I don't understand how shopping less & planning meals leads to more plastic. As you stated you're eating more fruits & veggies, it should be pretty easy to cut down on packaged stuff. First off, buy fresh stuff, not packaged. Second, if you're shopping at farmer's markets, as you stated, forego the plastic entirely for most things - just bring your own reusable bags and have the produce placed directly in them. If they're not bouncing down a dirty conveyor belt at the checkout, there's not need to wrap them up. Third, even if you're buying stuff at a grocery store, anything with a peel or rind that you don't eat or use doesn't need plastic around it. Citrus, bananas, onions etc come in their own nice cases already. Finally, if you aren't germaphobic, you can skip plastic bags for most things entirely - we just shopped at Whole Foods, where I bought 2 heads cabbage, six carrots, a bunch of celery, and some onions and didn't wrap any of them in plastic. I wash it all before I use it anyway. The only item I bagged in plastic was the bunch of spinach.

It's always a little surprising to me how difficult people find it to make a filling, satisfying vegetarian meal. I think it's a lot easier than cooking meat! I've been a vegetarian for more than a decade now, and even I don't like having salads for dinner (and almost never do!).

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Maybe Whole Foods is the difference between you and me? Farmer's markets don't start here until August and go through end of September. Organic apples, pears (biodegradable bags) and some bananas are wrapped. Organic carrots ditto. So what's your favorite stand=by vegetarian that pleases 13 and 9 year olds generally and takes 1/2 or less to prepare?

Make a meatless lasagna or a big dish of stuffed shells. I defy your kids to need food after polishing off a lasagna. Eating a meatless meal doesn't have to mean eating light.

Exactly, Ailsa. And there are a variety of gluten-free pastas (including brown rice pasta, which is good & has great texture) to use. Also, Asian food lends itself nicely to veggie cooking & can be very filling & nutritious. Other ideas would be a big veggie curry, a stir-fry, stuffed tomatoes / mushrooms / squash, soup, the list goes on. My wife is an omnivore, but we cook veggie at home & we're never hungry after a meal (usually stuffed).

I'd say it's just a matter of what you choose to cook, a lot of meat meals can be de-meated simply by using TVP or tofu. I know they turn the stomachs of non-vegetarians but once you know what you're doing with the stuff, meals may not taste exactly the same as their meaty counterparts, but they're still really good and filling! Try tvp shepherd's pie, or my fav TVP chili con carne. The chili is ideal, because you make it exactly as you would make a hearty regular chili (tip: add TONNES of kidney/butter/garbanzo beans) and then use TVP instead of mince, and the best part is that it's even better the next night as chili cheese fries! Make your own fries/wedges and don't use too much cheese and you have a healthy (FILLING) veggie meal the next night as well. Just be creative and experiment! The key is meals with LOTS of protein...not necessarily meat.

You don't have to be a germaphobic to not want your food on that rotating treadmill. I've worked at a grocery store before and there's a good reason you want your stuff wrapped up if it's going on there.

1) People put meat on it. It gets NASTY toward the end of the day and if the person running the counter doesn't have time, which is pretty much all the time, then it doesn't get wiped down. This means you just stuck your vegetables on possibly days old meat juices and various other leaky containers including many non-organic detergents. Which brings me to my second point:

2) Bleach. I don't know how keen you are on eating bleach but that's what is used to wipe down the treadmill. If it's not bleach, it's likely something else just as unhealthy. It's true you don't have to worry if you're not planning on eating the skin, but if you are, these are things you have to know about.

Overall, bags around food does not always equate to a germaphobic, occasionally it amounts to an informed opinion.

I have 3 part-time kids (a 9, 11 and 13) year old, and when they are with me they eat entirely vegetarian. Very early on in this arrangement they would ask if there was any more (the 13 year old has got quite large so I'm being strict with portions), but after that they got over it and never moan about being hungry or try to snack. They know better than to even consider raiding the fridge. Sadly they aren't as active as I'd like, and I understand that active kids are hungrier; however, if you don't have meaty temptations, then no-one can pick at them.

Our protein comes from nuts, cheese and fish for the most part, with a few of those easy veggie things (President's Choice 'world's best meatless burgers' really are the world's best!). I don't agree that veggie food is easier - there is nothing quite so easy as slapping a piece of meat on the grill - but they don't have to be much harder. The main problem with the meal you describe seems to be the lack of carbs - both protein and carbs are needed to make a filling meal, and is a combination a growing kid needs. The fact that they put cold cuts in their sandwiches was probably just because they were there and they had it in their head that they needed them. What they really needed was some complex carbs to fill them up.

