Meatless May: Week 2!

So… I know I’m a few days late on posting this, but it’s been a busy week!  Week 2 of Meatless May wasn’t quite as organized or well planned as the first week, but overall it’s still going great! 

Tuesday

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they try to eat vegetarian is that they start eating tons more pasta and potatoes to compensate.  There’s nothing wrong with pasta or potatoes, but when they become a major part of your diet, you’re not leaving much opportunity to get any protein.  But I do love pasta, so I figured it was about time for some Penne Asparagus Alfredo… Yum!  It was a quick and easy vegetarian meal without just reheating leftover or microwaving a veggie burger or something.  You could really do this with a variety of vegetables, but Asparagus is what I happened to have on hand at the time.  I’ve you’ve been reading about Meatless May from the beginning, you’ll notice that this is the only pasta I’ve had in 2 weeks – I’ve been very conscious of avoiding the over-pasta-fying mistake!

Wednesday

For some reason after work, I was really craving a smoothie on Wednesday… unfortunately I got a bit too adventurous with my ingredients and ended up not being able to drink it.  It was not exactly delicious.  I lucked out that my parents were having Italian food though, so I stole a piece of garlic bread and had that along with a salad and a bowl of Campbell’s 100% Natural Minestrone soup!  Not what I was in the mood for, but it was good, and I guess you can’t win ‘em all!

Thursday

When I made quinoa last week, my mom tried a bit, and she commented that it would probably be good made like fried rice with veggies and soy sauce… I love Chinese food, so it’s safe to say that I loved the idea!  If you know how to make homemade fried rice, you can use your favorite recipe and simply substitute quinoa for the rice!  I’ve never made fried rice before, but I know the basic concept and my mom is a pro, so she helped me out!  If you’ve never made fried rice before, it’s really not that hard… There are plenty of recipes online, and I will be posting mine soon!

Obviously, regular vegetable fried rice is already vegetarian.  The main benefit to substituting quinoa is that it is a “complete protein.”

Friday

Friday I was visiting my old roommate after work and then going line dancing.  Normally, I would just go over to her place and we would either cook something quick or order delivery.  The vegetarian options for pickup or delivery are pretty limited, and half of them are pizza, so I gave her a call ahead of time to ask if she’d mind if I just brought over some veggie burgers and baked potatoes for us to eat.  She’s not vegetarian, but she likes black bean burgers and was willing to try the other veggie burgers, so it all worked out!  Veggie burgers and baked potatoes are pretty basic, but this was my first situation in which I had to figure out how to be a vegetarian when I was going to be eating at someone else’s house, so I figured it was worth noting. 

Saturday

My mom, sister and I were going to a late movie as the beginning of our Mother’s Day gift to my mom.  We’d all had a fairly busy afternoon and wanted something simple and easy, so we made pizzas!  Individual pizzas are pretty common in our house and are easy to go vegetarian.  We use the ready-made pizza crusts, and on mine I had mushrooms and Morningstar Meatless Crumbles along with canned pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese.  The great thing about making pizzas at home, is that you can make each person’s differently so everyone is happy!  By making them at home, you are also cutting down on a lot of the grease and you can choose your own healthy ingredients – vegetarian or not!

Sunday

For Mother’s day we went out for brunch at a nice local restaurant, and I’ve gotta admit, the smell of bacon was tempting at first!  We had a bit of a wait, and I was hungry, and of course the main thing you smell in any restaurant at breakfast time is bacon, so I was feeling very jealous of my mom and sister who I knew would be eating it.  But once I got up to the buffet line, I saw all of the other amazing looking food and didn’t even have room on my plate for the bacon by the time I got to that end of the line…  Eggs, hash browns, mushroom and spinach mini-crepes, roasted vegetables, and fresh fruit had my plate pretty full!  A multigrain blueberry pancake topped with just a touch of hot cinnamon apples and I was set!  My sister did get another plate with quite a bit of bacon on it, but by the time she had it, I was too full to really want it anyway.  Bacon was really the one food I was expecting to be the most challenging.  I actually rarely eat bacon, and when I do it’s a pretty small portion, but I knew that the first time I was with someone who was eating fresh bacon would be tough.  Luckily this time there was plenty of other healthier, vegetarian, and yummy food to distract me.

Monday

On my first day of going meatless, I made Quinoa Stuffed Peppers, and they were delicious!  I still had some quinoa leftover from my “fried rice” style quinoa, so I decided to make the stuffed peppers again!  Since I wasn’t planning on making a batch of the black bean and corn salad this time, I decided to add black beans and corn to my stuffed peppers, much like the original recipe I referenced.