Going veggie on a budget?!
Answers: I am trying to serve my family healthier meals and trying to cut back drastically on our meat consumption. While my family likes a lot of non meat items such as morning star and bocca, the price of them is so much more than what I usually spend on groceries. Is there any way I can make veggie meals without going into debt?
Here are links to tons of recipes you can get online free. There are lots of options (way more than veggie burgers which we only use once or twice a month.) Vegetarianism is about having more options, not less. It's also a way I discovered so many "new" foods that I never would have tried when I was a meat eater. Experiment. Honestly, veggies, tofu, and a few spices can be combined to make some really tasty menus. Last night we had seitan made with shake & bake. Seitan is really inexpensive to make. We love using mushrooms as a "steak". Pasta is always easy and extremely inexpensive (loaded with lots of veggies it's extremely healthy and tasty!). TVP is wonderful and very inexpensive (we LOVE sloppy joes made with it!) It's also WAY more healthy than ground beef! Veggie pizza has so much more flavor than meat pizza! Stir fry veggies (and if you want some Quorn or marinated tofu) serve over rice--cheap and yummy! Make vegetarian chili--just leave out the meat or use TVP instead.
http://vegweb.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=67...
http://www.cok.net/lit/recipes/
http://vegsource.com/recipe/
http://www.vrg.org/recipes/index.htm
http://www.vegetarian.org.uk/recipes/ind...
http://www.vegan-food.net/
http://www.chooseveg.com/vegan-recipes.a...
There's way more to vegetarian food than veggie burgers. Listen to the Taco Bell commercial and think outside the bun :o)
AND, in most of the world, meat is used as a MINOR part of the meal (think stir fries with a tiny bit of meat and a ton of veggies), almost like a condiment. Don't think you have to have a meat analogue at every meal (THAT would get old really quickly and, as you said, very expensive--especially if you're buying the boca burgers and gardenburgers, etc.)
Just purchase sacks of rice and beans and be creative.
meat is usually the most expensive component of dishes and being veggie generally is cheaper. risottos are good veggie dishes that everyone loves without meat - you can vary them with roasted tomatoes and pesto or mushrooms. also making things with beans is cheap, especially if you buy them dried and soak them. you can use them in chilli's, pasta dishes, cous cous or curries and for making dips like houmous.
The great thing about being a vegetarian is the versatility and diversity of great veggie food that is available these days. Vegetables are not only cheap, but buying them frozen or canned means they can last for alot longer in your kitchen larder/freezer and with some cheap staples like rice, lentils, pasta or cous-cous -can be turned into a multitude of great dishes.
Beans can be bought tinned (i buy mixed beans like kidneys, haricot, butter beans) and then turned into dishes like vegetarian chilli with rice or delicious burritos in tortilla wraps..mmmmm! Easy peasy!
Meat substitutes like Quorn, Soya-meat and Tofu can all be made into delcious healthy dishes without having to break your bank balance! Buy them frozen and cook them in your stir-fries or curries.
Look up vegetarian recipies on the web - there are thousands!! Try BBC Food or All recipies.
Here's a link to the most tasty vegetarian burgers you will ever make!!!
Being Vegetarian is the best diet in the world!! Enjoy it!
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/4205/cur...
i would suggest Indian. a lot of Indians are vegetarians, and a lot of them poor. lol. but seriously look up rajma chawal (kidney beans and rice). its extremly popular. My suggestion would be to pressure cook the canned beans more, because the beans should be extra soft. Chole, panner bhurji , mattar paneer, palak paneer are other options.
Some veggies use those "meat substitute" type products but many people give up on them after a while.
We don't use then, i don't see the need. Veggie food is cheaper than meat based food.
Perhaps you could look at a few veggie cookbooks to get ideas of cooking without fake meat ?
ignore the first answerer, they don't even have enough imagination to use an original Screen ID and picture, what can they tell you about imaginative food.
There is nothing inherently more expensive about a vegan diet. If a person wants to replicate his/her previous diet with animal analogous, then yes, it can be more expensive to buy veggie burgers, prepared seitan, Rice Dream Supreme, etc. But pasta, beans, potatoes, breads, fruits and vegetables are all generally less expensive than the animal products of similar nutritional value.