Vegetarian Lunches without bread in them?

My best advice is that there doesn't seem to be any straight forward way to approach this because there is SO MANY ideas. I realized that when I was trying to take it on from a general approach.

What I found that worked great for me was googling a main ingredient like: Avocados, black beans, pasta and searching up "Vegan/Vegetarian dish with such and such food". It then pulls up recipes that have that food in it plus other ingredients. Sometimes I don't have all the ingredients but a lot of the foods seem to be gourmet almost anyways. I just go off what I have and throw something together. Then I'll save the recipes I like in a Word doc that I can go off of again later.

I plan on getting like 7 good ones and using them in regular rotation every week. I want it to be economical and easy and also varied so I can keep going with it! I am in the same boat as you as far as lowering the evil carbs. I don't mind fruit carbs so much but the dang pasta/bread carbs suck. And sandwiches are VERY boring.

Hope this helps!

Brown rice with black beans and salsa, broiled tofu served over some steamed veggies and maybe some rice (I add Iron Chef General Tso Sauce to it, but you could add soy sauce or anything else), Gardein 7 Grain Chick'n Tenders (or any of their other products, all the ones I've tried are good!) with some steamed veggies, a quesadilla with a whole wheat low carb tortilla and some refried beans, and homemade black bean/chickpea burgers without the bun (or you could do frozen if you wanted) are all good options. And they're vegan too!

Veggies and hummus. Broiled tofu. Baked tempeh. Salads with beans/nuts/tofu/tempeh. Homemade veggie soup with beans/tofu/tempeh. Leftovers. You can get added protein from yogurt or soy yogurt.

Hummus and lettuce wraps!

My favorite vegetarian lunch is

2 cans black beans
1 can corn
3/4 cup salsa
chili powder
mushrooms
shredded cheese

heat on stove

It is supposed to be in a burrito but I like it just plain in a bowl It also last me a couple lunches.

Scrambled eggs, spinach and melted cheese ^_^

Vegetarian chilli?

I make quinoa salads a lot because it's very high in protein. I don't use a recipe, just whatever veggies and dressing I have on hand. Here's one I made last week:

cooked quinoa
black beans
tomatoes
corn
salsa or taco seasoning to flavor

You could look into juicing, or making your own smoothies... My favorite smoothie so far:
Handful of blueberries, 4 oz plain soymilk, a couple spoonfuls of non-fat yogurt, one banana, couple handfuls of spinach, and carnation instant breakfast pounch (preferably vanilla)... put it all in the blend and push the button, in about 20 seconds you have a low-fat, vegetarian, and packed with some protein smoothie that will fill you for hours, it works for me!!

Use soy "ground beef" substitute and make pasta with it. Also, there are amazing soy "chicken" tenders. I LOVE those things!

Carbs aren't evil, but if you're tired of things like bread, pasta, and rice there are lots of substitutes.

Zuchinni, mushroom, loads of other veggies stir fried is really good
A lettuce wrap
Salad with some sort of fruit and nuts is always good
Look up riced cauliflower
Cauliflower crust pizza

Google has loads.

=]

Veggie omlette, heavy on the veggies, made with two large or three small eggs. Add a little strongly flavoured cheese - but only a little! With a big green salad, I find it filling and tasty.

LOL, beans, beans, beans...hope you like beans! And while I do LOVE me some beans, I get tired of eating them all the time! I found a recipe once for protein salad that went something like:

Protein Salad
3/4 c. soybeans, shelled
3/4 c. rye berries (you can find them in the bulk section at Earth Fare)
1/2 lb. firm tofu
1/2 c. veganaise
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, peeled & diced
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded & diced
1/8 c. dried dill weed
1/8 c. apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp medium grind black pepper

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, cook soybeans and rye berries until tender. Let cool. Crumble tofu over cooled soybeans & berries. Add remaining ingredients and stir together. Chill. Serve by itself or over a green salad.

It's really tasty and summery and although there's edamame in there, I don't really think of them as 'beans'.

Good luck with your lunch adventures! :happy:

I just had two slices of a tomato and broccoli fritata, and a cucumber salad. You could also make a big stir-fry with tofu and vegetables. Soups are also a great low-carb option (throw in some beans or lentils for protein).

Not sure if you are opposed to brown rice but I just made some brown rice with (about 1/2 red) lentils and (1/8-1/16) cashews. Spray with Braggs aminos and it is absolutely delicious! So simple to make, I threw the cashews in the rice cooker with the rice. If I had a bigger rice cooker I could have thrown in the lentils too but red lentils cook up fast anyway. I am going to eat it with some spinach today--yumalicious.