Need Vegetarian Meal Planner-HELP

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MeRevisitedAgain
MeRevisitedAgain Posts: 38 Member
in Recipes
I am day 1 on my vegetarian experience and am overwhelmed, by what type of meals I should eat. I'm getting nervous that my lunches will consistently be salads and soups. I also have a family. So my 3 children ages 16, 7 and 5 will be eating vegetarian 3 days a week for now. Breakfast is simple for me. However, lunch and dinner is a struggle. Please give me a list of what you eat as a vegetarian for lunch and dinners with a family. Give me suggestions on websites or free or cheap meal planners. I just joined Allrecipes about 20 minutes ago to have access to the meal planner and that seem to overwhelm me even more. I really want to give this all I got and give it a try. Also, I haven't found a piece of tofu yet no matter how it is prepared that I can swallow without gagging....so let's leave that out..lol.

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  • MorgueBabe
    MorgueBabe Posts: 1,188 Member
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    You can friend me and see what I eat.
  • adhruby
    adhruby Posts: 1 Member
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    Dont worry vegetarian isnt as hard as it sounds. I use the morningstar meal replacements and the meat crumbles are awesome! Im making tacos with it tonight. but you can put it in anything that you would have put hamburger. Eatingwell.com has some really easy good vegetarian meals. Try soups just use vegtable broth instead. sandwichs- be creative with veggies avacados are great fillers. Really its trying different recipes and finding things you like. Good luck!
  • takumaku
    takumaku Posts: 352 Member
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    www.dietitian.com/calchelp.php
  • daffodilsoup
    daffodilsoup Posts: 1,972 Member
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    Wraps, sandwiches, veggie burgers, chili and stir-fry are my favorite vegetarian stand-bys. Each of those can be changed so that you never eat the same meal twice! Really, anything you made with meat previously can be easily made vegetarian - baked ziti, lasagna, "seems-like-meats", pasta and veggies, skillet meals. A favorite family meal of mine is lentil sloppy joes - they cook up so wonderfully that I prefer it to the beef version! The list goes on and on.

    Also, check out some of my favorite meatless blogs:

    www.theppk.com
    www.blog.fatfreevegan.com
    www.ivu.org/recipes
    http://wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes (great for ideas)
    www.nomeatathlete.com

    Also, sites like epicurious have functions where you can search by dietary needs and ingredients you have on hand.

    The world of vegetarian food goes so far beyond tofu - I promise it's not a requirement for eating vegetarian! :) Don't feel like you have to eat certain types of foods.
  • jigglewiggles
    jigglewiggles Posts: 173 Member
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    I've been eating a lot of greek salads last week. Also, if you're a fan of Chipotle, I've been eating my homemade version of a "burrito bowl", with cilantro lime rice, cuban black beans, guacamole, and corn salsa, it was very very good. Morning star makes some really good garden veggie patties, if you've ever had the veggie patty from Subway, they taste just like that to me. I usually fix them up as I would at Subway with all the veggie toppings I like, and a little bit of honey mustard. My daughter likes Morning star chicken nuggets, and corndogs too. If you're a pasta lover you can make vegetarian lasagna or meatless spaghetti, or sub noodles for spaghetti squash. If you and the kids like pizza, there's a recipe on here in the Recipe section for cauliflower pizza "dough", that they say is really good, you could make that with no meat or you can use the fake meat toppings. Here are the websites for the recipes for the bowl:

    http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/03/chipotle-cilantro-lime-rice-4-pts.html

    http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cuban-black-beans-ii/

    http://www.howsweeteats.com/2012/04/just-like-chipotles-corn-salsa/

    http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=guacamole_recipe
  • MorgueBabe
    MorgueBabe Posts: 1,188 Member
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    Quorn and bocca are both excellent fake meats.
  • IntegralPart
    IntegralPart Posts: 5
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    Mexican food is one of my favorite things to make vegetarian style. Beans are an excellent substitute for meat and are full of protein too!

    I've even found that red lentils cooked up with a little chili powder and tomato paste make some awesome taco filling.
  • rlmiller73190
    rlmiller73190 Posts: 342 Member
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    You can friend me! I'm a vegetarian and you can use my diary for some ideas. I have a blog too, but it's kind of a mix of recipes/fitness/general life weirdness. I try and get at least one recipe in every entry.

    undercoverdiva-asitcom.blogspot.com
  • bethanykf
    bethanykf Posts: 68
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    I'm terrible about meal planning so I paid someone else to do it for me. ;) I purchased a one year membership to http://www.thefresh20.com/ and I use that for meal planning purposes. There's some tofu in there but not too much. I just take those ingredients off the shopping list. I've been doing this since November with a couple breaks and it's been really nice. Everything is laid out for you. You can download a sample meal plan if you'd like to see what they're like.
  • KittyViolet
    KittyViolet Posts: 220 Member
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    Message me. I'm no vegetarian, but I have stumbled upon some tasty recipes that don't include any meat. I'd be happy to share them!
  • tnqnt
    tnqnt Posts: 397 Member
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    Feel free to friend me...I am a vegetarian.... :-)
  • CassieReannan
    CassieReannan Posts: 1,479 Member
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    Add me, I have been vegetarian since I was a kid
  • lkenn67
    lkenn67 Posts: 215 Member
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    I have to second the vote for the Fresh 20. I bought a groupon so got a year of meal planning for $20. They provide meals, shopping lists, and nutritional value. Check it out.

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