vegetarian burned by carbs!

[Linzicat]

I've been a vegetarian for 15 years now. I didn't get into if for health reasons and that has been my downfall. I made the smallest of efforts to try and maintain a "balanced diet" but have found that I have become addicted to carbs (pasta, bread, rice, potatos). I'm also a junk food lover. (technically, since they have taken the lard out of Oreos now, they are ok to eat ;) ) Well, this kind of thinking has gone on too long. I refuse to go beyond the 14 I'm in now because I know it just gets harder to loose. My problem is, I don't know what plan to follow or what book to read. I don't eat eggs and sometimes I just can't swallow cheese or dairy products. I haven't come across a book yet that addresses my particular needs. Any suggestions? I'm the fattest vegetarian I know!!
I have tried the low carb thing just to see how I would do for about 2 weeks and it was great. But lacking any good recipes, I quickly lost my taste for salads and vegetables. I did drop about 5 pounds though and felt great. I've got to get the protein in there somewhere though. I want to do this right. Any help I can get would be wonderful! I've been reading some of the post and feel really excited about this group. Thanks!

[Rosebud]

Hi there Linzicat, welcome!

Did you know we have a vegetarian sub-forum here? I'm moving your post there. ;)

Do read Karen's "sticky" post at the top of the page. Loads of good info there. :)

:rose:Rosebud:rose:

[Paris]

Take a look at the Schwartzbein Principle I. Dr. S has a plethora of good infor for veggies there.

[etoiles]

Hi there Linizicat! :wave:

I had similar problems to your when I started ATkins. I also didn't become a vegetarian for health reasons and I also got really sick of salads and plain vegetables the first two weeks. Everything I used to eat I could no longer make.

So here's some recipes ideas (no eggs because it's hard for me to eat them too!!) maybe some will spark your interest:
From this website:
Italian Wedding Soup (under soups in the recipe section). I made it with vegetarian gardenburger meatballs (but do not cook them with the soup like the recipe says, microwave them and add them separately or they become gooey). Cheese is optional.
Taco cheesecake (not bad, used 2 pouches from 1 pack of boca ground meat) - uses lots of cheese though so you may not like that
In my journal I have a few recipes, one for eggplant rollatini, one for greenbean, blue cheese, and walnut salad, and low carb pizza crust.

Another site I go to called www.allrecipes.com has quite a few let me give you a few links of my favorite recipes:
Mock Mashed Potatoes:
http://sidedish.allrecipes.com/AZ/MckMshdPtts.asp
Stuffed Mushrooms:
http://appetizer.allrecipes.com/AZ/MouthWateringStuffedMushro.asp

Alos, now that you have completed your two induction weeks you could add some berries back in such as strawberries which are delicious with whipped cream or yogurt. Makes a nice breakfast. I'm sure there will be plenty of replies to this which will give you lots of other ideas!!

Good luck! :)

[Paleoanth]

Hey!

Welcome to the forum. The only problem I can see is that is can be hard to get enough fat especially if you are not a big fan of dairy foods. However, cooking with olive oil will help a lot. One of my favorite recipe sites is:

http://www.carb-lite.au.com/index.html