I'm surprised that you are so dedicatedly composting your biodegradable bags. What about reuse? They worked once, they'll surely work again?

OK, it seems like I'll have to try harder on the vegetarian meals thing. Brown rice pasta not available here in Sweden - I do love that Tinkyada brand and imported lots of the stuff when we first moved here - and no GF lasagne noodles, either.

Note to Sarah - the "biodegradable bags" are what the produce comes in but they aren't like those bags you rip off a roll, they are more cellophane-like and when you open them, well, they are pretty useless after that.

Never deny the eating capabilities of a ~12 year old boy. You will always be surprised. I am 21 now, and even though I can still eat much much more at one sitting than any of my friends, I would still lose an eating contest to my 10-12 year old self.

That said, I think people who say they don't like tofu have never eaten good tofu. I was in China last summer and I went to an all vegetarian restaurant. The dishes in the menu are mostly just regular ishes, but all the "meat" is just properly flavored tofu. I had tofu that tasted (and even had the texture of) shrimp, beef, chicken, and other, more unusual animals. In fact the substitutes were so good they even called them by their "meat" names on the menu- I had to ask to be sure they were, in fact, tofu.

I am not a vegetarian by any means, but I don't buy meat if I am eating on my own. If it is served to me by another or if it is already prepared and will be thrown out if I don't eat it I will. It was hard to do at first, but luckily I love so many different kinds of grain and produce it ended up being easy.

And I really think the local meat vs. distant vegetables argument has been mostly debunked because transportation is only a small part of most foods' carbon footprints. Even if I'm wrong, I'll choose distant vegetables for another reason. If we all ate vegetarian diets weed have enough grain left over not being used as feed to end world hunger with more to spare. Saving the world in 30 minutes, indeed.

Sarah,

I hate to break it to you, but if you are getting your protein from fish, you are not a vegetarian!

Since when are fish not animals? One is not vegetarian if they eat fish. If it used to be alive, then it is meat folks. Instead of putting so many labels on ourselves to show people how righteous we are, lets just do the right thing and hope that others follow our lead.

Paying migrant workers or foreigners less than enough to live on is just a wrong as killing animals for our sustenance, and many other abuse examples could be cited here. Is it better to eat french fries from McDonalds or organic free range chicken sourced locally? Is the french fry eater really vegetarian when their buying habits contribute to incredible numbers of obese humans and meat eating? We relish in these labels and too often don't live up to the true morals meant to lead such actions.

Reuse your plastic produce bags, duh. They usually last two or three shopping trips before they disintegrate. When you get home, empty the produce into your fridge and immediately put the bags into your cloth sacks.

I often think eating fish is WORSE than eating meat as fish are almost always wild animals plucked from their natural habitats. Way to screw up an ecosystem.

And yeah, the author is a terrible cook if she can't figure out how to cook vegetarian without starving people. calories are calories.

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actually, that's so funny. I was just thinking I AM a terrible cook, because at 6 o'clock dinner panic almost always descends.

Maybe try vegetarian chili with a variety of beans in it instead of meat. YUM!

I agree with the other remarks here about it not having to be that onerous to cook veggie food. Also, serving it with that apologetic demeanor - OH NOES, this meal has no MEAT in it - just sets you up for the griping.

There are any number of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern dishes with no meat in them. That Israeli staple, a pita bread full of falafels, salads, hummus and tasty sauces is filling and delicious. You don't need to eat the pita yourself if gluten is an issue. I bet that most people wouldn't think of it being a vegetarian meal. Similar meals can be made with a Mexican slant - beans, guacamole, cheese, sour cream, rice, salad, with the appropriate sauces and seasonings. Yum. Meatless moussaka - recipe on this site! You can do it without lentils as well: http://greekfood.about.com/od/vegetablerecipes/r/vegmoussaka.htm.

And honestly, call me old-fashioned, but if the meal isn't outright disgusting (ie. doesn't contain ingredients that are objectionable - yick, brussels sprouts), and there is plenty of it, there should be no need to run off to the fridge to fill up on other stuff. Perhaps it's being brought up in a working-class household, but I would never have been permitted to do that as a child - wasting good food, and using up what is needed for another meal - and I would definitely resent someone doing that to me (and my cooking) as an adult. Especially for ONE meal a week.

1. You can refer to yourself as vegetarian and still eat fish. I have friends who call themselves "red meat vegetarians", because they don't eschew all meat, just red meat. Personally I avoid all meat as much as possible but do occasionally eat fish (as long as it's the least-ethically-evil fish possible), and by "occasionally" I mean about once a month on average, or less. I do consider myself a vegetarian, albeit not a super-strict one. Personally, I'm more concerned about the impact of what I eat than what other people call it.

