Vegetarian / Vegan LUNCH!

This is a great thread! I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for 15 years and am always looking for new lunch ideas. I am not a morning person, so I try to make my lunches the night before. A couple of my favorite lunches:

- Roasted beet and quinoa salad. I roast a bunch of beets at once with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, individually wrapped in foil. Then I have them for several days with greens, quinoa, goat cheese (omit to make it vegan), thin red onion slices, fennel, pecans, and homemade red wine vinegarette. I also make larger batches of quinoa to eat later in the week either hot or cold in a salad.

- Roasted butternut squash and quinoa salad. I roast squash with some olive oil, cumin, garlic, chili powder, sage, salt, and pepper, and then chill. This salad is good with raw chopped carrots, celery, pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), parsley, greens, and a little grated parmesan (omit to make it vegan) on top. I make a homemade apple cider vinegar/lime vinaigrette for this salad.

- Leftovers! Most of the recipes I cook for dinner are 4-6 servings, so I dish up our plates for dinner (just my husband and me), and at the same time put portions in leftover tupperware-type containers.

- Greek-style salad. I use beets, chickpeas, cucumbers, tomatoes (only if they are in season), kalamata olives, a little feta, and greens. Homemade greek-style dressing with oregano. Sometimes I make this salad without greens, sometimes I use quinoa or couscous instead of greens, and sometimes I stuff it in half of a pita.

I have such a hard time with it too!!!!!!!!!! I'm always asking people for advice. Here's a couple of my lunches.

-Morningstar veggie chicken nuggets and a salad.
-A wrap with hummus and your favorite veggies.
-Soup!
-Subway Veggie Delite
-Left overs from dinner (pasta, homemade pizza, quinoa salad, rice and beans, etc)

I really need to plan ahead in order to get a good lunch. good luck!

here's my adaptation of a Cajun recipe called Catfish Courtbouillion...I've made it much more healthy and made it VEGAN FRIENDLY! It's a soup so if you have a microwave you are good to go; I make this in a super large batch and then freeze it in indiviual containers. ONLY 47 CALORIES & 0.5 G FAT PER CUP!!! I'm not kidding!

Cajun Vegetable Courtbouillon

INGREDIENTS:
Broth - 8 regular sz cans (about 16 cups?) Vegetable stock
Canned Veggies:
1 lrg can Hunt's whole plum tomatoes (break tomatoes into bite sz with fork)
1 can mild diced Rotel tomatoes
2 cans of sliced stewed tomatoes (I bought some that were already Cajun flavored, Italian variety would be good, too)
2 small cans of green chilies

Fresh Veggies:
2 large white or yellow onions (cut into large bite sz)
1 green bellpepper (cut into large bite sz)
1 orange (or red) bellpepper - use orange for the color (red is already in the soup with the tomatoes) (cut into large bite sz)
1 yellow bellpepper (cut into large bite sz)
1 reg sz bunch of celery (cut into large bite sz)
2 cups chopped kale

Seasoning:
4 tsp Old Bay (add slowly to your taste)
4 tsp minced garlic (again, add more or less to your taste)
optional: salt, pepper, cayenne(red) pepper, Tony's, or other Cajun seasoning (but Old Bay is my fav)


DIRECTIONS:
1) Combine all canned items into extra large pot. (if you don't have an extra large pot, then 1/2 the recipe)
2) Chop all bellpepper, onion, and celery into large bit-size pieces; add to pot. (I know it seems weird that you will be eating large chunks of this stuff, but trust me, after cooking for 2 hours this stuff melts in your mouth!)
3) Chop parsley and kale. Add kale to pot (hold out parsley for now).
4) Add minced garlic and Old Bay to pot.
5) Cover pot and simmer on stovetop for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Occasionally check pot to ensure enough liquid.
6) Add parsley last 5 mins of cooking.
Serve and enjoy!

I second leftovers! Fast, easy and usually delicious (or I wouldn't have made them for dinner!).