Some of the responders felt my pain, but most comments revealed my ignorance and lack of creativity on the subject. Some hinted that I might need an attitude adjustment.

Carrie C: Cooking can be rather tricky when camping, vegetarian or not…

Teresa A: I dont forget about veggie cooking, I can do it rather well camping..

There were many helpful suggestions as well about how to do camp cooking right.

Karen K: cook ahead freeze what ya can

Jennifer from NY: Sometimes when I am camping I bring along Indian MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). There are quite a few that are vegan. You can eat them straight from the bag or you can heat them in boiling water. Super easy and no cleanup. :)

I buy them at my local Indian Supermarket but they are also available at Trader Joe and Whole Foods. You can also find some on Amazon.

Reply to Jennifer: I’ll head for the biggest Indian food store in this area, and see if they have them so I can test them. Gotta pick up some mung dhal too! And I’ll check Amazon

Yoga Gurl:Interesting….never thought of that.

What about “easy” meals? But you are so good at this stuff maybe you already thought of it.

I remember I went camping long ago…we had, I think, quick rice, and chili to go on top for one meal. That was pretty easy.

It’s probably hard for you to do that, you are so used to doing everything on such a quality level. : )

Reply to Yoga Gurl: I’m into easy meals, but I admit it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of making a meal out of processed food. I’m stuck on making everything with fresh food from scratch. But if I go camping again, it’s a whole new world of instant food, I mean it!! :-)

Steve: You really need to try Mary Jane’s Farm’s line of foods. They truly are well made, organic, and could not be easier to prepare. I have no connection with them, I’m just someone who has the same issue; that of finding a way to eat healthy while on the road or camping.

Savvy Veg: I’ll check and see if that brand is available at my local natural food store or online. Thanks for the tip!

Steve: You can order them online, too! Just sayin’…

Joe F: I backpacked for 6 months after college with 3 or kinds of grains, beans, head of cabbage, carrots and grew sprouts in a baggie in my pocket. It can be done!

Catherine T: I love camping and there are loads of things you can cook – risotto, chickpea curry, beany wraps – all in one pot or a bbq. A packet of sosmix and some spices always comes in handy. You basically need stuff that can be cooked in one pot or bbq’d. Staples like pasta, rice and spices take along and the rest bought wherever you are. Eggy bread is a firm breakfast favourite in our household. Should say I love camping?

Maria W: try the camping cookbook by Annie Bell its not all veggie but its a great book lovely cover too.

Its awful seeing so many uninformed veggies struggling wiv broken up veggie burgers lol bring on the stuffed peppers thats wot i say – boil in the bag rice cooked then fill the halved peppers wiv it along wiv crushed garlic and herbs or wotever then drizzle of balasamic vin and maybe splash of olive oil wrap em in foil and stick em on the bbq.

Savvy Veg: Thanks, Maria, excellent idea! I’d use garlic powder and a mediterranean herb mix.

Now that I’ve had a chance to recover and re-group, I’ve come up with a few more positive thoughts about camp cooking:

Another cookbook (besides Annie Bell’s) that would be handy for camping is Vegan Unplugged – Pantry Cuisine Cookbook & Survival Guide by Jon and Robin Robertson. It’s a practical guide not only to surviving, but thriving in any tough situtation.

By following the Robertson’s cooking tips and hints, you can live and eat reasonably healthy out of a car, boat, tent or other temporary shelter, or cook in a motel or dorm room – and not just in an emergency. Sounds ideal for camping, right?

Cooking ahead is an option I’m a little ambivalent about. I’ve done that in other situations, such as car trips, and while it’s helpful on the trip, it’s one more big thing to do before leaving. But I can see the value and will add it to my camping prep list.

Another time saver would be dehydrated foods, like fruit & veggies, and I like the MRE idea. I’ll work on finding edible versions.

Savvy Veg: It’s clear I have a lot to learn about camp cookery, and I appreciate all your tips and suggestions. If you have time to share ideas about doing veggie camp cooking right, please send them along, or comment on this page.

Happy Camping! Judith Kingsbury, Savvy Veg

I’m not a veteran camper and far from an expert on campsite cookery. I’ve been camping maybe 10 times in my 65 years, for a total of about 3 months. However, most of my camping involved vegetarian cooking. So naturally I feel qualified to talk about it.

My camping experiences have ranged from extremely primitive: a makeshift plastic shelter on a windy beach on the wild west coast of Vancouver Island at age 21, to almost civilized: a modern campground in Florida with hot showers, washers & dryers, electrical hookups, every kind of store and restaurant nearby, even primitive wi-fi at the nature center.

That was the latest experience, 2 weeks tent camping at Oscar Scherer State Park in Dec. 2011. I don’t think that will be my last experience tent camping because I still love sleeping on the ground in the fresh air. But I hope it will be my last experience with serious vegetarian cooking while camping.

