In a vegan or vegetarian diet, it may take time to explore new foods and develop some form of routine to it. There are many different products on the market today for vegans and vegetarians to choose from - keep experimenting to find your or your families personal preferences and tastes.

You should be-able to find quite a good amount of vegetarian and vegan products at supermarkets, natural health food stores and co-ops.

When baking, you can use substitutes like egg replacers, cornstarch or bananas to replace eggs.

Soy, rice and nut milks are great replacements for cow's milk. Plus there are many other dairy alternatives around like: vegan cheese, yoghurts, frozen non-dairy ice creams, and cream cheeses. These are all easily sourced through health stores or supermarkets worldwide.

If you are stuck for ideas on some quick easy menu ideas, here are some sample meal menu items for you to consider:

** Breakfast

- Pancakes

- Soy Yoghurts

- Fruit Smoothies

- Wholemeal Toast or Cereals

** Lunch/Dinner

- Veggie Mock Meat and salad sandwich

- Veggie Sausages or hot dogs

- Veggie or Soy Burger

- Simple Prepared Salads

- Tofu Kebabs or Wraps

- Veggie Fried Rice

- Tomato & Pasta Bake

- Soup or Curry Vegetables

- Veggie Stir fry with Tofu, tempeh, or seitan

- Baked Vegetables with Rosemary & Garlic Herbs

** Snacks /Dessert

- Cookies

- Cake

- Non-Dairy Ice Cream

- Dried Fruits & Nuts

- Fresh Fruits

- Chickpeas

- Popcorn

- Pretzels

- Soy or Veggie Crisps or Chips

- Vegan Pies

So as you can see there are an abundance of tasty foods on offer for vegetarians of all kinds, the tastes and wonders of one's food choices is only limited by one's own imagination.

If have you ever wondered how vegetarians, vegans or people just wishing to avoid dairy products make delicious tasting and looking cakes and sweets without much effort at all?

Unless you are a vegetarian or 100% animal free cooker, chances are that you have never cooked without animal ingredients like eggs and dairy. In fact, if you don't know any vegetarians personally you might not even be aware that you can cook without any animal by-products like, eggs and dairy.

Vegetarians are able to maintain a very healthy diet eating any number of traditional meals or sweets minus animal by-products.

And you don't have to be a vegetarian to benefit from such things, even if you'd just like to cut down on animal by-products for the many health benefits involved or if you are lactose intolerant, have vegetarian friends you'd like to cook for or are trying to avoid cholesterol . . . you don't have to feel you will miss out on all those wonderful sweets and treats you feel you can't live without. Because cooking minus animal by-products is so simple and easy you won't believe it until you experience it for yourself.

So I urge you to try the below recipe for yourself and then decide if vegetarians just eat rabbit food or not. You might be surprised. And you might even be shocked that you won't even notice these muffins are not cooked using any eggs or diary.

** Dairy Free Choc Muffins

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbsp vinegar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup coconut

1 and 1/2 cups flour

3 Tbsp cocoa or carob powder

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 190C.

2. Mix first 6 ingredients in a bowl until blended through.

3. Sift the remaining ingredients and blend in bowl until just combined.

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Servings: 6 large muffins or 12 smaller muffins

If you are not a vegetarian but are considering becoming one don't let the fear of eating egg or diary free stop you. If you already are a vegetarian or don't eat dairy or eggs for other reasons, and have not tried cooking sweets, you might want to try it. It's so simple and easy if you know how and have access to proven recipes.

Peanut Brittle

After making the decision to become vegetarian for health reasons, many people wonder how much of their favorite foods they will have to give up.

Two years ago, I wondered the same thing when I made the decision to become vegetarian. The reality is that it is much easier than one might think. It's also a lot more fun too!!

Though anything new can seem a bit intimidating at first, take one step at a time in order not to be overwhelmed.

Now, I enjoy it so much I would never consider going back to mine old and SAD (Standard American Diet) ways. I will give you 3 easy ways to make the transition into your new healthy vegetarian life. Then, a meal plan to help you even more.

1. Think of 3 vegetarian meals you already enjoy or may find easy to convert. Common ones may be a veggie pizza, spaghetti or large dinner salad.

2. Think of 3 recipes you prepare regularly which can be easily adapted to a vegetarian meal using a meat substitute. An example would be B-B-Q "chicken", corn-on-the-cob and baked potato. There are several brands on the market that make a fabulous chicken substitute! Just add your own B-B-Q sauce. Replace a hamburger and fries night with a veggie burger on a whole wheat bun and some grilled veggies or baked fries.

3. Find 3 vegetarian recipes online that you can experiment with. There are many websites with vegetarian recipes to help make the switch easily.

An average family switches between 8 to 10 different dinners anyway. So, if you use the 3 steps, you will have 9 vegetarian meals to switch between, as well.

Next, it's time to think about breakfast. If you are someone that likes bacon and eggs every morning, try a bacon substitute and "egg" substitute with whole wheat toast or bagel instead.

Now, let's take a look at a typical vegetarian meal plan:

Breakfast:

Fruit Smoothie
Bagel with tomato
Nuts

Lunch:

"Chicken" Salad Sandwich (substitute chicken made at home is super yummy!)
Green Salad

Snack:

Fruit Salad
Nuts

Dinner:

Veggie Fajitas
Mexican Beans and Rice
Green Salad

Desert:

Chocolate Chip Cookie

snickers cookies flavored rice wulong tea

Ready to hit the trails but without the beef jerky? Here are a few vegetarian backpacking recipes you can try, along with some simple snack foods.

Olive Oil Noodles

This is a simple recipe that you don't need to write down. Bring a small bag of spices (whatever kinds you like), some dried vegetables, pasta and olive oil. Soak the dried vegetables while you are setting up camp. Then cook them along with the pasta. Drain and add the spices, salt and olive oil for a delicious dinner.

If you bring the thinnest pasta you can find - something like angel hair spaghetti - it will save some time, fuel and trouble cooking. If you want to dress up the meal a bit more and you are backpacking in the southwest, you can collect some pinon pine nuts to add. Parmesan cheese is another nice addition, and can be carried for days if kept out of the hot sun.

The Simplest Soups

Most grocery stores carry dry soups that just require you to pour boiling water on them. The ones in the cups take more space, but are still light and very convenient. No dishes to wash except for your spoon.

Vegetarian options are limited with these, but the good news is that there are a few. Even better news: some of the tastiest soups-in-a-cup you can get are the black bean varieties or lentil soups. Most of these have no animal products in them.

Uncooked Vegetarian Backpacking Recipes

I personally don't like to cook. In fact, I rarely even bring a stove when backpacking. Going without cooked food means no stove, no fuel, and no pans. That's less weight and fewer dishes to wash. But what about vegetarian backpacking recipes for those of us who don't want to cook?

Most snacks (with few exceptions like that beef jerky) are naturally vegetarian. For example, mix any number of dried fruits, nuts, chocolate chips and cooked dry oats for an easy trail mix. You don't have to be precise about any of this or remember any recipes.

Peanut butter and wheat crackers is another high-protein high-energy backpacking food. Bread can be carried carefully and you can make sandwiches of peanut butter and wild berries. I have done this with strawberries, but peanut butter and blueberry sandwiches are my favorite.

If you eat cheese it can be carried for the first day without spoiling. Frozen "veggie dogs" can be brought as well, and will thaw out in time to cook them over the first night's fire. In other words, it doesn't have to get complicated. You can make your own simple vegetarian backpacking recipes.

italian christmas cookies