2. I second the poster who mentioned lasagna. My mother makes an excellent and very filling lasagna with a spinach and cheese filling and a chunky tomato sauce. It's a family favorite. One trick is to always cook extra, so that the meat eaters in your family can eat extra servings to fill themselves up if they're starving. Or, you can just tell them eating extra is totally off-limits- after all, you don't want your kids eating too much.

3. Portion control is every bit as important as reducing the number of times per week that you eat meat. Most people don't realize that the amount of meat they normally eat at one sitting is an enormous number of servings. They eat way too much and its actively unhealthy. So when you do eat meat, serve it in smaller portions. One meat serving is about the size of a credit card.

4. Another way to conquer the problem of super-hungry kids is to leave out veggie and fruit snacks frequently. When your kids get home from school, set out a plate of cheese and crackers, carrots, and fruit slices. Let them snack more than they normally would, as long as what they're eating is healthy; veggies are way lower-calorie and less filling than meat.

5. Tofu is good. Your kids may be wary of it at first, but keep trying it. Do not feed it to them raw, ever. Raw tofu has a disgusting texture and the vast majority of people who claim they don't like tofu, only dislike it because they've only had it raw. Cooked tofu is much better. It can be very filling and make a great "substitute" for meat- but don't cook it as if it were meat. It will never taste exactly the same, so don't try to force it to. But it can be cooked an amazing number of ways; it's good in stir frys, soup, you can even grill it or use it to make a chocolate pie filling. Very versatile.

6. Get more canvas bags. When you shop for produce, look for produce that is fresh and is NOT wrapped in plastic. There is absolutely no reason why bananas should be wrapped in plastic; if they are, avoid them. I once saw individually plastic-wrapped potatoes in my grocery store. It's an absolute waste, it's disgusting. There is no need for so much packaging.
If people at the stores or farmers markets you are going to try to put your food in a biodegradable bag, tell them you prefer to put it directly in to your canvas bag. If it's already wrapped in plastic, you can actually try asking them to remove the plastic for you. Farmers tend to be a lot more accommodating than people in a chain store, and it sends them a message that consumers don't want plastic.
Biodegradable bags are basically "greenwashing". I did some research on them; many of them are not made from organic crops, so when you put them in your compost, you are risking introducing leftover pesticides and other chemicals. They're still not as evil as plastic, but canvas is the best option.
Finally, if you are trying to reduce the amount of packaging on the products you buy, you need to compare brands. Some brands of the same foods will put more layers of plastic or excessive quantities of plastic on their products than others. If you have a choice between the same product wrapped in plastic or contained in a recyclable or reusable container, always go with the recyclable/reusable container.

7. If you are really having trouble cooking vegetarian, just do some research. It's really easy to find vegetarian recipes online and there are tons of published books and magazines on the subject. You may be able to find some at the library if you're hesitant to buy your own. Mostly just experiment, though- soon enough you'll hit on something your family members like, it will just take time.

I eat meat, and I basically can't stand most food without it. I'm sorry, you can say "Vegetarian food is delicious!" all you want, but when you offer falafel, pitas, hummus, salad...ugh. These foods are nasty. I cannot stand the taste of dressed up "green" food.

To try and minimize the impact of my not-so-green meat-eating habit, I buy locally grown, grass-fed free range organic beef. The high price keeps me from going crazy with the beef.

More importantly, I always make meat a part of a meal, instead of a meal. For example, most of the meat I use nowadays is either chuck hamburg or chuck stewing beef. I'll use it in Lasagna (My husband won't eat vegeterian lasagna, for those of you about to cry "eat veggie lasagna instead!") Shepherd's Pie, Curry, Beef Stroganof, Chili, etc. Same with chicken. I'll use it in conjunction with carbohydrates or greens; chicken caesar salad, chicken pot pie, etc. This way, even though I'm using evil meat, I'm minimizing the impact some by mixing it with other foods that fill you up. I typically use a pound of meat in these dishes, but my husband eats them for lunch all week (saving more carbon/money/polar bears by not eating out) and I usually only have to make 1-2 of these meat filled dishes a week, even 3 people are eating them at my house and my husband eats them for work.

Like other people said, too, there are some tasty vegetarian dishes. I like to make Pizza or Macaroni and Cheese for dinner some nights, or scalloped potatoes. These are very filling meals that don't taste like granola and sprouts. :-) (They do use cheese, though, so they're not vegan friendly, and I'm not sure what that means in terms of carbon footprint...)

good luck!