Vegetarian Recipes

If you go to easytopreparemeals.com and click on the link that says Easy Recipes, you can choose to search for Vegetarian and there are over 100 recipes to choose from. Let me know if you have any questions.

K. Sharp

This is my favorite summer dish (and I'm not a vegetarian) and it has pine nuts which are a good source of protein. If your kids still eat meat they might like diced chicken in it too. My two year old even loved the capers:

1 1/2 lb tomatoes, cored & diced (~4 cups)
1/2 small red onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2-3 Tbs capers
20-25 basil leaves cut in strips (awesome if you have access to a lot of basil. If not don't worry about it)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 lemons (sometimes gets lemon-y you can add sugar to balance it)
1 lb pasta (we use penne)
2-3 ripe but firm avocado
pine nuts (as much as you like)
salt & pepper

*Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, capers, pine nuts, basil, olive oil & juice of 1 lemon in a large bowl. Stir to combine, adding salt & pepper to taste.
*Cook pasta in boiling salted water.
*Meanwhile peel, pit & dice avocados into small bowl. Add juice of last lemon, toss gently.
*When pasta is al dente, drain well & toss with tomato mixture. Spoon avocado over top & serve.

We are not vegetarians and love this vegetarian meal!

Blackbean Tacos

1 can black beans (rinsed and drained)
1/2 yellow onion (diced)
1/2 red bell pepper (diced)
1/3-1/2 block cream cheese
1/8 c cilantro (finely chopped)
1 tsp cumin (ground)
juice of 1 lime

Sautee onion and red bell pepper until soft. Add cream cheese, cilantro, cumin and black beans. Stir until heated and cream cheese is melted. Squeeze with lime and serve in hot flour tortillas.

***we like to top it with the chipotle flavored Tabasco sauce for a little spice.

Check out any cookbooks written by Mollie Katzen. I love the Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and Moosewood cookbooks. Also Honest Pretzel for kids is great! Thought of one more called the Hopkin's Healthy Home Cooking (I'm using the 1999 edition) and its got some wonderful recipes... we especially love the salads; mine is falling apart. (and just to go on record: I am not benefitting financially from this recommendation in any way.) www.lovetolearn.net/catalog/category/detail/Cookbooks/14
Enjoy!

We are more flexitarian than vegetarian, but I have a few vegetarian options that we love.

A few things I make regularly:

- Veggie tacos. I use the frozen Boca veggie crumbles and/or crumbled tempeh and prepare it as I used to prepare ground beef then serve as tacos or taco salad.

- Vegetable curry. I buy the jars of curry paste from the Indian section of the grocery store. I use the crock pot and put in cut up potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, and a can of garbanzo beans. Then add some plain tomato sauce and the curry mix and cook all day. Serve over rice with a dollop of plain yogurt and cilantro.

- Assorted vegetables or sides. I'll prepare a 2-3 vegetables and serve that for dinner with whole wheat bread. My favorite way to prepare most veggies is to saute in olive oil with some minced garlic and then finish off with a squeeze of lemon and a little salt and pepper. I especially like to prepare kale, brussel sprouts, asparagus, and green beans this way.

- Big salad. I make salads at least 3-4 nights a week with lots of vegetables, some type of fruit, nuts, and feta cheese with a homemade vinaigrette dressing.

- Vegetable fried rice.

- Homemade vegetable soup.

- Spinach omelets or frittata with toast and fruit

- Pasta with assorted roasted vegetables and topped with olive oil, garlic, lemon, and parmesan.

I have "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" which is my favorite cookbook of all time. It is like a reference book as well as a cookbook because it has charts of how to cook various grains and vegetables and also lists multiple variation ideas for almost all the recipes. I've also gotten a few good ideas from "Feeding the Whole Family". I don't have it, but many of my vegetarian friends rave about the Moosewood cookbooks.

I've also gotten several good recipes from the food network, especially Barefoot Contessa (roasted red pepper and goat cheese sandwiches), Giada (warm vegetable salad), and Ellie Krieger.

A great place to start is one of the Vegetarian magazines @ Whole Foods. There's always great and easy recipes in there! Though I'm not a vegetarian, I often pick up Vegetarian Times magazine for the great food.

i have been vegetarian since the age of 12, its really fun to experiment with the different style of cooking, basically you can substitute any meat for a veg product., if you like spaghetti and meatballs, you can make the meatballs with crushed up veggie burgers, or better yet buy a bag of t.v.p. "textured vegetable protein", add boiling water to it, and your own spices, its protien without the rotting corpse aspect to it. kroger and h.e.b. have a wide variety of products ready made, any thing from "bacon" to chicken nugge5ts to, turkey slices all are made faux with things like soy, wheat, gluten flour, etcc.... and are very tasty. I reccomend morningstar farms brand(grillers, fake bacon, and chik nuggets), and tofurky brand (lunchmeat style deli slices), they are my faves. my husband is a meat eater but does not miss it, i won't cook it becasue i feel it is ethically/economically/ environmentally irresponsible of me to do so with so many choices in my path, plus with a history of cancer and heart disease in my family i don't want to tempt fate. You can find a myriad of restaraunts on happycow.com , and whole foods and central market have the best selection. I like to find a vegetable i have never had before, research it, and cook it two different ways, some of our faves are purple potatos, parsnips, raddicio, turnips,eggplant,leeks,spaghetti squash, tomatillos, endives , artichokes, even fried brussel sprouts. without meat being the staple of our diets we are forced to get creative within the american grocery store. I can give you a million recipes, tricks of the trade, just let me know how to narrow it down. Do you like mexican, chinese, indian or italian inspired? would you like to have mock meat?, or entirely new style of an all veg/fruit plate?, would you cook with alcohol?

You should try finding a good vegetable grilling cook book. Veggies on the grill are great. You can also go to Foodnetwork.com to find some good recipes.

I have a e-book of vegetable recipes. I've made some and they can be used as the main dish. Send me your email and i'll forward it to you. It has 185 pages!I have an uncle who is vegetarian, i'll check to see if he has some to. I know how hard it can be find recipes.
Good luck!

One of my fav recipes and the kids is zucchini boats. Boil , cut in half, scrap out some flesh out. mix flesh with cheese and spinach (add bacon for non-veg guests), fill the boats and place in oven until cheese is melted. parmesean and motz work well!

Try www.allrecipes.com I love this site:) This morning I got a news letter with vegitarian stuffed Bell peppers.
Hope this helps