My blood pressure has been fluctuating lately, so I am probably going to have to change my diet. I figure if I'm going to change my diet in any way, I should quit animal products. I have wanted to go vegitarian/vegan for a long time now, but just didn't have the will power. I have been eating cereal more often for breakfast, and I've given up burritos, so I guess thats a start. Anyway, my family probably wont go veggie with me. How can I make this transition easier, given the situation?
Cook the things you want, but cook more than you need for yourself. Then, announce to the family "there's (whatever you cooked) on the stove, everyone is welcome to it". If no one else wants it, put it in the refrigerator and eat it yourself later. Repeat procedure. Eventually, family members will get hungry or curious enough to try it. Meanwhile you've had what you wanted to eat. Instead of thinking "how can I make my favorite dishes without meat, or with fake meat", I'd get a vegetarian/vegan cookbook or two and look through them to find dishes that sound good. It's a more positive way of looking at the change, and for me it worked much better than the idea of denying myself animal products.
You don't need to give up burritos. You can easily make vegetarian or vegan burritos. In fact, Mexican food is easy to make veg*n. You don't have to give up food you like and just eat salad. Many times just a few small changes to a dish will make it veg*n. I agree with Gaston. Get a few veg*n cookbooks or just do an online search and try some new dishes. Going the mock meat route, in my opinion, is not the best way to go, nor is it the healthiest.
Good luck with that. It really depends. Some places are vegetarian friendly while others don't have the word in their vocabulary. If by vegetarian you mean lacto-ovo, then things are generally not too bad. Vegans usually have a much harder time. But it all depends on the area as well. Some places have a lot of veg*n friendly places to eat while others have few or none. Your best bet is to check online or call ahead of time to see what your options are. It this is not an option try to choose places that actually prepare and cook the food at the restaurant. The cooks will probably be willing to make something special for you if there is nothing on the menu.
I'm a fan of restaurant food and a LONG time vegetarian. think off the plate: lots of places, even steakhouses, make awesome steamed veggies. Order a double portion. Add the bread and a salad and that's a decent meal that allows you to be social and eat. think outside the map: Middle Eastern, Indian (dairy heavy), Thai (watch that fish sauce), Chinese, Japanese, Ethiopian/ African all have bases of vegetables. Some Mexican places have wised up and offer lard free beans and no chicken stock rice. The yuppie burrito chains have veg-friendly rice, the black beans are veg 98 percent of the time (watch Cuban areas) and some chains have no-meat pintos! (Qdoba) Even Taco Bell can be veg*an f you hold the cheese (which has a lot of sodium) on the bean burrito and tostada.
Eating out veggie - yeah, I end up doing far more than that than I want to when we travel. Sit-down restaurants give you a TON of options. Like Drumminmama said, check out their side items. Also, think ANYTHING but American cuisine and you'll have more options & might even find main-course veggie dishes! Mexican & Asian are the two I have the best luck with. For fast food, it's a bit of a toss-up. Some places have almost nothing, and others have plenty for you to choose from. Check the online menus for a few of your favorite fast food places. They'll give you a list of ingredients that's tougher to get if you just walk in, and you can make up a list of things that are "safe" to keep in the car for the places you like to eat. As for eating at home, adding an alternate protein source to a side-dish everyone else is eating is probably the easiest way to switch without causing a lot of friction. Sunflower seeds work well on a salad, tofu can be cooked to add to all sorts of veggie dishes, or a soy yogurt could be added to a summertime dish of cold salads for a few quick examples. There are TONS of veggie substitutes out there like TVP "meat" and gardenburgers. From what I've seen they tend to run pretty high in sodium, but they're out there. Good luck I've been veggie for 16 months now & am still the only vegetarian in my family. love, mom
