I am 41 years old. I have been a vegetarian nearly 22 years. No meat of any sort including seafood. I was vegan for about 17 years.
I am from Texas and I STILL get weird looks when I try to order something and tell them to take the meat out. These people and their meat. I have been married 15 years to a country boy who has to have meat and potatoes at every meal. No, I am not kidding. It's good that he likes to cook, though. My kids are not vegetarians either. My daughter eats a lot of what I do (she's 8) but she likes her chicken.
There are a ton of vegetarian cookbooks out there and I own many of them, but don't ever even look at them. Really, I think the recipes are weird and way too many products I never buy or don't want to go to the store and find. I just make or buy things that I like WITHOUT meat. Seriously, just make what you want and don't put meat in it!
Word of warning: If you are going veggie thinking that you will automatically lose weight, be careful. Cheese enchiladas and nachos don't have any meat in them, either! You can substitute the meat in recipes with soy-type "meats," but it might make your stomach a bit crazy. Gas-producing!
I love bean burgers. I love beans, salads, raw veggies, fruit, cheese, crackers, nuts, making my own pizzas, frito pie (with vegetarian ranch beans, no meat). Lots of stuff out there.
If you think it's cruel, then stop eating meat. But as my mom said over 20 years ago: "If you're going to stop eating meat because you think it's wrong, then you can't wear your leather boots!" I know she said that to dissaude
me from going vegetarian, but it backfired. I then stopped wearing leather, silk, wool...
At what point is it not cruel?
GOOD LUCK!