I’ve come to the conclusion that to really enjoy all the perks of camping: fresh air, hiking, swimmng, boating, watching wildlife, lying on the beach, sitting around the campfire, gazing at the stars, doing nothing, it’s absolutely necessary to spend almost no time cooking.

Let me tell you what led me to that drastic state of cooking negation, so foreign to my nature.

I love food, and normally I love cooking. It takes up a big chunk of my day, maybe 2 hours, 3 hours with cleanup, plus food shopping a couple hours a week. It’s all for worthy causes – testing and developing recipes for Savvy Vegetarian, feeding us tasty healthy food so we age gracefully and blissfully, plus a creative outlet.

Cooking is pretty easy when you have a modern kitchen with electric lights, hot & cold running water, a good stove, and lots of gadgets & applicances.

But when you’re camping, trying to eat even a stripped-down version of your usual diet takes 3 times as long and is 10 times as difficult. I’m a well-supplied (okay – over-supplied) camper, and pretty organized and energetic if I do say so, but I found myself spending most of my day in camp on food preparation.

That was because of my husband’s special dietary needs, and because I and our fellow campers are in the habit of eating well. My husband is handicapped, and this was his first time ever camping at age 69. It was great for him to have the experience, and he was a very good sport. He hardly complained at all about freezing his fanny off sleeping on the ground in a tent, and peeing in a bottle at night – we all did that, rather than stumble around in the dark.

But if he goes camping with me again, diet or no diet, he’ll eat tofu dogs and other fake meat, canned beans, ramen noodles, instant rice, bread, nut butter, instant oatmeal, pre-washed & cut raw veggies & salads, fresh fruit & nuts – because that’s what you can do in the total daily cooking time I have in mind: 30 minutes tops. There will be lots of eating out, on the way to and from the nearest beach.

And there will be no running to Walmart to buy the cooking equipment and supplies that I deliberately left at home.

This last camping trip, it was absurd. There were four of us camping. We brought 3 tents, a mini-fridge, big & little coolers, 2 power strips, extension cords, double hot plate, crockpot, coffee maker, electric frying pan, spice grinder (yes!), pressure cooker, 5 pans of various sizes, a variety of knives and utensils and dishes and other kitchen equipment. Our handy friend Ken rigged up a light on a pole so we could see to cook and eat dinner (it gets dark early in Dec, even in Florida and battery powered lanterns don’t do the job).

We were barely able to squeeze all the stuff we brought into the spacious rear seat and cargo area of a Toyota Sienna and a roof top carrier. There was no room to see out the back window of the car, we had to use the mirrors. The only reason we didn’t bring even more stuff was because we would have had to carry it on our laps for 1400 miles, or tie it behind the car.

As for the time I spent on food prep, it wasn’t that I was the only one cooking or cleaning up. Everybody did their share. It just took s-o-o-o darn long to do everything! And that was civilized camping. The only thing more civilized about it would have been to rent an RV, but I’d rather cook in a motel room than drive one of those things around.

About the time I went camping for a month on the beach on the wild west coast of Vancouver Island: we backpacked everything in with us, slept on the sand under a plastic shelter, cooked over an open fire, walked about a million miles, and I lost 10 lbs I didn’t need to lose. It was like one of those survivor shows on TV, only without the drama. I shudder to think of it, and have never had the urge to repeat the experience.

There is a happy medium to eating vegetarian successfully while camping, and I think I’ve just about figured out what it is. I’m pretty sure the secret is to forget trying to cook while camping. Maybe the next camping trip I’ll get it right, and I’ll have more time to work on my fitness and my tan, instead of spending most of the day producing food in far less than ideal conditions.

Even the most enthusiastic cook needs a holiday from the kitchen. What better time than when you’re staying at a place that doesn’t even have a kitchen?!

There are Things They Don’t Warn You About Before You Get Pregnant, Probably For the Good of the Species.

I thought pregnancy would have a couple of upsides. Besides, of course, a tiny precious baby at the end.

I figured it would be the one time in my life I’d finally have a decent set of boobs. I mean, the ability to run without a bra is awesome, and most of the time I would take that over cup size any day. I just thought it would be fun to have bigger ones for a year. And now I do – but I’m not enjoying them. They are seriously sore. Plus I have to wear a bra. So unfair. They better not stay sore the whole time. I’ll complain to management!

I also though that not having periods would be great. No cramps, no bloating, no tampons! YAY! It’s true there are no more tampons, But there are cramps. And bloating! From gas! The symptoms don’t quit after four days either.

Apparently, your digestion slows down, which increases absorption. Great for nutrient needy baby, not so good for nearby noses. “Nobody,” says What To Expect When You’re Expecting, “does gas like a pregnant woman.

Great. Also true. I have eaten eggs and drunk beer in the same meal and had to live with the results before. I know what smelly is. Or I thought I did. When I got pregnant, I became the fart queen!

