Advice on Meatless diets! w00t!

[Rachel]

Hello dear Nerdfighters,

Recently, my bio class received a challenge to go "raw" for a week, that is, go without cooked or processed foods and drinks. (correct me if i'm wrong). I thought this was a very intriguing and worthwhile idea, and I plan to give it a go very soon. It made me think of what a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle would be like, so I'm thinking i will try one of those for a period of time as well.

My purpose with this thread is to get some ideas as to how to go about it. I'm not really sure what counts for what, so any tips on what works would be nice. For those Nerdfighters familiar with vegan/vegetarian lifestyles, please tell me what are your favorite things and what enovironmentally friendly foods/drinks i should be sure to try that differ from a diet of everything (and holy heck i mean everything).

Also, (& i do realize this is getting long) any kinds/brands of food that anyone has found to be particularly made of awesome and fits into the raw/veg./vege. diet, please share. i really want to do this the right way. thanks for being awesome, DFTBA

[Rachel]

no crazy breakouts or anything, but you can definitely feel a difference. i've made sure to stay full usually, so when i'm hungry i eat and when i'm not, i don't. i'm actually really getting to like it. :) tomorrow, i'm taking a day off before starting my vegan week, so wish me luck! thanks for all the help

[sabelmouse]

i certainly wish you luck.

[Rachel]

why thank you :D me thinks i will need it...

[Stephenie]

I've been a vegetarian for 6 months now, and I've found some awesome brands that make vegetarian foods. Morning Star Farm is my favorite. You can find it at Walmart, Tops, Target, or any store like that. Its in the frozen foods. They have veggie chicken nuggets, and they taste just like real chicken nuggets. The also have veggie sausage patties, corn dogs, and several different types of burgers.
If you do go vegetarian, I highly recomend getting a multi-vitamin to take daily. When you're a vegetarian, your body doesn't get certain vitamins that it would normally get from meat. I take a multi-vitamin and B-12 supplement. (B-12 is an energy vitamin found in meat.)

[Rachel]

i know! isn't it crazy how insanely over-utilized it is? it's irksome >_< what kind of ingredients do you try to avoid?

[Stephenie]

I checked the ingredients the first time my mom showed it to me. At first, I was skeptical about how it could be made of vegetables but look and taste like meat. But after checking what was in it, I was okay with it. Its mostly made out of soy and spices.

[Rachel]

mmm....you're making me hungry ^^ haha

[Rachel]

O.o OMG. *runs in a mad dash to car to drive to the grocery store*

[Mike Shaffer]

Tofu is like eggplant - it likes taking up the flavors of the foods it is mixed with. My college roommates was a full-on vegan and was a big fan of tofu with spices (especially chili, but if you are attempting to go raw, this may not help). I know a whole family of vegitarians who also eat a lot of Mediterranean food. There are a lot of spices used, as well as a variety of preparations that work out to be pretty vegitarian friendly. So looking into it might be the way to go.

[sabelmouse]

i could live on houmous. that is easy to make and only the chickpeas are cooked, and the sesameseeds are roasted, but still. it's very healthy and goes with any sprout or green salad.

[sabelmouse]

tofu isn't raw anyway.

[Rachel]

dang...i've really got to try this!! it sound amazing :D