I recently made a bet with a friend that I could avoid eating meat for a solid month. I'm on day four, and I'm looking for ways to keep things interesting. How do you vegetarians keep your meals varied and avoid bland sameness day to day?

Also, is there anything specific I should be eating to continue to get the nutrients I was used to getting by eating meat?

You can get your protein from soy, but that won't be as great from the protein you'd get from your meat.
Greenboy should know more of this stuff.

Oh yeah SAJN, your sig reminded me that today is Armenian Genocide day. Is it like 93 years of denial now?

my meals were dull and samey even when I did eat meat. I'm just too lazy to cook.

but I tend to eat quite a lot of cheese and eggs for proteinness, obviously nuts and pulses are good too, but they require a little more imagination.

Its really not hard to go without eating meat. Try a lot of Mediterranean foods.

I like my routine meals, so they're probably not that imaginative. As I try to avoid egg yolks due to cholesterol, I'll eat egg whites and some of that Boca/Morningstar/whathaveyou fake meat for protein. I'm not strictly vegetarian as I eat chicken when I have it, but I probably wouldn't go crazy if I cut it out. Basically I just eat lots of various fruits and veggies. Currently berries, green beans, and bell peppers are my favorite things. I'm always lacking a bit on the protein side, so I tend to get those snack bars that have a good amount of protein in them....also those SlimFast protein shakes. I don't know if any of that really helps. >_>

The way to avoid bland-ness is through bacon.

yes. lots and lots of bacon.

Mix it up just like you would with meat. Some ideas: stir-friend asian vegies, vegie lasagne, vegie-pattie burgers, vegitarian curry, vegie pizza, pasta napolitana, all kinds of soups...

Basically take something meaty you'd usually eat, remove the meat, then add vegitable substitutes.

Yup.

Just try putting things you think will be good together. I once did what you did, make a bet not to eat meat for a week, but it ended up until now...so three or four years I guess.

Ironically I am not much help in this thread...

You can use TVP (textured vegetable protein) as a substitute for where you might usually use mince eg in Bolognaise or a chilli con veggie. Taste and texture-wise it works well enough, the downside I found was nothing else on earth gives me wind more than TVP.

I was vegetarian for about three years, vegan for maybe one and a half of those. Being vegetarian is easy when you have bad food. I hated eating when I was vegetarian.

-Don't eat too many starches. It's easy to eat lots of potatoes, white rice, pasta, bread etc, but they offer very little nutrition

-Beans and pulses are good to eat because they have a lot protein and fiber. But keep in mind they're still low-quality sources of protein, and won't provide all the amino acids you need to survive. For example, beans don't contain any tryptophan and pulses don't have methionine. You will need to eat varied meals to get all nine of them.

-Just because it's vegetarian or ethnic doesn't mean it's healthy. A falafel covered in white sauce is still fried and has a fatty sauce.

-The more you eat out, the more likely it is that you'll encounter meat of some kind, even if the menu doesn't list it.

-Don't eat processed foods, even if they're labelled for vegetarians.

legumes + cheese is a good way to get full proteins.

i was a veggie for 4+ years. i quit because i couldnt remember why i startedin the first place. i think it was my g/f's mother's meatloaf.

anyway, everyone's got all the good suggestions, but if you're on the go and need a bite, burger king has a decent veggieburger.

To add to the list, vegetarian burritos and enchiladas as well. Very tasty.

Nuts are another good source of protein as well, so throw some cashews or walnuts on a salad or in some other dish. Egg whites give you a great lean protein.

As as with cooking meat, using various spices for flavor helps a lot.

I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but when I cooked for my house when I was still in school, we had to cook vegetarian meals as well. It's not that bad.

I havent tried any, but these sound good.
http://mdbrecords.com/tastes.php

Mexican food.
Hummus.
Grilled tofu sandwichs.
Yeah. I don't worry about the health side of things much, I just eat the food I like, which is basically lotsa beans and cheese and stuff.

Don't listen to these stupids. You can survive just fine eating nothing but avocado and cane sugar.

If you eat actual Mexican food, you won't find anything that doesn't have meat in it. Even the beans and tortillas are cooked in lard. Generally the same with Tex-Mex. If you're going to eat Mexican as a vegetarian, you're best off going to Señor Inauthentico's House of Tacos For College Students on Wacky Fad Diets.

On a related note, almost all ethnic food considered "safe" probably uses animals products. Chinese food has master stocks, Thai food has fish sauce and Japanese use bonito flakes in everything.

You could make your own Mexican. I can give you recipes.

The fact that being a vegetarian is such an inconvenience should tell you something.

Says it all.

It's not really. At least I don't see how it is :S

Eat pizza with toppings that aren't meat.

To clarify, the bet isn't that you have to be any kind of strict vegetarian, it's just that you can't eat foods that are meat, right? So it shouldn't matter if you eat eggs or dairy or foods prepared using animal by-products. Eat eggs. Eggs are good.

Well, see, if you're actually a vegetarian you're making up for the inconvenience by feeling better than the stupid lumberjack meat eaters so it's only natural that you wouldn't notice.

You probably ate meat without even knowing.

I hear ya. My sister was a vegetarian for 6 years, and in that time I was exposed to TVP in spaghetti sauce and chili. Ohhhhh man. If you're going to have anything with TVP, don't plan on going out anywhere afterward.

I don't eat out. I make my own food. Its easy to tell what goes into it.

By the same token, we've all eaten soy protein when we thought we were eating meat.

Also, I don't really care if I eat meat byproducts by accident. I'm way to lazy to avoid that, its basically impossible. I just don't buy/eat meat products cause they're yucky.