Hi tracy, I'd recommend looking at http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/ there are loads of recipes on the blog itself plus others in the recipe archive. Its one of my most favorite resources for low calorie, delicious and fairly easy recipes.

I eat a lot of beans myself and I will buy canned beans but I'll also make them in the crockpot. I also use a rice cooker to cook rice, qunioa and other grains. Sometimes quick cooking beans as well like adzuki (after they've been soaked).

Also, one thing I do is I will cook large batches of meals when I do cook. Cooking doesn't need to be strenous or time consuming. The other day I made indian spiced lentils with green beans over quinoa.

1) Measured quinoa, measured water, put in rice cooker, added a little salt, pushed start

2) Measured lentils and put in large sauce pan. Added a large can of tomatoes, dried onion, dried garlic and plenty of curry powder. Stirred, tasted and covered. Brought to a boil then simmered for about 40 minutes, stirring ocassionally.

When quinoa and lentils were done, I poured about a cup of frozen green beans on a plate and microwaved, then I added quinoa and lentils. It probably took me 5 minutes total of actual 'work' but I made lunch/dinner for multiple days.

why am i a [vegan]:

one day i was cooking up a new chicken alfredo recipe (which doesn't exist in my diet anymore for obvious reasons), and i pulled out the large boneless chicken i had bought at the store. when i pulled it out of its container and held it in my hand, i had a brief freak-out because i felt like i was holding a human organ in my hand. it killed my appetite completely.

that was the trigger, but ultimately i gave up meat and all dairy/egg products because of my views on animal rights. i don't need to go in detail~ you could probably watch youtube videos about it!

there are a million amazing things that can happen to you once you begin to slowly incorporate a more vegetarian/vegan diet into your life- as long as you don't take the sneaky shortcuts like stocking up on carbs and bread and more bread.

for me- i went french fry crazy... so don't let that happen to you!

think of all the foods you love that don't have meat in them... and focus on those!

example: i love hummus and falafels (baked falafels not deep fried!)-- and i went hummus and falafels crazy. or i ended up eating lots and lots of tofu-- because tofu tastes amazing =)

you don't have to go straight to eating just raw veggies. trust me- as soon as you begin to incorporate non-meat foods, you'll begin to enjoy vegetables and fruits as a core for your diet!

I've been a vegetarian since August of last year, and so far it's been nothing but great!
I did it because I was doing a research paper on factory farms and... it was just really depressing, disgusting, and horrible.
My mom's also a vegetarian, so it wasn't like I woke up one day and decided to try it. Growing up with a vegetarian gave me the information and a bit of experience to decide that this would work for me.
It's only been 9 months, but I'm already considering trying going vegan. [I most likely will when I go to college.]

I was a vegetarian in my late teens and early 20's, and I did it for weight and because of peer pressure. Whenever I'd get together with all my friends and they'd want to eat whatever the junkfood of the moment was, and when I would say "I can't have that I'm on a diet" I'd get a whole bunch of flak for it, nobody has respect for people who are trying to watch their weight, or they didn't at that time. However if I said "I can't eat that, I'm a vegetarian" well, nobody jumped in with the "oh, come on, just have a piece" thing, there was a certain respect for it. Plus, the added bonus was that vegetarian choices were *generally* lower in fat, calories etc. That worked for me for many years, and in fact my whole family joined in. I eventually added fish and chicken back into my diet and now on the odd occasion, red meat, but I've found I don't like red meat that much so it's pretty rare (pardon the pun) that we have it.

Im vegetarian because I love animals and I wont kill them. We have all the necessary food on this earth to survive and be healthy. I believe animals have a right to live just as we do and that we should choose to help animals instead of slaughtering them.

[QUOTE=nelie;2744051]Hi tracy, I'd recommend looking at http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/ there are loads of recipes on the blog itself plus others in the recipe archive. Its one of my most favorite resources for low calorie, delicious and fairly easy recipes.

Thanks Nelie! I think I will find alot of things I could use on this site.

I did it for the weight, and the fact that I never really liked meat anyway.
I'm scared of turning into the animal activist person, and while I adore animals, they are not the reason for me going veggie.

