Meatless recipes for a meat eating family?

Question

I used to eat meat every time I ate dinner. My mom knows its the easiest way to get protein without too many calories. But since I'm older I kinda want to try the whole vegetarian thing, I don't want to make things hard on my mommy when she makes dinner. I have made dinner without meat a couple times like tofu tacos (delicious) and cucumber sandwiches (pretty good) but what are some more meatless yet healthy dinner ideas?

Answer 1

Take some potatoes (Yukon gold, or the little red ones) and boil/microwave them until they are cooked through. Put some shredded marble cheese on top and put it in the microwave. The cheese will be melted onto the potatoes. Then put chopped green and red peppers, green onions, and diced tomatoes on top. This is an excellent and healthy meatless dish that is both filling and satisfying. It's one of my favourites. Good luck!

Answer 2

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/lentil...

Answer 3

Great meal ideas that pleases both the vegan and non vegan are:

Cheesy Bean and Cheese Enchiladas

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    1/2c flour

    1/2c nutritional yeast

    1 teaspoon salt

    1 teaspoon garlic powder

    2 cup water

    1 teaspoon mustard

    4 tablespoon margarine

    10 tortillas

    2 small cans enchilada sauce

    3 cans beans (white kidney, pinto, black), drained

    2 medium onions, chopped

    1 can olives, chopped

    1/4 cup chopped cilantro, 1/2 cup salsa (optional)

Directions:

In medium-large saucepan, combine flour, nutritional yeast, salt and garlic powder.  Add water and mix thoroughly.  Heat on medium heat until bubbling and thick.  Remove from heat and add mustard and margarine.  Set aside 1/2 cup of cheese sauce in separate container.  Add onion, beans, olives, cilantro and salsa to sauce. Mix it up.

Pour a 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan.  Place a tortilla in pan and cover in enchilada sauce.  Spoon in filling.  Roll and push to one end of pan.  Continue until all tortillas filled.  Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on top and then spread reserved cheese sauce on as last step.  Bake at 350 until brown, 30-45 minutes.

Serves: 6, Preparation time: 45 m

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=5980.0

Barbecued Seitan Ribz with mashed potatoes or potato salad, ratatouille, mac and cheese, and biscuits. - http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/05/bar...

Veggie Pot Pie

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    1 frozen pie shell, or fresh dough if you have time

    2-3 cups veggie broth

    1-2 potatoes

    3 medium carrots

    a variety of veggies such as green beans, zuchinni, mushrooms, or just about anything.

    1 package frozen spinach

    vegan grated or sliced cheddar to cover pan in two layers

    lots of good spices: garlic,

    cumin, tarragon makes it savory, whatever you like.

Directions:

Thaw pie she'll and try real hard to take one 1/2 out of the tin w/o it breaking into a million pieces. If you manage, you are a god(dess).  Meanwhile, cook chopped veggies (NOT spinach, just keep it till later).  Cook in micro or oven till about 3/4 cooked.  To make sauce, heat broth in large kettle, add spices, and lower heat.  Add slowly either cornstarch or flour (I use flour), till slightly thickened.  You can add dairy free milk and use veggie buillon cubes.  Add to this cooked veggies and coat them w/sauce.

Meanwhile, layer 1/2 cheese on bottom of lower crust.  Spoon in veggies and sauce, then add spinach on top.  add rest of cheese on top of that, and close it up as best as you can w/ the torn top shell. at least mine always tears. bake at 400 for about 45 min, till crust is brown and delicious cheese and juice oozes out.

Serves: 3-4, Preparation time: Less than 1 hour

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=6863.0

The Un-Meat Loaf

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    1 cup cooked brown rice

    1 cup wheat germ

    1 cup instant oats or oat bran (uncooked)

    1/2 cup walnuts, chopped fine

    1 cup mushrooms, chopped fine

    1 medium onion, chopped fine

    1/2 bell pepper, chopped fine

    1 medium carrot, shredded fine

    1 teaspoon dried thyme, marjoram or sage

    2 tablespoons fresh parsley finely minced

    2 tablespoons soy sauce

    2 tablespoons prepared mustard

    ketchup

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mix for 2 minutes with a wooden spoon.  Pack in to a 4 x 8 loaf pan sprayed with Pam and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until lightly browned.  You may wish to top the loaf with ketchup after about 40 minutes, then continue baking the final 20 minutes.  Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

NOTE:  The vegetables should be chopped as finely as possible.  If you have a food processor this would be a great time to use it.  Put each vegetable and the nuts in one at a time, pulse until finely ground. Then dump in to a big bowl with all other ingredients for final mixing.

