How Do Vegetarians Balance Their Food Nutritionally?

[deb1]

Quote:

deb maybe you should add that we need to post recipes too.

Yeah, what she said.

I will have to start another post on the cooking section of this forum. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. You are all giving me great ideas.

 

[deb1]

mom'sfolly :

Red beans and rice
Chili over corn bread
Pasta with garbanzo bean sauce
Dal with roti or rice
Walnut cheese balls in a white sauce
quiche with salad
gazpacho with a bean salad
felafel with pita, veggies and yogurt sauce
huumus, baba ganoush, tabouli and bread
veggie burgers with a bun
grilled cheese and bean soup
lentil soup and crusty bread

Basically to balance the protein you need to eat legumes and wheat or other grain within the same day. There are many wonderful veggie cookbooks out there, and almost every cuisine has veggie dishes. Cheese and eggs are a complete protein, and tofu is close. I wouldn't worry too much about balancing protein if you are only eating one vegetarian meal a week. The American diet, especially the tradional one you cook, is protein heavy.

Man, now I'm hungry. I'm off to make hummus for dinner tonight. We're just having finger foods, and hummus is better if it has a while to set.

I love hummus. So many great foods. I don't see us ever going completely vegetarian but I could see us cutting out some meat from out weekly fare.

I always thought that vegetarian would be less expensive. Is that true? Meat can be very expensive.

My family is open to this idea so I am lucky.​

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Animal protein has a complete set of essential amino acids. Vegetable protein is not complete. Vegetable foods contain certain amino acids. If you know which ones you have, you can compliment it with another food that has the missing amino acids. A quick example is the pairing of beans and rice.

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/protein.html

If you are only eating one vegetarian meal per week, you probably don't need to worry too much. However, if you want to get into the details, there are some great sites that will let you calculate the nutritional value of everything you eat. This link takes you to a discussion about beans and rice. To access the detailed info (from the Institute of Medicine) on the site, you have to join, but it's free.

http://blog.nutritiondata.com/ndblog/2008/06/on-beans-rice-a.html

Good luck, and be healthy!

ETA -- wow, you got a lot of great responses in the time it took to find the links for you. Nice!

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

It depends on what type of vegetarian you are, and what resources you're able to be self-reliant on. My sister lives in Rockwall, Texas and she's vegan. It gets rather expensive, because she's all organic. I tried it for a while (for the experience), and LOVED some of the foods. Others, it took a while to learn to like. But if you're able to garden some of the stuff yourself, it cuts out on costs.
Again, it all depends on what type of vegetarian lifestyle you chose.


Gah. Now I'm hungry.

 

[rainplace]

It is SO easy and cheap to make humus! The problem is that it's hard to keep in the house. No matter how much you make, it never stays more than a day or two in the fridge.

 

[Joz]

Substitute your meat proteins with other proteins. If you're still eating meat 6x/week I can't imagine that one day will deprive you of much protein if you don't manage to equal the amt of protein you usually eat.

Beans, Eggs, Nuts, Tofu, are all proteins.

All the dishes that people have listed are good....

A larger variety of vegetables than you typically offer is good too. Instead of your main meat dish, make 3 veggie "sides".

And as a former vegetarian, I also consider Mac and Cheese insufficient. Mac and cheese and a big nutty salad, maybe. And I never really used Tofu. There's a baked/smoked tofu I used to make Toasted Tomato-cheese-tofu sandwiches with, but other than that, I didn't really use it.

Roasted vegetable sandwiches is one of my favorite things to make (roast onion slices, eggplant, bell peppers, garlic, zucch/yellowsquash, mushrooms, top with muenster cheese)

Dishes of each Spanish Rice (rice made with Ro-Tel and tomato sauce instead of water), Beans and Corn (can of each, drained and rinsed, heated thru), chopped bell peppers, shredded cheddar, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, tortillas, for Build-Yer-Own Burrito night. It's easy to assemble, stretches for more people, keeps and reheats well.

Make a pot of couscous, and toss in toasted pine nuts, chopped tomatoes, roasted garlic, artichoke hearts, olive oil and italian seasoning (and any other veg you're interested in... chopped broccoli, bell peppers, whatever works with just a few minutes of heating/steam).... is fast and filling.

If you're in Eugene or maybe Portland, you have access to Yumm! sauce. If not, here's a recipe: http://mpchickchat.blogspot.com/2005/11/recipe-rip-off-edited.html
Make some brown rice, top with black beans, cheddar cheese, sour cream (or strained yogurt) salsa, and FauxYummSauce (which is pretty close to the original, tho I disagree with her comment re yeasts; brewers is essential). The sauce is nutty and full of protein, the beans and rice in the dish are all complex carbs that do good things, and the veggie bits on top are tasty accents. I froze my sauce in an ice cube tray, heated up the bean/rice combo in the morning and packed in a thermal container, brought a sauce cube and my other toppings in separate containers, and assembled it all for lunch for weeks at a time, because it was sooooo tasty.

 

[rainplace]

Oh yeah, we love humus so much around here, that I'll be planting tons of garbanzo (chick peas) this coming year. I'm going to make a humus garden. The only thing I won't be planting for the humus is sesame because I don't have a long enough growing season for it /cry

 

[fancbrd4me02]

Hummus is a vegetarian staple.....Delicious & filling! I think one of the reasons people have a hard time being vegans or vegetarians is that they often don't bother to learn what a balanced vegetarian or vegan meal should be. However, a proper vegetarian/vegan diet has a lot of health benefits. I recently saw an article where they showed the vegetarians to have higher calcium/bone density than meat eaters, less cancer, and I think there were some exciting statistics about high blood pressure/heart disease. I think a lot of people worry about not getting enough protien, but they shouldn't. Especially if you are only going to so it once in a while. Vegetarian Times Magazine has some incredible vegetarian recipies. One of my favorites: Portabella Mushroom burgers with gorgonzola. Oh, also, a lot of Indian Cuisine is or is easily made vegetarian. If you like ethnic food, try some of that!!!

 

[rainplace]

Don't forget Thai food also... yummy!

I remember reading somewhere that the healthiest religion in the states were the Seventh Day Adventists. They are vegetarians and treat gluttony as a real sin, instead of one of those sins that can get overlooked. Of course they don't drink or smoke either. I always found that interesting.

 

[OrpingtonManor]

Quote:
Yes, this is true! High protein diets have a higher incidence of osteoporosis.