After six weeks I have lost no weight and developed an allergy to soy...back to the drawing board.

Sorry to hear that, sr5. That really sucks.

Thanks Sageone....I am still eating organic food...I just have to watch out for soy.

Reading through this thread, something else occurs to me about the type of foods we choose to eat...

When I eat vegetarian, I mainly am using organically grown or minimally processed foods--homemade tofu from the Asian market or organically prepped tofu from the natural foods section, organically grown vegetables, minimally processed foods. The only consistent exception is the protein blend, which I buy from GNC to make my a.m. shake (although the kefir and coffee and ground cinnamon I add to the soy protein isolate is all organic). I occasionally use a package of Pete's Tofu2Go, a package of Tasty Bites Palek Paneer instead of taking the time to make my own, a box of Shorewood pappadums instead of making my own, Pacific Organics broth when I don't have time to make my own.

I eat vegetarian out of economic necessity, and because after 30 years of this, I really like and prefer the tastes of ethnic vegetarian dishes. I don't have any specific desire to avoid eating meat, and when I can afford it, I do buy and eat it. Maybe for that reason, I've never been a big fan of fast-food, pre-prepped food (vegetarian or otherwise). I'm not into meat substitutes. If I want to eat something that 'tastes like chicken,' I'll just eat chicken--not a meat-substitute that's even more expensive!

So I'm really curious.
1) How much prepackaged 'substitute' foods do each of us rely on to maintain our vegetarian meals or diets?

2) What is each of our main reason for choosing meat substitutes when we make meals:
--added taste?
--added protein?
--desire to eat foods that 'remind' us of the foods we enjoyed as meat-eaters, without actually eating meat?
--some or all of the above?

3) How important is it to each of us to eat natural, organically prepared and/or minimally processed foods?

I'm going to guess this is the same Gaelen from the veggie lowcarb group on Yahoo? ;-) We're having a discussion about adequate protein intake over there and I'm the poster you just recently replied to.

To answer your questions here - I used to be a meat eater. I did Atkins once before with meat and lost 20lbs. I just got sick of it and then additionally discovered some of the disturbing ways animals are treated on farms. I just decided meat could no longer be for me...and I am still happy with that decision.

For me, all of your choices apply... except that I don't care to have something remind me of real meat at all. I am usually quite surprised at how close the texture and taste ends up being to the real thing, but it isn't something I look for.

Yep, I'm the same Gaelen. I'm also the moderator of the "Protein Power for Vegetarians" forum at the "Eat Protein" website.