This recipe freezes well too!  Just wrap in foil and then in a freezer bag.  To reheat either slice and warm in the microwave or reheat covered in a 350 oven for 20-30 minutes.

Serves: 8, Preparation time: 1:10

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7614.0

Beef Stroganoff

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

    about 1 pound of seitan, (I use Beef Minit Meat) prepared & cut into strips

    1 large onion, diced

    6 cloves of fresh garlic, minced

    2 cups of Imagine Brand Cream of Mushroom Soup

    2 tablespoon Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream

    2 cups of sliced white mushrooms

    1 teaspoon sea salt

    1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

    black pepper to taste

    cooked pasta of your liking

Directions:

This stroganoff tastes exactly like the dish my dad used to make when I was a kid.  Since becoming vegan, I never thought I would have it again.  Delicious!!

Prepare your Seitan and cut into strips.  In a large frying pan heat up your olive oil on medium heat.  The heat is very important, because you want to brown the onions.  You don’t want them undercooked or overcooked, just a nice brown color.  Add 1 large white onion, diced.  Add 5-6 cloves of fresh garlic diced fine.  Sautee mixture until onions are browned.

Add your mushrooms.  At my house, we use a BUNCH of mushrooms. (about 2 cups) and saute them until soft on low heat.  Add 1 teaspoon of sea salt, ½ teaspoon of garlic salt, and some black pepper.

When mushrooms are soft, add in your Imagine brand Cream of mushroom soup.  Add 2 dollops of sour cream to the pan and mix well until creamy.  Then add in your prepared seitan strips.  Cook on low 15-20 minutes so that the seitan can soak up all the delicious gravy.

Serve over pasta, or add your pasta to the pan & mix.

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=7707.0

Answer 4

There's always the simple salad.  Also, you could eat bread and all that.  And nowadays you can go to the store and get vegetarian meals.  You can also eat spaghetti and a meatless tomato sauce.  There are tons of "vegetarian" based meals.

Answer 5

Go to pbs.org and look up "America's Test Kitchen" and they have some good recipes for Meatless Stir Fry with Mushrooms as the "Meat" part...

You don't have to use meat substitutes when cooking without meat... There are MANY MANY MANY Asian foods that are either vegetarian outright or can be made without meat.

READ THE PACKAGES of the meat substitute foods... Make sure they are not LOADED with sodium!

The amounts of sodium in a single meatless-hotdog is almost enough to freaking kill you! It is shocking what they put in foods that are supposed to be "Healthy Alternatives to Unhealthy Foods". Some even continue to put transfats and all sorts of preservatives in them... They just expect people to fall for their pretty pictures on the label and not read the actual ingredient lists!!

A good place to read about vegetarian convenience foods is: http://heateatreview.com/

They have TONS AND TONS of reviews on easy to cook foods and a LOT of them are meatless!

PLEASE... Just make sure that you are becoming vegetarian for YOUR OWN REASONS that are based on FACTS and not P.E.T.A. propaganda and LIES.

I see the videos of animals being abused on farms ALL THE TIME and you need to know that those videos have lead to MUCH better regulation and laws regarding animal abuse.

Your average farmer... even at those big 'evil' corporate farms... does not want to hurt any animal...

The average farmer wants to keep their animals HEALTHY because that way they breed more babies and grow better and lead to more profit if nothing else!

Farmers are people that UNDERSTAND AND LOVE animals and though there are some sadistic b******s out there... 9 out of 10 farmers do NOT abuse their animals and treat them with respect.

Those videos are like p**n... Yes, this stuff happens but in the real world... The acts seen are few and far between...

PLEASE do not base your decisions on POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS that masquerade as 'Charities' and, like both PETA and Green Peace, keep DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS and ARSONISTS on their pay rolls and encourage people to destroy private property and even send their speakers to universities to show kids how to turn a gallon milk jug in to a home made incendiary device...

I encourage you to do whatever you feel is ‘Right’ but PLEASE… Make up your mind based on FACTS and not evil propaganda put out to brainwash people to supporting TERRORISM!

Video about P.E.T.A. - They let their records speak for themselves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ijLulwU...

Answer 6

-Stir fry; green onions, green/red peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, tofu, asparagus etc.

-Whole wheat spaghetti, tomatoes basil sauce, garlic bread.

Meatless chicken, wild rice, green salad with chickpeas, beans etc

Etc, the possibilites are practically endless

Answer 7

try boca and veggie burgers. not all veggie burgers are good but california something ones are AMAZING!!! i swear they are like my fav. food. boca burgers are soy basically but they taste like real burgers.

&& also u can try things like wraps that has peppers, corn, salsa, rice, beans....delicious!!