At work I would fart all day long, vile smelly things that lingered in the air. I am truly shocked that no one said anything. It’s not like you could mistake the source; they weren’t quiet either. It was so bad, I gave up any notion of polite concealment or shame. Pregnancy and dignity, I have discovered, do not go hand in hand.

I will say it’s kind of fun to have a license to fart gratuitously. Sorry, can’t help it, I’m pregnant, don’t you know….I picture myself dissipating lines at the grocery store, deliberately farting next to people I dislike, wandering into bath and beauty at the mall and letting a couple rip…take that you overly scented lotion pushers!

Fortunately for retailers everywhere, and my poor co-workers, the heavy farting stage only lasted about a month. I suspect that it is one of the benefits of the higher fiber diet that vegetarians eat. Proper hydration has also been very helpful, especially a warm cup of herbal tea in the morning before breakfast. I am almost back down to pre-pregnancy farting levels.

Almost. Except that some days I eat eggs….and don’t drink enough…you can just imagine.

One lovely benefit of pregnancy, that makes up for the farting and the bloating, the sore boobs and even the fatigue, is Bryan’s response to the whole thing.

When he found out I am pregnant, it is as if I flipped a switch in his head and he went into nurturing mode. He has started doing more housework (without my having to ask!!), he brings in all the wood for the wood stove, he makes me tea. If I say I’m hungry, he offers to cook. He quit drinking coffee so I wouldn’t be tempted by the smell. I get snuggles all the time. If he were a radio, he’d be tuned to my needs.

Now that is much more in line with my idealized vision of pregnancy, full of glowing and nesting and bonding. If I can only figure out how to make that switch stay flipped after the baby comes…I will be so happy and smug that I will be forced to write relationship advice books just to have an outlet.

Zoe Keeland

This vegetarian pregnancy series is written by Zoë Keeland, the youngest and most pregnant daughter of Savvy Vegetarian. She’ll continue to produce new episodes until her brain completely dissolves into mush.

Veg gets pregnant

Having been married for almost six years, and casually trying to get pregnant for most of the time, I had mostly given up pining for a baby. I wasn’t even tracking my cycle, aside from the vague: it oughtta show up pretty soon, I think. So when my boobs got tender, and stayed that way for two weeks, I thought I had a heckuva bleed coming on, probably soon.

My husband Bryan, who obviously pays way more attention to my boobs than I do, gave them a critical eye. “Go get a pregnancy test,” he said. I humored him, and picked one up at the grocery store. I got the box that has three in it. “That way I won’t have to run out for one next time Bryan gets paranoid,” I thought.

Anyone need a pregnancy test? I have two I won’t be needing….unless they stay good for a couple years.

Screw this pink line stuff, I thought, and bought the digital one that would either say: Pregnant, or Not Pregnant. I didn’t want to be squinting at the thing trying to decide about colors.

When it came up Pregnant, I nearly fell off the toilet. “Really?” I choked, squinting at it anyway. “Pregnant,” it said – no NOT anywhere in sight. I was stunned. I was thrilled. I wondered how the heck we were going to pay for this!

I sat on the steps and called Bryan with the news. Then I sat on the steps some more, my brain firing with all the things I would now have to do and worry about. You would think, after years of going wistful over other people’s babies, having the odd cry over my non-pregnant state, that I would be dancing and singing and posting it on Facebook. Nope. I went straight to worrying.

“Crap,” I thought. “I’ll have to give up coffee.”

If I had realized that I was still allowed to take Tylenol before I quit coffee abruptly, it could have been a less awful experience. As it was, I staggered through my work day, pale and headachey, worrying my coworker. I felt wretched. I went home from work and went straight to bed. Bryan kindly did some research and went out to fetch some Tylenol for me. My hero!

Having jumped that hurdle, I dreaded the prospect of facing the medical establishment. I worried that they would freak out over my vegetarian diet and try to convince me I had to eat meat to survive. Preparing myself to combat hidebound institutional veg-skepticism, I did what any angsty pregnant woman does – I called my mommy.

“Just cite the American Dietetic Association position paper on vegetarian diets,” she said. Aha! Now I was armed with medical clout! If anyone gave me trouble, I could just sneer and imply that their medical knowledge was sadly out of date.

“Don’t you people even read your own literature?” I would say, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. The doctor would be cowed, and never bring up meat again – to anyone.

It was disappointing, after all that build-up, to get only one ignorant comment, from a nurse. All she said, on hearing about my vegetarian diet, was: “Oh, well, you want to be sure and get all your protein.”

All my protein? Really? That’s all she could think of? Hadn’t she heard of B12, or Omega 3′s? Wasn’t there a nutrition class in her curriculum? There were too many scathing comments to pick from, and the moment passed before I could settle on one. Probably just as well. It’s not a good idea to flame the people who will be taking care of you.

