The first few weeks I was veg I had SO MUCH CRAP from friends. I went to a barbecue and they refused to cook any vegetarian food. I ended up eating salad (not that it's bad, but I was looking forward to veggie goodies) and my mate actually put meat on my plate and said 'eat it or leave' and i put it back and said 'no tahnks'
The first few weeks are ALLWAYS the hardest. At the start I allways thought 'I'll give it up in a few weeks, I don't feel that passionate about it.' Then I started researching more and more. I watched 'meet your meat'
http://www.meat.org/ (or .com not sure) and then I just made myself watch animals being slaughtered in videos. I gave myself a reason to continue being vegetarian, and every four or five months I get out the grizly pictures (not because I enjoy it, but because I start to consider 'one bite wouldn't hurt') and re-research till I feel sickened by meat again.
Uhhmmm... at the start, I reccomend avoiding 'faux meats' just because their taste is diferent to regular meat. To a vegetarian (who doesn't eat meat at all) it brings back the same taste as what we believed meat tasted like, but if you ate bacon two weeks ago, the taste has an obvious diference and it can be a put-off to being vegetarian. Also, don't let tofu be a put off AT ALL! When I first became veg, I had no idea how to cook with tofu, so I tried eating it plain. Like raw plain *gross* lol. Best bet is to find some nice veg cookbooks (or google can also be useful) and search for whatever you used to eat, but don't use a substitue (yet) Don't consider tofu to be a meat, think of it as a new food to try that is not a replacement for meat (it is, but i found it better if i wans't comparing it ot the taste of meat)
After a few months, when the taste of meat is gone, It's fun to try 'faux meats' cause it brings back the taste of yummyness, but without the insane slaughter of animals. And because you havn't eaten it in so long, you can't remember what it tasted like.
My other reccomendation is to go out and buy a whole heap of random crap and experiment. Buy every vegetable in the supermarket if you want, and just throw it in a pot and see what you can create. Once you figure out what tastes good (or use a cookbook if you're dumb like me and have no idea how to cook) cook it over and over again, with diferent ingredients. Then start expanding. Once you have one recipe (mine was italian spaghetti with garlic and rosemary), you have a backup plan if your other experiments don't work out. I always have a tin of tomatos spare in the cupboard, incase the 'chilli tofu tortillas' or the 'saucy borlotti beans' don't work out. And that way, if mother has cooked something with meat in it, you don't have to resort to eating it because you don't have anything else to eat.
Thats just my methods anyway, you might have a completly diferent way, and looking at other's responses, they do have diferent ideas.
Being veg isn't just a diet, it's a lifestyle, learning to refuse to eat meat, cracking witty one-liners and being a good debater (to defend the animals) aren't requirements, but are very useful. Don't let ANYONE bring you down about your choice. Because it's YOUR choice. your COMPASSIONATE choice, and if I could, i'd give you a million billion hugs right now, just cause you've chosen to be a good, kind person to the animals. *cyber hugs* x 1 milion billion. lol.
If you want ANY recipies, I have a book full, and so does everyone else on these forums, so don't hesitate to ask at all. I'm happy to type up random stuff at 4 in the morning. I'm sure that everyone else would be happy to wait till the next morning to do it, but we don't bite. Not unless you're a carrot anyway :p
