I've stopped stuffing my face with them over the years. A month ago I made veggie "pigs" in blankets for class and everyone gobbled them up. It really depends on the brand and how it's prepared. Ruby Tuesday, for instance, has this BBQ burger wrap that is sooooooo good. It's fake burger patty cut up and slathered in BBQ sauce (I'm telling you, TEXAN!), and then they put it in a tortilla wrap. YUMMM...I've also had veggie burgers made from scratch and they're really great.

Fake cheese, on the other hand...EEEW!

I just bought a slow cooker this week, and the vegetarian slow cooker cookbook I ordered came in today. I can't wait to try some of this stuff out. It sounds divine. (I decided I need to start cook more at home because I'm a take-out addict. It's practically genetic.)

Yes, I have to agree that fake cheese leaves a lot to be desired. Gross.

some of the fake meats are decent, but it seems as though most of the ones that taste good are ones not trying to replicate something that its not. if you eat something expecting for it to taste exactly like the food you remember before you went vegie you are most likely going to be disapointed. when i ate meat, i never liked hamburgers, therefore i dont like vegie burgers that try oh so hard to taste like meat. vegie burgers made of vegeatables, grains and beans are yummy, mostly because they taste good as is, w/o esence of meat or whatever they put in other "fake meat" i have to admit, that even though i dont care much for boca burgers i still eat them because they are fast and healthy and i can drown out the taste with condaments and tomatoes and such.
i guess im a vegetable snob because i had to learn to cook vegan meals for myself as a teenager because my parents wouldnt support my decision and thought it was "a phase" so i have always cooked from raw ingredients instead of buying premade food mostly because teenagers usually dont have enough money to buy that stuff

I'm not a fan of fake cheeses either, but Follow Your Heart makes this "Vegan Gourmet" mozzarella stuff that's pretty good on sandwiches or in things like manicotti or burritos. It still doesn't replace real cheese though.

I made a pot pie the other night. You know those Amy's veggie pocket sandwiches? It tasted just like those. My boyfriend flipped out. Yeah it was that good. I am a vegan goddess! haha.

Faerie and Blanche:

I'm in love with my slowcooker, which I got for Christmas. I'm a pretty bad cook but I think it's so easy to just throw ingredients in there and then forget about it until I'm ready to eat. Plus, the smell of it cooking is wonderful and makes my place feel homey and cozy.

I'm not wild about tofu either (or fake cheese, fake sausage, etc) but the tofu in the slow cooker came out really well. The texture was still the same, but it had really absorbed all of the ingredients (soy sauce, mustard, curry powder, etc) nicely and so it didn't taste bland which is often the problem.

i wonder if that vegan gourmet mozza-like-stuff might combine with real mozza or other cheeses and seem more realistic, while not aggravating my roommie's cheese sensitivities. she'll eat cheese, but not very much. meanwhile, i dearly miss spinach lasagna. maybe i'll try that out and see.

tofu can be wonderful if it's seasoned/marinated well. once in a while we'll order fried tofu from a thai or chinese restaurant and i invariably hate it! it's nasty if it doesn't have enough flavor, and somehow restaurants always serve it really bland. when i get vegetarian thai takeout, i just get extra veggies in place of the tofu.

we use my mark bittman 'how to cook everything' cookbook a LOT in our cooking endeavors. it's not vegetarian, but it might be worth checking out of the library for the chapters on beans and vegetables. we make the lentils and rice all the time, as well as the soy marinade (for tofu of course), and the double garlic kale to go with biscuits and mushroom gravy. we get a veggie share every two weeks and have NO idea what to do with the ingredients sometimes, so it's been really valuable to have a basic cookbook like that to consult.

a vegan friend of mine substitues cheese on lasagne with something made of yeast flakes which it very tasty.

just mix 150 ml water with 4 spoons yeast flakes, 2 spoons margarine, 3 teaspoons flour, 1 teaspoon salt and finally 1 teaspoon mustard - top your lasagne with it, and it'll melt in the oven.

my friend has this story when he cooked for a bunch of non-vegan people and one of them said "oh, it's very good!! but i think you used a bit too much parmesan, didn't you?"

you can also spinkle plain yeastflakes over your pasta as a parmesan substitude.

