Hello,

When it comes to being Vegetarian, I'm pretty bad. My diet mainly consists of (from largest to smallest):

-Soymilk (I eat dairy, but I find that soymilk tastes *a lot* better. I drink the Silk Enhanced kind)
-Processed foods (Amy's, Boca, canned soup, etc)
-Bread (lots of bread!)
-Nut butters (lots of nut butters! usually on bread. oh, and natural - no sugar or any nasty stuff)
-Cheeses (When used in my own cooking)
-Fruit juices (Read: Orange juice, since other juices are filtered through gelatine)
-Fruits (Mainly strawberries, cherries, and grapes)
-Vegetables

As well, once a week I make a spaghetti dinner (The dish itself is about 2000 calories, but its spread over a day or two). This doesn't count fastfood (read: Buca di Beppo and Little Caesars).
Oh, I do take a vitamin though. The one I take is this: http://www.gnc.com/productDetails.aspx?id=156511&lang=en

I see myself as having 3.5 problems:

A: I just dont really like Vegetables. Fruits are sweet like candy, pastas can be prepared in different and interesting ways, and there is no way that one can challenge the greatness of a peanut butter sandwich with soymilk...But vegetables just aren't exciting, and most of them taste bland-to-bad raw.

B: I can't cook! All I can do is heat things up from a can and boil noodles :( It was the same when I ate meat - I rarely ever cooked up steaks or anything, but I was constantly stocked with instant soups and such...Its embarassing, because one time I was trying to do something with pinto beans...I put them in the fridge for a day and they soaked. But I had no idea what to do after that. Do I put them in boiling water? Do I put them in a slow cooker? I still don't know!

C: I never have the time. I can't sit down every day for 3 hours to cook something! All the recipes look like they'll take me too long to finish.
C2: As well, I'm kind of obsessive compulsive...If I cook something, I have to constantly monitor it to make sure that it doesn't overcook, explode, or that my evil family doesnt try to sneak meat in.

Now, I'm not really noticing any physical problems....yet! Still, I need to correct my diet before anything does go wrong so that I dont have to spend time in the (vegan-unfriendly) hospital.
Plus, other people around me are getting the impression that a vegetarian diet consists of soy chunks and soymilk, and that its limited and bland...I don't mind my variety (yet), but I want to give a better impression to other people.
Another thing is that its really expensive and just not sustainable in the long run. Now that I've tried various prepared dishes I know which ones to buy (Boca burgers last longer than Amy's dishes, cost the same, provide more) and which ones not to ($2 soy yogurt == waste), but I need to not be so dependant on these prepared dishes.

Anyone else have the same problem? Encouragement, advice...anything would be really appreciated.

Take a vegetarian cooking class at an adult learning annex/TAFE/whatever's near you, buy a "Cooking for Dummies" book, and read everything (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook) you (http://vegweb.com) can (http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=142). Especially this (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook).

Hey Narodnii...

Thirsty Johann pretty much hit the nail on the head -- learn how to cook :yes:

As for problem A: if a veggie is prepared right, it tastes good! :lick: My DH hated brussel sprouts, but I got him to try one of mine once and he loved it. Why? Because before, all he'd had were plain, mushy overcooked ones. I cook mine so they're still quite firm, then put them in a dijon/olive oil/pepper/caper sauce. So yum!

problem B: this is related to problem A, I think -- here is a GREAT cookbook that gives you the basics on how to cook nearly every vegetable that exists: Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0767900146/qid=1121592734/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-5802768-7016021?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) That book will tell you how long to bake potatoes, how long to cook chickpeas vs. kidney beans, how to cook rice, etc... everything! Most of the recipes in it vary from extremely basic (like how to cook asparagus, plain) to quite nice (I got the brussel sprout idea from that book).

What I like most about it is that the entire front section is vegetables. And it goes alphabetically. So the first few pages will be on asparagus, and will start out how to cook asparagus plain. Then the following recipes are on variations of sauces or preparation for asparagus, to make it a bit more interesting. And she does that for every vegetable, even ones like rutabaga and different types of squash.

