@conmama correct me if I’m wrong, but one of the obstacles for you might be since you are the family cook but don’t LOVE cooking or adventurous cooking - is to find recipes that are simple enough and don’t require you to line up 20 ingredients or 10 unusual ingredients to just put a meal on the table.
You can get past that with some simple recipes. I would make your “10” ones that appeal to you in not only taste but ease to make. You’ll be more likely to repeat them and to look for more!
I’ll have to avoid watching that. Ha! One of my daughters is a vegan, but my other daughter and myself are celiac and can’t have dairy, so our diets are already restricted enough (we try not to eat gluten free subs for regular gluten foods because they’re generally really bad for you, and expensive to boot), so I can’t bring myself to give up meat and eggs too.
We are not vegetarian, but we limit our meat consumption to just every now and then, and only for things that there just isn’t a good substitute (e.g., one of my kids LOVES steak, so I grill one up about once a month). For everything else, I have just adapted our favorite meals to leave out the meat or use something as a substitute.
We eat a lot of beans. A lot. Vegetarian chili, tacos, rice and beans, chick pea curry, salads with roasted chick peas…
Yes to sweet potato and bean tacos. That’s a weekly staple in our house.
These are a favorite, too: Baked Buffalo Cauliflower Bites - FeelGoodFoodie I will often make a big batch and use it as a topping for a salad or filling for a taco.
As for meat substitutes - these for anything I would normally use ground beef in:
https://www.amazon.com/Quorn-Meatless-Free-Grounds-Frozen/product-reviews/B000WLZHQ4 and I use seitan strips for stir fry dishes: Traditional Seitan Strips
Some favorite recipes from Ottolenghi:
If you like Indian food - there are so many good choices. You can always tone down the chiles in the recipes.
Thanks for the recommendation. I have been kicking this around for a few months. DIL is a pescatarian, and I often went vegetarian for Lent when I was younger. I don’t eat a ton of red meat, but dh does. I’d love to change that, but I don’t like to cook already so this would feel like a major undertaking.
Additionally, I need about 80-100 grams of protein a day but don’t eat eggs or cheese or much dairy at all. I have no idea how I would meet that protein requirement without meat at all so no red meat will be the baby step. I’m also not big on beans, but I can make myself learn to eat them. Or I can just mainline protein powder!
Dh used to be a teacher, and back in the day when he would teach lessons about civil rights he would ask what is something that one day we will look back on and be surprised about how we treated others. When he first started the obvious answer was gay rights, but we were discussing this with neighbors a few weeks ago and I said how we treat animals for food.
I don’t necessarily love beans, but I’m not a big fan of tofu. I eat it, but it needs a lot of help to get interesting. I almost never eat products that are pretending to be meat (seitan, Beyondburgers etc) most of them are oversalted.
We never eat the processed stuff either - tofu yes, the other stuff is a hard no!
So, I made my first recipe tonight. Roasted cauliflower with Quoinoa Casserole. Made with marinara sauce, peas, onions and flavorings. It was ok. Just tasted like a side dish . I think a white fish would have been good with it. The problem is the 3 of us eat at different times and it just seems fish needs to be eaten right after being cooked. So, that’s better on a weekend.
I printed off about 10 recipes and git the groceries for this week. I’m bound and determined to do this. I imagine it’s like giving up smoking, you have to just do it. One gal on the show said, you can’t just do it in moderation, it’s still bad for you. Again, like smoking.
Maybe it would have been good with shrimp (or scallops)?
We still do eat plenty of meat, but we have been trying to have more fish and seafood in recent years. I try to always have frozen shrimp and scallops in the freezer… but when on sale.
I thought I’d share this week’s Purple Carrot recipe book - lots of yummy in there!
This recipe has two variations: chicken and cauliflower.
For those (like me) not yet ready to totally give up meat, one option is to choose locally grown meat partnered with sustainable farming (ie avoid feed lot beef). The Netflix “Kiss the Ground” was an interesting movie on this topic.
@conmama , I hope you’ll share some of the results of the meals you chose to give a whirl. Let us know how some of them turn out - for good or bad - and share the recipes! (if there are recipes!)
I would love to cut back on meat. We have two high school athletes at home and I eat low carb. It would be too hard right now to feed all of us easily without meat, but this is something to aspire to when they are out if the house!
I get you about veggie dishes feeling like side dishes. There is definitely a mindset shift that happens over time when you are used to a meal being a meat, a veg and a starch (as I was). I will say, the recipe you described would not work for me as a main because even though quinoa is a great source of protein, in my head, it serves as the “starch” component of a meal. I have to have beans or legumes, nuts, cheese or an egg in each meal for it to feel satisfying. I probably would have added cannellini beans to the dish you described (or topped the whole thing with some mozzarella cheese if you aren’t vegan).
My H is someone conditioned for meat as part of a meal. I can do without it a lot of the time. In 2020 (and then beyond) I instituted a firm “Meatless Mondays”. I would tell H on Sunday what I was making for Monday and he could choose to eat it or make plans to grill something else (he’s retired, doesn’t cook but can throw something on the grill to survive… 
)
I really enjoyed it! It encouraged me to try many new dishes - sometimes something more involved sometimes something as simple as a fancy grilled cheese. I rarely choose meat in the form of a hunk of meat (that’s how it feels to me!) on a plate. Throw a big chicken breast on my plate and unless it’s got a great sauce it will be my least favorite thing on the plate.
Maybe a key to not having your “entree” feel like a side is to have other delicious sides with it. A hot vegetable based entree, a crunchy salad with some protein (chick peas, cheese, nuts - whatever) and a whole grain good quality bread with the best butter you can find (good quality fat can also make a meal satisfying).
Mine too. He’s gradually changing, but the “training” is still there. I’ll admit it’s irritating when we’re with BIL and he makes multiple loud comments akin to, “What’s our family doing, giving up meat?”
We’re not giving up meat because I’m not at all convinced a total veggie diet is the best one for most humans, but I strongly believe a mostly veggie diet is best for most humans so that’s our goal.
H and I found out FIL isn’t always on board with BIL when it comes to pizza. BIL often “takes charge” there, rarely (never?) asking FIL’s opinion regarding meals - just making or ordering things and serving them. When we’re there we always ask FIL and give options. We decided on pizza one night and asked knowing BIL always orders pepperoni or meat lovers, so expecting FIL to choose one of those. His choice? Cheese. Just cheese. He thinks those with meat are way too greasy (as do I). We’ve told BIL, but I doubt he’s changed anything when he’s there. BIL has openly scoffed at my pizza choice (mushrooms, green peppers, onions, spinach, sliced tomatoes). I think he’s annoyed that H has been changing over the years and sees me (possibly correctly) as the reason. To us it’s super sad because we were all friends in college, SIL too (BIL’s wife).
Here’s the thing though. Not eating meat is one thing. But a person’s goal in not eating meat is NOT always eating healthier. You can not eat meat and still have a garbage diet that is carb/fat/calorie HEAVY.
I think that @conmama probably does have the goal of eating less or no meat but also eating fairly healthy. But many vegetarians do not eat healthy.
I have heard several people say they gained weight when they’ve gone vegetarian.
If anyone is interested, Nutrition Action is a short, almost monthly, magazine/newsletter that accepts no advertising and analyzes the latest subjects, studies, food options from stores and restaurants, and more with health in mind. They usually include a recipe as well.
We’ve been reading/using it for well over a decade now, possibly two+. Even my grown kids still read it. It’s nice having a no-ad source of easy to read info based upon studies.
CSPI puts it out. (I have no financial interest in the company.)