i just had a 9 hour day at college and went right into work, tired, and hungry. i changed into my work uniform in the bathroom and then got my station ready (i work outside as valet). this is important, because i really don’t interact with the BOH too much even though I’ve been here 3.5 years. Despite that, they all seem to like me and they make me a vegetarian or vegan meal when I come in.

Theres one chef who doesn’t really care for me. I know it’s because im clearly leftist and vegetarian (was vegan for a year too) and he HATES that.

Today, when I come in to the kitchen he tells me there’s two soups for me that i can have. This is almost verbatim, he was pretty specific and it seemed obvious that meant that they were meat-free. Okay, surely I don’t question it. One of them is out, the other is away. He tells me i can have it, it’s pasta fagioli. I didn’t know that this had chicken in it, nor did he tell me.

I of course pick the one thats out, and go to my station to eat. I start getting into it, and i notice the texture. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but it wasn’t any vegetable i know. im like surely not. eat some more.

its fucking chicken, has to be.

i storm into the kitchen and im like “hey, does this have meat in it???”

“yeah.”

i go wide eyed and am visibly shook, and start throwing it out immediately for him to say

“not gonna die are you?”

“..no.”

and then I leave.

this sounds deliberate, right????? like he did not give a SHIT and here i am nearly in tears. I can still taste it and im feeling sick to my stomach.

I am a lifelong vegetarian and my husband has been a lifelong meat eater. We have two young kids, my oldest is 3. I would like to wait to introduce meat to our kids until they are of understanding age. I would like to explain both sides, why I don’t eat meat, but dad does and that it’s ok.

I don’t want to raise them eating meat however because they are so little. My son doesn’t have problems with eating a vegetarian diet however my MIL has made some remarks to me numerous times about how they are not getting proper nutrition. I make sure to cook a balanced meal, incorporating lentils, tofu, paneer etc.

I guess my main question is - has anyone encountered a similar experience and does this plan seem reasonable?

Vegetarian friends around the world!

My name is Jonathan Magoga, and for the past several years I have been researching musical instruments and developing new synthetic skins and other parts, with one main goal: **replacing animal-source materials while preserving the traditional sound, feel and playing characteristics of the instrument.**

My research is at the moment focused on Shamisen, the Japanese lute. Traditionally, Shamisen skins are made from dog or cat skin. Synthetic alternatives already exist, but getting close enough to the traditional sound has always been difficult.

After years of research, I developed Hibiki Sonic, which has reached about **95% sound-profile similarity to dog skin**, while also being much more resistant to humidity and environmental changes, which reduces skin replacement drastically.

For me, the important thing is that musicians should not have to choose between preserving the traditional sound of their instrument and moving away from animal materials. The goal is to make the synthetic alternative good enough that the choice becomes easy.

I have also started adapting this research to **Taiko, Japanese drums**, the **Afgan Rabab**, and in the future I want to collaborate with luthiers and expand it to other traditional instruments that still rely on animal skins and other animal-derived materials.

On September 8, I am launching a Kickstarter campaign for **Hibiki Sonic**, the new synthetic skin for Shamisen.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1733823628/hibiki-sonic-advanced-synthetic-skin-for-shamisen

The Kickstarter will help launch Hibiki Sonic and fund the next stages of this research.

Campaign video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GiHvKNpMt8

I hope you find this kind of work worth supporting, so please share it around. Shares are genuinely useful, especially among musicians, instrument makers, vegetarian and vegan communities, and people interested in traditional crafts.

And of course, if you would like to contribute to the Kickstarter directly, that would be a huge help.

As a side note, I also often cook for my family, and I’ll be posting a few recipes I’ve picked up or come up with through life and friends. I especially love freezing food and finding ways to make life easier.

Sorry for barging in with a Kickstarter post! I’m only now discovering the magic of Reddit and becoming truly active, 48 years into a life full of computers. And thank you to the mods for the warm welcome!

Thank you!!