As for C... you can still have great food in short time. Don't want to soak & boil beans for hours? Buy canned ones. Or, soak & boil a bunch of kidney beans and make a huge batch of chili over the weekend, and freeze a bunch of it to save for later.

A lot of people here do big batches of stuff on weekends, and freeze for later consumption. Soups, stews, sauces (like spaghetti sauce!) work particularly well for freezing.

... what else... one of TJ's links sent you to vegweb -- there are tons of ideas in "quick meals" that might be of inspiration to you. :)

good luck! :up:

Your diet seems very healthy compared to mine. I like having veggies+dip. I find the more you eat it the less dip I need to use to make it taste good. Also fruit kebabs taste okay in yogurt. Fruit smoothies/banana milkshakes might be kind of fast and you can use fresh fruits instead of mixes.

If you learn to make soups that's one way to get veggies in. Most are easy to make and once you have the basics down you can make up your own variations. Plus you can make a big batch and freeze them in individual serving containers.

This is the first soup I made, it looks a little complicated but it's actually pretty easy...

http://vegweb.com/recipes/soup/1655.shtml

I also make this one a lot, it's very easy...

http://vegweb.com/recipes/soup/1027.shtml

I'm working on a more complex version of that one, I'll post the recipe eventually.

A, B, C. Definately learn to cook. Pre-packaged, processed meals are quite pricy and no, it's not very sustainable in the long run at all. There are instant brown rices you can buy that will help you get comfortable with cooking rice until you feel confident enough to "graduate" to cooking the regular stuff (brown rice, jasmine rice, basmti, etc). The cool thing about mastering rice is that you can expand to cooking other whole grains like millet and quinoa.

Canned beans is a veg*ns best friend. Drain them, rinse them and throw them into anything and everything. Instant nutrition for not that much work. Plus, they're already cooked so you only have to heat them until heated though.

Canned tomatoes are also good for bringing in a bit of variety into your stuff. I like the diced in their own juice variety because they're the most versatile, IMO and I can control the flavorings.

Frozen veggies are another best friend. Me, personally, I keep a few bags of single veggies along with a few bags of veggie blends. I also keep some frozen leafy greens on hand like spinach and mustard greens cause they're really easy to throw into stuff and you don't have to take up a lot of time washing, drying, chopping, etc.

In cooking, I like to keep spices and some veg bouillion on hand. That helps me flavour anything up into any way I want.

I never have "3 hours" to cook. I don't have that sort of time and I definately don't have that sort of patience, but a bit of rice pre-made (rice freezes well, btw), a can of beans and some frozen veggies have me in and out of the kitchen in 15-30 minutes, tops. If I reeeeally want to do it up, I can spend maybe an hour-plus in the kitchen, but I don't cook a lot of those types of dishes - those are more for special occasions or days when I have some time to just putter around with things.

You say you don't like a lot of veggies. There are lots of threads around there that talk about how to get yourself to like the things you don't (believe me, you're not the only one with this particular challenge). But in meanwhile, try to work into your diet things like sweet potato, red bell pepper, avocado, sweet onions, tomatoes, sweet corn and things like that. Preparing veggies different ways helps a lot, too. Like, for me, I can't stand carrots when they're plain but worked into a spaghetti sauce or a chili, I'll eat them until my mouth falls off. :D

Finally, don't be afraid to ask questions about cooking or about vegan food. There are loads of people around here that are in all levels of cooking from expert to newbie and they love to share what they know. Don't be afraid to read the food section here, too. There's a lot of really good information there ready to be had. :)

Hope that helps a bit. :)

p.s. those pinto beans that you soaked, you could either put them in a crock pot for 8 hours (easiest method) or put them in a large pot of water (enough to cover them by double and maybe a tad more), bring that water to a nice rolling boil, then turn the pot down to simmer and simmer them for about 3-5 hours. Don't forget to stir them every 30-45 minutes or so and add extra water if you need to. If you had some chickpeas soaked, you could have made falafel out of them (I don't know if pintos will work this way - I've never tried it but I've always wanted to).