It is SIMPLE and EASY to eat a delicious vegetarian diet for weight loss.  Get Easy Veggie Meal Plans today!!

Living the Vegetarian Lifestyle will be the best thing you have ever done for your health and vitality, not to mention for your waistline.  Get Easy Veggie Meal Plans today!!

You’ll eat foods you love while satisfying your sweet tooth and eating to satisfaction at every meal.

Get Easy Veggie Meal Plans today!!

Easy Veggie Meal Plans is from groovy vegetarian

1. Local Grocer – Most grocery stores such as Jewel, Cub Foods, Krogers and Walmart have a dedicated vegetarian meals section. Look in the frozen aisle for meatless burgers from Boca and Morningstar, veggie hot dogs, pizza and more. Can’t find it? Ask a store associate.

2. Online Food Ordering – There are vegetarian take-out businesses, that will fully prepare a vegetarian meal for you and your family for monthly or weekly stipend. Some of the better known companies out there include VeggieBrothers.com and GreenPeople.org have put together a national list of online ordering companies.

3. Vegetarian or Vegan Restaurants – What better way to get a QUICK and EASY meatless meal than having someone else prepare it for you. Visit HappyCow.net to find a vegetarian restaurant near you.

4. Friends Who Are Vegetarian – Have a vegetarian or vegan friend? Invite them over and ask them (or gently suggest) that you would love to TRY their eggplant lasagna, black bean burger, mushroom rice plate, etc. More than likely they will be GLAD to cook a veggie meal for you.

5. DIY/Make It Yourself – If you’re halfway decent in the kitchen, you most likely can prepare quite the vegetarian feast. Find a recipe that you like, get the ingredients together and cook to your hearts content. Bon appetite!

Vegetarian Meals, 5 Places To Get Some is from groovy vegetarian

image via The Hot Potato

Below are some cool Sunflower seed fun facts.

1. Sunflower seeds belong to that rare class of foods that are as healthy as they are delish. Due to no cholesterol content and cholesterol-fighting (phytosterols) they’re really good for the heart. In addition to that, they’re rich in fiber, minerals like zinc and calcium, iron for blood and also magnesium, selenium. Oh! and they have very high levels of Vitamins B and E. In fact, sunflower seeds are particularly a GREAT SOURCE OF VITAMIN E.
2. Phytosterol from sunflower seeds is known to make the immune system more robust, flush out toxins and reduce the risk of cancer, while also regulating the level of cholesterol in the blood stream thereby reducing chances of cardiac stroke.
3. The mineral selenium on the other hand acts as a catalyst in apoptosis – the self destructing mechanism of the body that sheds cancerous and abnormal cells growth. It also helps in DNA replication in various body repair mechanisms. Selenium isn’t abundantly available in common food types and the normal human intake of selenium is usually low. Having sunflower seeds, however, provides the body with ample selenium.
4. The scientific name of sunflowers is Helianthus annuus, latin for flower of the sun. Scientifically, sunflower seeds aren’t actually seeds, they belong to the set achenes – edible fruits of flowers in the shape of seeds where the fruit inside does not adhere to the outer covering.
5. Sunflowers grow throughout the year. Each sunflower consists of about 1000 to 2000 seeds and it takes about 3 months for a sunflower to mature. There are three kinds of sunflower seeds – black oil, striped and white. White seeds have not found much commercial use as yet.
6. If you like variety in your snacks then you can choose from a wide range of sunflower seeds – roasted, unroasted, salted, unsalted, with the kernel or without it, spiced, chocolate covered, mint covered, barbecued, honey roasted or sprouted! This healthy delicacy of a snack can be served up in innumerable ways.
7. You can also use sunflower seeds to garnish your salads and main courses, it gels with all kinds of food, bitter, sour, sweet, and salted. Sunflower seeds are also used to make sunflower seed butter, much like peanut better except its a lot more healthier.
8. Most South East Asian countries use sunflower oil to cook (as most of their food is made in oil) because it is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids and has a very low risk of cardiac strokes even when used daily. Lots of other countries are following suit these days. Processed sunflower oil is made into margarine’s and used instead of butter. The residual content once the oil is squeezed from the seeds is used as feed for livestock.
9. Speaking of which, birds love sunflower seeds! Planting a few in your garden/farm is the easiest way to attract birds. Sunflower seeds make for good feed for livestock too.