First for diet and health, then became more aware of how animals where abused and killed. so now I can add animal rights to my list of reasons.
Meat was one of the easiest things to give up, no regrets no desire to eat meat again. Funny it does make me an outcast at food events. I'm happy with my greens salad and water.

Warning: I'm a total intruder here, but I wanted to thank whoever bumped this thread up, and all the people who responded (the ones who are still around anyway!) because it's really interesting.

I'm not a vegetarian right now, but I was reading in this forum since I want to drastically reduce the amount of meat my family is eating. (And as it is, we don't eat meat every day for dinner, and never for lunch). I don't think I'll ever go fully vegetarian, but I hope to eventually get all of my animal products from the best possible sources (grass-fed beef, free-range chicken and eggs, organic everything).

It's not at all about animal rights for me. There's a little bit of a health aspect, but it's 99% environmental. This many people eating this much meat is just not sustainable. I want to support farmers who are using the best possible practices, just like I choose to support innovative scientists and engineers by purchasing energy-efficient appliances, cars, etc.

(The one drawback, and this is probably best saved for another thread, is that pre-packaged sustainable organic foods tend to all advertise that they're not genetically modified, which makes me feel like a traitor to my profession - molecular biology - and like I'm supporting their anti-science stance.)

I slowly changed the way I ate first I eliminated meats (chicken && red meats) than fish, eggs, now I actually decided to go completely vegan this week! So im super excited. But I have been on the vegetarian lifestyle for about 1 1/2 years. I didnt do it for the animals (sounds heartless, I know) I did it for my health. Maybe one day my heart will be filled for the animal cause? But I also know I dont have that much knowledge on slaughtering either.... im sure its gruesome.
You can be vegetarian or vegan even and be fat, out of shape, and totally unhealthy. If you eat tons of white flour & refined sugar it will kill your metabolism (what I use to do!). If you eat the [U]right[U] way: whole grains, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, healthy oils- you will lose weight. Bread is not the enemy! Its the type of flour you are digesting. White flour is unnatural and turns into pure sugar when it hits the body... it doesnt digest same way whole grains do. Refined sugar is like poison for our bodies as well. A healthy alternative would be honey (which is similair to whole grains in digestion)it slowly releases. Stevia is also another great sweetner! It is completely natural herb crushed up has 0 calories 0 carbs (less than 1%). Since Ive made lifestyle change I still eat carbs (3-4 days a week much more than rest) and im loosing 1-3lbs a week :carrot:. Also with moderate excerise (30 mins. a day) which is essential to burning fat!

Hiya, lovely thread you've got here.

I've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian on and off for the past year and a half. It's been going pretty well. Essentially I first started it just because. It was a thing that I would do for no more than two weeks, and only because I do love vegetables, but in a meat eating house, it's hard to get more variations than potatoes and over cooked and over-gravied vegetations. Disgusting, really.

But I guess I stuck with it because I don't like the way meat is produced, from the mistreatment of animals all the way to the steroids and the like they inject the animals with, which of course show up in the food. I would prefer also not to eat vegetables covered in pesticides and genetically enhanced, but I do enjoy eating food, and my financial situation (student)) means that this beggar can only do so much choosing.

I have never lost any significant weight by being vegetarian alone. I'm a very bulky person, and I was hoping cutting out the meat would help me to be less muscular and heavy, if not less fat. But it hasn't, so I will be trying some other fun stuff.

Sorry to bump this up after it's been dormant for almost a month.

I'm jumping over here from another support group on 3fatchicks but will still be going to that one.

I was vegetarian when I was a teenager because the sight of veins and tendons in meat, not to mention gnawing it off of a bone really made me want to hurl. Then when I was pregnant with my daughter, I craved meat. I just went back into the carnivore lifestyle and didn't think to look back for a long time. My daughter is now 17.

When I saw the videos of the cows in the S. California slaughterhouse last year I cried. I told my daughter I didn't want to be responsible for the torture of another soul. She really didn't want to go vegetarian at that time so I compromised and only bought meat from range free and "humane" farms.