The ObGyn was a total let down. She didn’t even blink about my diet. I suspect that since she had my lab results, she could already see I wasn’t anemic or otherwise malnourished. All she wanted to talk about was breastfeeding being the best option and not needing to supplement it with formula, no matter what some pediatricians say. I rather liked her.

So there. I guess the medical establishment does read its own nutritional studies – eventually. Or at least has learned that it’s not PC to ask a vegetarian to eat dead animals. They do still make you wear hospital gowns, though. And put your feet in stirrups.

Zoë Keeland

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is next week! It sneaks up on me like that every year! But it’s OK. Thanksgiving is not such a big deal – anymore.

Back in my turkey days, I used to stress over Thanksgiving dinner: Get the bird cooked just right, make everything to go with it, decorate and set the table beautifully (I’d even iron a tablecloth!), invite people over, pray they’d all come, everyone would behave and the big event would go off without a hitch.

Then there was clean up. And leftovers. Major stress!

An unexpected bonus to going completely vegetarian was liberation from Thanksgiving food expectations. Once the turkey was gone from the menu, all bets were off.

We could eat Indian, or Italian, or Mexican, or Thai. Or go with a Traditional Veg Thanksgiving menu, with lentil loaf and all the fixings – veggie gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie, etc. Or skip the whole thing and order a pizza.

We started having vegetarian Thanksgiving potlucks, with all the guests bringing their favorite dishes. It worked great, especially if there was some direction, so that everybody didn’t bring dessert or chips. We had some very interesting Thanksgiving feasts!

It never occured to us to replace the turkey with tofurkey or any other fake meat dish, because we didn’t feel the need, and besides, those options weren’t available back in the day.

These days, the faux turklet is a popular way for new veggies to fill the gaps in their thanksgiving menu, either because they haven’t figured out what to eat instead of turkey, or because they miss eating turkey and want to get as close as they can to the ‘real thing’.

Fact is, there’s almost no end to the delicious veg dishes that can successfully replace the turkey in a Thanksgiving dinner. I suspect that even non-veggies appreciate an alternative to the same-old same-old turkey.

A major source of Thanksgiving stress for vegetarians and vegans is attending (or hosting) family TG dinners with non-veg family members. I’ve had some choice letters from both sides.

The big problem seems to be that the Thanksgiving turkey is a sacred tradition, and all the favorite dishes that go with it are sacred by association. In some families, the TG menu is set in stone, and enforced by older family members who’ve directed the event for years and years. Egos and emotions rule the day!

Then along comes the vegetarian or vegan, who all of a sudden out of the blue for no good reason doesn’t eat anything with a face, wants to overturn the established order, and generally cause a lot of trouble for the normal majority. At least, that’s how the non-veg family members tend to see it.

Responses range from loving efforts to accommodate and include the vegetarian or vegan, as with this Grandma, to trying to ignore the veg into submission, as in this family thanksgiving scenario.

What should be a time of coming together to share a feast, give thanks for nature’s bounty, and enjoy the company of loved ones, becomes a stressful experience for both sides.

The vegetarians and vegans resent being expected to pick the bacon bits out of the salad, and endure rude remarks about rabbit food. The non-vegetarians resent being made to feel guilty about their food choices – intentional or not, the veg presence implies wrong doing.

No wonder that veggies often want to boycott family TG, and gather with their own kind to eat lentil loaf! But it doesn’t have to be like that, truly. It is possible to enjoy thanksgiving with your non-veg family and friends – you just have to be one part diplomat, one part assertive, one part devious, and one part easy going.

Read the free Savvy Veg report Veg Non-Veg Together for more on how we can all just get along.

Happy Thanksgiving from Savvy Vegetarian!

Wise and compassionate response to this article from Mary Beth Akers:

Thanks for the article regarding how to handle Thanksgiving as a vegetarian guest of non-vegetarian relatives. I don’t claim to have arrived at the answers to this delimma, and I am facing the same challenge this year, but as a recently converted vegan, I can recall a little bit of what it’s like to be on the other side.

I have a friend who has many dietary restrictions, including food allergies, religious convictions, and diabetes prevention. They come to visit us for a few days occasionally, and when I was in the habit of preparing conventional American food, it was as if I were learning to cook all over again every time they came.

I would make a special trip to the health food store (90 miles away) to try to find food that she could eat. I would spend a lot of money on ingredients that we wouldn’t use up. It was a source of tremendous anxiety for me.

Before they came, she would call me to remind me of her very long list of restricted foods. She wasn’t rude about it, but I sometimes resented her telling me what I could and could not prepare in my own kitchen. It never affected our relationship, but I could see where in some cases, it could.

I would make the following points and suggestions for people on both sides of the issue:

1) Relationships are more important than food choices.

2) Before you say or do anything, consider first what you want to accomplish, and what will be the consequences of your approach. Always consider the other person’s perspective.

3) Be honest and straightforward, and approach the subject well ahead of the holiday, not when everyone is already stressed out over the pressures from all the preparations. If the person lives nearby, go and visit with him or her in person, so that you can look each other in the eye. Do not expect someone to change their entire way of cooking for one meal.

