Is living as a vegetarian expensive?!
Is living as a vegetarian expensive?
I would like to become a vegetarian. but I'm on a budget. i cannot afford to buy all those meat substitute foods like tofu,and meatless burgers and all.
Is there any other inexpensive food that has protein in it besides tofu?
Answers: its alot cheaper, don't buy those meatless burger
you can buy tofu for $1 a block
you can buy 1lb of soy beans for 40 cent
if you take 1/2 cup of soy beans and soak it for 12 hrs
you can cook it in rice, or cook it with other vegetables
soy bean is like 100% protein
1lb bag of soy bean can last 2-3 month
you can also make homemade soy milk with soy beans
you can sprout soy beans to make your own free soy sprouts, which is like growing vegetable to eat at home in 5 days
for free
look up sprouting beans on a search engine
or wiki soy or mung beans
you can eat oatmeal, a big container of it it's like $1.50
which will last you 2 weeks if you eat it once a day everyday
you can drink protein shake, 1 serving is 50cent
and contains all the protein needs for 1 day
there's more but i'm too lazy to think
still depressed about getting my account banned by christains, i'm staying away from the religious section from now on Beans! Cheap, versatile and a lot of variety. tofu isn't expensive and the meatless foods aren't either most of the food costs the same as anything else. I'm vegan and have been for at least 2 years and i spend just as much as i did before and i feel better look for vegetarian recipes
beans are good and most canned veggies...
i have no idea why are becoming vegetarian i did because of the cows and such having to die to feed me but if you do it for another reason you can eat mostly anything out of the can but if not read the back sometimes canned beans and stuff have pig parts and other things in them :x The processed veggie stuff is not worth the money. Many of the "veggie approved" things beside the processed stuff is also very expensive in comparison to the same thing with out the "approved" label.
Google "Flexitarian Diet" and you may have some other options as you check out the websites. It is NOT expensive at all, provided you are not a finicky eater. You don't need all the meat substitutes and frozen convenience foods. All you need are the staples.....veggies, beans (especially dried, as they are way cheaper and you can cook them yourself), fruits, grains, bread and if you are going lacto-ovo, then eggs and dairy products. If you are a very picky eater and not terribly interested in cooking, then yes, buying all those frozen convenience foods will cost you quite a bit. meg gave you na important answer:
The veggie "hamburgers" or 'chicken burgers" are not worth it and not good for you.
No one knows the long term effects of eating protein soy isolate and other such americanized soy products. (found in most frozen veggie products)
If you are going veggie, try to eat unprocessed soy products like tofu, miso, soy milk, tempeh, soybeans.
and balance with proteins like lentils, beans and nuts.
most of the above is cheap. (cheaper than meat)
Avoid soymilks with added sugars/sweeteners.
(WestSoy unsweetened chocolate, almond and plain are good, especially blended with a banana!)
You can make your own "meatloafs/burgers" with any beans/ lentils combintion.
Have fun with it! Hello, in my country,,Argentine ,for us , all foods are expensive, but if you want to have another font of proteins, not so complete their aminoacids profil like meat or milk, you can eat allubias, green peas, lentejas, garbanzos, but try to change very slowly your diet, because that can cause troubles in you colon, but know, that a good diet is eat littlle of all foods, you can go to pyramid in usa and make your own good diet, adequate , and try to walk, if you can do a fisic activity. Good life!! It's not anymore expensive that living as a meat-eater. Tofu is really cheap. So are beans. Tempeh is kind of expensive, but think of it as what you're buying instead of a hamburger or instead of fish and then it's not so bad. Milk and eggs aren't expensive. It only gets expensive if you let it get that way. You don't always have to go to special health food stores to get everything. Most major grocery stores carry plenty of food you can eat as a vegetarian so your food bill doesn't go any higher than before. As someone else mentioned beans are cheap to use and you can get as simple or as extravagant as you want to with them. Sometimes I have a simple meal of beans (I think black have the highest amount of nutrients in them), navy, pinto or red beans (cooked with onions, salt and pepper) with cornbread (read labels some are made with lard or other undesirable ingredients) a small salad and some fruit for dessert. Most vegetarians do not eat eggs, however, there is something called an ovo vegetarian and they do eat eggs, keep in mind that it still requires chickens for those eggs and they are terribly abused and do not fall for the free range hype, it's misleading. Those pre made frozen meat things often contain eggs so be sure to read the label first. Most of them I didn't really like and you can make your own homemade burgers and stuff.
Tofu isn't expensive at all, once you get it out of the package and start working with it you'll notice that it goes farther than you thought and you can make so many different dishes with it, including desserts!
The only thing I find a little expensive is with milk. I quit buying regular brands of milk several months ago, i.e. in my area we have Robert's and Andersen Erickson or the store label kind. All of these come from big dairies where the worse abuses happen so I started buying locally made dairy products from smaller farms, but even still the male calves end up being sold for veal so I decided to start using non animal dairy products. I am in the process right now. I tried some vanilla rice milk that is pretty good, but I have many more to try. Anyway, non dairy milk is a little expensive to use, but then again buying meat is very expensive so it probably balances out to being the same.
Buy your fruits and veggies fresh when ever possible, frozen if you must and avoid canned if you are able or you'll be paying too much for mushy, less nutritious, salt ridden crap.
For a list of ingredients and their meaning you can go to caringconsumer.com and type in ingredients in the search box to bring up the list. Caring Consumer also lets you know what companies do and do not test on animals.
Helpful links:
vegetariantimes.com
goveg.com
vegcooking.com
recipezaar.com It's far cheaper to live as a vegetarian. Stock up on dried beans, rice, barley, pasta, quinoa, whatever other grains you like, some good spices and vegetables and you have enough to live on. Not if you stick to the basics and are content with monotony. But if you enjoy food . . . and like variety and the convenience of processed foods . .. then you better have a sackful of money.