OP, I thought of one more dish that I used to make a lot, when we were first transitioning away from meat: BBQ Jackfruit Sliders Recipe by Tasty
You can find canned jackfruit at Trader Joe’s.
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Thanks - that Nutrition Action link is helpful.. As an example, I looked at the Crackers articles. I learned about some new options and also was happy to read that our normal go-to of Triscuits is not too bad - The healthiest crackers: Don't bother puttin' on the Ritz | Center for Science in the Public Interest
I’d like to get away from having Triscuits with butter (a rare treat, but it was my snack last night) and Triscuits with cheese and do more crackers with hummus (2T = 2g proteins) or peanut butter (2T = 7g protein). Better yet is veggies with hummus etc, but sometimes I crave the cracker crunch.
A non-crunchy snack I like with a bit of protein is 1/2 banana + 1T peanut butter. I also like Fiber One bars but am trying to do less processed food.
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Have you ever tried Wasa crispbreads? On their own they kind of taste like drywall, but they are a great vehicle for things in place of bread (my go-to options are tuna salad, lox and cream cheese or avocado slices).
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My husband and I, after months of indulging in a stuck at home Covid diet that involved lots of bread baking, homemade pasta, etc, decided to refocus on eating healthier this past spring. That meant cutting way back on our carb intake, so meals became lean meats, fish/seafood and lots of veggies. Though we haven’t given up meat completely, we eat a lot of meatless meals now. It really did mean resetting the food pyramid mindset we learned as kids that had meat/protein, and sides of a starch and vegetable. It took us a little while to adjust but we both love vegetables, so it has been fun trying out new recipes. It also helps that my red meat lovers are both away at college, and my D at home is a fairly adventurous eater. We also eat a lot of hearty soups in the fall/winter. Last night we had butternut squash soup sprinkled with chopped toasted walnuts and a spinach salad.
I have not yet tried this recipe but wonder if anyone has? Red Curry Lentils With Sweet Potatoes and Spinach Recipe - NYT Cooking
It appeared in the NY Times sometime earlier this year. I plan to make it next week. Attached screenshot is copied from my recipe app b/c I think you need a NYT subscription to view the link on their website. The last line is partially cut off but it basically says to sprinkle with cilantro and coconut flakes if desired (coconut flakes are listed as an optional ingredient but we don’t like them so I edited it from recipe when I saved it).
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Why can’t he do what my family does and ask the pizza place to put toppings on only half the pizza or one topping on one half and other toppings on the other half? Our pizza place never has any problem with it. I’ve even asked for 1/3 for me nad 2/3 for my son. They grumble that it’s too hard and I always have to assure them it doesn’t have to be exact, I won’t complain if I don’t get my two full slices of eggplant.
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@abasket , I will share what I’ve tried. This is what I made tonight. It was good, but too much balsamic. The odor was a bit overwhelming, I would cut in half. Other than that, tasty. I did put more salt and pepper. It seemed it could have used one more thing, but since I’m not a great cook, I don’t know what.
I’ve gotten all the recipes I pulled from here, and need to look at this thread. I agree, it’s nice to know that it’s been tried from here.
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Great idea, I’m going to do that next time. DS and I both enjoyed it…just was missing something. I’m just so conditioned to meat in casseroles.
I imagine it’s because they aren’t getting that full feeling from the meat, so they are eating more of everything. The vegetables seem to. E mixed with pasta, or some sort of grain, other things like beans, etc. you still need to watch it, I agree.
We do Wasa. More fiber than the avg cracker.
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If anyone watches this show, please come back with your thoughts.
Along the path of my decades on this planet I’ve tried numerous different approaches. Never any of the true fad diets (Atkins, Paleo, the all carb all the time 80’s, the no fat, the all fat etc). At times I’ve felt great at times I’ve felt horrible. What was weird was some of the times I felt best I found coincided with a less ‘healthy’ eating pattern.
