Newly Vegetarian

[healthyobsessions]

Hi guys! Sorry if I'm posting in the wrong section... feel free to love this to the relevant place if need be.

I have recently become vegetarian! Yay! But I am pretty clueless about veggie options/recipes and syn values... could any vegetarians give me some meal ideas/veggie products/syn values please!! I'm going shopping tomorrow and don't have a clue!

 

[Grunka Lunka]

Hi healthyobsessions! How are you finding vegetarianism so far? I'm not a vegetarian but I've never really been much of a fan of meat so I do make a lot of veggie dishes and most of them are really low in syns Do you eat Quorn? The Quorn mince and chicken-style pieces are all free and are good meat substitutes for a lot of dishes (Bolognese, chilli, stir fry etc). The Quorn sausages and burgers are also low in syns (1 syn each for the frozen sausages and half a syn each for the frozen 50g burgers) and they're not bad at all.

My favourite veggie recipe at the moment is five bean chilli. There are probably some nice recipes for it out there but I just made it up with stuff from the fridge and it worked well. I did it in a slow cooker and I used:-
1 can of mixed beans (free)
1 can of red kidney beans (free)
2 peppers (I used one green and one orange but any colours are nice) (free)
1 large onion (free)
2 tins chopped tomatoes (free)
1 can of sweetcorn (free)
2 grated carrots (free)
Chilli powder (I used mild but depends on your preferences) and cumin (I didn't measure them, I just threw them in until it smelled nice! Was probably about 1 tbsp. of each - I like it to be flavourful)

I just eat this for lunch on its own with nothing else. As there are so many beans in it, I find it's filling until mid-afternoon when I have a banana.

In terms of shopping, I'd stock up on plenty of free fruits and veg along with canned goods such as mixed beans, sweetcorn, baked beans etc. It helps to make a meal plan for the week so that you only buy what you're planning to use as veg goes off pretty quickly. Oh, if you're in a pinch or can't be bothered cooking, the Stagg low fat Vegetable Chilli in a can is free. I sometimes have it for lunch if I'm feeling lazy and I just throw in a little cumin (as it's a bit bland for me without it) and it's really nice!

Best of luck to you!

 

[CntrlC]

I'd echo all that Grunka Lunka says, but I'll throw in a few of my favs. All free.

• Baked potato with low fat cottage cheese (or beans) and tons of salad.
  
• Slimming World omelette loaded with veg
• Quorn roast with SW roasted veg (potato, parsnip. sweet potato). Quorn roast is nice cold next day too!
  
• Stir fry (veggies, cooked rice or cooked dried noodles, tofu or egg, soy sauce, spiced up big time)

If you want an awesome veggie treat, search for Nacho style feast (it's on SW and Primula sites) and substitute Quorn mince.

For snacks. pickled anything does it for me (onions, eggs, etc). Keeps the munchies at bay.

Drat - now I'm hungry. Where are those pickles.

 

[Grunka Lunka]

Ooh yes, I’m definitely with CntrlC on the pickles! They’re an excellent snack and I loooove having a bowl of pickled onions and a couple of Babybel to snack on. Yum!

Baked potatoes are an excellent vegetarian option and it’s one of my favourite meals. I usually use my HEA of cheese rather than cottage cheese (just personal preference) and when I cook my beans I throw in loads of sliced mushrooms to add a bit more speed food to go with the salad.

Speaking of cottage cheese, I just remembered a recipe for a gorgeous vegetarian quiche! I made it a few weeks ago and ate over half of it as a ‘snack’ in the evening, it was so moreish! The recipe was:-

1 tub of fat-free onion and chive cottage cheese
1 clove of garlic
1 large onion, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped (can you tell I like onions?!)
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
Half a box of mushrooms, sliced
4 eggs
30g cheddar, grated
Frylight

Fry the onions, spring onions, garlic and mushrooms together until soft. Beat the eggs into the cottage cheese and stir in the cooked vegetables and the grated cheese. Put the mixture into a quiche dish and place the tomato halves on top in whatever pattern you like Bake in the oven at 190°C/170°C Fan/Gas 5 for 30-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

If you like onion flavoured things, this is seriously delicious! Other than 2 very small slices, I did eat an entire quiche in one day. As a snack. Not even as part of my main meals. Luckily it’s totally free and full of speed foods so I managed a loss that week (I used the cheese as a HEA but if you’re sharing it it’d work out at 1 syn per slice if you made 6 slices out of it).

 

[i_am_tre]

I personally love syn free pizza not necessarily just vegetarian.

Take a ww wholemeal pitta (or other hex b pitta or two wholemeal toast from 400g loaf) and cover in tomato outer (not with oil in it) and load with veggies/meat/meat substitutes and cheese/soy cheese from your allowance. Then have it with your 1/3 super free salad on the side just to speed up loss and some syn free chips if you fancy it.

What I sometimes do is get rid of the chips and I will split the pita in half and have "two pizzas" topped high with veg and a salad on the side (usually half a plate).

I also enjoy Linda McCartney sausages better than quorn. Some of her food is sinned, some isn't.

 

[Grunka Lunka]

Mmm syn free pizza is amazing! I tend not to have it with salad though as I figure that all the vegetables I put on it is way more than a third of the meal anyway (I pile it high!!). It's also nice with a hexb wrap instead of pitta or bread.

I've not tried many of the Linda McCartney range other than the rosemary and red onion syn-free sausages. Is the other stuff nice? I don't like the sausages as sausages but they do make an excellent syn-free substitute for stuffing with a roast dinner

 

[i_am_tre]

Ooh yes, I’m definitely with CntrlC on the pickles! They’re an excellent snack and I loooove having a bowl of pickled onions and a couple of Babybel to snack on. Yum!

Baked potatoes are an excellent vegetarian option and it’s one of my favourite meals. I usually use my HEA of cheese rather than cottage cheese (just personal preference) and when I cook my beans I throw in loads of sliced mushrooms to add a bit more speed food to go with the salad.

Speaking of cottage cheese, I just remembered a recipe for a gorgeous vegetarian quiche! I made it a few weeks ago and ate over half of it as a ‘snack’ in the evening, it was so moreish! The recipe was:-

1 tub of fat-free onion and chive cottage cheese
1 clove of garlic
1 large onion, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped (can you tell I like onions?!)
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
Half a box of mushrooms, sliced
4 eggs
30g cheddar, grated
Frylight

Fry the onions, spring onions, garlic and mushrooms together until soft. Beat the eggs into the cottage cheese and stir in the cooked vegetables and the grated cheese. Put the mixture into a quiche dish and place the tomato halves on top in whatever pattern you like Bake in the oven at 190°C/170°C Fan/Gas 5 for 30-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

If you like onion flavoured things, this is seriously delicious! Other than 2 very small slices, I did eat an entire quiche in one day. As a snack. Not even as part of my main meals. Luckily it’s totally free and full of speed foods so I managed a loss that week (I used the cheese as a HEA but if you’re sharing it it’d work out at 1 syn per slice if you made 6 slices out of it).

This sounds AMAZING! Will have to buy a quiche dish and try it!

 

[Torn_Tranquility]

Also going to throw in a recommendation for the Sainsbury's veggie burgers. The cheddar quarter pounder burgers are one syn each and really delicious! And their Cumberland sausages are wonderful (also 1 syn each)

I tend to make a lot of curries with beans and pulses as well. The Quorn low fat sausages (frozen) are free, and work really well in a hot pot type dish.

And I can't remember where I found the recipe... but blitzing quorn mince and turning it into meatballs or burgers stuffed with cheese also works really well.