[KindaSortaAthlete]

Heya folks!!

I'm looking for ways to cut down on the amount of whole grains I eat. Being a vegetarian, I'm finding this sort of a challenge. It is easy to use whole wheat pasta, brown rice, or whole wheat breads to build a meal around. But I think I'm eating too much of them and would like to find some options!

So far I've got two meals that are grain free - veggie omlette and a salad w/veggies and beans.

Not a lot to go on there

Does anyone have any other veggie (I'm ok w/dairy), grain free, tasty meal ideas???

Thanks in advance!!

[amandie]

I totally have no idea on what to recommend, LOL... So I decided to google and found this. The zucchini bites looks yummy!!! I also found this- a lot of the recipes on there look yummy!

You could always make zucchini lasagna - pretty yummy! If you need more protein and/or calories, you could add an egg or egg whites to the ricotta-spinach mixture (although I use cottage cheese since I always have that on hand.)

HTH!

[francesy]

I always seem to do a variation on a root vegetable casserole most weeks. If you don't like lentils, you could add pulses, or even more vegetables.

It's filling and nutritious, one of my faves. Type "root vegetable stew" into a search again and you'll find loads of base recipes.

[seaurchin]

I cook spaghetti squash with an avocado basil sauce which is simply delicious and very simple to make. I also do a mushroom and veggie fried 'rice'. The rice is made from grated cauliflower.

[KindaSortaAthlete]

Amandie - thanks for the links! I'm going to have to try that lasagna!

francesy - I need to try lentils, I really haven't used them before. It's been on my list of things to incorporate into healthy eating for sure. Thanks for the stew idea.

Seaurchin - avocado basil sauce sounds yummy!! Have a recipe for those meals by any chance? how do you make grated cauliflower?

[seaurchin]

Spaghetti Squash: cut in half, coat with olive oil, bake for 45 min at 350 degrees. Take it out of the oven, let cool. While this is cooling, in the magic bullet, blend a couple of tablespoons of evo and a couple of cloves of garlic. Add about 1 cup of basil and one avocado. Scrape Spaghetti Squash into a frying pan and add mixture (also to warm up sauce). You can add Gardein chick'n scallopini or other source of protein.

[seaurchin]

Cauliflower 'rice': I grate it as I don't have a food processor. I substituted for rice in a veggie fried rice recipe. I use all the other ingredients including soy sauce, ginger, etc that you would find in your favorite fried rice recipe. I put tons of mushrooms and other veggies. It is easy and quite delicious.

[JM1911A1]

I've started having a surprisingly filling salad of iceberg lettuce (3/4 of a bowl - chopped into thin slivers) with either crunchy noodles or I guess you could substitute for something nutty or something? On top I put a variation on a seasame chicken recipe using thin slices of carrot, quorn pieces and capsicum cooked in a seasame sauce (1 tbsp seasame oil, 1 tbsp olive oil, 3 tsp mirin sauce and 2 tbsp soy sauce - sometimes a dash of sweet chili) and tossed in a few tea spoons of seasame seeds. And then I steam some cauliflower and broccoli cut into small slices too. Really filling, really delicious and no grains in sight (if you substitute out the noodles)