Anyone change their diet to vegetarian? How did you make the switch? All at once or slowly? I have been doing alot of reading, and though I don't think I want to go completely vegetarian, I think I would like to drastically reduce the amount of animal protein that I am consuming down too two or three meals a week. I am would still like to consume fish and ground turkey (burgers, etc), and cut red meat completely. Right now, I eat two animal protein meals a day, so getting it down to just two or three a week for me would be an amazing feat. Its hard because no one else around me eats this way (housemates, etc) and I would like it to be child friendly (or agreeable) because of my son. Any book suggestions? Or ways to ease into?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Are you looking for meal plans, or recipes?

Jane Brody, from the late 80s, is all about complex carbs as the mainstay of meals and is pretty veg-friendly and isn't, erm, weird-food-y.

EDIT: Also, Mark Bittman. His blog is veg-friendly and his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian is good.

I stopped eating red meat entirely about a year ago and I consume chicken and turkey probably like 2-3 times a week. I wish I could eat more whole fish at home but it's hard to cook like that with two sons who aren't eating that yet. I do try to eat fish when I go out to eat. I gave up red meat not for ethical reasons but because I felt like crap, lol. Also, I saw how fabulous Gwnyeth Paltrow looked and she stated that she doesn't eat any red meat, only turkey and chicken. I figured why not? My skin looks better than it ever did I might add since staying away from red meat. Hope this helps.

I went from omnivore to vegetarian to vegan and then back to omnivore. During all those transitions, I did it "cold turkey." (Bad pun.)

Easing into it may be the way to go for your family, though. Try a few of these tips:

Start serving just one or two (familiar) meatless meals each week, like spaghetti or bean soup.

Start making easy replacements: use ground turkey instead of ground beef in chilis, meatloaves, etc. (Or half ground turkey and half beef to start.)

Stretch meat with meatless alternatives. Add a can of black beans to your taco mix, for example.

When you are eating foods that may not be family friendly, such as fish, do what you can to make it appealing. I find that some panko sprinkled on baked white fish gives it that crunchy feel of a fish stick without all the breading.

I was a vegetarian for over 20 years. I am back eating meat again and I wouldn't go back for anything. It was not healthy for my body. I had all kinds of health issues I never tied to being vegetarian but where gone as soon as I started eating meat again. Just saying...
I don't eat meat every day but most days.

The red meat is easy for me to give up, we eat it about once a week. Started using ground turkey for everything we use to use ground beef for months ago. My family is good with fish, in fact my son loves it and we usually have some sort of fish once a week. I just would like to find ways that are appealing to have meatless meals more often. I definately live in a meat and potatoes kind of household and need meatless meals that are "beefier" in substance.

I will definately check out the book recommendations.

One year and three months ago I decided that I was going to follow a pescetarian diet, I had been considering it for a few months then decided that after a cabin trip with friends I would no longer eat "barn yard animals", the meal I made was my Aunt in laws amazing meatloaf recipe- that was the last time I ever ate "that" kind of meat and I have to say it was one of the easiest things I have ever done, I used to eat chicken several times per week, but very seldom ate red meat- was never a fan. I stopped drinking cows milk and now drink light vanilla soy, I do still eat eggs and seafood fairly often. Doing it overnight isn't for everyone, but it worked for me. I'm not considering eating a vegetarian diet, I do enjoy seafood a lot.

I'm vegetarian and mostly vegan. I did it slowly over time. I am very healthy as a mostly vegan and have good energy.

I unfortunately don't have any favorite cookbooks to share; I'm only cooking for one, so my meals are pretty random. But if I remember, I'll ask my sister, who cooks for 4, if she has any favorites.

But in general, some easy hearty foods include black bean chili or burritos full of beans and veggies. If you're still eating cheese, enchiladas, pizza and lasagna veggify very easily. Potpie with potatoes and mushrooms and lots of veggies is also yummy and filling.

Ha, you sound just like me! I stopped eating pork at 5, vegetarian at 15, back to no-red meat around 21/22, added red meat during a particularly financially difficult period of life, and settled on mostly vegetarian at 27 and have remained there.

Breakfast is rarely with meat - most of my combos come from eggs/some kind of grain.

Snack: fruit

Lunch: Usually soup - often vegetarian, not always.

Snack: veggies w/hummus

Dinner: Easy vegetarian meals include:
-pizza (I do light flatbread),
-Tex-Mex (tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas) with beans or mixtures of veggies THIS is an awesome recipe,
-Pasta/grain based dishes - quinoa salad is a favorite, or barley with veggies and tomato sauce, macaroni and cheese,
-Salads,
-Rice and beans (there are so many variations),
-Veggie burgers - with homemade fries!
-loaded baked potatoes,
-Veggie chili (I make mine with squash, zucchini, peppers, corn, onions, etc)
-Asian noodle bowls
-Veggie (maybe tofu or tempeh) stir fry

You can always try switching out some of your ground meats for soy crumbles as an easy transition.

What are your go-to meals? Almost everything can be made vegetarian.

Go to meal include, these are pretty basic meals in my house.

- turkey burgers with sweet potato fries and another veggie on the side.

- grilled fish (of some kind) with roasted/grilled veggies and brown rice

- Homemade whole wheat pizza with pepperoni, cheese, onions, and mushorroms

- Chicken casserole (more like a large pot pie) stuffed full of carrots, celery, potatoes, onions, mushrooms

- Ground turkey tacos with all the veggie toppings

- On even more boring nights, I will just do baked chicken, with baked sweet potatoes, and some steam green beans

ETA: We do ALOT of chili during the fall and winter also. We currently do it with ground turkey meat and lots of beans.

And breakfast in my house is pretty non existent (at least for me). I am not home in the mornings, but my son and spouse are. He cooks breakfast for them which they usually have pancakes, eggs, and split a banana. When I get home from work a little after lunch, we all usually have just some brown rice and some kind of roasted veggie, yesterday it was asparagus.

With very small tweaking, so many of your go-to meals are vegetarian.
I put some recipe links in, but most are have so many variations found on google or a recipe website.

I hope it helps! A great place to look for ideas is http://www.veggiebyseason.com

I was a lacto-ovo vegetarian for two years and managed to gain weight! That said, I was a terrible vegetarian and ate way too many carbs and not nearly enough vegetables. I now eat turkey and chicken only.