A lot of people think nutritional yeast is like, god's gift to vegan cheese, but I don't see it. I like it, but not as a cheese substitute. I think it's good on stuff like couscous, with garlic and poultry seasoning.

nutritional yeast can have a "cheese like" taste when mixed with the right ingredients, but really i think that making macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese etc with it is AMAZING.

i'm not saying it tastes like cheese but i am obcessed with nutritional yeast. when i have it, i put it on almost everything.

the best is bagels with margerine and nutritional yeast sprinkled on top. also like i mentioned above, making macaroni and cheese with it is really good, even my super picky everything has to be plain and have the right texture meat eating boyfriend loves it which is a bonus since we hardly ever agree on food.

I recently picked up Utne Reader and read about the Dark Side of Soy. It was very eye-opening and I think if you're veg or have veg leanings for health reasons, you might want to read the articles.

I read it! It was interesting. For now I am still eating a helluva lot of soy (newly vegan, woot) but I think as I get more confident with my cooking skills I'm going to try to limit my daily intake.

that article is funny. gotta love the monthly food scare tactics.

actually, that's old news and it's no joke. i don't touch soy.

well... they put soy in EVERYTHING. most food now is hazardious in some way because its so chemically altered. thats what amuses me, because people continue to make food that way and everyone continues to eat it, whether they know it or not. it isnt a vegetarian thing, most non veggies eat more soy and dont even know it than vegetarians do. its a scare tactic, no matter how true it is, people thrive on that stuff, they want to be safe and secure with how the media tells them to live their lives.

This is why I don't eat processed food.

word ophelia. i avoid the entire center of the grocery store and have for years, i don't trust anything in a package. i really only buy whole foods except for bread (have bread maker, will bake eventually!). we eat a ridiculously simple diet, i think it's easy for me since kids don't like complicated foods so little has me serving brown rice with steamed veg often. we do eat eggs on occasion but since they're limited i can afford to buy organic free range. i try to buy the Big Four organic, tomatoes, potatoes, corn and wheat (they are the most gmo-ed crops) and i have a wallet sized version of this that i carry around.

i have found that it's easy to be really healthy so long as i'm not trying to find substitutes for all the crappy-for-me fancy foods i used to eat. trying to eat the Standard (north) American diet (SAD) takes some serious scrambling! i still prepare lovely dishes for guests but Nothing like i used to and everything from scratch.

and yes, there is soy is everything pre-prepared. all fast food burgers have more soy than beef, some barely have any beef at all! it is still very easy to avoid.
amazingly enough a study of mcdeath's showed that a complete meal was 75% corn, it was in Everything. interesting that. corn i eat Very Minimally, organic or not.

Urgh, yes. I'm of the "everything in moderation" school of thought, so the weekly food scares don't bug me too much (and anyway, I mostly eat lentils and brown rice because it's quick and easy and tastes GOOD), but high fructose corn syrup I stay the fuck away from. It's not just that it's added empty calores in places you really don't need it (bread? why does BREAD need hfcs???), but there's all those other issues surrounding it. I don't want to eat something crappy and bad for me just beacuse the corn industry is good at lobbying, you know? Ick.

phobia, have you ever tried sprouting lentils? they are super easy to sprout, Amazing in salad, really high in nutrition too. i love sprouted lentils.

No, I never have pepper! That sounds super awesome. Any websites to tell me how? Boyfriend and I both totally love sprouts.

Oh btw, speaking of lentils, I really can't recommend Julie Sahni's "Classic Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cooking" enough. I found a copy in my boyfriend's late mother's things, and started cooking out of it about a year ago. Nothing I've made has turned out bad! Plus, there's only a couple of ingredients that are hard-to-find; most of it you can find in a good supermarket. Although going to the Indian grocery store is loads of fun, and nothing smells half as good as curry leaves. Plus I find that the Indian grocery has better prices on lentil and rice, plus you can get them in HUGE bags.