Now, my daughter is ready for the vegetarian lifestyle and told me last weekend she is 100% firm in her decision. I'm very happy with that and have already done the grocery shopping for the week. I was never into the "meatless meat" products before but for her sake shopped the Vegetarian selection at Trader Joes. So far so good. I eliminated processed foods a few years ago with any transfat or corn syrup so I think this will be a good healthy transition for us without relying on mac and cheese or Top Ramen.

I still buy meat for the dog. I've been cooking for him for a couple of years too. Brown rice, chicken, peas, etc. We are eliminating dairy, eggs and animal fat too but I will still be pescetarian because I do love sushi on occasion.

I always wanted to become a vegetarian when I was younger because I love animals but my dad wouldn't let me. We are a big meat eating family. In high school I must have ate steak about 3 times a week. But now that I am an adult I decided to go vegetarian. It's only been two weeks but I already feel great and lost 5 pounds without even trying.

I've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian since I was 15, so just over 9 years. I was thinking about trying it, then read a book called "The Livewire Guide to Going, Being and Staying Veggie" which completely convinced me. I'm not militant on animal rights as I still wear leather and wool etc, but that was definitely part of the reason, as well as environmental considerations, and of course my health.

What I love about being vegetarian is that I feel better healthwise, its easier on my pocket, and its given me the impetus to try things I probably wouldn't have looked at twice, like tofu and squash. I'll definitely be a veggie for life :)

While I wish I could say I'm a sort-of vegetarian because I love animals, it's more likely because I have a meat phobia. Yeah, I know, it's weird. It just grosses me out. I just don't like the fact that I'm eating flesh from a once-living body, ESPECIALLY when I see blood, cartilage, fat, things like that. I still eat chicken and turkey, but that's it.

Health reasons and the environment.

One of the first diet books I ever read was Susan Powter's "Stop the Insanity." I think she was a kind of anti-Atkins. She advocated a nearly low fat vegan diet that could be modified for people who would not give up meat. Beans and rice, fresh veggies, and moderate exersise. My dad had several heart attacks and I told myself I never wanted to experience that. I don't want diabetes or heart disease or have a stroke. Low fat vegetarian is a real preventative life style. (I just have to make it more low fat than I have been).

You could actually eat a lot more food, and still lose weight. I also believe that cattle farming and factory farmed meat is not only cruel, it is also environmentally catistrophic.

You can totally get fat on a vegetarian diet. You need to pay attention to what you are eating. Sweets are fine occasionally, but I feel that people who eat ice-cream once a month and pie or cake only on birthdays are not the people who are overweight.

I try to eat as organic/ non-processed and whole grain as often as I can.

I can't imagine anything w/a face.I can't imagine eating anything that was on an animal.Ex.wing,legs,thighs,breasts.:fr:

I believe meat and dairy used to be healthy a long time ago, but right now it's poison for our bodies and the earth. Not to mention the horrible way the animals are tortured before they are killed. Now, if I go to New Zealand and some farmer offers me meat from an old cow he's kept grazing on his moutainside for years, I'll eat that. Sure. The cow had a good life and is full of heart-healthy omega-3's. But for now, I won't touch any meat that crosses my plate.

My Uncle has a farm where he raises the cows from babies to adults and sells them, he also uses them for milk sometimes; back on topic he "free range farms" where his cows get to roam free during the day and he doesn't use any antibiotics or steroids, of course if they get sick, he'll call the vet which I find amusing. He says that there's a bigger market for free range animals now a days, but he used to use steroids on the cows. I agree completely too that too many things are going into the meat and poultry today. I went to pick up a kid I babysit at his school (he's in the 3rd grade) and the kids are almost taller then I am and I'm 5 feet. At least that's my theory as to why kids are looking older and getting taller faster. Then again I could have a complex about my shortness haha.

The reason I'm vegetarian is the whole animal rights thing, also when I was 17 I stupidly went with my cousin and my uncle to sell the cows and saw the whole process and haven't eaten meat since then. I still drink milk and eat cheese though, I could never give up cheese.

I didn't do it for weight.

I have been a vegetarian for nine years.

I had been thinking about it for awhile because many friends were, but didn't think there was anything wrong with killing animals. Then one day it just clicked - the idea of eating animals made me sad. That was it.