4) Keep a smiling, cheerful countenance throughout the day. Be the life of the party. This will distract from the very insignificant fact that you aren’t eating some of the food.

5) Whenever you are in a position requiring or allowing you to discuss your diet, talk about it enthusiastically, as you would if you were telling them exciting news.

6) Be aware that when people are critical of the choices of others, sometimes it is because they are insecure about their own choices. Putting down someone else is a means of making themselves feel better, or so they think. If that’s the case, there is nothing you can do except realize that they are inadvertently revealing that they believe you might be doing the right thing. Sometimes replying with a question can be a good response: “You seem to be knowledgeable about diet; where do you get your information?” If you feel you need to defend yourself: “How do my food choices concern you?”

7) Have in mind a list of positive, neutral subjects you can bring up at the family gathering. Ask people about themselves, their children, their hobbies, their jobs, their upcoming vacation, etc. Be ready to change the subject if necessary. Be a good listener. There aren’t many of those around anymore, and it’s an easy way to win hearts.

A Blessed Thanksgiving to you and all your readers! Mary Beth Akers

Message for Savvy Vegetarian:

Hi, I just purchased a programmable Crock-Pot and am looking for vegetarian slowcooker recipes which I see your website has. Thank you!

I hope you can answer my question. It looks like slow-cooking vegetables does not take very much time….about 6 hours or so. If I’m away from home on a 12 hour day at work and I’ve left my food cooking in a crock pot that automatically switches to ‘warm’ once the veggies are cooked.

Is it a problem to have the food on ‘warm’ for those additional 6 hours? Don’t some slow cookers allow you to keep food warm for up to 20 hours? I can’t seem to find information about this on the Crock-pot website.

Many thanks. Nada O.

Savvy Vegetarian Advice:

Hi Nada, You’re welcome!
There are problems associated with leaving crockpots on warm for extended periods (like 6 hours)

1. The food will continue to cook even on warm, so that you get overcooked food.

2. Having food on the warm setting for a long time promotes food spoilage bacteria, so there is a risk of food poisoning.

If you can program your crockpot to turn on at a certain time, so that your food has just finished cooking when you get home, that would be better.

If your crockpot doesn’t do that, then an inexpensive digital electric timer will do the job:
Table-Top Timer with Motion Sensor & Alarm from Improvements, $24.95
Eco Plus Dual Digital Plug-In Timer from Aquacave, $19.95
7-Day Heavy Duty Indoor Digital Plug-In Appliance Timer, Dual Receptacles – White, from Westside Wholesale, $24.95

I’ve looked for these timers at big box stores and haven’t seen them. Home improvement or hardware stores could be a good source, or order online.

While we’re on the subject, another issue with crockpot cooking – lead in ceramic crockpot liners:

Intense discussion of the lead-in-crockpots topic has persisted online as far back as 2006 (that I can find). The basis is that apparently some crockpots have varying amounts of naturally occuring lead in the clay that the pot is made from (usually in China). Supposedly after some time, through heat, and the glaze wearing away, lead leaches through the bottom of the pot and contaminates food.

The most recent post I read about this issue cleared a white Hamilton Beach crockpot which was sent for testing, although there was still some doubt about Rival Crockpots.

Terminal Velocity did a lot of research, and actually had several inexpensive brands tested at a lab. They all tested lead free. Many commenters were skeptical. There was also some concern expressed about other heavy metals, like zinc. Manufacturers generally say that their products meet FDA standards for lead. Most people would prefer no lead ever in their cookware or dishes, rather than the FDA’s “acceptable levels”.

But as Pepper Paints discovered, it seems that if you want that level of food security, you gotta pay for it.

PP reviews a slow cooker and a thermal cooker, both from Supentown, priced in the $50 – $60 range, made with the same clay as the VitaClay cooker. Cuisinart crock pots also got a mention. What I like about the Cuisinart is that you can buy replacement liners and lids.

One of the signs of lead contamination is supposed to be grey discoloring on the bottom of the ceramic liner, which doesn’t scrub off. Both my crockpots have that, and I haven’t used them in 6 months, since I found out about the lead issue. I’ve kind of moved on to using a pressure cooker, but since it’s heading into slow cooker season, guess I’ll cough up the dough and test out a new and better model crockpot. Will keep you posted!

More on Crockpots and Food Poisoning from our crockpot cooking article:

“I’ve heard that there’s no such thing as ‘stomach flu’. It’s always food poisoning. So – don’t leave food sitting around in the crockpot all day on the warm setting. Nasty bacterias just love that! When the food is cooked and you’re ready to eat, turn off the crockpot. When you’re finished eating, and you want to save the rest for another meal, put the contents in a tightly sealed container, and put that in the fridge or freezer, right away.”

Guest post by Aussie Fiona Morgan, who is working on an art/veg cookbook of meatless meals.