Hope you enjoyed our sunflower seed fun facts, but feel free to share your own in the comment area. Cheers!

9 Fun Facts About Sunflower Seeds is from groovy vegetarian

Naughty?

Or have you been nice AND naughty?

Wait! Don’t answer that just yet. First let’s get to my list of hot Christmas gift ideas for vegetarians from Amazon.com

Let me quickly say a thing or two about shopping on Amazon.com, the website. You get free shipping on orders of $25 or more, they’re NOT going out of business anytime soon and their selection is pretty much unmatched online.

So shop with confidence and shop merrily!

Ok. Let’s get to the list. These items have been hand picked by me because either I have them or WANT them. Like? Don’t like? Let me know in the comment area. (Oh! and loads of Amazon aff links ahead)

1. Cute Vegetarian Shirts And Hoodies – Winter is just about here and with the cold weather comes warmer apparel, especially hoodies. So i’ve rounded up a few that any vegetarian would love to have as a X-mas gift. First up is the American Apparel 100% cotton Animal Rights Now Hoodie from Herbivore. Slim fit, all black and aimed mostly at females. Although a progressive male would not look too shabby sporting this awesome hoodie.

Second up is the PETA Fake For The Animals Sake Shirt a pink 100% cotton t-shirt with scoop neck and short sleeves. Great for vegetarian teenagers or any hip veg lady.

2. Vegetarian Essentials – This neat vegetarian nutrition chart by Liz Cook gives a nice visual overview of the various nutrients important to vegetarians and what foods to get them from. Great for new vegheads and those who simply need a refresher on nutrition. It’s a cute laminated wall poster and is sized 7″ x 35″.

3. A Slow Cooker – This is a 6 cup programmable vegetarian cooker that is great for soups, stews, pasta and rice. It features computerized clay-heating technology, an all-natural clay cooking pot, 4 pre-programmed settings–rice, brown rice, stew, and soup and comes with a 1 year limited warranty. Great for hearty tasty and nutritious slow cooked food.

I so WANT this.

4. Vegetarian Times Magazine – the vegetarian bible. This magazine is filled with vegetarian recipes, resources, vegan product reviews and loads more. You can get it at Amazon for only $12, and best part is you can send it via email to the recipient. Makes a great virtual stocking stuffer.

Vegetarian Times is written for those at the forefront of the healthy living movement. Published nine times a year, it provides delicious recipes, expert wellness information, and environmentally sound lifestyle solutions for both full-time and part-time vegetarians. Replete with beautiful photography and articles from leading experts, Vegetarian Times will be of interest to anyone with a passion for eating healthy while staying environmentally conscious.

5. Best Selling Vegetarian Cookbooks – The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen. Ever since Tal appeared on Oprah he has been at the top of the Amazon.com radar. I do not have this book, but plan on getting it and can’t wait to see (and try) some of his recipes. This book would make a FANTASTIC Christmas gift for the vegetarian in your life.

6. Give The Gift of Isa Chandra Moskowitz – Who is hotter on Amazon than vegan cookbook QUEEN Isa Chandra Moskowitz? No one! She rules Amazon.com with not one not two not three but four top selling vegan books. They are as follows; Veganomicon, Vegan Cookies, Vegan Brunch and the hugely popular Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World – heck make a gift basket out of it and include each one of her books. Any vegetarian worth his or her salt – will squeal with delight with this most creative gift.

That’s it for this list of hot Christmas gift ideas for vegetarians from Amazon.com, stay tuned for our next list – Excellent Gift Ideas For Vegetarians from eBay. Yes! eBay.

