New Lifestyle

As some of you may know Scott and I recently made the decision to become vegetarian. Although I have some negative thoughts on hormone-infested animals, we decided to go veg for our health. I've attempted several times/several ways to adjust our "normal" diet to help us loose weight/feel healthier, but to no avail. We finally realized that it would take a drastic change to get us out of our rut. We've been veg for about a month now, and we feel SO much better. At first I thought going veg would be this HUGE challenge, one I was glad I had my summer spare time to tackle. I kept thinking how I was going to have to learn how to cook all over again. I thought I was a pretty darn good cook. But would I know how to cook as a vegetarian? Well, I'm pleased to say that I have gained some invaluable experience and am now doing fabulous as a veg cook. So here's my advice to anyone wanting to attempt a veg life, anyone looking for healthy meals and/or anyone listening to this rant:

1) Soy milk is NOT horrible. We LOVE light vanilla soy milk. It's fabulous with cereal and fruit (our regular breakfast staple). It also makes a wonderful substitution in any recipe calling for milk.

2)If you know someone who is vegetarian/vegan, ask them for advice and recipes. Robin Fetter has been so helpful to me! Thanks a bunch, girl!

3)Applesauce makes a great egg replacer. If the recipe is for something sweet, this is such a healthy substitution. I've used applesauce in my whole wheat pancakes and baked oatmeal. YUMMY!

4)Tofu is NOT horrible. The key to tofu I think is marinading it. I made smothered "steak" the other night that Scott really liked. I marinaded the tofu for a few hours in steak seasoning sauce and balsamic vinegar, and there was never a dull bite!

5)Portion control. One of the main reasons Scott decided to join me in this quest is because he felt that we needed to learn better portion control. Many of the recipes I relied on before made enough food for 6 people! And unfortunately, that led us to eating like 6 people! Many of the veg recipes I've found are at max 4 servings OR can be easily cut down for just little old us.

6)Don't try the exotic recipes until you've been at it for awhile. Our first week of being veg was a bit shaky. I made something called Morocan Stew for dinner one evening, and Scott hated it. I think it was something too far outside our food comfort zone at the time. (I think he'd like it better now). Which leads me to the next point...

7)The best vegetarian recipes are modified versions of old favorites. We love pancakes around here. So I found whole wheat baking mix and modified my standard recipe to veganize it and VOILA...awesomeness! I've done this with lots of my recipes.

8)Vegetarians/vegans eat more than salads. We've had some great veg food this past month: ratouille, fajitas, kabobs, taco soup, grilled portobella mushrooms...makes me hungry just listing this stuff.

9)If you're going to eat grains, try to do whole-grain. I'm a label reader now just because of this. If it says "enriched" or "bleached," it goes back on the store shelf.

10)If possible, plan out your menu for the week and go grocery shopping for what you need for those meals. When it comes to being veg, you eat a lot of fresh produce, which can spoil if you're not careful. If you plan out your menu, you won't buy unnecessary produce that ends up being a waste of your money.