It took until very recently to figure out I simply can’t eat a lot of the ‘supremely good for you’ foods. Why - finally figured out that I have a FODMAP issue with beans, lentils, some grains, high starchy veggies, all stone fruits. And then some. I finally figured out why, after choosing the ‘healthy’ salad at a restaurant I was completely bloated (think 6 months pregnant) and had to unbutton my pants. Why…the salad had chickpeas and a few beets and maybe a nice slice of peach. Prepared some beautiful delicata squash last night…boom…stressing the limits of my yoga stretch pants within minutes…
I know vegetarians who feel great with that approach. I would be in a constant state of abdominal distention. Yes, I’ve been told I need to adjust to beans slowly - um no. I’m only bringing this up because it would seem switching to a whole different - albeit - healthy eating pattern might wind up making some folks feel really, really awful. And the culprits might very possibly be the ‘very healthy’ things on your plate
Clearly YMMV.
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My personal experience is that I have been able to maintain my weight much easier on a vegan “diet” in addition to having a lot more energy overall - at 63 that’s a win win!
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Probably because he assumes everyone likes things the way he does - or at least they should - and FIL won’t say anything. We think he likes the company so much he doesn’t want to jeopardize it.
I am going to answer the original question with my three vegetarian favorites. Unfortunately two of these are not vegan (my apologies, I only noticed the “vegan” request after posting these). We do eat cheese in our family.
One thing that I make from time to time is pizza. I used to make the dough fresh, but have gotten a bit lazy. Our local grocery store has quite good dough that is ready to be rolled out flat and used for pizza. I also purchase the tomato sauce and mozzarella. Then I add some combination of olives, peppers, small tomatoes (particularly when they are available from our garden), feta, and/or mushrooms. If you use mushrooms, then you need to saute them first. Otherwise they add too much liquid to the pizza. The point of sauteing them is not to cook them, it is to get the liquid out. I am pretty sure that I cooked pizza for my wife on our second or third date.
Another thing that I make from time to time is spaghetti or other pasta (we like the little bow ties) with pesto and vegetables. The trick here is to get the pesto. We make it ourselves (we grow the basil) and freeze it. By this time of year (actually a couple of months ago) we have enough in the freezer to last for at least a year. Pine nuts is a nice addition.
A third favorite is grilled cheese sandwiches. I prefer Swiss cheese, some form of good bread, sauteed onions, usually pesto (again), and if we have it tomatoes from our garden. The tomatoes are best sliced quite thin assuming that you can get large ones. We will frequently have this with soup. Our local grocery store has some quite good vegetarian soups that are ready to be warmed up and served. I am not particularly good at getting the cheese to melt, and would not mind pointers. The obvious things to try might be to lower the heat and to cover the pan to try to get more heat “up” to the cheese.
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Absolutely second that. When one switches to a set of food ingredients containing a lot of new (or not previously tried in such quantities) ones, the microbiome can rebel.
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It’s been interesting to read studies lately about how some microbiomes are so much better for our health than others - and we often get what we have based upon what we eat.
I’m in a hurry now, but a quick google search pulls up tons of info if anyone is interested in reading about it. Part of our diet change is due to wanting a better microbiome.
Rainy day here, so I’m making this: Best Lentil Soup Recipe - Cookie and Kate and baking a loaf of bread. Thought I’d share it here as another meat-free idea.
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Today’s meal is spaghetti sauce with mushrooms from the Farmer’s Market on spaghetti squash with a side of salad. I’ll probably throw in some nuts and blueberries in the salad today as we have too many of both.
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I’m a big fan of Fiber One original cereal, which I eat for breakfast about half the time.
Mainly I like since a serving (2/3c) has only 79 cal, no sugar and 18g of fiber… and a bit of crunch to it. I did notice today that a serving of this cereal has 3g of protein…. not huge, but better than zero. Combined with 2/3c of 2% milk** and 2/3c blueberries it totals 9g protein, 20g fiber, 18g sugar/natural….220 calories. Some days I also add half scoop of collagen peptides** to my coffee for another 9g of protein.
** folks totally avoiding animal sources would want to avoid milk and also I think the collegian peptides
I am making this tomorrow for the first time!