I'm still in transition.
What I've done is this. Once, for 3 months, I didn't eat any mammals. It wasn't that difficult, but my family got bored and I ended up going back to eating all meat. In the meantime, I collected vegetarian cookbooks (the Vegan handbook was really helpful) and I started making various dishes from those books. I started making my own beans and adding kombu to them. I started experimenting with other grains. Then, several months later, I tried it again, but this time kept only fish in my diet. That lasted for about 2 months and then my children and I all got sick (not from the diet) and I was pressured into putting meat back into our diets. Then, about 6 weeks ago, I decided to stop eating meat altogether. It's worked mostly, but I've had a few times where I get tired of the effort of making something different for me and the rest of my family.
After 6 weeks of having almost no issues with vegetarianism, I decided that it was too much trouble again and ate some meat. Well, the next day I was miserable, stomache cramps, gas, headache. I took it as a sign that my body is doing really well on the vegetarian diet. So, I got Veganomicon in the mail, watched some videos from the latest humane society investigation (extremely graphic). Then, I had a long talk with dh and I'm going to be making the same stuff for all of us.
It's hard to make the transition because once you start learning, it's an avalanche of learning. Then, you want to change so many aspects of how you live, like wearing leather, leather carseats, taking your omni kids to mcd's etc. Sometimes that avalanche is too hard to take and you think it's easier to just block it all out. But then, you get yourself ready to face it and you can successfully move onto the next steps of cruelty-free living.
What's helped me is to collect vegetarian recipe books, make extra and freeze some in ziplock baggies for later, collect cooking tools (I sell pampered chef and I'm obsessed with their products), forgive myself and move forward instead of hating myself and giving up.
Some good tools to have:
Pressure cooker for beans
pizza stones with handles (for pizzas, breakfast scones, french fries, etc)
iron skillets
stone loaf pan for lentil loaf
an immersion blender for soups and shakes
lots of ladels
enameled iron dutch oven for the best soups ever
3 or 4 very large bowls. One for potatoes and squash, one for fruit, one for tomatos and avacados and one for onions, shallots and garlic. These bowls make a huge difference in the organization of my kitchen. The kids love the fruit bowl.
Several large quart sized mason jars for grains and beans. I keep a good stock of bulk items such as quinoa, various rices and beans.
I buy cans of stewed tomatos every single time I go to the store. Italian, mexican, fire roasted and regular
I keep a bag of frozen mixed vegatables in the store for quick veggie soup
Good luck
Lisa