Thread: Becoming a vegetarian

Hey guys! Hoping somebody on here can help me. Recently have been wanting to become
A vegetarian for ethical reasons and was wondering how hard it is to stop eating meat and make the transition? Any advice/words of wisdom would be appreciated? Just don't really know where to start as I know some products are not suitable for vegetarians eg muller light. Thanks for the help xx

Activia snack pots are mostly free so you can have those. Buy the SW Green Cookbook it has LOADS of veggie recipes in and is great. I made a 'chicken' curry (from the curry book) using quorn pieces. Go for it, you won't regret it. Plus if you lean more towards vegan soya milk is HExA, pluses and beans and tofu is free

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Originally Posted by henri156

Hey guys! Hoping somebody on here can help me. Recently have been wanting to become
A vegetarian for ethical reasons and was wondering how hard it is to stop eating meat and make the transition? Any advice/words of wisdom would be appreciated? Just don't really know where to start as I know some products are not suitable for vegetarians eg muller light. Thanks for the help xx

Oooh welcome to a veggie world, it's fab and has so much variety!

I've been an ethical veggie for only about 8 years so I can remember the transition pretty well still. I bought in plenty of quorn, lentils, chickpeas, etc and started cooking mainly veggie recipes whilst using up the meat that was left in the house. Once it was gone I didn't buy any more, carried on cooking veggie and tbh didn't miss the meat at all! I still don't, I do miss haribo however (they contain gelatine).

Treat yourself to a good veggie or vegan cook book or two, the SW green day book is good as Crunchy mentioned and I can also recommend Appetite for Reduction which is a low fat, mainly SW friendly vegan cookbook and also Hugh F-W's Veg Everyday which is fantastic, although needs a bit of SW-ising at times! There's a mountain of good recipes here http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/vegetarian too although some would need tweaking to make them SW friendly too. Have a read through the Vegetarian Society website, they have tonnes of info on diet and nutrition and recipes too.

Mullers are out as you say but activia and shape delights are fine - although in the case of shape delights strawberry flavour is not veggie as it contains cochineal. Look out for cochineal in anything with an artificial red/pink colour as it's still used quite a lot unfortunately, check the ingredients.

If you drink, check the websites for your fave wines and beers to make sure they are suitable for veggies as a lot of manufacturers use isenglass (derived from fish swim bladder!) in the brewing process. My general rule of thumb is the cheaper the beer, the less likely it is to be veggie, carling and fosters are both unsuitable for example.

Be prepared for people asking if you eat fish or offering you fish as a veggie option! No idea where this comes from lol but there are some funny ideas about vegetarianism out there

Main thing - have fun with it! Experiment and learn to love cooking a different way - there are so many creative things you can do and you don't even need to use meat replacements if you don't want to. Good luck! x

Good luck on going veggie - I was veggie for 15 years, eat meat now but still have lots of veggie days.

Also, missy1978 - you can get halal haribo which are also veggie friendly but perhaps not so diet friendly

Good Luck!! It will fit in fine with SW as you could do green days, Im not a veggie but I rarely eat meat so I do green.

xxxxx

Originally Posted by lorrs.mcd

Good luck on going veggie - I was veggie for 15 years, eat meat now but still have lots of veggie days.

Also, missy1978 - you can get halal haribo which are also veggie friendly but perhaps not so diet friendly

You can but they're just not as nice They have a funny texture which is very different to normal haribo. M&S veggie percy pigs and colin catapillers however are lovely! x

I've been a pescatarian since I was 11, not ethical reasons as such but because I'm phobic of dead animals (I've heard of worse phobias lol) for some reason seafood doesn't bother me, although during the difficult teen phase I was vegan for some time.

I found the transition very easy

Hello! Check my diary, I became an.ethical veggie 3weeks ago, watched a programme and haven't had meat fish gellatine since then, in process of phasing out the milk cheese.and eggs - I dont use them in house but if ur out it can.be hard to stick too but.im.getting.there. so much great advice.from fellow veggies on.my diary from when I.switched, have a good read through, then they wont have to repeat themselves I feel so much Better and always think how many lives im.now not eating..and wasting! experimentation is key, im still learning this one. pm me if uwant xxx

Everybody thank u so much for the advice and support! I think I will find it easy enough...I don't eat a lot of meat anyway. I watched a documentary last night and it broke my heart what some wee animals go through also glad to hear about the Percy pigs personal fave of mine! Still live at home and mum cooks a lot of my meals so think my main challenge will be getting her on board or learning to cook for myself! You are all a lovely bunch and will def check out your dairies....I think my main issue will be thinking up meals!xxx

I generally find mums are ok so long as you come up with solutions instead of saying "no, I can't eat that". However, learning to cook is one of the best things you can ever do. When I was veggie I taught myself to cook and became really inventive and now I'm pretty good at it. My brother, who still lives at home, went vegan a couple of years ago and decided he would learn to cook and now he makes all this amazing looking and smelling food, he's better at cooking now than my mum! Go for it. Two of my favourite sites for recipes are parsleysoup.co.uk and vegweb.com - mainly because they both have pictures to give you an idea of what they are meant to look like.

Not trying to alter your decision in anyway as i also feel strongly about animal welfare and quality of life and the ethics of meat production but it you do find the transition difficult have u thought about sourcing you meat in a different way? I raise my own dexter cattle and LOVE them but also love to eat them (sounds creepy I know) but I know I give them the best life possible and cared and looked after to the top standard. We sell our beef to people and they get the best product, if you could source local meat that you knew had a good life and fair death could that be a compromise? Only a thought.

I've been veggie for 15 years and the transition is an easy one to make - my partner is a meat eater but is thinking about becoming pescatarian. There's tons of veggie recipes online and the supermarkets all stock a fab range of veggie foods. I make a lot of the same meals that meat-eaters would make such as lasagne, spag bol, spaghetti and meatballs, shepherds/cottage pie, curry etc. Quorn do a good range of veggie products as do all the supermarkets - you'd be amazed at what you can find in the frozen veggie section! Being vegetarian is also cheaper than it ever used to be, I often find I can make meals much cheaper than my meat-eating friends and colleagues. I don't drink cows milk and have really tried to cut down on having it in products that I buy, and a plus, you can have lots more soya and almond milk on SW than you could cows milk too :-D

Do it - you definitely won't regret it :-)

I became a pescetarian in August due to working at McDonalds and eating a lot of meat had made my senses turned everything tasting like cardboard.. I eat a lot of fish and quorn, since mine isn't ethical I do sometimes eat some occasional haribo, if someone offers me some (I am such a poor veggie/pescetarian). My transition was easy, I just stopped one day, eat vegetables and fish. The last time I ate a piece of meat was November, to see if it had changed, and it hadn't.

I do some cooking in my house, and since I don't eat meat, I cook the same things but substitute some chicken for quorn and beef for lamb quorn strips, so my parents can eat their meat and I don't have to.

One reason it's not ethical for me, is I was brought up by it, and I worked in McDonalds for 3 years in the kitchen. I do however introduce myself as a vegetarian as most people haven't heard of pescetarians..

Billie that's so nice to hear it from your point of view and that you are looking after them all so well! Personally I think cutting out meat is the way forward for me, I did consider maybe eating fish but so far haven't eaten meat and haven't even noticed to be honest. So far so good

Well done, if that's the way you want to go good on you x

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