Being a (semi-)vegetarian: is it really that hard?

[mvansand76]

Are you a (semi-)vegetarian? Or... do you often eat vegetarian meals?
Or: Do you only eat organic/free-range meat? What about meat-replacements such as soy?

Is everybody vegetarian in your family?

If not, how does your family deal with it?

How do you prepare your meals?

Do you have any recipes you want to share with people who want to try out vegetarian?

 

[Kelda]

I'm a vegetarain and really these days I don't find it hard to eat well - either healthy or non-healthy! I often use quorn as a meat substitute and generally I prefer this to tofu.

I love roasted veg and vineleaves.. (although the atuffed vineleaves are always out of a tin - I don't know how to make them from scratch or if you can  even buy vine leaves in my local supermarket!)

[mvansand76]

I'm a vegetarain and really these days I don't find it hard to eat well - either healthy or non-healthy! I often use quorn as a meat substitute and generally I prefer this to tofu.

I love roasted veg and vineleaves.. (although the atuffed vineleaves are always out of a tin - I don't know how to make them from scratch or if you can  even buy vine leaves in my local supermarket!)

I have trouble really finding a nice meat substitute that 1. tastes good and 2. has the right texture. I work for a market research agency and a few months ago we conducted a study into these meat subsititutes and we had about 50 different products that, when the study had ended, we were able to try at home, so I brought about 7 home and tried them all, but there was just one that was good on both points, taste and texture, those were the hotdog sausages and I really prepared them the way I would have done before with Wiener Sausages, and it tasted great!

The good thing is that more and more people in Holland have vegetarian days during the week, they choose to not eat meat at least 2 days per week, they eat egg or cheese burgers or these meat substitutes... I think that's a good sign!

[nic]

I became mostly veggie when I was at college as I couldn't afford to buy meat!  Then I hooked up with a veggie partner & now I only eat meat if, say, I'm at a function & there isn't a veggie option readily available or anywhere where the veggie options really don't appeal, which isn't that often these days.

Family are ok with it, as my partner's family are also veggie.  I still don't get why some people will insist on cooking something separate for veggies at a dinner party - why don't they make the whole meal veggie for once?  Surely it's not that much of a sacrifice.

I like seeking out specific veggie places to eat or stay at, as they tend to be of high quality - they have to be to survive the competition I guess.  We had a couple of disasters on our travels in the States when we had to rely on an evening meal of crisps & snacks from the gas station as there were no veggie options in some small places in the middle of nowhere.  It does put me off from travelling in places like China & Japan though.  It would be alright if we were accompanied by someone who can explain,like when we went to Ukraine recently but otherwise I wouldn't fancy it.

For a meat substitute we have quorn quite frequently.  I only like marinated tofu.  Mostly a good mixture of beans is good enough in things where carnivores would have chunks of meat or mince, like pies, casseroles, stews.