cornflake said:
I'm not sure if you're trying to meet a bunch of dietary goals at once. If you're used to eating one way, that's a lot of substituting to do all at once, which may be contributing to the new way feeling off and unsatisfying.
We're both trying to lose weight. Our house has been on the market for a few months. Leading up to the listing, we had to get everything perfect and staged and spent, like, two weeks unable to cook because the photographer was going to just pop by for pictures. We ate out a lot, and we both got pretty sick. That's when my husband decided "no more meat." My desire to go Veg* has always been ethical. His is entirely dependent on how he *thinks* it's making him physically feel.
The first week, we did pretty well with mostly stirfry and some stuff like miso soup and black bean tacos. Then we had a busy two weeks and relied more on prepackaged stuff, like frozen ravioli and pizza, and pastas and breads. After those two weeks, he gained a couple of pounds and said he felt like crap and blamed vegetables... even though I think the problem was that we weren't actually eating many.
We both feel better when we're eating low simple carb (no pasta, bread, etc.) and high vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. So that's what I've been trying to do this past month. He keeps sabotaging me, though, and then blaming Veg* because he ate a bunch of kolaches and feels bad now.
I probably should have written more clearly. I also made spaghetti squash for the "chicken spaghetti" prior to going Veg*. The only change there was the chicken swapped for the various beans. I hadn't thought to add zucchini! that's a good idea. I'm not used to the idea of adding vegetables to things.
cornflake said:
What else did you used to eat? I think I'd try closer substitutions at first, with more adventurous other dishes, or sides, before branching out totally?
Before, we didn't actually make a lot of "dishes." We usually had a grilled protein with a starch side, like a sweet potato, and a veggie side, like green beans... but all very separate. So, now, our tendency is to think of a starch, think of a veggie, and then stare at the open protein spot and not know what to put there.
blacbird said:
I'm not a vegetarian, but I do eat a lot of pure veg dishes, often for an entire meal. Among my faves are simple sautéed snap/snow peas, summer squash, leek/onion and mushrooms (either good wild ones*, or store-bought shiitakes or criminis). A little white wine and olive or sesame oil, done briefly at high heat. with some ground pepper.
That sounds good. I'll give it a shot.
We both like mushrooms a lot. We have trouble finding them in the stores, here, though. In our area, it's only cremini and white. We can get shiitakes in the Asian grocery stores and sometimes at Whole Foods, but that's a lot of stops to make. We can get various mushrooms dried, but they always feel rubbery.
Am I remembering wrong, or did you once say you also have a good method for making kale?
I know Houston has a mycology club. I've been considering attending one of their forays for several years, now.
stephenf said:
I have been a vegetarian all my life . I don't think or worry about it
I've been asking some people I know who are vegetarian for tips, and I've been getting some blank looks. I thought about that—what I'd say if someone asked me for tips in eating a meat diet—and it seems kind of weird, like, "Just get some meat and eat it." *shrug* I never thought about how to eat the way I grew up eating, either.
Mediterranean cooking is often simple and nice in the sun.
Since we've been easing into Veg* by still eating some seafood on occasion, it might be better to say we're Pescatarian right now. Mediterranean recipes would fit well.
Dal dishes are easy and quick to make
Do you have any suggestions for easy recipes? I actually have to cans of red lentils I'm not sure how to use, but all the Dal recipes I've found on the web have been so complicated I don't even read to the end before I give up on it.
One dish I like is Monks Vegetables, but so far I have not managed to find all the ingredients to make the original Luo Han Zhai recipe
I like Asian dishes. I make a very bastardized miso soup we both like as a main dish. And we make stir fry... Asian-inspired, at least? I'm not quite sure what to do with a bunch of Asian foodstuffs, though they look intriguing. Like bean curd? Is that similar to tofu? Do I cook it the same way? So far, what we do with tofu is buy it from the cold section already fried.
I just looked up (what claimed to be) an authentic recipe for Monks Vegetables. It looks like if you can find the ingredients (this recipe wants a dried lotus flower?), the cooking part is fairly easy.
