Vegetarian getting mixed messages from coach on protein- help!
 

Hello everyone. I could use some help.
I have been doing IP for 5 weeks tomorrow. I am a vegetarian and having been choking down hard boiled egg whites which I do not tolerate very well.
I was told I could have one Tablespoon of peanut butter in lieu of the 2 egg whites. I need other ideas for my dinner protein.
I cannot eat beef, chicken, pork, fish or seafood. The eggs are pushing it.
If you have any suggestions please let me know.
:^:

Have you tried veggie burgers or Smart Dogs?? I haven't tried YET, but will be this weekend, longdivision suggested them..

I will try them. Thank you. :)

hi! i'm a vegetarian and i've been on plan for almost 6 months. here is what you can eat:

smart dogs
veggie burgers
non-breaded soy chicken
seitan
tofu
morning star bacon

there are tons of meat alternatives (boca, morning star, quorn, etc.) that you can eat. most are pretty high in protein. just try to keep your servings under 5 net carbs and watch out for sugars in the ingredients. always read the labels and stick to the serving sizes on the box. enjoy!

Thank you this sounds great!

I've posted b4 about being vegetarian and got no response. Just wondering:

1: how much bacon
2: how do you prepare the seitan

thanks!!

I am sorry I can't help. I am not sure how many vegetarians we have on the board right now but, if you post this in the daily post or the experienced thread, you might get LONGDIVISION to answer. I believe she did this as a vegetarian.


If not, go up a few posts and you can try to send her a private message by clicking on her user name.

Seitan is the wheat meat. Check on the internet for recipes. They make great cutlets.
We are allowed 5-8 oz of protein for dinner. So check the package of bacon. But, you have to watch the carbs and sugars in everything.

Spaghetti does it have meat?
 

I'm vegetarian and can't find if the spaghetti has meat in it or not

Ingredient list: Soy protein concentrate, egg noodles, dehydrated vegetables, sugar, corn starch, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, sunflower oil, salt, soy fibers, colors (caramel, annatto extract), natural flavors, spices.

Annatto comes from seeds of a tropical plant. No idea what the natural flavors might include.

Neither the Chicken Soup nor the Chicken A La King Pottage have meat, and both of those are non-restricted. The Pottage has little bits of either TVP or seitan floating around in it; I though it was good (albeit a bit bland).

The ones that I have found don't qualify as vegetarian due to gelatin or collagen are the Cran-Pom Drink, the Pina Colada Drink, the Raspberry Jelly, and the Chicken NOODLE Soup. The Orange Drink has canthaxanthin, which MAY be from fish.

What have you been using as a "go to" protein source?

Sounds good. I was pretty much vegetarian , eating lower on the food chain but stopped when I started IP because the vegetarian foods I could eat were not foods I ate normally. I am glad for those who have maintained being vegetarian. I now eat fish and organic chicken or beef.

The Boca Burgers are great! I do not do well with meat either, although I am fortunate that I am able to eat fish. However, the Quorn products look great also! Good Luck! :)

I have a question for all the vegetarians out there.

I'll be going into phase 3 this week and wanted to vary my meat choices for lunch and dinner. Right now I'm eating pork, chicken, turkey, and eggs. But I would love to include more vegetarian choices. I've looked into SmartDogs, SmartStrips, Soy Organic Tempeh, Flax Organic Tempeh, and Original Boca Burgers. They all have under 7g net carbs when consuming around 30g of protein. But the calories and fat are higher than normal animal protein.
My skinless chicken breasts are about 150 calories with 1g of fat and no carbs. 3 large eggs have 216 cal and 15g of fat. These alternative meat products range from 140 to 345 calories. Some have up to 16g of fat, too. Most of the products have only 2-4g of net carbs. The sugars are all under 1.5g of sugar so that's good.

In phase 3 would the extra carbs in the meatless products cause another insulin spike? I know the goal of p3 is to have your insuline spike only in the morning for breakfast, so I don't want to mess up the program.

Anyone have any input?

Vegetarian Protein Ideas for Dinner
 

Okay, so I know if you do a search you can come up with ideas for Vegetarians for their protein for dinner, but it's been a while, and I thought it might be time to do a thread dedicated to it.

As a Vegetarian, we have to pick out proteins that are on the lower end of the carb (so many of our proteins are high carb) and fat scale, and higher in protein (we need to get 30-40g of protein for the dinner meal). Try to find ones that have good fiber in them, so it can counter the carbs (net carbs). And of course watch out for hidden sugars, which had me dumping my favorite products).