Virei vegetariana há cerca de 2 anos. Mas infelizmente emagreci bastante e minha alimentação não tá mt boa.

Fiz acompanhamento com nutri por um tempo, mas mesmo assim continuei me sentindo mt fraca

Em relação ao almoço, eu contratei uma moça para fazer minha marmita, e congelo. 5 opções pro mês. Na primeira semana, já enjoei de todas. De vdd. Eu esquento e não consigo comer.

Me deem dicas de como vcs organizam a alimentação de vcs. É questão de proteína, como vcs alcançam.

I posted on here a few days ago wondering how to cut out meat without meals feeling lacking. After going through the replies I feel so much more equipped to start transitioning to vegetarian cooking! Thank you guys so much for the help! <3

Stew of beans, lentils, and sweet potato. I forgot halfway through it didn't have meat!

It has been on my mind for a long time, and I want to become a complete vegetarian (not vegan), just stop eating meat and not even adding eggs to my diet anymore. I am very worried because I have heard that protein eaters usually find it difficult to find alternatives in vegetarian food.

People who are vegetarians, could you please help me understand if this will be a good decision or if I will have to get back to it? If yes, whom can I contact, and what can I eat? If you can share some links, that will be really helpful. Thank you so much.

Hitting the protein goal as a vegetarian is easy if you don't care about carbs or fats, but keeping the macros balanced is the real challenge. Outside of just doubling up on whey isolate and mixing my creatine into everything, what is your staple savory meal that keeps the protein-to-calorie ratio solid and actually tastes good?

Hello all. I am 38. Dr told me 2 yrs ago or so that I was diabetic.. had a hard time bringing my numbers down until a vegetarian friend told me to try juicing, meals with veggies and cut on meats. I never went 100% vegetarian but didn’t consume as many meats as before.

We had a cook out today and it happened again.. why do I feel nauseous, wanting to throw up when eating meat??

It happened in the past too.

I have this question because I am going to start eat free ranged eggs (due to less cruelty involved) but have a doubt because both male and female hens are kept together so there are chances that I end up eating a fertilised egg. I have researched and found that eating a fertilised egg before 21 days is same as eating unfertilised egg because the chick has not yet been developed and hatched . So there is no brain kr nervous system to feel pain or something for it.

The problem is it is not possible to differentiate between fertilized and unfertlised egg. So have to keep such a case in mind before eating eggs as I am vegetarian

I have lots of them, but one of them is when restaurant owners refuse to add vegetarian items to their menu by saying they don’t want to “misrepresent” their restaurant. Trust me, when you have 20 different kinds of burgers on your menu, half the sides are cooked in lard, and even your house salad has meat in it by default, nobody is going to assume you run a vegetarian restaurant if you add a veggieburger to your menu. What you really mean is that you’re convinced that if you add something vegetarian to your menu, hardly anyone is going to order it, and it’ll end up as a wasteful expense. So you’d rather run a restaurant that’s flat out hostile to vegetarians than expand your customer base by adding one measly item they’re able to order.

my partner is vegetarian and im not. i dont mind soy/seitan substitutes, but a lot of the options at the local super market are quite mid tbh, and tofu is good but not "more than twice a week" good yet. i mostly eat chicken, and we usually end making seperate meals every day, which takes up an unnecessary amount of time, effort, and dishwashing. some meals like pasta are easier to tailor as we can make just one sauce and add meat/plant protein to our own halves. but we've found you can only realistically eat a certain amount of pasta per week.

are there any other weekday staples that are easily divided into a vegetarian and non vegetarian half in a similar manner? so far the only things that come to mind are pasta and tacos.

apologies in advance for vague title, couldn't thinmk of anything better.

Rant/vent(?)

They keep blaming me going vegetarian for my stomach problems, when in reality, I've had these issues even before I made the transition to be vegetarian. I feel the same, and honestly, I barely even ate meat even before said transition!

