I've been a vegetarian and a vegan in my adult life and am currently an omnivore. My favorite vegetarian cookbook is Laurel's Kitchen, out of print but worth getting. Dave, you'll love the black bean soup recipe in there.
To whomever asked, avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague. Including Splenda. I generally use honey or molasses.
I had to "learn" to eat dairy when I was pregnant because I don't like dairy products. I do make my own yogurt and I eat a little bit of mozzarella cheese on pizza. Otherwise, I learned to put milk in my coffee so that I could get in a serving of dairy every day.
I buy my meat from local organic farmers. I'm going to be getting a side of beef in April or May. I've MET the black angus I'm going to be consuming and he's a beauty. I get my eggs locally from a friend of mine who raises them. She makes her own chicken feed, all natural. I save all of my egg cartons for her to reuse. I grow organic vegetables in my yard. I belong to a CSA and purchase not only veggies from them all summer long but also get free range chickens from them. I get a better price than the general public because I'm a CSA member. I buy grain, dairy, and fruits from some local Amish and/or Dunker farmers. I try very hard to practice 100-mile eating, where everything I eat has been grown within 100 miles of my home, thus cutting down on transportation and pollution.
I make a big crock pot full of vegetable soup every Sunday. We eat it for lunch all week. I cook from scratch. I use my crock pot a lot. I rarely eat out.
I do a lot of the typical rural things, like can foods in the fall. I make applesauce and can it. I have two freezers and I freeze things, like carrots, that I don't like canned. I make soup and can it. I can and freeze meat. I can green beans. I make bread a lot. When I buy whole milk, I skim off the cream and make my own butter.
Dave, it is a full-time job to eat like this. I can't just run down to the store and buy what I need because I'm trying to live intentionally. It requires a lot of planning to buy things at the right time, schedule time to process them, and then spend time every single day cooking it all.
BTW, I do put my steel cut oats in the crock pot before bedtime so that breakfast at least is ready when I get up.
I don't drink soda, just water, coffee, and tea. Occasionally I have "real" root beer. Sometimes when I'm out I treat myself to Diet Dr. Pepper but I'm fully aware that it's bad for me.
You can do this. If you don't want to give up meat altogether, find someone like me. My husband's coworkers are always buying a couple of pounds of fresh organic beef from us, from our freezer.
StAnn