I am going to a restaurant tomorrow and the healthiest thing I could find to eat has something called vegetarian Field Roast in it, so I looked it up. I am curious to know if anyone else has heard of or tried this meat alternative. Here is the company that makes it: http://www.fieldroast.com/index.htm

Looking at the product sheets it looks like the protein level is pretty good for a vegetarian item and it looks like real meat.

If you're going out to a restaurant for a special occasion (i.e. not someplace you're going to be eating at every other day), I'd say just go ahead and get whatever sounds good. You don't have to go crazy getting some butter-soaked monstrosity if that's going to make you uncomfortable, but you should take an occasional opportunity to eat something you'll really enjoy. Some people try to "man up" and never, ever, ever eat a cheat meal, but in my opinion this isn't just unhealthy psychologically, the stress of trying to remain on a completely strict diet every day of your life is going to raise stress levels and have a negative impact on your fitness goals.

That said, looking at the nutritional info for on the Field Roast page, it doesn't seem particularly unhealthy, especially for a rare meal. I wouldn't make it a frequent part of my diet, since vegetarian proteins tend to be not as complete as what you can get from animal sources (chicken, beef, fish, eggs, milk, etc). Their cutlets sound pretty tasty though, even for not having real meat in them. :D

Plant proteins aren't all bad, though. In particular, I love quinoa (http://www.quinoa.net/). It's primarily a carbohydrate of course, but it does contain a complete protein profile, is low-glycemic, and quite frankly is delicious.

Vegetables are great. Vegetables masquerading as meat have always been incredibly gross to me. Everything I've tried has been nasty, and in the years I worked for Whole Foods I didn't know a single other employee there who thought there was a genuine reason to eat them unless your diet simply didn't allow you to eat anything else.

I second the idea that you just eat what you want.