A new friend of mine is a vegetarian who has not only started eating a bit of fish here and there, but she also has brown rice coming out of her ears! There is rice milk, all soya milks in her country that are sweetened, puffed brown rice for breakfast, rice cakes, and brown rice.
She believes things will get easier once she is more organized.
She thinks the most difficult part for her is finding time to cook meals for her family and different meals for herself.
It was bad enough being the only veggie in the household, but now they eat entirely different food.
I suggest for her and all the vegetarians to ask your heath food store if they can order unsweetened soy milk for you.
A lot of stores here don't have it on the shelves, but they can order it.
For carbs, you can try eating rice, millet, quinoa (all cooked in yeast free veggies stock; cubes available from good health food shops), the occasional potato, corn chips (unflavored), and poppadoms.
They are great as a side order with veggie stew or a salad! Also, have you ever tried falafel with Tahini sauce? There are many recipes on the web for it.
It is permissible and quite yummy, especially if you like Middle Eastern food.
It is ground garbanzo beans shaped in patties or balls fried and served with salad and the sauce.
Tahini is ground sesame seed paste.
You can buy it in the US anyway and mix it with water and lemon juice to your desired consistency for sauce, dip, or salad dressing.