Check out her blog, Spaces Between the Gaps, and website, Where Fish Sing for beautiful art and meatless recipes.

The sample recipes have been lifted from her blog, tested, tasted (yum!), photographed and posted on Savvy Veg.

Links to the original recipes are included so you can go see Fiona’s delightful fantastical paintings. Love the mushroom painting inspired by a Russian Orthodox Church!

How to Vegetarianize Meat Based Meals:

Sometimes you want to create a vegetarian version of a familiar meat based meal. And non-vegetarians who have to cook a meatless or vegetarian meal are often stumped about how to get past the mentality of ‘meat and three veg minus the meat’.

The bad news is that sometimes it’s just not possible. Trying to make a vegetarian version of a baked fish, for example, is just setting yourself up for failure.

However, there are many meat based meals that can be successfully adapted for vegetarians so that everyone at the table can eat the same familiar thing.

I have veg versions of spaghetti bolognese, carbonara, stroganoff, lasagna, ramen, chillie con carne, burgers, and chowder that are all usually meat dependent meals, and that my non-veg friends are more than happy to chow down on.

Let Me Make Some Suggestions:

Ditch the idea of a Western style dish. There are tasty veg sausages, veggie burgers, lentil loaves (instead of meatloaf), and meat substitute products such as TVP (use instead of mince) and various mock meats usually gluten based, BUT… it is most difficult to make a substitution success of a meat and three veg style meal.

The real variety of meatless meals is in ethnic cuisines that have a long history of meatless dishes already. Oriental, Indian, Mexican, Italian etc. Go cornicopia.

Depending on the cuisine, if you want to use a substitute for meat in a recipe you’ve found, either tofu (Oriental) or beans (South American, Indian) will generally work very very well. Sometimes an appropriate cheese is great (Greek, Italian, Indian).

I think because the meat is not the center of many of these dishes, it is a lot easier to replace or remove it than in Western style hunk-of-steak-and-unidentified-greenery-on-the-side meals.

Recipes that are defined by a flavoured sauce or soup base are the easiest to adapt. It’s a matter of recreating the taste of the sauce using plant ingredients (see the tips on umami for help here) and then finding an ingredient that gives a suitable satisfying mouth feel (texture, chunkiness, density) to replace the meat. Also, almost anything with minced meat is a breeze.

For instance, minced meat is often easy to switch for lentils or TVP, beans or even finely diced mixed vegetables (menu and recipe at the end folks). Pork mince can be replaced by diced tempeh or diced shitake mushrooms.

Tofu, in it’s many forms is an easy switch for chicken pieces. Also, chickpeas/garbanzo beans or egg can be used for chicken.

Depending on the cuisine, beef and lamb can be replaced by large mushroom chunks and wine (another menu and recipe at the end), or sometimes kidney beans and potato or even beetroot!

The trick with the heavy meat flavours is to take care of the umami. Add extra herbs, spices, fats and stock.

Seafood I usually switch out for tofu or egg, taking care to replace any brinyness with a little bit of seaweed or extra salt.

Sometimes you want a chewy texture in big chunks and this is where cheese, boiled eggs or gluten products are useful.

For a salty replacement, remember cheese, capers, olives, or a marinated tofu.

With all these substitutions, remember that taking the meat out often also takes out the source of much of the flavour.

Remember to add in extra flavour to account for this. My umami guide walks you through getting superb deep flavour in your veg meals.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas to take away and try. Basically, unless you are trying to vegetarianize a slab of meat on a plate or something like a meatlovers pizza, it’s easy to make tasty substitutions for meat based meals that everyone will enjoy.

Looking for a Bit More Guidance?

Here are two sample menus - the substitutions (and taste testing!) are already done.

First is an Italian based meal where the minced meat has been switched out for lentils. I’ve had meat lovers eat this and not realise they were eating lentils until the very last mouthful. And then they didn’t care!

Italian Menu (vegan):

• Garlic Bread: French baguette sliced and slathered with butter, veggie spread or olive oil mixed with fresh minced garlic, baked until the butter melts, the garlic is slightly golden, and the bread is toasty around the edges.
• Simple Green Salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber.
• Lentil Spaghetti Bolognese (vegan)
• Original Recipe at Spaces Between the Gaps

How About a Russian Menu for Dinner? Traditional beef is switched for umami ingredients (carrot, butter and extra beetroot) in borscht soup, and in stroganoff, with mushrooms and wine.

Russian Menu (vegetarian) – serve with noodles, rice or any grain:

• Borscht Beet Soup
• Original Recipe at Spaces Between the Gaps
• Mushroom Strogonoff
• Original Stroganoff Recipe at Spaces Between the Gaps

About WhereFishSing:

Artist and long time vegetarian Fiona Morgan is on a blogging mission to show people how easy and tasty plant based food can be with her food meets art project. Check out her blog for all the umami filled recipes and artwork and follow the creation of the artvegecookbook.