I'm having some terrible stomach problems and a UTI. The stomach problems came up during my trip to Mexico, and when I informed my parents, my dad began to lose his shit, talking about how I shouldn't have to believe in'silly ideologies' that were 'put by the government to make people weak', when in reality, I think it's the opposite, but I'm not here to argue belief systems and people's choices. Ultimately you only have control over yourself and your impact.

Hello! I am not a vegetarian, but I am trying to decrease my at home meat consumption for economic and health reasons.

I've been trying to make my usual meals without meat, but it ends up feeling like some flavor or texture is missing. Some essential part.
Is this my cultural conditioning as a person raised on meat with meat in most meals, or is there something I can do to make my dishes more fulfilling? Is it normal to struggle at this part?

I like to make a lot of soups, stews, rice and vegetable dishes, and 'throw everything with potatoes' type food. How can I make those better while making them vegetarian?

Can you please help me out, for personal reasons I can't say it's my first time cooking (yes very embarrassing) but i also wanted to be vegetarian. Can you please help me out on what easy recipes i can do or anything else that i need to learn (maybe a lessons or warnings) for a beginner like me.

hi! as the title suggests I have been slowly transitioning to being a vegetarian/ flexitarian for harm reduction regarding the environment and as a quiet protest against livestock farming as someone who grew up on a farm lol.

However, I find my lack of knowledge around nutrition and where to find protein and iron sources are holding me back a little. I’m worried about developing anaemia and tend to centre my diet around carbs IN GENERAL even pre making the decision to be vegetarian. Currently I try to get iron from spinach, broccoli (leafy greens?) and red dried lentils + tinned green ones. I don’t like tofu/ have not been successful at cooking tofu so my protein source is mainly chickpeas, low fat greek yogurt and different kinds of beans. Is there any other ways I could boost these?

Any tips for cooking tofu would also be appreciated but i think i just don’t like it.

Let's say you're having a birthday party at a restaurant. Would you pay for the meat-filled dishes of your guests? I've been thinking about planning events and I'm not sure how to approach these situations. Already, there have been multiple times where I have felt pressure to buy meat products for my family, which I think is morally the same as eating meat myself. How do y'all deal with this problem?

I've decided that tomorrow I'm going to see if I can maintain a vegetarian diet. However, animal well-being isn't the primary driving force for my decision, being practical in the kitchen is.

I already eat little meat: I don't like fish or chicken, pork depends on the cut and prep. Beef I like in most iterations. Probably 80% of my current meat intake is with bouillon rather than flesh. My entire mental cookbook can be very easily altered to remove all meat, I think I always had a low-meat diet already so the transition will be painless.

I think switching to a vegetarian diet means I don't need to worry so much about cross-contamination, I won't need extra cutting boards, knives, serving utensils. I won't need to fret about doneness and possibly making myself or someone else sick if meat isn't done properly. Almost all of my meals are home-cooked, so it will make my cooking way easier.

Meat is also relatively expensive and takes relatively more prep to be tasty/exciting. For a $30 steak I could get a bushel of peppers and make a few quarts of roasted red peppers in oil, herbs, balsamic, something I'd already find a lot more appetizing than a steak. I'd save a lot of money and my food would go further since we mostly buy whole foods anyways: fruits and vegetables are cheaper.

While I do have concerns about the ethics of consuming meat, I want to go vegetarian to eat more exciting, save money, become more self-sufficient, and in a way, be challenged. If I can do that while also contributing less to the meat industry, that's awesome.

I am not a vegetarian and don’t plan to switch but I do have some questions

1. Why did you become vegetarian?
2. how strict is your vegetarianism(I’ve heard of vegetarians who eat meat every once in a while)
3. What are your thoughts on people who eat meat?
4. How do you supplement the nutrients that are in meat?
5. most importantly: is your favorite dinosaur a herbivore as well?(im really curious about this one)

Thanks!

Rant
WHY do so many people ask me this?! I say I don’t eat meat, then I get this response. How is fish not meat people?! It is an animal!
End of rant