phobia it's just so easy. put an inch or so of lentils in a mason jar (use the ring part of the lid but not the flat top thingy, instead put a piece of nylon stocking, cheese cloth or nylon screen [not metal!] over the jar and top with the ring bit). fill the jar to the top with water, leave overnight and in the morning drain the water. leave the mason jar upside down on an angle in the dish rack. rinse once in the morning and once at night by filling up the jar with water, swirling then pouring out. within three days or so you'll have sprouts, you know they're ready when the sprout is the same length as the lentil. keep them in a container in the fridge, they will continue to sprout (because they're alive!) but really slowly.

toss them in salad, into soup right at the end, mix with chopped tomato, green onion, parsley, and vinagrette. they are so terrific!

most seeds, beans and legumes can be sprouted but don't eat raw sprouted chickpeas, kidney or soy beans or kale seeds, those are toxic raw. but sprouting makes them cook way faster as well as being nutritionally superior and easier to digest.

yay sprouts!

hey, speaking of chickpeas, does anyone have a good hummus recipe. i try to cook everything from scratch, but i have a really hard time making hummus that actually tastes good, maybe something that isnt too garlicy, i LOVE garlic but i dont like hummus overloaded with it, i dont know, it just takes away from the whole hummus experience hehe.

also, ive never been a good bread baker either, i can make good pinto loaves or banana bread but when it comes to making samdwich type bread i absolutely suck at it.

Tankgirl -- for hummus, I usually just moosh up chick peas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic in the blender or food processor, and just keep adjusting things till it tastes right. You probably need more garlic than you think, because the chickpeas and olive oil will dull the flavors. This is where the lemon juice really comes in -- it punches up the flavors a bit and makes everything sparkle.

As for bread, it's really easy if you've got a standing mixer to knead for you. When I get home I'll PM you the whole-grain sandwich bread from Cook's Illustrated. I've been making it for a while, and it's great. Cook's Illustrated recipes are usually pretty foolproof. Actually, it does have honey in it, so if you're vegan it might not work. I'm sure you could substitute like brown sugar, but you'd have to fidlde with the liquid. Baking is very intimidating to me because it's so precise, rather than just "throw a bunch of crap together and fiddle with it till it tastes ok," which is my normal mode of cooking

I'm totally in love with hominy right now, too. Seitan and hominy stew is my new favorite cold-weather thing to cook. I'm trying to refine my recipe so it comes out more the same every time. I should take notes, but I'm just too lazy!

Other vegans piss me off sometimes. My friend's sister is like the vegan police. My boyfriend and I ran into them at the falafel place one time, and they gave me yogurt sauce by mistake. Instead of making them throw it out I just ate it. The sister was staring at our food the whole time. My friend told me that later on she was asking whether we are actually vegan. Shut the hell up!

And I'm sick of people nitpicking over what is or is not vegan and bitching/acting snotty about it. Isn't the point to eat less meat/dairy (hopefully none) rather than to alienate people?

I also hate other vegans. I feel like I'm being "judged" by most of the people who I know that are also vegan. Seriously, why should YOU care what I put in MY body. Pointing something out to be helpful that I maybe didn't know wasn't vegan is one thing, but judging me because I am not wasteful or I'm too poor to buy bread w/o mono and diglycerides that could or could not be vegan really just sucks.

The other day I got into a huge screaming match with my boyfriends best friend. All day my boy was saying he was hungry (he's omni but picky.) We went over his friends house and were planning out our night. I said we should go grab a bite real quick before we plan a long night of drinking at a show. The friend asked me where I wanted to go, and I said I didn't care, I wasn't picky (we live in a city where almost anywhere you go theres a vegan option.) Then he snapped at me and yelled "Yes you do care, we can eat anywhere, you can't" So, I totally flipped on him and he responded by being more agressive about the fact that I was vegan and it was such a pain in the ass for him to deal with. Really? I mean really? A pia for HIM to deal with because I was being open about the choice.

Point of that story, I really hate being judged and harassed about what I chose for my body.