Dear EarthTalk: I love to cook and when I have the time I make soups, stews and pasta meals in large batches and freeze them.

I use leftover plastic containers, but I know this is not good. What kinds of containers are safe for freezer food storage? — Kathy Roberto, via e-mail

Reusing leftover plastic food containers to store items in the freezer may be noble environmentally, but it might not be wise from the perspective of keeping food safely frozen and tasting its best when later heated up and served.

Many such containers are designed for one-time use and then recycling, so it’s not worth risking using them over and over. Likewise, wax paper, bread wrappers and cardboard cartons should not be used to store frozen foods; these types of containers don’t provide enough of a barrier to moisture and odors and also may not keep food fresh when frozen.

Luckily though, many other materials are suitable for use as freezer-safe storage containers, at least according to the National Center for Home Food Preparation. To qualify as “freezer-safe,” the Georgia-based non-profit maintains, food storage containers must resist moisture-vapor, oil, grease and water as well as brittleness and cracking at low temperatures, while being durable, leak-proof and easy-to seal.

They must also protect foods from absorption of off-flavors or odors. “Good freezing materials include rigid containers made of aluminum, glass, plastic, tin or heavily waxed cardboard; bags and sheets of moisture-vapor resistant wraps; and laminated papers made specially for freezing,” reports the group.

As to the leaking of unsafe constituent chemicals (BPA, phthalates, etc.) from certain plastics into foods, freezing is generally less of a threat than heating, but it is better to avoid plastics known to be problematic anyway just to be safe.

Polycarbonate plastic, marked with #7, contains BPA while polyvinyl chloride, marked with #3, contains potentially harmful phthalates. If a plastic item does not bear a recycling number on its bottom, steer clear as it may well be a mix, which classifies it as a #7 polycarbonate.

Of course, the majority of plastic containers designed for freezer use are safe and, since they can be washed and reused, are a better choice than disposable freezer bags and wraps.

For those still leery of using plastic at all, glass containers designed to withstand large temperature extremes, such as Ball Freezing Jars (Mason jars) or anything made by Pyrex—regular glass containers could break when frozen or if thawed too quickly—can be a sensible alternative.

Also, beware of loading up glass containers to the brim before freezing; some foods expand when frozen so leaving a little extra room between the top of the food and the bottom of the (airtight) lid is always a good idea.

However you store your frozen delicacies, keep in mind that freezing food may inactivate microbes like bacteria and mold but may not destroy them. According to dietician and author Elaine Magee on MedicineNet, just thawing out frozen foods doesn’t necessarily mean they are automatically safe to eat. Foods that require cooking still require cooking for health’s sake after thawing. Also, Magee recommends quickly labeling and dating any foods you are freezing to facilitate purging of potentially spoiled or tasteless food down the line.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E – The Environmental Magazine. Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Free Trial Issue of E-Magazine

Review by Judith Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian:

I love Cook’s Illustrated! There’s so much fascinating and useful information in every issue.

Every serious cook, veg or non-veg, needs and deserves a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated.

I read every issue, cover-to-cover, so I don’t miss anything, skipping over the parts that don’t concern me – such as the pages devoted to meat.

It’s true that CI has a strong emphasis on meat-centered diet. After all, that’s what most people eat, including CI’s owner and staff. But guess what? This magazine is so incredible that I don’t care!

Before you set PETA on me, let me tell you why Cook’s Illustrated is great and how vegans and vegetarians can benefit from this magazine:

1. CI tests all kinds of ingredients, recipes and cooking equipment, and publish the results in the magazine. They pay for everything they test, they aren’t beholden to any corporate interests, and their test results can be trusted. Vegetarians and vegans can benefit from that as much as anybody else.

2. CI is privately owned and doesn’t have any advertising. They make money on subscriptions, books, and online memberships – and who doesn’t enjoy that? How many other magazines can you say that about? I can’t think of any!

3. If CI tells you, this is the best ketchup of the ones we tested, and this is the best microwave oven of the ones we tested, you can take that to the bank. Companies must HATE that – at least the ones not-recommended.

4. Like everything else food related in our culture, CI becomes more veg friendly all the time. They’re still stuck on the dairy and egg, but most of their recipes easily go vegan.

5. Reading CI is educational and entertaining for all home cooks. It lifts us out of our ruts, exposes us to a passion for food and good cooking, tells us what’s best and why, gives us fresh ideas, inspires us to play in the kitchen – for just over $2 a month. That’s really cheap and effective therapy!

How Cooks Illustrated Helps Savvy Vegetarian:

A few years ago, on the CI product test page, I was introduced to the love of my life, the Victorinox Fibrox chef’s knife, CI’s top recommended knife, an amazing bargain at $30!