The veggie proteins I have used so far are:

* Eggs/Egg Whites
* Bob's Red Mill High Protein TVP (80 cal; 0g fat; 7g carb; 4g Fiber; 12g prot)
* Trader Joe's Organic Sprouted Tofu (80 cal; 5g fat; 1g carb; 1g Fiber; 9g prot)
* Tofu Pups (60 cal; 2.5g fat; 2 g carb; 1g fiber; 8g prot)
* Boca All American Classic Meatless Burgers (90 cal; 2g fat; 6g carb; 6g fiber; 15g protein)
* Westsoy Seitan Strips (120 cal; 2g fat; 4g carb; 1g fiber; 21g prot)
* Tofurkey Oven Roasted Deli Slices (100 cal; 3g fat; 6g carb; 3g fiber; 13g protein

What I've started to do (and it seems to work for me), is since these choices aren't as high in protein as meats, I add in extra egg whites to my shakes to make up for the lesser amount of protein and not add in any fat or carbs.

Honestly, I'm pretty tired of these choices. I really miss beans and nuts and whole grains, and oh yeah, cheese. :) So if anyone else has found some IP safe Vegetarian proteins, please list them. I'd really appreciate it!

Thanks!

How about vegetarian tacos or fajitas..using tofu or those protein vege crumbles? I used Morningstar crumbles and they made a good taco.

Great ideas! :) I do make fajitas with the seitan (and also stir fry) and then taco salads using the TVP. I also made some TVP sausage crumbles. I just started using the TVP.

dirty "rice" and tofurky sausage and peppers!!! yum!!!

Thanks, Rainbow! I've never liked those sausages before, but I need to try them again. The dirty rice with that and peppers sounds good. :)

For the record, I looked up the nutritional info for Tofurky Italian Sausage and it's this: 270 cal; 13g fat; 12g carb; 8g fiber; 29g protein. Just trying to have this info in one place for future Vegetarians looking for info. :)

Bump....

LizzRR put this delicious looking recipe in her fun with purées thread..l it's on my "to try ASAP" list.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/4443085-post85.html

Thanks on that. I've not tried rutabaga yet, so I should probably do that. :) Thanks, djs!

Bump, for any new folks that might like some Vegetarian Information (and hoping some others will add to the thread). :)

One way to jazz up your eggs is to make a fritatta. First I chop up my two cups of veggies. I prefer zucchini sliced in rounds. I roast that in the oven for about 5 mins with garlic and some olive oil. Do this in a glass pie pan. Make sure the sides of the pan are all coated with the olive oil (this will keep your eggs from sticking later).

Then, put your egg alotment into the blender along with salt and pepper. Whip into froth. Mix in 8-10 leaves of chopped basil. Pour over zucchini.

Put into oven and cook until done.

Enjoy a fluffy fritatta. I love this accompanied by a side salad.

Thanks, Benice! I'll try this one. love the basil in it. I have some growing here. :)

bump

Thanks for bumping this, Wuv!

If anyone else is looking for some dinner Vegetarian proteins, here's another thread: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...as-dinner.html

Are there any Vegetarian Maintainers?
 

My family is mostly vegetarian and I'm starting Maintenance. Is anyone doing this successfully?

At this point, I am doing OK in maintenance but am relying heavily on "fake meat". At first in maintenance I relied a lot on IP chocolate drink mix before and after exercise, then often Gardein, Quorn, Tofurky products, eggs and daily Greek yogurt.

Are you looking at food combining to make whole proteins or something else?

Feel free to PM me.

I'll be starting maintenance in about a month I think, and I'm Vegetarian too. I'm not sure how I'll do it. I'm going to add in lots of beans I think, and stay with Seitan and tofu also. I don't like the Vegetarian fake meats much to be honest. I hope you get some responses, as it would be useful! And good luck in maintenance.

Shiratake Noodles/Miracle Noodles
 

I just remembered this! These noodles are ok for those who are absolutely craving their noodles - just spice it up well to make up for the loss of taste. They're also called Tofu Noodles.

A word of caution - they smell to the high heavens. PLEASE wash them very well - follow directions on packet!

Some Vege Protien options
 

Starshine,

I am vegetarian and have done these options that you have suggested. I am in maintainence for a month now and try to add protien in every meal. I have used the following other than what you have listed:

1) Make a green smoothie with spinach,kale and other green you can tolerate and add isolate protien powder. I use the one from Costco, Optimum Nutrition Performance Whey. This has 3 gm of carb and 30 gms of protien. That is half the protien I need in one shot! You can add fruits in the maintainence phase, so i do add frozen banana/blueberries somedays.

