Hrm, general vego tips eh?

Honest, it's not that hard. The hardest part is that being a meatatarian is 'trendy' these days, so going out for dinner can be a pain in the arse. Yum-Cha is a classic example. It's not a super big pain in the bum, but it can get on your nerves after a while.

Eating at home is easy. Best advice I can give is list some classic dishes that we eat waaaayyyy to often. There are real staples that are easy to make and have a good spread of goodies in there to keep you fishing fit -

1) Napoli pasta - We regularly go to the market and buy a whole box of tomatoes and slow roast them with herbs, garlic, olive oil etc. Very handy, coz you can stir them through pasta, have them on toast, and combine them with kidney beans or mixed beans to make a great mexican bean dish. More often than not, we top this pasta with good quality Parmesan and Kalimata olives.

2) Warwick's Cross Cultural Nachos - Using some of those tomatoes, fry them up with some kidney beans, chick peas, mixed beans or whatever. Mash them up with a mashed potatoe masher thing. Add these to the base of a oven dish, add cheese and organic corn chips on top and bake for 10 minutes. Top with Salsa, Guacomole, Sweet Chili Sauce and pickled japapenos. Yummayyy! This takes literally 15 minutes and impresses the heck out of everyone who has it, which is crazy coz it's about the simplest thing you can make.

3) Stir-Fry - I have about 4 different stir-fries that I do, that are either pure incarnations or bastardisations depending on what's in the cupboard. They're the same as their meatatarian counterparts except I add strips of firm tofu or tofu puffs instead of meat. Get the tofu from Asian grocers - the stuff in Coles or whatever is sh¡t and way overpriced. Tofu is a bit tricky but easy once you know all the types and how to treat them. Investing in a good Thai or Malay cookbook is a good start.

4) Dahl - This is really my partners' thing, but it's yum and always different depending on what she wacks in there. Basically it's onion and garlic fried off with Indian herbs, then a whole wad of peas, beans and lentils and veggies thrown in. Great with Cous-cous and Traditional Greek yoghurt.

5) Vegie Dogs and Vege-burgers - Always easy to have in the fridge and a good stand-by meal if you just couldn't be bothered cooking. Plus, the whole concept of a 'vegie hotdog' is hilarious. What's even funnier is that non-vegie people we know actually prefer then to the real thing.

That's about what we have 70% of the time. We also do great risotto, I've had heaps of fun making pasta and piadini from scratch....sky's the limit.

The core thing to remember especially if you grew up with mums bad cooking or are a crap cook yourself, is that in a meat based diet, it provides most of the flavour. If you're a veggie, herbs and spices provide the flavour. Soy products are not a meat substitute.

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I have some 4pot XT discs if you want. 2nd hand, no rotors. No idea what they're worth, so feel free to make me an offer.