KR, you are the coolest mom, ever. When I first went vegetarian (I was in high school) my family gave me so much crap about it.

I'm mostly vegetarian although I eat fish every once in a while. My boyfriend is non-vegetarian buy indulges me and most of what we cook is meat free. I've come up with a few recipes that he loves. This one especially:

http://maindish.allrecipes.com/az/Bs...hinSndwich.asp
Sun dried tomato pesto can be tough to find so we actually made some which is easy if you have a food processor.

Otherwise, I find things online or just substitute meat with other things in recipes. Baked Ziti with textured vegetable protein (boca meat) instead of ground beef, Szechun Noodles with tofu instead of pork.... Lots of things like that.

*bump*

I was a semi-vegetarian for six years in middle school/high school. Then I went back to eating meat for four years . . . and now I think I'm going vegetarian again (full-out this time -- well, lacto-ovo, not vegan).

The problem is that I'm a waitress, so I eat a lot of my meals at work (I usually only eat one "meal" a day and most of the time that's at work; the rest of my food intake consists of just snacking on fruit, bagels, cereal, etc.). I also recently stopped eating deep-fried food (french fries! :( ), so that sort of leaves me with limited options. I'm not neurotic about stuff being cooked on the same grill as meat or anything (the switch is more for health reasons than moral ones), so that's not a big deal. Fortunately we have veggie burgers and they are pretty good, but beyond that I'm basically limited to house salads, a couple different soups, and pasta without meat. That will get old in a hurry, so I'm trying to figure out what kind of modifications I can make to other foods that will leave them meatless but still edible. Suggestions?

A second problem is that I used to be very picky about what I ate (and still am fairly picky) so there's a lot of stuff that I've never had before. For example, I just discovered the deliciousness of pita and hummus earlier this year. What's out there that I need to be broadening my horizons to that hopefully is not too exotic/scary? Haha.

Third problem is that I don't really cook. I can and will if it's worth expending the effort, but usually I'm too lazy and it's easier to just pop a bagel in the toaster. What snacky-type foods or easy-to-prepare stuff can the rest of you guys not do without?

Whole Foods Store has tons of vegetarian frozen dinners. They don't taste too bad, but they are expensive as hell.

My mom has been a partial vegetarian (no beef or pork) for .. wow, like 25 years now.. and she cannot have things cooked on the same grill as beef or pork because she has lost the ability to digest them. She has gotten quite ill from "vegetarian" soup that had some beef stock and frozen pie crusts that are made with lard. She has to read everything very carefully. So, it might not bother you now, but after many years, you may have a change of heart (or rather, digestive system!).

Dee

I have never eaten a lot of meats. I eat fried fish, which isn't good for you, and in the past couple years added small amounts of chicken. I do love my dairy products, though, but hate eggs. My family still gives me crap and my father used to force me to eat meat. Please don't do that to your children.

Although, I love me a good McDonald's cheeseburger. And Taco Bell tacos. Wow, I'm not a healthy eater.

Anyway, I love the Morningstar Farms black bean burgers, they're yummy. And I eat a lot of pasta, vegetables, potatoes. Usually I'll just take larger portions of the side dishes.

I was a semi-vegetarian for a year and a half, starting with the eighth grade with the e-coli scare with Burger King. When I heard about it, I felt scared about eating meat. So, I ate chicken, fish, and other poultry.

I think I'll be okay -- when I came out of my semi-veggie stage, it was because I was on a school trip and vegetarian options were limited, so I ended up eating a huge (and I mean HUGE) cheeseburger because I was starving. You'd think that after not eating red meat for six years, my stomach would have been unhappy with me, but I was completely fine.

Maybe as I get older it will start to bother me, but at this point I'm not that worried.

"Contaminated fruits and vegetables are causing more food-borne illness among Americans than raw chicken or eggs, consumer advocates said in a report released on Monday," Reuters reports. These stats come from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Naderite group not known for throwing red meat to carnivores:

Vegetables and fruits triggered 31 outbreaks from 2002 to 2003, compared with 29 for chicken and other poultry, according to the report.

Overall, contaminated tomatoes, sprouts and other produce made 28,315 people sick during 554 outbreaks from 1990 to 2003--20 percent of all cases CSPI analyzed.

Chicken made 14,729 people sick in 476 outbreaks, and eggs were responsible for 10,847 illnesses from 329 outbreaks, according to the group.

- more in Opinion Journal

I have been a vegetarian for 13 years (since my freshman year at college) - everyone STILL gives me grief! And my son (3 years) is being raised vegetarian even though my husband isn't. I felt that he needs to be given the option to eat meat after he knows all the facts about where it comes from (and not lied to about it like I was!) - when he wants to try meat, we'll have the talk. If he decides to eat it after that, fine with me - seriously. I just think that he should make an informed decision.

Anyways - I have one of the absolute best vegetarian lasagna recipes (for lacto-ovo vege's - not vegans 'cause of the cheese). It takes a while to put together, but BOY is it worth it! When I get back from break I'll put it up on here. I cannot stand brocolli, so I was thrilled to find this recipe that doesn't use it (so many of the lasagnas call for it).