Many people ask me how I decided to become a vegetarian. Most people think it is a decision you just make one day and BOOM – you immediately stop craving any meat products. While many people might have done it that way, such was not my case. From the moment I started to get close to a vegetarian lifestyle to the moment I decided to seriously try to be a vegetarian took me nearly 4 years.
First, when my mom decided to go veggie, I decided not to eat meat products at home. I didn’t want my mom to feel inhibited in her own kitchen. I thought I ate out often enough to be able to “hack” eating only vegetarian food at home. After doing that, I noticed that I started craving meat less and less when I was ordering out in restaurants.
When I moved out of my mom’s house, I decided that my kitchen would remain vegetarian so she would not feel uncomfortable when visiting me. I also decided at some point in between to stop buying canned goods, to stop drinking regular carbonated drinks, to stop buying foods with artificial coloring or chemical ingredients I can’t pronounce. I started buying foods made with whole grains, as well as fresher and more authentic choices. I decided to take some cooking classes to help me shift the way I looked at foods and to get to know new ingredients options.
So, to help the ones that might be considering becoming vegetarian but do not know where to start or consider it too daunting of a project… I say to all of you – START SMALL. Break it down into smaller steps and you’ll be more likely to be successful. Here are some ideas you can implement yourself:
Decide to stop eating your least favorite meat product first. For most people it’s red meat, for others it’s seafood. Whatever it is for you, it’ll be easier to leave what you like the least. Little by little, you might decide then to stop eating some other meat product, and another, and another, and another…
Consciously decide not to eat meat several days a week. Start with 2 days. Hey, you’ll still have 5 other days to eat “whatever”. You’ll start seeing the difference in how you feel those days. Maybe you’ll like the recipes and choices you have those days so much, that you’ll unconsciously increase those days little by little.
Decide to eliminate from your pantry canned goods, foods with chemical preservatives, artificial ingredients or animal additives. I started buying evaporated milk in cartons, tomato sauces, roasted red peppers and olives in glass jars. Frozen vegetables and fruits substituted the canned variety. I started buying whole grain rice, 100% whole wheat bread or 100% whole grain cereals. Sodas were out of my diet. Whenever I wanted something carbonated, I would have a Perrier or San Pellegrino with lime. I stopped buying foods whose list of ingredients were larger than the actual product and if I just could not pronounce something in the list I would just put it back. Off-limits ingredients now are gelatin, carmine coloring, eggs, rennet, which are all animal-based ingredients. Always go with the simpler ingredient lists… even going down to buying products with no ingredient list at all. Which takes us to our next point…
Start planning your meals with a larger quantity of fresh products – more fruits and vegetables. Make that lasagna filled with mixed vegetables or spinach instead of ground meat. Include more fruits in your breakfast – like fruit salads or fruit smoothies. Always include a salad with at least 3-4 ingredients as a side dish. Eat fresh fruits as snacks during the day.
Redefine your dinner plate – look at the rice, the pasta or a casserole as the main part of your dish. Think of that vegetable rice or spinach and mushroom risotto as the main dish. To me, a macaroni and cheese or vegetable lasagna with a side salad and plantains is a round meal. Pastelones or casseroles containing potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, and a variety of vegetables and vegetable proteins eaten with a nice salad is a complete meal.
Experiment cooking with ingredients that are new to you. To me it was getting to know sun-dried tomatoes, the different varieties of mushrooms (button, Portobello, cremini, shitake, porcini, enoki, trumpets, etc.), the different varieties of lettuces (Romaine, Boston bib, arugula, frisee, mesclun greens, endive, radicchio, etc.), sugar snap peas, leeks, artichokes, polenta, tofu, textured soy protein, quinoa, kelp, umemboshi paste, agar agar, brown rice syrup, agave nectar, rice pastas, panko breadcrumbs, among others.
Take some vegetarian cooking classes and visit vegetarian websites or blogs (wink, wink) for recipe ideas. It’s a good thing you’re already reading this. That means you’ve already found my vegetarian blog. Learn how to make new recipes… but also see that making onion soup with vegetable stock will taste just as good as your traditional recipe, if not better. Mofongos can be made just as good without the pork rinds. Even a bacalaito can be made without the salted cod fish (bacalao) and taste great, because most of the flavor comes from another place and not from the animal products.
I hope these ideas will help you see that living a vegetarian lifestyle is not as daunting as you may have thought. Even if going vegetarian is not the thing for you, integrating some of these ideas into your lifestyle will definitely have you eating better and more healthful. Try it… you’ll not regret it.
KarmaFree Cooking 
It’s always interesting to hear how people come to vegetarianism, and I like some of your tips. I’ve *never* put more than one dish on my plate at dinnertime cooking for myself! I do, however, think that this is just one way to go vegetarian – it’s the most karmic, good-for-you, good for the planet way, and I applaud you. For those of us on a budget, a lot of these suggestions are off limits. Fresh produce? Whole grains? Wild mushrooms? Forget about it. I am curious what’s specifically wrong with the can as opposed to a jar. Is it just that the jarred varieties tend to be higher quality?
KFC – The jarred varieties often have less preservatives… they’re not supposed to last as long, so that means less chemicals. Fresh produce and whole grains are not prohibitely expensive. Buy primarily what’s on season or what’s on sale at the market. Bananas, berries and other fruits freeze well and you can buy fresh and whatever you can’t eat fresh now, you can freeze for smoothies later on and still get all the nutrition and flavor. Usually 100% whole grain bread is at the same price as white bread. Whole wheat pastas are also at a smiliar price as the semolina ones. Believe me, what little extra you might spend doing groceries, you’ll save in doctor’s bills…
Thank you so much for an informative post – I go back and forth between being vegetarian and not, and I’m never really sure why I don’t make the switch fully. Maybe this will help 🙂
nice post/article, thanks
I too go back and forth. It’s directly related to the people I hang out with, even though I know I could influence them more directly.
But I do find that the longer I stay with a veggie diet, the more I find myself looking forward to veggie meals. You develop new “comfort” foods as time goes on.
And blogs like this are a wonderful inspiration!
I love this post because I go back and forth and then beat myself up for not just making the change. I love reading this blog because you give such great recipes and because you take the time to explain about vegetarianism. I especially appreciate what you said about phasing meat out, not thinking you have to just turn off a switch.
I am down to boulliane and broths for soup making that I haven’t given up on – but have gone organic.
I think that’s such great advice and it seems like it’s so rarely given. I’ve eaten primarily a vegan diet for about two years (I have animal products maybe 2-3 times a month.) Just not eating meat a few days a week is great for the planet, the animals and yourself…and over time your relationship to eating animal products will almost certainly change for the better.
Here is my story about when I stopped eating meat 21 years ago! http://danatreat.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-i-stopped-eating-meat.html
I would recommend eating more pulses, chic peas, lentils, and so on to get those essential amino acids aka proteins that you its easy to get from meat, but can be lacking in a vegetarian diet.
Informative article i am doing research about the vegetarian lifestyle because i want to become a vegetarian myself. I recently joined Vegetarian Newbie http://www.vegetariannewbie.com i got a free newsletter and a free report which was really good !