Follow via RSS or Twitter. Till next time!

p.s. You can also look into a digital reading device, such as the hugely popular Amazon Kindle.

6 Hot Christmas Gift Ideas For Vegetarians From Amazon.com is from groovy vegetarian

I’ve never really considered Groovy Vegetarian to be a diet and fitness blog, but more of a lifestyle blog. We try to vary it up abit and feature nutrition articles along with vegetarian diet books, etc. But since we are not medical pro’s, I try to not delve too much into these categories. But as any vegetarian or vegan will tell you, it’s pretty hard to have a vegetarian blog and NOT mention the foods we eat, the ingredients we use, the books we read, the food blogs we follow, and the tricks and tips we use when cooking.

I’m not the best cook out there, in fact I’m learning as I go along. When I first started this blog I could barely boil water, let alone make scrumptious vegetarian dishes. But again the point of this blog was never to be a recipe blog or a cooking blog, etc.

But since 2007 this blog has evolved and I do on occasion feature recipes and nutrition articles. Just always remember that I’m a novice and you should ALWAYS consult with a health professional when making meal or diet arrangements.

Anywho, I have completely digressed from my original thought, which was to let you know that this blog was featured on a very cool list of top diet and fitness blogs.

Do take a moment, and head on over to check out the list. Lots of good blogs to learn about and maybe even subscribe to or follow on Twitter.

http://www.citrimax.org/blog/2009/top-100-diet-and-fitness-blogs

Till next time,

Missy

We Are A Top 100 Diet And Fitness Blog is from groovy vegetarian

image via WikiMedia

Vitamin C is found in plenty of vegetables and fruits, and is laced in many a food entree. So this isn’t particularly hard to get in our diets.

Since there are many sources of Vitamin C, we wanted to get to the bottom of the top fruits and veggies containing it, the one’s with the highest milligrams per serving. For our research, we paid a visit to the trusty and reliable Nutrition Data for the goods.

Now on to the list. Below are our picks for the top 10 vegetarian sources of Vitamin C.

Top 10 Vegetarian Sources of Vitamin C

1. Guavas (377 mg of Vitamin C per 100 g serving) >pictured above<
2. Green Peppers (49.6 mg per 28 g serving)
3. Red Peppers (45.6 mg per 28 g serving)
4. Broccoli (81.2 mg per 91 g serving)
5. Kiwifruit (68.2 mg per fruit)
6. Oranges (97.5 mg per 165 g serving) note: Orange peels also have a significant amount of vitamin C!
7. Strawberries (89.4 mg per 152 g serving)
8. Persimmons (16.5 mg per 1 fruit/25 g serving)
9. Peas (58.8 mg per 98 g serving)
10. Papayas (86.5 mg per 140 g serving)

Do feel free to share your BEST vegetarian sources of Vitamin C in the comment area, as we totally love to hear your super creative ideas.

Just hit the comment are below. Cheers!

Top 10 Vegetarian Sources Of Vitamin C is from groovy vegetarian

Top 10 Vegetarian Sources of Calcium

1. Kidney Beans (1 cup has 263 mg of calcium)
2. Black Beans (1 cup has 239 mg)
3. Sesame Butter (1 tablespoon has 154 mg)
4. Tofu (1/2 cup has 125 mg)
5. Almonds (1 oz. has 81.5 mg)
6. Arugula (1 oz. has 44.8 mg)
7. Kelp (1 oz. has 47.0 mg)
8. Brazil Nuts (1 oz. has 44.8 mg)
9. Spinach (1 oz. has 42.8 mg)
10. Chinese Cabbage (1 oz. has 26.0 mg)

It’s really easy to get way more than your daily allowance of Vitamin C with a typical vegetarian diet. Calcium is a bit more challenging, but there’s still a lot of good sources.

