If you're going the lacto-ovo route as I have, here are some things I wish people had told me at the start...
1. Get away from American food in general. It's not satisfying without meat. You'll be a very unhappy vegetarian eating this stuff.
2. Eat spicy foods. Mexican, indian, chinese, thai, etc.
3. If you have to eat fast food, stick to Burger King and Taco Bell. Burger King has a sandwich called the "BK Veggie" that is a Morningstar Farms meatless patty. Their fries don't contain beef flavoring and are cooked in separate oils from the meats. It's not great because they microwave your patty, but it's edible. Taco Bell has bean burritos, 1/2 lb cheesy bean & rice burritos, and seven layer burritos (ask for no sour cream, it has animal-based gelatin).
4. Fresh salsa is your friend. It's cheap to make a big container of it each weekend and has a ton of flavor. You can put it on almost anything, and it's very healthy.
5. A lot of recipes that require chicken or chicken broth can be reasonably faked using no-chicken broth. A good example is vegetable mai fun, an amazing chinese dish that normally uses chicken broth.
6. Keep a small notebook with which grocery stores in your area carry which products. Grocery shopping as a vegetarian can be tough in some areas. I shop at half a dozen stores weekly because I don't have a good one in my area. Kroger is the one around me with the best vegetarian selection, though.
7. Potatoes and beans often make a good substitute for beef, especially in mexican foods. Example: chopped onion, vegetarian refried beans, vegetarian chili, rotel tomatoes, cheese, a packet of taco seasoning, a handful of jalapeno slices, and some roasted potatoes all mixed together make a very nice burrito filling.
8. When using a meat substitute, google tips on cooking it. For example, the burger boxes don't tell you that the best way to cook them is actually in a toaster oven on the toaster setting!
9. Don't beat yourself up too badly for not being a Vegan or Fruititarian or whatever. I sleep just fine at night knowing that my impact is an order of magnitude less than what it was as a full-fledged meat-first American.
10. I can't stand tofu. I've tried tons of ways of preparing it, but it's always nasty. So...Some good products that make the change easier:
Bush's Vegetarian Baked Beans
Hormel Vegetarian Chili
SmartDeli Pepperoni
Morningstar Farms Bacon Strips
Morningstar Farms Prime Grillers
Morningstar Farms BBQ Riblets
Boca Spicy Chik'n Patties
Boca All American Flame Grilled Meatless Burgers
Boca Crumbles
Tombstone Veggie Pizza
Any product made by "Field Roast," if you can find a store that has them
For Boca products, the tan-colored packaging is for the stuff that contains soy NOT genetically modified. For the pepperoni, it's pretty important to stick to the SmartDeli brand and cook it UNDER the cheese if it's for a pizza. All of the sandwich patties on that list are really good with the same toppings Burger King puts on Whoppers. If cooked and spiced properly, Boca crumbles make spaghetti sauce better than it is with beef. I like to make it with spinach, zucchini, onions, and green peppers. The Morningstar Farms and Boca facebook pages occasionally post some nice recipes using their products, as well.
All in all, the change to lacto-ovo is not a tough one if you use meat substitutes. Veganism is considerably tougher, as you lose a ton of the finished heat-and-eat products that contain milk and eggs.
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