Hmm, I don't know if anyone here has the same problem as I do, but here it goes. I've been trying the vegetarian thing since January (for health reasons) and while I love veggies and tofu and whole grain and all that good stuff, it is still very hard to be 100% vegetarian where I come from (Puerto Rico, which is filled with lots and lots of traditional meat filled dishes, not to mention all of the junk food establishments all around). There are hardly any vegetarian-friendly restaurants, and sometimes, if I have to eat out, I'm forced to buy a salad and take all of the chicken strips out (and sometimes I have to resort to actually eat chicken at family reunions, for fear of starving!). Anyone else have a cultural roadblock against their vegetarianism?

I don't know if this is of any help to you. But I feel like even when I lived somewhere that there weren't a lot of "vegetarian friendly" resteraunts there is usually something you can fanagle yourself into getting. I think it just comes with time as far as knowing what to order and how to order it. Now, I am pretty strictly vegan and I can find something to eat at any steakhouse, mexican, chinese place. Mostly because I know what most of those places have as options and I know what questions to ask them. Like do their beans have meat in them etc etc... It took me a while to get it down, but now I can eat almost anywhere, fast food places included. Not like I would recommend eating out a lot for anyone, but sometimes it is necessary (on the road, gatherings etc.)

bump for stargazer!

Thanks Polly!


So, I decided to return to being vegetarian after 10 years of eating meat. I was a vegetarian for 4-5 years until I feel off the tofu wagon. Does anyone know of any good vegetarian cookbooks they would recommend? I own Vegan with a vengeance.


One of my good friends is vegan. One thing I learned while I was on the east coast was how diverse vegetarian eating can be. Exposure is not a good thing. So, I feel more empowered about returning to being veg. And after today's Oprah's show...I'm glad I made the change.

I like La Dolce Vegan. I'm actually not vegan or vegetarian (anymore) but I really like the recipes, and for the most part they take less than 30 minutes. Any longer ones have a little clock beside them.

yay, welcome back to the fold, star! are you going vegan?

online recipes are how i roll. i don't cook much, but i like to bake... i'll be back later with some fav. sites.

i'm vegetarian. i bought the vegan book last year when i still ate meat. interesting, huh. if i can cook and find vegan food, then i will eat it.

check out vegweb.com if you haven't. It's a great resource of recipes.

hey, i didn't know there was a veggie thread. i leave a lot of the cooking to my imagination, but sometimes check out the post punk kitchen.

stargazer, what was on the Oprah show? curious.

OooOooo! Thanks for the link Christine! I think I will mention this link to my friend.


The Oprah show yesterday was on the unethical treatment of farm animals. I couldn't find the episode online, but here is a link to an article about the show. There is legislature being voted on in California to have more humane farming practices. The show didn't endorse becoming vegetarian. It discussed how humane farm practices can be introduced into the farming industry.


With the holidays coming up, does anyone have any holiday favs they like to make? My mom is terribly creative with cooking. She is truly gifted in this area. With the change in my eating habits, I think she has liked the challenged of cooking in a different way, which is cool. I'm trying to think of other things besides tofurkey.

For winter food I like stuff like broiled tofu, roasted root vegetables with curry or just coriander, pot pies, etc.

For pot pie I use store-bought crusts, but I melt down a little Earth Balance with thyme and rub it into the top and bottom.

For the filling I saute garlic and onions, then add chopped potatoes and veggie broth. When the potatoes are almost cooked I add some cubes of tofu and a bag of frozen mixed veggies (peas, carrots, string beans, corn). Pour whole wheat flour into the broth until you have a nice thick sauce and add more Earth Balance, lots of poultry seasoning, and some salt. Then fill the crust and bake it.

I didin't even see this thread yet!

my Mom made a really yummy lentil and cashew loaf for me for Thanksgiving. I thinkk it was just beans and ground nuts, celery and some spices, then baked in a loaf pan. With ketchup it tasted alomost like meatloaf, even the turkey eaters liked it! I have made burgers in a similar way too.

we had veggie-style beef Wellington for our Thanksgiving last week. used some ground up veggie burger, and mushrooms in place of the usual beef.
also, i love making a rich lentil stew with yumy homemade bread. or my boy makes some really delicious soy patties with whatever finely chopped veggies and herbs he is in the mood for, and fries them up. last christmas we ate them with a fig sauce that was extra tasty. i love doing veggie holiday feasts! i find we tend to experiment more with our "sides" (veggies, potatoes, etc) than a lot of my meat-eating family members. their dinners seem to get so boring.

oh, how creative Christine! the one thing i learned from my veggie friends is that you can be creative and experiment with cooking. i'm hoping looking at cookbooks and websites this weekend will help me to get inspired. while i am making changes, i feel i am relying too much on carbs like tortillas, pasta, potatoes, rice, in my diet.

