Is anyone here doing the vegetarian plan? I'm not interested in going totally veggie, but I would love some ideas for adding in a veggie meal every so often.

Thanks!

Oh I wish someone had replied, because I am a vegetarian, and my husband is vegan! He is not on the plan, but we like to cook together!

I just switched to the vegetarian menu after a couple months on the Green menu. I'm enjoying the tofu noodles as a protein, they're pretty good. The only non-vegetarian 'cheat' that I'm doing is fish a couple of times a week. My center said that you have to do one plan or the other since they have not yet incorporated vegetarian meals into the regular menu plans...whatever that means.

I have been looking at portions, and some of the amounts are totally messed up. 4 oz of veggie bacon is almost an entire package...and has 40 grams of fat! For one serving of protein? That's gotta be wrong. Same goes for the veggie chik n nuggets. I'm going to ask my center about it.

Okay, I play around with recipes all the time. I absolutely love to cook and take an ordinary meal or recipe and make it extraordinary. I am Filipino so I have to have my asian cuisine one way or another. I love rice, but for obvious reasons cannot have it. So, for the last couple days I sat around contemplating what it was that my palate was truly craving and came up with this recipe.

***WARNING***Does use low-sodium soy sauce (call it cheating or what not). However if you look at your sodium intake on your creamy, you will realize, prespectively, it's really not that bad. Everything is good in moderation.

I PROMISE, PROMISE, PROMISE, if you are someone who loves the ingredients just by looking at them on this post. You assuredly will LOVE these. I made them for my whole family and they had no idea how healthy these are. Oh, and did I mention how yummy they were!

8-10 Cabbage Leaves (try not to make too many tears in them and remove the hard stem by cutting an upside down V...you want to save as much of that leaf as possible though)
---3 steamed leaves equal 1 oz.

1 lb. Ground Turkey; Crumbled and Browned
3 oz. Grated or Finely Chopped Cauliflower Florets (no stems)
4 medium Button Mushrooms; Finely Chopped
3 Whole Stalks of Green Onions; Thinly Sliced (top to bottom)
1 can Drained Bamboo Shoots; Finely Chopped
1/2 C. Bean Sprouts
3 Garlic Cloves Minced
1/2 t. Minced Ginger (3/4 t. Ginger Powder)
1/2 t. Fresh Ground Black Pepper
A generous pinch of sea salt
1 T. Low-Sodium Soy Sauce (Green Bottle)

***If you just want a straight VEGAN recipe...go without the Turkey; they are filling with or without, trust me!***

Get you steamer going to a good steam and put your cabbage leaves int he steamer for 5 minutes to where they are slightly translucent around the edges and seem flexible. Once you have steamed them for 5 minutes; pull them out and set them aside.

Combine all the above ingredients according to your proprtions. 4 oz. ground turkey with 3 oz. of vegetables (3 cabbage leaves are equal to 1 oz). I put the mixture back into the skillet that I used to brown the turkey on medium heat for an additional minute or two, watching it so that it will not burn, but just enough time so that the turkey absorbs the flavors.

Ration them out to fit your 3 cabbage leaves! And VOILA! You can top with a sprinkle of curry powder or add some chili garlic sauce to it to spice it up. Both are fantastic with it and enhances the flavor. Also, if you choose to emulsify the curry or spice a bit; after you roll them up you can pan sear them for 30 seconds on each side in the same skillet you were using, or stick them back int he steamer for a minute or two.

I made this and served it with 3 Sesame Melba Toast rounds and it was just delicious and VERY filling and leaves you with the mentality that you are sticking to your diet and eating healthy, but not going without pizzaz thats bursting with flavor.

If any of you try this out, make sure you let me know what you think! Any suggestions I would love that as well. I have a few other great recipes, but am running short on time. i will make sure I post them soon though!

Yeah, I haven't started the program officially yet, still in preconditioning, but I know that all veggie nuggets aren't created equal. I am thinking of just printing out the nutritional info of my favorite meat replacements and sitting down with them to figure it out.

Let me know what you hear!

I have spent 5 months on the regular plan eating only chicken (my last attempt to hang on to my carnivorous side) and have lost almost 40 pounds, but I recently decided to give the chicken up, so now I am on the Vegetarian plan. I have gained 2 pounds, and I am starving all of the time! I don’t understand how I could eat a 300 calorie chicken breast on the regular plan, but only have a 60 calorie veggie dog on this one. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am so sad and so scared of gaining my weight back.

So now, they have done my body comp, and I am losing a lot of my muscle mass. They said it is because I am not getting enough protein. I am following the Vegetarian Menu, so shouldn't I be getting enough???

Are you doing any strength training? If not, assuming your protein intake isn't super low, that is the most important step to preserving your muscle mass. Simply eating protein isn't going to preserve your muscles.

I am very active - walking or treadmilling 1-3 miles almost everyday. I have just recently added hand weights when I treadmill...maybe that will help?

I feel like all of my hard work up to this point will be wasted if I continue on the vegetarian menu, but honestly, I just cannot force myself to eat the chicken. I am committed to this lifestyle.

Surely I will be able to continue to lose weight, though, right? Have you ever seen an overweight vegetarian?

I am losing vegetarian, but I don't know anything about MRC.

Don't let vegetarianism fool you. You can gain weight and be a heavy vegetarian. I am. I have been vegetarian for quite sometime and really was never a big meat eater.
in other words, I didn't get fat eating gobs of steak. Think cookies and mashed potatoes (Dang cookies!!

While I am not familiar with MRC, from the description all of you are giving above, it sounds as if MRC has put together a veg version of their program as an afterthought. Delete meat add in processed meat substitutes.
There are tons of wonderful ways to make veg meals. Lentils are amazing, and can pretty much be used in anything you would normally use ground beef. (Google lentil sloppy joes for example)
Good luck! And have fun with trying to create your favorites sans meat.

Thanks for the advice! You made me laugh with the cookie thing! You are right - my cheat foods are never meat products...always fattening things...pizza, pasta, ice cream and margaritas - oh my! lol

I am looking forward to trying some new recipes with the beans and tofu - can't wait to taste the Sloppy Joes!

I know this is an old thread, but I'm on the vegetarian plan and I've found a couple of nice protein options.

My favorite is Nate's Meatless Meatballs in the savory mushroom flavor. I saute mushrooms and green onions, add a little water and then add the balls. I add the 4 oz cooked veggies and break up the meat, adding more water, cumin, garlic powder and mrs dash...yum!

Quorn brand Naked Chik'n Cutlets are pretty tasty. I wrap one in a wet paper towel and put it in the microwave for 2 mins. I sprinkle it with mrs dash, cut it into chunks and mix it in with my big salad.

I'm not a big fan of imitation meat, mostly because I went vegetarian last fall to eat more natural whole foods and when you read the ingredients of most veggie "meats" they are full of junk or soy (which really isn't the greatest, but that's a whole 'nother thread ). The Quorn cutlets are soy free and made of mycoprotien, which is a type of mushroom. And Nate's does have some soy, but it's mostly made of mushrooms too. Both of these also had the most amount of protein with the least fat and carbs, compared to some of the other options, so they seem to fit in the plan well.

Happy eating!