Can you help me get out of the lentils-and-rice rut?!
Know any great kid-and-husband friendly dishes that can help me liven things up around here (with out giving in to dh, who keeps asking for more meat)?
Answers: I prefer to make 80-95% of our family meals vegetarian, but lately I've been in a rut with the same recipes over and over. Mostly I do one or two lentil dishes per week, one or two bean dishes, a soup of some kind (often split pea, everyone's tired of that), and frozen veggies and noodles for a quick and easy back up meal.
Know any great kid-and-husband friendly dishes that can help me liven things up around here (with out giving in to dh, who keeps asking for more meat)?
Here is a good site:
http://www.fatfreevegan.com
And here are some of my favourite vegetarian and vegan recipe ideas, each can be adapted to suit your likes / dislikes:
Baked vegetable lasagne, served with salad and crunchy buttered bread rolls.
Vegetable, pasta & cheese bake
Mexican (bean) enchiladas
Omelettes
Pizza - if you have time, make the base, as it is so much nicer than ready-made shop brought.
Crepes or pancakes served with sautéed mushrooms and a cheesy sauce (sauce optional)
Baked potato cut open and served with preferred toppings (butter, mashed avocado, sautéed mushrooms, fried or raw onion, baked beans etc…)
Bubble & Squeak (recipe below in link)
http://www.anenglishmaninamerica.co.uk/b...
Welsh Rarebit (also known as Welsh Rabbit – basically a “fancy” form of cheese on toast)
Chinese style stir-fry (selection of vegetables, bamboo shoots, marinated tofu etc…)
Curried vegetables (potato, pumpkin, onion, garlic, ginger, selection vegetables, curry powder etc…) served with jasmine rice
Vegetable hotpot
Vegetable risotto (Arborio rice is good for risotto)
Vegetable & bean risotto
Vegetable & pasta (vegetarian spaghetti bolognese, served with parmesan cheese and crunchy buttered bread rolls)
Nori rolls (recipe for raw vegan nori rolls below in link)
http://karenknowler.typepad.com/living_i...
Shepards pie (use ground soy instead of mince)
Baked apple (slit skin all around apple but not too deep, core apple, stuff hole with chopped dates, top with a light covering of brown sugar and baked in a pan of water for 45 mins) Delicious on own hot or can be served with ice-cream.
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try mexican dishes... most can be altered to not include meat and/or dairy.
also a very helpful resource vegweb.com a guy told me about this site and its many recipes at a vegetarian mexican restaurant last week, actually. hmm.
stir fry veg and tofu is easy and veggie lasagne is a good one to have on stand- by some of the fake meat is good for a change, roast veggies and nutmeat is my favourite with nice veg gravy
Wow, sorry about your dilemma. You should really get out there and find some great recipes online. It's really helped me. I make at least three new recipes each week. It's exciting. You can make any number of things and stick them in a pita shell or you can even make a quick vegan pizza by using a pita as the crust.
I make some asian, mexican, american, african, indian, etc. There's so much out there that it's hard to tell you to make just this thing or that thing.
A website that has a lot of international vegan recipes is at: http://www.ivu.org/recipes/index.html
Also take a peek at my vegan blog. It's strange really. The first time I've ever made lentils was just the other night. http://kylesveganblog.blogspot.com/
1000 vegetarian recipies has helped me liven things up when I needed a good idea. There's some great stuff in there. I usually go with stir fry, chili, garden burger tacos(just break up the patties while frying them and add taco seasoning), garden burger sloppy joes(same thing, and add sloppy joe stuff). There's a good company called tasty bite that makes these neat little packaged Indian dishes. If the kids like potatoes, or peas there are some good choices there, but I would stay away from the spicier dishes.
A personal kick it up for me is grilled marinated portobellos. I take the mushrooms, as big as I can find (cut off the stems and wipe away all debris), and marinate them in a mixture of wine, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, onion, salt and pepper (I change these according to my mood, sometimes adding basil, oregano, or thyme) for 15-30 min. While they are marinating I fire up the grill and sometimes core and clean some red bell peppers to add to it. Then, I grill them up till they're nice and cooked through, and if I use the bell peppers I wait till they're nice and black in most places. You can use them together, or serve the mushrooms like steaks. Normally I serve a little salad, roasted corn, or rosemary roasted potatoes with it. Hubby loves it, and doesn't miss meat at all.
I have a really good one! Totally vegan too. My mom used to make it for me when I still lived at home...You can get the vegetarian ground "meat" at pretty much any store in the area. Then get some corn, fat free/vegetarian refried beans, tostadas, avocado and shredded lettuce or cabbage. Warm up the meat, beans, and corn, then start layering the tostada..First put some fat-free refried beans, then some of the ground "meat", then a scoop of corn, some shredded lettuce and a few slices of avocado!! It's really good, if you prefer a taco style or burrito, use corn tortillas they are vegan/vegetarian also!