2) Morningstar Farms meatless Sausage patties with Mint Chutney for dinner! LOL.. I know not an usual combo but it works if you like your protien spicy with mint/coriander chutney. These have 4 gm net carbs and 10 gm of protien per patty, so I have about three of them for 8 oz of protien. You can get mint chutney in any Indian grocery nearby - either in freezer or otherwise.

3) I also use IP packets or EAS shakes now and then in my meal planning.


Hope that helps! The hardest thing being a vegetarian was eating outside of home where there are very few places with protien from vegetarian source.


Hang in there.. Good Luck!

4)

Thank you for this, vidyab35! :hug: I've been using Optimum Nutrition for my shakes all along, and do plan on using them for the morning smoothies when I get to maintenance at least a few times a week. Thanks for the tip on the sausage with chutney. That's a new one for me, so I'm excited about that.

Nice to know how you're doing your protein in maintenance. I think I'll do it your way, as we Veggies have to make sure we get an adequate amount during the day.

How else do you find maintenance?

hiya!
 

I was about to add a 4th option but hit "post" before that. I also add tofu instead of paneer (cottage cheese) in a few Indian dishes. I don't know if you like Indian, but you can do Palak Paneer (spinach with chese; cheese substitued with tofu), tofu chilli etc. Let me know if you are interested, I can send you my recipes for them.

Maintainence was scary at first, I was not sure if I could do protien well being a vegetarian and all. But is has worked well so farafter a month and half of it at my goal weight of 145. Try to make sure you plan out your protien for each meal, that way there is no surprises and last minute pigging out due to hunger.. LOL. I also exercise 2-3 days a week and that helps a lot. You can do it!


Vidya

I'd love the Indian recipes, vidyab35. Thank you! I like to try new things, and I've not had that much Indian food in my life, so I'm game. :)

Maintenance does scare me due to the way it's set up and how a normal Vegetarian eats, and I'd rather not do fake meats. I'm tired of them, and they weren't a huge part of my Vegetarian diet prior to IP. But it took some work to make Phase 1 work for me too, but it was all worth it.

So glad you're doing so well in maintenance! That's huge. I'm still not sure whenI'll be hitting it, as I keep lowering my goal weight, and I think I have 10 pounds or so left to lose. I'll take 145. :) I've been walking an hour a day since the 3rd week of IP (I walked before IP), and I can't weight to add in yoga and weigh lifting too. Once I lose the fat, I want to build up muscle again.

Do you post at all in the Maintainer's thread? I'd love to see you over there. I asked them for Vegetarian advice a few months ago, and there wasn't too much information there (Infoplease was great with information!).

Thanks again, vidyab35! :hug:

So much great info and inspiration here!

Do any of you use TVP? I was going to replace the meat in my sloppy joes recipe with it, but backed out at the last min and used the Morningstar Crumbles.

When I want some hamburger tasting stuff, I use TVP. Not very often, but I make tacos out of it. I want to try the sloppy joe recipe too.

It's from EatingWell http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/ea...oppy_joes.html
I just replaced the crumbles for the meat...yum-oh!

I am always looking for IP-suitable vegetarian protein sources. These are great ideas!

I also had these pages bookmarked, great stuff here:
Vegetarian [including some of the packets that don't seem like they would be vegetarian, but are (chicken soup, chili, spaghetti bolognese, etc.) and vice-versa. See Post #10]
Vegetarian's Guide

I just bought these again - glad to be reminded of these! Just wanted to note that the ones I purchased from Trader Joe's (Morningstar Farms "Original Sausage Patties"; 38 g each), the net carbs is only 2g each (3g total - 1 g fiber). That means that three of them = 240 calories; 6 g net carbs/9 g fat/30 g protein. I don't know if this amount of fat is considered to be too high for IP... 34%... actually that seems higher than the recommended amount of less than 30%?

ALSO, yes, the recipe for an IP-friendly version of Palak Paneer(Tofu) would be great! I have done this in the past with prepared Indian packets but the fat was always crazy high.

Next week I think I'm going to try to make some "wheat meat". Anyone attempted this? Thoughts? Suggestions?

I'm glad you are making it as a vegetarian!
How many g of protein are you trying to get at each meal and snack? I'm over doing it I think...Kate