[FrugalTexan75]

I have been a vegetarian for 20+ years. I am what is classified as a lacto-ovo vegetarian, meaning that I eat dairy products. You are correct in saying that its not a good idea to replace meat with chocolate (one of my big downfalls). Just like with non-vegetarians, with vegetarians you have a whole range of people from healthy to not so healthy. The one thing I would suggest is to make sure you take a good multi-vitamin to make up for anything lacking in your diet.

If you want to go with prepared food products Morningstar, Boca, Quorn, Amy's, Worthington, Loma Linda, etc. are all vege food producers. I think Quorn and Amy is actually vegan, the others are mainly lacto-ovo vegetarian. The one thing you have to watch out for is the sodium content though. They also can get pretty expensive - but there are coupons that come out once in a while (for Morningstar at least) and if you match it with a sale - good deals can be found.

The least expensive and probably more healthy way is of course to use tofu and beans and cook from scratch.

It is possible to find vegetarian dishes when eating out. I'm not so sure about vegan dishes, but at least where I live (TX) I usually don't have a problem coming up with something from the menu. The biggest problem I have is at work when we have our "potlucks". The way I get around that is by bringing my own dish for protein, and then eating whatever veggies the others bring.