A glance at the vegetarian life: a guide for first timers

A friend of mine was thinking about taking the PETA 30 challenge and going veggie for 30 days. It can seem a bit time consuming when first thinking about meal planning with the goal of staying veggie (it did for me at first too), especially when you have a picky eater and kids. And it may take a little bit of time only because your mind is used to things being a certain way and you are accustomed and used to having the same meals your mom made for you. I happen to feel it is much easier to not have to worry about thawing out meat just the right way, cleaning up the juice and stuff to keep from getting sick, and making sure that it is cooked just right but not too overcooked. Once you have a few veggie ideas to work with, it really does become a no-brainer. To help get you started I made a menu of the foods that we eat.
I also try to include fresh whole grains, flax, and amaranth as well as a mixed green or spinach salad with lunch and/or dinner. I try to just avoid the meat substitutes for personal reasons as well as the fact that they just taste funny when you are used to the real thing.

	Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Snack	Dinner
Monday	Oatmeal with sliced almonds, raisins honey and soy milk	banana	Burrito with beans, rice and cheese and all the veggies	Salsa and baked tortilla chips	Pesto Pasta with veggies, zuc, mushroom, broccoli
Tuesday	French toast Fruit and OJ	Apple and peanut butter	Balsamic Tomato, basil, fresh mozzarella cheese sandwich	popcorn	Baked potato with broccoli and cheddar cheese
Wednesday	Cold cereal Banana	Cottage cheese and fruit	Hummus & tomato wrap with celery and carrots	Cheese and crackers	Stir fry or steamed veggies, tofu and brown rice
Thursday	Scrambled eggs and toast	Fruit popsicle	Egg salad sandwich with carrots, fruit	Pretzels and raisins	Pasta with veggie marinara
Friday	Plain yogurt with jam or honey and toast	Carrot & flax muffin	Lentil soup or Sambar	Grilled tomato with cheese	Garden burger sandwich with grilled veggies and fries
Saturday	Bagels and cream cheese fruit	Cereal fruit bar	Mac and cheese with carrots and peas		Veggie Omlette Spinach tomato and mushroom
Sunday	Pancakes and eggs	Fruit smoothy	Veggie lasagna	Cucumber, tomato, sprouts and cream cheese pitas	Homemade pizza with fresh tomatos and pineapples

What to eat when you are out?
Fast food: Wendy’s has a baked potato, BK has veggie patty, Taco bell burritos (the 7layer is yummy). Most fast food places will make the item you like without meat (and charge full price of course).

Sit down meals: Pasta, Pizza, Omelets, veggie burger substitute (my fav is Red robin’s mushroom burger) or Portabella burgers. Stir fry with tofu and rice or noodles, Eggplant Parmesan, Veggie or cheese enchiladas, grilled veggie fajitas, and all kinds of Indian and Thai and Mediterranean food.

Enjoy your veggie adventure!

Favorite veggie books:

Favorite veggie site:

TryVeg.com