The 411 on Calcium

Now that you know WHERE to get it, what is the deal with this mineral? Why do we need it? Well, Calcium is good for strong bone health, healthy muscles, pearly whites, a healthy heart, blood clotting, normal nervous system activity, helps regulate many body functions and some say this dynamite mineral is even good for losing weight. (via MSNBC)

And we need on average 1,000 mg of calcium daily.

Supplements?

I would really like to hear from any readers who are taking a Calcium supplement or pill to make up for any loss. Please share with us below in the comment area.

A big thanks to NutritionData.com for the great nutritional information, and also thanks to TofuForTwo.net for the rocking black bean soup image.

Now stay tuned for our next article, which will cover the top 10 vegetarian sources of Vitamin C, you can follow on Twitter to get our updates.

Top 10 Vegetarian Sources of Calcium is from groovy vegetarian

This week’s book review pick is New Vegetarian Cooking by Rose Elliot, which presents 120 “fast, fresh, and fabulous recipes”.  Rose Elliot made a good name for herself with Vegetarian Fast Food, and that track record continues with this title.

The book, which retails for $19.95 in the U.S. and $29.95 in Canada, offers up yummy meat-free recipes beautifully laid out with large color photos.

Accompanying the recipes are numerous useful mini-sections on a hoard of topics of interest.  Pregnant?  There’s a nutrition section for you!  Have children or teens, which you want to raise vegetarian?  There’s sections for that too!  Also handy is the advice for international cooks in the introduction (recipes use international measurements, such as grams in addition to traditional U.S. cooking measurements).

Here’s two delicious selections to whet your interest:

Green Pea Soup With Mint

Ingredients:
2 lb. frozen peas or, preferably, garden-fresh organic peas in the pod
1 large onion
6 garlic cloves
(optional) Salt and pepper
(optional) Fresh mint leaves
(optional) 3-4 tablespoons thick plain yogurt

Instructions:
Put peas in a saucepan, simmer for 10-15 minutes.  Empty contents into a food processor, adding a bit of water if the mixture seems dry.  Puree in the food processor, then return to the saucepan, warming until hot.  Ladel into bowls, garnish with mint and yogurt.

Deep Fried Tofu and Hijiki Balls

Ingredients:
Balls:
2 tablespoons hijiki seaweed
1 cup (250 g) tofu (drained and blotted)
2 tablespoons (50 g) grated carrot or turnip
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 teaspoons ginger
5 tablespoons sesame seeds
vegetable oil

Dip:
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon grated raw ginger root

Instructions:
Cover hijiki with boiling water, soak for 10 minutes.  Drain and cover with fresh water and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender.  Pat dry.  Break tofu in food processor.  Add hijiki, turnip/carrot, and ginger and blend to pulp.  Roll walnut-sized balls of mixture in sesame seeds.  Fill frying pan 1/3rd full with vegetable oil.  Heat until sesame seed immediately rises to top and begins to brown when dropped in.  Drop the coated balls into the frying pan and fry for 3-4 minutes.  Drain on paper towels and serve with dip.

…….

That gives you a taste of what New Vegetarian Cookinghas to offer.  Check it out!  Thanks to Rose Elliot and her wonderful book for these recipes.

New Vegetarian Cooking by Rose Elliot: Book Review is from groovy vegetarian

I’m the manager of a Texas Hill Country Bed and Breakfast that caters to vegetarians, among other visitors.

One of the most interesting things about my time here has been observing people and their dietary habits. Of course, not everyone who comes here is vegetarian and not all vegetarians eat healthy. But most people interested in nutrition find this topic fascinating, so I thought I would contribute here, to Groovy Vegetarian, the top five unexpected dietary habits I have observed while working in a food service capacity.

