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Wouldn't it be great if everyone could stop eating meat? It would be kinder to animals, it would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it would ameliorate many of the other negative ecological consequences of industrial ranching. Plus, there are many health experts out there who think that sticking to a vegan or vegetarian diet will make people healthier and help them live longer lives (despite some controversy behind these hypotheses).

Well, if you're trying to give up meat and struggling, this article is for you. Alternatively, if you're trying to cook a vegan/vegetarian meal for someone you care about, this article is also for you. Heck, anyone who's curious about healthy meat alternatives is doing themselves a favor by reading this page. Because believe it or not, there are some very tasty sources of plant-based protein out there - and we have the recipes to prove it!

Vegetarian Protein Options (And Recipes!)

Let's start by catering to the vegetarian crowd. There are many different definitions of what a vegetarian is, depending on who you ask. The standard dictionary definition of vegetarian is "a person who does not eat meat, and sometimes other animal products, especially for moral, religious, or health reasons". The vegetarian society, on the other hand, has a much more detailed definition:

"A vegetarian is someone who lives on a diet of grains, pulses, legumes, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, fungi, algae, yeast and/or some other non-animal-based foods (e.g. salt) with, or without, dairy products, honey and/or eggs. A vegetarian does not eat foods that consist of, or have been produced with the aid of products consisting of or created from, any part of the body of a living or dead animal. This includes meat, poultry, fish, shellfish, insects, byproducts of slaughter or any food made with processing aids created from these."

Based on the definition above, we can immediately spot some fairly important differences between vegetarians and vegans. For one, the line between animal cruelty and cruelty-free animal products is a little blurry when it comes to honey, eggs, milk, and milk-derived dairy products (cheese, yogurt, sour cream, etc.). Furthermore, there are people out there who lead very similar dietary lifestyles, but still choose to incorporate the occasional animal product into their diet. People who limit these inclusions to animal products from the sea (fish and shellfish, specifically) refer to themselves as "pescatarians". Still farther out on the fringe of vegetarian society exists a radical group of rule-breakers who, on very rare occasions, will throw their dietary restrictions out the window and eat an omnivorous diet. These rebels usually refer to Themselves as "flexitarians".

Why do we go to all the trouble to educate you on the specific definition of what a vegetarian meal is? Well, because we already know we're going to be inundated with questions of "...But what if I add [probably not a vegetarian food item] to this recipe? Is that okay?". By knowing the exact definition of a vegetarian, it'll help you be able to figure out the answer to that question for yourself. Or, when in doubt, you can always ask the almighty Google. Now, let's start talking about some delicious, high-protein vegetarian recipes!

• Vegetarian Mac 'n' Cheese: This delicious and nutritious vegetarian dish includes a whopping 47 grams of protein thanks to the milk, egg, and cheeses in the recipe.
• Spinach & Black Bean Breakfast Quesadillas: The eggs, spinach, black beans, and shredded cheese in each quesadilla Yield about 38 grams of protein - and that's per serving!
• High-protein Yogurt Breakfast Bowl: Talk about getting a great start to your day - this pretty, delicious concoction contains 14.5 G of protein per serving, and makes a total of four servings. The greek yogurt and the granola are particularly big contributors to this number.  

Vegan-Friendly Proteins

While the widely accepted practice of eating dairy products helps vegetarians get the protein they need to stay healthy, people who strictly adhere to a vegan lifestyle don't have such options. Whether for health or moral reasons, vegans believe that any nourishing food product which comes from an animal, even if harvested in the utmost cruelty-free way possible, should be completely eliminated from the human diet. But that does not mean that vegans are undernourished when it comes to protein - not even a little bit!

As far as the vegan diet goes, they basically follow the same rules as vegetarians minus dairy, eggs, honey, and other foods sourced from animal products such as gelatin (a form of collagen collected by boiling cattle bones). Obviously, pescetarians and flexitarians do not fall under the umbrella of veganism. As far as restricting meat and animal products from a person's diet, you can think of vegans as the bullseye in the center of a target. Vegetarians, pescatarians, and flexitarians can be found on the outer rings.

Okay, so now that all the boring informational stuff is out of the way, let's dive into some high protein and highly palatable vegan dishes:

• A Very Spicy, Very Vegan Mac and Cheese Dish: Dear readers, we have something very personal that we need to get off our chests: we have a problem. The majority of staff members here at a Healthy Lifestyle Alert are mac-and-cheese-aholics. We figured we might as well make this confession now before any of you start to ask about the abundance of mac and cheese recipes in this article. Regardless, we feel justified in bringing this delicious and vegan-friendly recipe to you. It includes high protein ingredients such as quinoa pasta, nutritional yeast, and almond milk. You'll get over 15 grams of protein per serving, along with the option to customize the recipe as you see fit by adding whatever veggies you want!
• Cha-Cha-Cha-Chia Seed Key Lime Pie Pudding: Not only do the chia seeds in this breakfast/dessert pudding pack a pretty decent amount of protein in them, but just one serving is very high in fiber and healthy fats. The ideal ratio of omega-3:omega-6 fatty acids in this recipe is great for heart health. Furthermore, the gelatinous fiber produced by the chia seeds when refrigerated overnight is the best fiber you can consume for optimal gut health - it's the prebiotic fiber that probiotics love!
• Pumpkin Seed Salad: Seeds and nuts are a great source of protein for anyone on a vegan diet. You can get 9 grams of protein from just one serving of this salad alone, along with a healthy dose of monounsaturated fats and probiotic-friendly fiber.
• Quinoa Black Bean Burgers: Don't feel shunned or left out at your next cookout. If everybody else wants to eat regular beef burgers, prepare your own burger patties ahead of time out of quinoa and black beans! There are just under 49 grams of protein in this recipe, along with 52 grams of fiber and an excellent omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. These burger patties aren't just high in protein and fiber, but they're heart-healthy, too.

We hope you have a chance to try out some of the high protein vegan and vegetarian recipes we have laid out here for you today. We've already tested most of them in house, and we were quite pleased with our results. And if you're not used to cooking vegan or vegetarian dishes, don't worry - practice makes perfect, and these simple recipes leave little room for error. So head on down to the grocery store, have a field day in the produce section, and get ready to enjoy some plant-based protein source tonight!