I know what you mean! I've always liked vegetables since I was a kid, but during the last few years at family dinners I've found myself understanding people who don't like them. Everything is so plain... mashed turnip, mashed butternut squash, plain brussels sprouts. Everything is boiled. There are no spices. Each veggie is all by itself... it's like, put the sweet potatoes and parsnips together (not that something as "fancy" as parsnips would ever appear on the table)! Use herbs! Roast or grill instead of just boiling. If you're going to boil, at least use broth in there. Try some sauces, maybe even nuts. And don't be a stranger to olive oil, garlic, and lemon juice. Geez.

you're a girl after my own heart HT. because of course, the way to my heart is through my stomach. as though there could be any doubt!

i like manicotti for thanksgiving. my broc/cheesy rice casserole is also a big hit, even with the meat-eaters.

i just got vegetable soups from deborah madison's kitchen from the library, as well as her vegetarian suppers book. just flipping through the soup book makes my stomach growl!

i'm a big fan of chilis, whether i just throw them together with whatever i have, or i actually plan them out ahead of time (the farmstand chili in the vegetarian slow cooker cookbook is one of my faves). ((hugs my crockpot))

the other day i found a bottle of general tso's sauce at the store, so i cut up a zucchini, mushrooms, and cubed some tofu, stir-fried them with the sauce, then ate it over some jasmine rice. yum!!

ht, i'm gonna try that pot pie of yours. sounds delish!

How do you prepare your manicotti, Faerie?


hellotampon, i have loved veggies since i was a kiddo too. i do not discriminate against food. i love food. i've just cut out the lovin' with the meat. sometimes, you just need to know when to say when...anywhoo...i think that is why most people cannot fathom a diet without meat. i think they believe it is a "boring" way of eating or takes too much time to learn to eat differently. i will admit that there is still part of me that wants to grab for something quickly like a piece of meat. but, now, i'm having to think alittle more about what i actually want to eat.


time to go dig out my veggie cookbooks. i'm glad this thread is jumping again. i hope we lure even some of the bustie meat eaters to lurk and potentially post recipes and/or ideas, questions...

i'm thinking about going back to being a vegetarian. i was one for a few months, last year, mainly because i was bored with my diet and wanted to change things up. i'm curious as to your reasons for being vegetarian. and i am curious about ways to get protein other than beans, tofu and nuts.

ok, so has anyone thought about not being a vegetarian anymore?
i've been one for 14 years, and i'm not fond of the texture or taste of meat, but i always wonder if i'd go back, and if so, for what and why.

i met up with an old friend a while back who was a hardcore vegan when i knew her. i asked her if she still was, and she said no. i asked her if she was vegetarian, and she said no. the long and short of it was that she was on an assignment someplace for work that had terrible cafeteria crap, with absolutley no veg option, so one day she got the chicken nuggets (hey- they're basically 1/2 soy anyway), and then fell back into carnivorism. she loves meat now.

::shrugs::


eta: btw, the post punk kitchen is the site i use a lot. i did some vegan pumpkin bread once, and it was decent, but how do i circumvent the dryness?

have you guys read The China Study yet? it's a sumation of 20 years of nutritional research that basically proves that scientist can turn cancer tumours off and on by adding more or less animal protein to the diet. it's an incredible book, really fascinating stuff. plant protein had nothing but positive effects but Any animal protein over 5% of the overall diet increase tumour size.

it's a myth that we need so much protein anyhow, besides, it's in everything including lettuce and oranges. and our "needs" have been way over estimated.
if you use a nutrition tracker like fitday.com you can see your levels of protein and other nutrients.

