Vegetarians I need your help..What does a day look like for you?

[hiddenhippie6]

I don't know why but I have been really turned off to meat lately. :shrug I think my body is trying to tell me something. Anyway I have no idea what I would even eat if it doesn't involve meat. All our meals really revolve around what meat we are going to eat that day. I was wondering if you would be able to give me a sample menu of what you would eat in a day. Thanks :mrgreen

[thomer]

Breakfast - Cereal, bagel, or egg sandwich

Lunch - Mac & Cheese, Quesadillas (beans and cheese), Sandwich (PB&J mostly), or salad

Supper - Fajitas, Spaghetti, Pizza, Stir fry, stuff like that


My DH is a meat eater, so I have to accomidate him too. What I basically do is treat the meat as a side item and make something else the main focus of the meal. Maybe you could try thinking like that at first. When I meal plan, we mostly think about what genre of food we are going to eat (mexican, italian, chineese, etc)

[lumpofclay]

OK, I'll just take today:

Breakfast: home-made whole-grain wheat cinnamon rolls (without any icing)
(made them last week, but froze some)

Lunch: Thai noodles with veggies & cashews and kiwi
(boxed Thai noodles...can't remember the brand...prepared with loads of broccoli, mushrooms, red onion, garlic, and red bell pepper)

Snack: :blush I can't remember! The girls had Triscuits & cashews, though. Gosh...what did I eat?

Dinner: pizza!
(store-bought delicious crust, topped with mushrooms, green olives, black olives, kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, red bell pepper, garlic)

Typically, we have salad with pizza, but we didn't have time to fix the salad tonight. It's a little out of balance, as I can see little protein in our day (today). I bake a lot of our breads (from freshly-milled whole-grain wheat), so we get a lot of protein that way.

[expatmom]

home-made whole-grain wheat cinnamon rolls


Not to hijack this thread, but could you post this recipe? These sound yummy & a bit healthy too!

[hiddenhippie6]

OK, so far it is looking pretty good! I could totally live off of that stuff!! :tu

[emmalouise]

I'm no longer a vegetarian, more a semi-veg now (my dh wants me to eat meat when I'm pregnant or lactating and I respect that), but I still have a lot of vegetarian days.

My breakfast is always homemade wholegrain muesli (I make up a huge jar of it, it lasts a couple of weeks). In it I have wholegrain oats for supply and energy, sliced almonds for good fats, protein, and calcium, diced dried apricots for iron (and taste), sliced dried figs for iron and calcium (and taste), oat or wheat bran to stop the dried fruit from sticking together, and sunflower or pumpkin seeds (depending on what's available, for good fats and protein.

I have a cup of that with 1/2-1 cup of unhomogenised organic whole milk. It is a huge breakfast! I also take iron, zinc and calcium supplements with breakfast now, and a pregnancy and breastfeeding multivitamin.

Lunch is usually a salad, I also like to eat steamed veges like cabbage, carrot, and peas with an organic egg and fresh ginger, reduced salt soy sauce and a little chilli powder.

Dinner is either some kind of bean/rice combo (curry or chilli or casserole) with salad or other steamed veggies (sometimes the veggies are in the bean dish). Wholegrain bread, hummus (or any bean dip) with crudites and salad is a great, quick standby meal for me.

snacks are usually cereal snack bars or homebaked wholegrain muffins or fruit cookies, fruit, tea and coffee, organic yoghurt, oatcakes.

If I'm pushed for time I also eat things like canned baked beans with toast and a little cheese (which is yummy and not too unhealthy), or peanut butter on toast with fruit.

[ShangriLewis]

I'll try to think back a few days.

Today I slept in really late :O and had a taco salad. I took a dinner plate and filled it up with 2 big handfuls of baked tostitos, home cooked pintos, iceberg lettuce and homemade salsa.

snack: Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookie (on recipes board) and a cup of original rice dream

I will probably need another snack before dinner. I am betting it will be a smoothie of mixed frozen fruit, 1 teaspoon of vitamineral greens and water or rice milk.

Dinner: I will most likely make more pizza dough or I will go get some english muffins for making pizza. I will top mine with pizza sauce, tofu ricotta, pineapple, black olives, fresh chopped garlic, zucchini...I think that's all I have left from Friday. We made pizza on Friday and I sauted up some gimme lean made into meatballs in olive oil and that was a big hit! If I get to the store to buy English muffins I will do a big salad with that as well ( I need lettuce).

I will probably have some tea before bed as well.

[Punkie]

I really like smoothies for breakfast, because I'm SOOOO not a breakfast person. Its pretty much the only way that I can convince myself to eat anything in the morning. Lunch is usually the meal where I will eat a convienience food, if I want one. This is where I have my frozen meals, leftovers, or boxed stuff. Dinner has mostly been ethnic foods (my family prefers Italian and Mexican) because it seems like ethnic foods are really easy to make meat-free. If we want "American" food, then my family can have a meat (chicken or steak usually) and I make a high-protein side dish, like rice and beans, or a huge salad with nuts or beans that I use as my meal.

Here's my day today (not including snacks)

Breakfast - I made the kids pancakes that were loaded up with whole wheat flour, wheat germ, and other healthy yummies (plus chocolate chips!). I made myself a smoothie with soy milk, strawberries, banana, and wheat germ :yum (You can't taste or "feel" the wheat germ, fyi)

Lunch - Quorn breaded "chicken" patty (http://www.quorn.us/range/products/patties.htm) in marinara sauce with spaghetti (it was kind of like chicken parmesan (These are soy-free, but have a little dairy...)

Dinner - My dh is grilling a steak, and I'm having a ton of grilled veggies (corn, mushrooms, tomato, pineapple, maybe some tofu) with rice and beans :)

Yesterday was kind of a crazy day....
Breakfast was on the run, so I had a South Beach diet meal replacement bar :O I literally ate it on the drive to church.

For lunch I made up some pasta with a homemade peanut sauce (peanut butter, garlic, fake milk, soy sauce, and red pepper flakes). The boxed Thai kits that Jessica mentioned are also really yummy, but I've already eaten all of the ones that I bought for this week :grin

Dinner was a friend's birthday party.

I think you'll find it quite easy. Here was my dinner plan for last week. Only the meatballs were fake meat. The rest of the meats were for my family, but I didn't eat them.

S - Crystal's vegan lasagna
M - Simply Beautiful 4-layer Supreme Burrito Pie (http://vegweb.com/recipes/dinner_pies/8516.shtml)
T - Soup and Sandwiches (BLT or vegab croissants (http://shmooedfood.blogspot.com/2006/03/vegan-croissants.html) w/ avocado)
W - Spaghetti w/ Meatballs and Garlic Bread (fake meatballs)
R - Steak, salad, and veggies
F - Bean enchiladas
S - Chicken, rice, beans, salad

[hiddenhippie6]

Thanks punkie!!! I am gong to go to the store right now, so I can make Simply Beautiful 4-layer Supreme Burrito Pie. It looked GREAT!