fregetarian

[pixie_bebe]

We tried Swiss chard for the first time last night for dinner. It's really, really tasty! There's a delicious earthy undertone, like spinach, but stronger and earthier. It's also just a bit sweet, making the mouthful generally rich.

According to some random weight training website's calories and nutrition facts, Swiss chard is: one of the

Comments

[pixie_bebe]

Oooh, beets and sardines! Two things I should learn more about.
Thanks!

[awong]

Good luck with the vegetarian thing!

Be a bit careful though that you eat a variety of stuff and get your protein (eg., different beans, or tofu). If you don't you'll probably end up feeling hungry a lot and craving meat more than you'd expect.

I went vegetarian for about 1 month in college and ended up randomly really really really craving chicken-strips after a while...I think it was cause I wasn't getting enough protein cause it went away once I started getting some...

[pixie_bebe]

Thanks!

I actually had a really interesting conversation today with our roommate about this. He's been a vegetarian for a while now. I was telling him about my weird new craving for meat, which I never had before. He said that when he first went meat-less, he thought he was craving meat as well. But over time, he realized it was actually a craving for protein. Gave me a different perspective to think about hunger and cravings. I'll be careful to stock up on protein bars and tofu and stuff :)

[awong]

you probably don't need protein bars (those might be protein overkill). Just make sure you get nuts, legumes, and similar in your diet. US diet is often over-proteined anyways.

I went to a vegan nutrition class once and they said that just a handful of nuts in the morning is enough to stave off the quick hunger that often results from a purely vege-breakfast (has been working well for me in general for reducing breakfast consumption).

Also look at quinoa. It's a grain with a full protein (one of the few if not the only single-source of full-proteins in a vegetarian diet). Tastes pretty good and easy to make. Mix it into salads or your grains or do some sort of pilaf type thing with it. Makes you really full fast :)

[chengdugirl]

I am going to try some swiss chard for dinner. :) I so need to eat 0 weight watcher point food. I guess you can have a lot of tofu dishes when you go to the Chinese restaurants. I love Ma Puo Tofu, I don't think it has meat in it, but I could be wrong.

[pixie_bebe]

I think ma puo tofu is suppose to have some ground meat. but I've had versions without...