I want to go vegetarian. Anyone else thinking about it (or anyone got tips?)

[YoureaFlutteringCunt]

I was veggie in my teenage years and have never been a huge meat eater. I stick to chicken, the occasional burger and some ham.

But I just watched a video about pig slaughter and I vomited my sandwich up.

I just can't do it anymore. It makes me feel ill when I actually think about the flesh I'm eating.
I use a lot of quorn already but my knowledge about nutrition is very poor.

I'm fat and unhealthy.
I need help switching to a healthy Veggie diet.

Don't rely on cheese! Try and get lots of pulses into your diet, beans, lentils etc. Full of protein and other good stuff too. Indian and mexican food is often pretty veggie friendly.

There are lots of good recipes for veggie burgers, and you probably know this anyway but you can make decent veggie versions of lots of meat dishes, chilli, shepherds pie etc, by subbing in beans for meat.

I've been veggie for about a month, it's really easy to get sucked in to eating loads of cheese! I've started off by using quorn as a substitute for meat in some of the meals, like in a curry or bolognese. I've found though that I prefer mushrooms in a curry to quorn! There are quite a few vegetarian convenience foods in the supermarkets so might be easier to get some of those in to start off with , I've bought things like Linda Mcartney sausages & beanburgers but am also using recipes from bbc good food. I think you just have to meal plan really, then it's easy

I really like the delicious magazine for veggie recipes they even have a healthy veggie recipes section.

I've been veggie since January. I can highly recommend cauldron sausages. Nicest I've had so far! The quorn meat pies are great too. I don't mind the quorn roast either, cut length ways looks just like turkey. I don't really miss meat, eating out is annoying but you get used to it.

I've been veggie for over 20 years.
Like others have said, pulses are a great source of protein and are fat free. Mushrooms are good too, if you like them. Quorn is fine in moderation, but it's an expensive substitute. Roasted vegetables have far more flavour and texture than boiled/steamed and are good in lasagne, fajitas etc.

It's easy to rely on cheese to add flavour, but try to go for strong-tasting cheeses (extra mature cheddar, goat's cheese, feta etc) and you'll need less of them. Paneer is good in veggie curries (fry lightly first and drain).

There are loads of great veggie blogs out there for easy recipes and the vegetarian society website and FB page are good for ideas too.

DH and I have been drastically reducing the amount of meat we eat, and probably eat veggie 4/7 nights these days which is a big change for us. We've been eating a lot of curries (great way to use up different veggies), a lot of chickpea based Moroccan-style stews, big salads With roasted veggies, baked dishes like aubergine parmigiana and veggie lasagne. I made a fab veggie middle eastern spread last night - flatbreads, hummus, falafel burgers, tzatziki, tomatoes and salad - yum! So I'd say explore other cuisines that celebrate vegetarian food and get away from the fake meat and two veg British approach ;-)

I'd say keep it simple to start. Any major dietary change requires time to adjust so take it easy. I completely agree with PP who say the biggest pitfall to being a healthy vegetarian is probably getting too reliant on cheese and quorn products (both of which are fine in moderation), and also not getting enough iron in your diet.

I'd say try and include therefore some of these things (in addition to cheese and quorn) in your diet: iron-fortified breakfast cereals, lentils, beans, (free-range) eggs and nuts; in addition to lots of fruit and veg.

Re: iron it's worth being aware that drinking tea at the same time as eating reduces iron absorption (due to the tannins in tea), whereas having vitamin c with food helps increase the absorption of iron.

So possible breakfast ideas: (fortified) cereal and milk, scrambled eggs on toast, peanut putter on toast etc. All can be served with some fruit or fruit juice for some vitamin C.

Lunch: Egg / houmous sandwich and side salad, beans on toast, various soups (lentil etc).

Dinner: Bean burgers with chips, nut cutlets with veg, omelettes with salad, various curries made with lentils etc.