I stopped eating meat completely in May, so about 6 months ago. My family is slowly stopping the nasty comments and teasing. I gave it up because I knew it wasn't healthy, and because giving up meat pretty much guarenteed keeping me away from fast food (which at the time was a daily thing).
I don't miss it at all BUT still drink milk & sometimes eat eggs.
My problem is I'm having to make my own food and find myself just eating whatever unhealthy side dishes my family is having. So...what are your favorite easy veggie meals?
I'm trying to plan menus for the week so I can buy it all at once.
I don't eat tofu much because the texture is just wierd for me, and I don't have access to health food stores to get some of the ingredients needed for meals I've seen in vegetarian cookbooks.
Morningstar Farms has wonderful meatless products. A hamburger substitute and a sausage substitute work wonders in dishes you would normally use meat in. And their Burgers Prime are wonderful little burgers that taste like real meat, add a slice of 2% cheese and some low carb bread and its great!
Also, there are lots of good cookbooks. Vegan with a Vengeance and Veganomicon are my favorites. They generally don't require a lot of 'specialty' product.
Other than that, curried lentils (actually tamarind lentils from Veganomicon) over basmati rice is one of my favorite meals.
I don't miss eating animal products at all. I love my food!
We eat lots of curried lentils, it's the reigning household favorite. We also have spicy black beans about once a week, I had to make some major adjustments from the original recipe I learned from a tiny Puerto Rican woman 20 years ago, but they're still magnificent. Another regular for us is stir-fry, I can clean out the fridge, coat it in garlic chili sauce, and DH will eat it out of the wok if I walk away.
My favorites are veggie stirfrys, waffles (with a tiny bit of syrup and a big serving of fruit), stuffed mushrooms, and salads (which are always super easy and consist of lettuce, a few veggies and sometimes a cup of beans).
Staple meals for me include soups (thick soups, I'm not into watery) - generally some kind of beans, lots of veggies and crushed tomatoes - this turns into minestrone, chili or lentil soup; pita pizzas; burritos or tostadas; stirfries; eggs & veggies; green salads with beans and cheese; rice (or quinoa) salads with cooked veggies & beans; black bean & corn salad; roasted veggies with parm. I also make potato salads (not like the traditional kind - I toss potatoes with green beans & chickpeas and vinaigrette and sunflower seeds, that kind of thing), or make potato, chickpea & broccoli curry. Spaghetti squash is good with marinara and spinach. Another easy meal I have is pita with hummus, tabouli and Greek yogurt. These are all pretty easy, especially once you get just a little experience. Many freeze well (especially the soups). And they're all adaptable - as long as I have grains, beans, and veggies, I can always throw some version of these things together.
My husband and kids still eat meat- i do all the cooking. There is no way i am going to make two separate meals every night so I make something that meat can be easily added to.
We eat:
Stir fry's
Soft tacos - Lentils with taco seasoning topped with the typical taco fixins
Enchilladas- ground beef for everyone else, "beef" crumbles for me
Rice and Beans - sausage added
Homemade pizzas- mini size so everyone can top their own
Lasagna- veggie
Burgers and fries- sweet potato fries, and veggie burgers for me
Bbq black bean burritos- chicken added
Lentil soup- sausage added
Spaghetti and other various types of pasta with sauce
Salads
Grilled cheese sandwiches- i add tomato, avocado, and spinach to mine
then there is the always good Breakfast for dinner- french toast, pancakes, waffles, omelettes : all are easy and don't require much work and please even meat eaters
Ladies - how do you prepare your curried lentils? I just bought some curry powder and want to make some tomorrow. I love curry, but it's been years since I cooked with it, and I never made lentils.
Besides the lentils and curries are there other essential ingredients (onions, other spices?)? Thanks!
Mine vary a bit depending on what I forget to put in them!
I cook onions off in a pan until they're browned and slightly crispy, then I add a few cloves of chopped garlic and a few jalapenos and cook those for a minute or two. Add lentils, water, coriander, cumin, curry powder, turmeric, and fire roasted tomatoes. Bring it all to a boil, then cover and simmer until the lentils are done. Depending on how many calories I'm allotting for the meals that include the lentils, I'll add a touch of light coconut milk when it's done cooking, but I've found it's not completely necessary.
I'm one of four people and from the beginning we've always had the same grocery items (give or take) but end up with different meals.
So, my Nepali husband will take various stuff from the pantry and frig to pull off yummy curried veggies, daal (lentil soup like dishes), meats, and chutneys. He has really reduced his meat eating since I unfortunately found that the smell of a meat eater (up very close) to be way more gag than explainable.
My two sons eat really great but very differently. The first one likes raw tofu, raw cauliflower or broccoli, plain noodles or brown rice, and a cup of milk. That's just heaven for him. The younger one is a happy-go-lucky fellow who hasn't met a meal he won't eat. If we were in Nepal, I'm sure the neighbors would bring him home telling me he was knawing on the leg of their goat--please feed him. He prefers to eat what ever anyone else is eating. So, I make him happy the most if I feed him something his dad made. But really, anyone's food looks good to him. As a child at restaurants, he'd wander away and join other families to eat what they had. He was so cute they'd let him. I'd turn around and be mortified with his messy face sitting with some family across the room, happy as a clam, munching calamari.