1. Lachanophobia: Or fear of vegetables.  Some people are so afraid of vegetables that the mere mention of anything grown outside, like a carrot or tomato, gives them the shivers and causes their faces to crinkle in utter disgust.  I once had a man need to be fed by his wife with an airplane-like motion because the omelet he was eating contained fresh, garden-grown rosemary!
2. Super High Protein for Older Women: Some people who have had gastric bypass surgery or those on Atkins type diets must have higher amounts of protein, but these types of special restrictions are not what I am referring to.  There is a segment of 50 to 60 year-old women who demand huge amounts of animal protein for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  It does not matter what is served as long as the animal protein is there. The reasons they give tend to be either they are trying to maintain their strength or simply that they have always eaten that way.
3. Anti-“Healthy” People: Words like “healthy”, “organic”, and “nutritious” can be enough to make some people refuse to even taste the food.  For example, we serve Innocent Chocolate, which is some of the best tasting chocolate most people have ever tasted and it’s sugar-free and dairy-free.  I learned early on that many people would refuse to eat the chocolate if I told them it did not contain sugar or dairy before they ate it.  We once had a woman who had just complimented us on how good the food was, stop mid-chew and refuse to finish her meal.  Why?  We told her the vegetables were organic!
4. Vegetarians Who Won’t Eat Vegetables: Typically, the reason they call themselves vegetarian is because they don’t eat meat.  They still eat primarily processed foods like nachos, French fries and Twinkies.  Vegetables, however, turn them off just as much as meat.
5. Diet Soda Addiction: This is a huge problem.  There are a number of people who are addicted to diet soda and many of these people are vegetarians.  Almost every weekend we have people bring 12 or 24 packs of soda (usually diet) with them and they drink all of them during two-day stays. I’ve even seen vegetarians chug a diet soda, like it was water, everyday after a run.

The saddest part about most of these people is that they are usually somewhat overweight and when I speak with them, they complain about everything from diabetes and high cholesterol to cancer, but don’t make the connection between their health and their poor diet choices.

Editor Note: Thanxs for the interesting article, Jason.

image via culture feast

Top 5 Unexpected Dietary Habits is from groovy vegetarian

Here’s a short list of 20 of the top (in terms of iron density per calories) iron-containing fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, beans, and nuts, with the amount of iron per 200 calorie portion:

1. Spinach (cooked) 31 mg
2. Pumpkin Leaves (cooked) 30 mg
3. Beet Greens (raw), 23 mg
4. Swiss Chard (cooked), 23 mg
5. Hearts of Palm, 22 mg
(Note: Try to buy from sustainable sources, many sources promote clearing of tropical forests for palm cores)
6. Spirulina Seaweed (dry), 19.6 mg
7. Asparagus (raw), 21 mg.
8. Butterhead Lettuce (includes Boston and Bibb varieties), 19 mg
9. Chinese Cabbage (pak-choi, cooked), 17 mg
10. Potatoes (cooked), 16 mg
11. Red Leaf Lettuce, 15 mg
12. Scotch Kale (raw), 14 mg
13. Tofu (raw), 14 mg
14. Jalapeno Peppers, 14 mg
15. Dandelion Greens (raw), 14 mg
16. Mushrooms (cooked), 12 mg
17. Green Beans, 12 mg
18. Beets, 1.3 mg
19. Arugula, 12 mg
20. Tomatoes (canned), 12 mg

Honorable Mention: Summer Squash, Peas, Onions, Peppers, Olives

An adult man needs approximately 10 mg/day, while an adult woman needs approximately 15 mg/day (according to the FDA).  Pregnant women need 30 mg/day, and those who work out extensively may need slightly more as well.

Note: Again, these numbers are for a 200 calorie portion, which is often significantly more than the serving size.  For example — the tomatoes’ serving size is 41 calories, so a single serving would only have 2.4 mg of iron, appr.  Still, I feel that the 200 calorie comparison gives the best feel for iron density, which is useful when you combine multiple veggies in a recipe.

Also note, all the veggie sources are non-heme iron, which is harder for the body to absorb, though cruelty free. To combat this – eat along with Vitamin C rich foods.

A big thanks to Nutrition Data for all the nutritional information!

20 More Vegetarian Iron Sources is from groovy vegetarian