In one issue, sometime in the last year, CI published test results for Cuban Black Beans and Rice – with meat, of course. The test info and directions were so thorough that it was easy to veganize the recipe. By the time I was done, it was a vegan Cuban Black Beans and Rice recipe, quite different from the original, but I owed the author for the idea, and for the principles discovered in testing.

In the most recent issue of CI, there were useful tips for vegans and vegetarians on pressing spinach, halving cakes horizontally, slicing dessert bars, measuring and storing various items.

In the same issue, I learned how to rescue vegetable lasagna from sogginess by sautéing the veggies first to draw off moisture. That technique applies to Savvy Vegetarian recipes Presto Manifesto Vegan Lasagna and Tofu Vegetable Quiche. The article also compared whole wheat lasagna noodles, with organic Bionature the winning brand. I second that.

That article, plus the ones on muffin making, salt baked potatoes, light as air potato gnocchi, great butternut squash soup, the cutting board review, how to prep lemon grass, were all very useful, and the recipes easily veganized.

But what got me really excited was the article about preparing really good lentil salads, which states “the key to creamy but firm lentils lies in the relationship between legume and salt”. It’s a given that firm, intact lentils are necessary for successful lentil salads.

After reading the lentil article, I knew what I had to do to get perfect lentils not only for Savvy Vegetarian recipes like Rice Red Lentil Salad, and Quinoa Lentil Salad, but also for Lentil Burgers, and Red Veggie Burgers.

If all my raving doesn’t convince you that you must subscribe to Cook’s Illustrated, I guess you’re not a cooking addict like I am. In other words, you’re a normal person with a life.

But just in case you are a total food freak and want to subscribe – I have to say, you can also get an online membership to Cooks Illustrated.com, with access to the entire database of recipes, product reviews, videos, ingredient taste tests, science tidbits, kitchen tips and step-by-step cooking techniques, all searchable and available any where any time. As a magazine subscriber, you’ll receive a discount when you join.

I’m going to go sign up for my 14 day free trial period right now!

A couple days ago, Stephen Bishop, from the blog Volunteer Latin America sent me a link to his recent vegan travel tips article.

This is a long and excellent article – Stephen is articulate and doesn’t skimp on details – so I’ve lifted the intro and short versions of the first three tips to tantalize. I urge you to read the rest at Volunteer Latin America.

What struck me most on reading this article: If you take out the words ‘in South America’, ‘foreign country’ or other geographical references, these tips could apply to vegetarians or vegans travelling anywhere. For instance, they closely resemble what we did for food on a recent trip to California. To us, CA is a foreign country!

“For many vegans, travel can be something of a challenge. If you’re worried about vegan travel in South America, you’ll be surprised at how easy it can be if you are prepared and go to the right spots. Basically, it’s about doing your homework and learning how to keep up your vegan lifestyle while travelling.”

“It may seem difficult at first, especially when in a foreign country, but you can master travelling as a vegan in the same way you mastered being a vegan at home. Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction before you pack your bags and hit the road.”

“Use these tips and you’ll find it’s not hard to maintain a vegan diet while travelling in South America. The more exciting things may be harder to come by but the healthy, whole food options are always available.”

“If after reading these tips you have any doubts about vegan travel in South America, let us assure you it’s possible. It does take a little extra planning and preparation but it’s worth it, not just for you but for the animals.”

1. Do Your Research

Get online and search for vegan restaurants and health food stores. One of the best places to start is Happy Cow, an online directory of restaurants and health food stores with vegan and vegetarian options. You can search for any city or address (like your hostel or hotel) and it will return a list of vegan/vegan-friendly restaurants nearby.

Happy Cow (like other vegan restaurant lookup sites) also returns a list of health food stores that carry vegan foods or vegan products. Whenever you would like a vegan meal or snack for your hotel room, lengthy bus trip, or souvenirs to take home with you, a visit to one of these international health food stores is a nice convenience.

2. Connect with Other Vegans

To find possible places to eat you could ask local vegans for recommendations. They’ll know which bakeries have vegan treats and which cafes serve the best weekend brunch. Online resources can only get you so far. The best knowledge is local knowledge.

To find local vegans, or get recommendations from vegans who have recently visited the city, start with a Google search. You can usually find them by Googling the city name and ‘vegan.’ With this approach, you’re likely to find a blog by a local vegan or reviews by vegan visitors. You can also connect with vegans on Twitter and Facebook, by searching for the city name and ‘vegan.’ There are also online and offline communities, like the Vegan Around the World Network and Vegan Meet up Groups, that help connect vegans in faraway places.

3. Carry Snacks

It’s very important to pack food when travelling as a vegan. At the very least, don’t leave home without some snacks for the airplane, bus, train or car ride. You never know when unexpected delays will leave you in a place where vegan options are scarce. Pack easy snacks like apples, bananas, nuts, seeds, homemade sandwiches, granola bars, carrot sticks, bread, pitas, nuts, crackers, peanut butter or hummus.

Go To: 10 Tips for Vegan Travel in South America