Yeah, no one actually needs that much protein. Beans, nuts, and tofu are perfectly adequate. I've been vegetarian since I was 11, vegan (by my definition) since I was 20... much to the surprise of my grandparents, I'm still alive, and not underweight. The only animal products I eat are eggs from my own ducks and chickens or other people's chickens (not from the store), and I don't have much of a problem with honey either. I know some people would say I'm not vegan because of the eggs, but I don't feel like they're at odds with my morals. I just avoid talking about it with stricter vegans or online recipe sites because I hate getting attitude about how even though my birds are pets to me and they have great living conditions and I don't harm them, that I'm still a bad vegan because it's wrong to take from animals on principle. Whatever!

I agree with the protein thing. We eat too much anyway. But I eat a lot of beans and nuts, so I think I'll be set on protein if there was ever any doubt.

I have been vegan for 10 or 11 years now, (who's counting anyway at this point) and I also hate people's attitude on vegan sites. I got flamed not so long ago for saying I occasionally let honey slip in my diet when I'm on the road or when I buy bread from the local bakery. I don't get why those people are so high and mighty. Some of them haven't even been vegetarian for more that a year.

I am also glad that this thread is hoppin' again.

the first time i went vegetarian at the age of 19 was the result of articles i read about the link between stomach cancer and red meat. i got uncomfortable with that information and out went the meat. i started eating meat at the age of 23 as the result of being overworked, stressed, and not making good choices for myself. i wanted an immediate dietary fix...it ended when i got myself a whopper. damn.


so, i fell off the veggie wagon.

here i am, 33 years old and the past year i've been cavorting with vegetarians, like raisingrl, cocl, and my other good friends. my good friend is a vegan. i learned from her alot of variety to eating vegetarian. i felt pretty good eating differently. oh, and seeing a naturopath a year before that helped me to learn about proper eating habits. plus, i was doing alot of reading, workshops, etc on mindfulness and yoga. i went to kripalu and was spoiled on a weekend of veggie delights.

i think what sealed the deal was attending an event with tibetan monks about healing, gratitude, and respect. i was especially moved to learn about how their way of eating is reflective of their values. being vegetarian seemed to be consistent with my own values in life. i definitely feel that not eating meat was a spiritual, physical, and emotional decision for me. so, that's my reason for being veg. i'm still not convinced of the more militant vegans about eating eggs and honey. i mean, they are naturally produced by chickens and bees. if anything, i would be more concerned about the unethical treatment of bees and chickens on farms to produce these products. so, the argument is still weak for me.

but, to each their own.

it's not that people are being uptightety about eating honey or eggs etc, it's that the definition of veganism is fairly clear and if that isn't what you follow, you aren't in fact a vegan.

Vegan [vee-gn]: Veganism denotes a philosophy and way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, nonhuman animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, nonhumans and the environment. Vegans avoid all animal produce: meat (including chicken and fish), eggs, animal milks, honey, and their derivatives.

it doesn't matter, it's just a label in the end. but why use it if it doesn't apply to you?certainly eating eggs and honey falls outside of that definition, i'm not saying that it's "wrong" but it isn't vegan. what's wrong with vegetarian?
i don't think that everyone deciding what words mean "to them" lends itself to clear communication. words have meanings for a reason after all. and there was a time when people thought you meant that you ate chicken and fish when you said you were a vegetarian. there's that "words have meaning for a reason" thing.

Yeah, I'm sure we all know how to pronounce "vegan."

I don't see eating my own eggs as exploitation or cruelty. I have chickens running around my yard. They lay eggs. They could rot, or I could eat them. So I do. When they're not in a laying cycle I go without eggs. Eggs are not why I have the birds. Personally I think most reasonable people who define veganism the same way I do (avoiding animal products because of cruelty, environmentalism, etc.) wouldn't see me eating the eggs as any kind of violation of my principles, which is what actually matters here, but if it makes you feel better to call me a freegan instead, go ahead.

Yeah, words have meaning for a reason, but they can also be redefined, and that happens a lot in social movements. Look at how many different ways people define feminism [feh-muh-niz-um], for instance.

Anyway I think it's really alienating and kind of pointless when people act like the Vegan Police.