Transitioning To A Part-Time veg Head
By Heidi Schaden

You want to cut down on meat consumption but don't know how. All your life, you have been conditioned to have meat as the center of your meals so how do you go about finding some delicious vegetarian food to cook?

I will give you some tips and recipes to get you started and maybe it will get you thinking about other nifty ways to add vegetarian food to your diet.

First of all, the absolutely easiest thing to do in the beginning is to make the food you are used to and substitute soy based alternatives for the traditional meat currently in your recipes. For example, in spaghetti use fake ground beef; Morningstar Farms and Boca put out a great alternative that can be purchased in a regular grocery store. You can also use the fake ground beef in your tacos, beef stroganoff, pizza, lasagna or anything else you put hamburger in.

There are a plethora of fake hamburgers to substitute for regular hamburgers. Boca and Morningstar Farms both put out a fantastic variety of them but there are many other brands too. If you don't like one kind, try another. You are bound to find at least one that you find acceptable, even good.

If you want to venture out a little more, you can make some great recipes with tofu, Morningstar Farms "chicken" and Morningstar Farms "beef strips".

My mom is Hungarian. Europeans are very meat oriented. I have adapted several of her meat, fat laden recipes to healthier vegetarian versions. One really great recipe I adapted was her recipe for "Paprikash Chicken".

Paprikash Chicken

1 pkg. Morningstar Farms "Chicken:

2 packets of vegetarian chicken gravy

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Sour cream, 4-8 oz

Paprika

Olive oil

Fresh or canned mushrooms, optional

Put a very small amount of olive oil in a fry pay and cook the vegetarian chicken until slightly crispy. Blend up the gravy and add to the pan with the chicken. Then add the can of mushroom soup. Stir in some paprika. After it's all warmed through and through, add the 4-8 oz of sour cream (I only use about 4 oz. because I think it's enough). You can cook up some additional mushrooms (I prefer fresh over canned) to add on top before serving if you'd like.

For more tips and tools for living healthy and happy, I'm inviting you to visit http://www.secretsofhealthysinglemoms.com - from Heidi Schaden

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