As for me, the original voyager vegetarian of our clan, I love stir-fries. My typical meal is around 320.
I toss whatever's in the fridge and pantry in the wok and viola. Things that are on my shelf in the fridge that most others aren't interested in are lowest-cal bean sprouts (some are 30 and some are 100 calories), broccoli slaw, chopped mushrooms, and various sauces (I like pad thai, hoisin, szechan).
I follow the low-density food plan so I get to pile on tons of veggies on a serving of tofu and eat forever. I do like dried Thai chili peppers and add some Truvia to make the sauce-of-choice a bit hotter and sweeter.
Other things:
1) refried beans (organic without oils) and shreaded low-fat cheddar cheese (heated in the mic for a couple minutes), topped with fresh chopped tomatoes, huge handful of spinach, chopped onions, and salsa with a small handful of crushed blue tortilla chips. I do sprinkle some lime juice and tobasco to spice it up.
2) microwaved bread pudding (mix 1/2 c eggwhites and 1/2-2/3 c almond milk with truvia; add cardamom, cinamon, or almond extract if you like), cut up a bun of choice (I like either Hawaiian sweet rolls or Portuguese sweet rolls--each about 200 calories), mix together in large ceramic/microwavable bowl. I top off also with 1 Tbsp of chopped pecans or walnuts. Mic for 3 minutes. I usually top off with a bit more almond milk so I get a full serving of almond milk and mic for 30 more seconds.
3) pasta, marinara sauce, and low-fat shreaded cheese of choice
4) low-fat/cal hot dog buns, grilled soy hotdogs, and cover with some shreaded cheese and mustard.
5) I make kasha in advance and keep on hand for fast "fried rice" like foods.
Kasha: in a large hot pan pour 1-2 cups dry kasha and mix with one to two eggs; mix until no clumps and kasha is dry. In separate pan boil 2-4 cups water (or veggie broth) and dump in to hot kasha pan. Cook until water is soaked in (say about 40 minutes). Let this completely cool before placing in containers for the fridge.
6) Mixing your kasha with stuff: chop up any veggies you have on hand (celery, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, bell peppers, green beans, onions, garlic, chillies, zuccinis, anything). Just remember to keep all the ingredients about the same size (I usually want them small 'cause they cook faster). Heat the pan, add about 1 tsp. EVOO. Add onions to hot oil and add garlice after the onions are just about done. Wait a minute or so, stirring so the garlic doesn't burn (that's bad). Now, toss in all your veggies. Sometimes, I have some veggies I prefer slightly more cooked all the way through. I toss those in first. Wait and stir occassionally. Now add the veggies you don't mind if they're "aldente". Spice up at this point with black pepper and salt if you need. Hopefully the veggies are cooperating and have a bit of their own juices released (salt usually helps to release juices when you first toss the raw veggies in). Add about 1/2 cup of kasha per serving. Personally, I tend to have tons of veges and a little bit of kasha. You can also open a can of chick peas, pinto beans or black beans (well anything you like, really) and add a 1/2 cup for each serving too. Now, you've created a meal. You can also make up a bunch (especially if you don't want to find a plastic container for the beans and if you've enough kasha and veggies to pull off either a side dish or entre for the next day). All these will store for a few days. Don't wait too long or the whole effort goes to pot.
7) Hot fennel, apple and onion. Chop up a whole fennel, a whole onion, and 2-3 cored apples. Mostly looking for large slices like a cole slaw. In a large caste iron, add about 1 Tbsp EVOO. Once oil's hot, add onions and carmelize. Add the fennel and apple together. Add fresh ground black pepper and a touch of salt. (I recently gave up salt so I'm downsizing all my suggestions). Cook until all's tender. My favorite way to serve is about a cup of this dish on top of a huge plate of raw baby spinach. I'm a freak about calcium so I'll usually add 1/4 cup low-fat shreaded cheddar cheese to this but I'm not sure if anyone else would find this tasty. I'm from a dairy state so NOTHING can go wrong with a bit of dairy on top!
Last edited by iaradajnos; 09-14-2009 at 03:20 PM.
And you don't have to cook quinoa (which I get at my local grocery store) the weird way the recipe says. After rinsing (you have to do that!), you cook it like rice.
This one is super easy and good, especially if you like spicy food:
I made both of these for non-vegans, and they loved them. I also have a wonderful Sechuan Tofu dish that is incredible, but you mentioned you're not into tofu. I will say that my meat-eating, tofu-hating DH was skeptical, but now it's his favorite
Black Bean Stew
1 bag of dried black beans with cooking liquid (soaked/rinsed/cooked) or 2 cans (if I use canned, I drain/rinse & add more water)
1 onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped & seeds removed
Leftover cooked basmati rice (about 1/2-3/4 cup)
1-2 cans organic fire-roasted tomatoes (depending on your taste)
Lots & lots of chopped garlic (3 or more cloves, I garlic, so I put tons)
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp oregano
2-3 tsp cumin
Salt & pepper to taste
Throw it all in a big pot, cover & cook until all the flavors meld together. Serve hot w/cheese on top & dollap of sour cream (and in my case lots of hot sauce!). It's great the first time, but even better the next day!
Favorite Veggie Meals?
