Veg*n Tips for good veggie food

Im more of a "fruit fan" so why not buy up a bunch of fruits?
Cantelope (when ripe) is very good for you, I had some yesterday.

Definitely check out the Sticky of Vegetarian Recipes. Besides giving some good ideas, the things people have posted in there sounds fabulous. As far as substituting things go, there are lots of meat subs that you can get including crumbled soy burger, faux chicken, etc. that you can get usually in the freezer, dairy, or organic sections of your supermarket. I've also had good luck using portabello mushrooms, eggplant, or beans in place of the meat in sauces for spaghetti, and in chilis and stews. The crumbled soy burger is great in place of hamburger in things too. With seasoning and other veggies, you almost can't tell the difference.

LilSweety, yes, fruit is good for you, but like with piggies, it's better to load up on the veggies. Fruit is high in sugar for anyone, and you can get a huge load of different vitamins and minerals from lots of veggies combined with your fruits.

I've been wanting to try Boca Burgers on a grill. Denny's offers flame-broiled BB's (or at least, they did) on their menu, and they were AWESOME. The ones from the store are good, but I don't have a good way to fix them other than in the skillet.

One of my very favorite pasta dishes is pasta and veggies with pesto. The ingredients are:

Any kind of pasta
Pesto mix packet (too lazy to make it from scratch)
Sliced grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
Black olive slices
Green and red bell peppers
Grated parmesean (sp?) cheese

Sautee green and red bell peppers until they are tender, then add the olives and sliced tomatoes and put on low heat. I cook the pesto in one pan, pasta in another. I then drain the pasta, add the pesto mix, toss in the veggies, stir all together and serve in a big bowl with a generous sprinkle of parmesean cheese on top. :silly:

I've been wanting to try Boca Burgers on a grill.

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They're delicious on the grill! I put a slice of American cheese on top and it tastes soooo good! That recipe sounds good, I think I'll try it.

Is what I was hoping from this thread is almost like a vegetarian shopping list. Stuff that is just so great and you have to buy and other things that taste awful and it is not worth buying. Can anyone help me out with that?? What burgers are good, chicken patties etc?? I am needing to go food shopping this weekend and I would appreciate ANY input. Maybe salad dressings you just love, ideas to spice up salads, summer food ideas etc??????

my favorites:
Tofurky sausage
Morningstar chicken strips
Boca burgers
Boca lasagna

O.K.:
Boca chili
Veggie Patch Chicken Patties

Gross:
I've never tasted a good veg hot dog. I can't remember the name of the kind I tried, it was in a white package and was rubber when you bit into it.

My favorite out of all of these was the Tofurky sausage. I made it in a tomato sauce with green peppers. DELICIOUS!!!!!

So far, Morningstar has been the best brand. Everything I've tried has tasted good. And the veggie burgers at Burger King are morningstar burgers.

I need to check the label...I think it's Hormel that makes a really good vegetarian chili. I add my own spaghetti noodles.

Oh! And don't forget to check out Tofutti ice cream!

Gardenburger black bean burgers. I eat them with whole wheat bun, toasted, and I add Dijon mustard and Louisiana hot sauce or sometimes Veganaise (vegan mayo-so good) I also use Soy Garden butter spread on toast and Kashi waffles. I only used real butter before I quit dairy and this stuff is so good you would never miss butter. Also, the soy and rice dream "ice cream" is really good. It tastes like dairy frozen yogurt. You can mix tofu and frozen berries and bananas, plus Splenda for breakfast or quick portable snack. Silken tofu is best for smoothies or use milk replacement, either way you get lots of protein.

Some good "meaty" food that I like are:
Hormel Veggie Chili
Fantastic! Veggie Chili
Soy Delicius Soy Ice Cream
Silk Soymilk
Morningstar Chick'n nuggets(I'm not a big fan of veggie foods that are nothing but fake meat, but this is good for those who like that kind of stuff)
Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
There's also a brand of really good soy ice cream sandwiches, but I forget the brand. There's also "Lil' Dreamers" which are very small soy ice cream sandwiches that are really yummy! You can find them at Whole Foods.

Thank you everyone for your "shopping lists" of likes and dislikes. This is exactly what I was hoping for! Please keep the ideas coming . . .

One of my favorite veg cookbooks is "Mousewood Cookbook" by Mollie Katzen. Some really great, easy-to-make recipes. The book is "hand-written", too (she doesn't use a type font), with a friendly writing style that makes it fun to read while you're messing up the kitchen.

I love the soups.

Thanks for the tip Sandy! I collect cookbooks and that one sounds like a gem. For anyone looking for it, I found it by looking up Mollie Katzen. It's "Moosewood" not "Mousewood". I've been looking at several vegetarian cookbooks lately, and this one will be a lovely addition to my collection.

Hey Weaver - good for you on going veggie. I really don't eat a lot of fake meat. It always sounds pretty good, but I find real meat so repulsive, that I can't bear to look at the fake stuff, much less put it in my mouth. If you like chick peas, I've got a great recipe I can pm you. It's one of the few things I know how to cook.

How about adding it to the veggie recipes thread Susan. I'm a big chickpea fan myself, but I can never think of what to do with them beyong hummus, falafel, and throwing them in salad.

If you like Mollie Katzen's Moosewood cookbook, try the one called "The Enchanted Brocoli Forest" too. Same sort of style, and you can actually make the enchanted brocoli forest!

I'll do that, PM - I just have to hunt it down again.

Thanks Susan

Ok, tonight for dinner we grilled out and hubby made himself and the kids cheeseburgers. Well I had him throw me on a Boca Burger. I have not had the chance to try them yet, and boy are they awful :yuck: !!!!! Those of you who think that tastes like meat must have forgot what hamberg actually tastes likelol . I am not going to throw them away yet, I will try to make them in a skillet first, but they really are bad. They are so dry and have a after-taste. I am hoping the chicken is better, but if not I am just not going to eat the "meat make-believes".

I bought the MorningStar Farms chicken strips,chicken patties, and the soy crumbled meat. I have not tried any of them yet. I hope they are better than the "burgers".

Weaver- What kind did you buy? Boca makes a few different kinds, I hated the flame-grilled kind. The grilled vegetable kind was much better.

Mine is just the Original Vegan. I almost got the vegetable kind . . .there was so many kinds I had no idea which one would be good.