5 Basic Meatless Recipes

Many of you are half way through the year and are looking for a little boost in your health, figure, or life all around. It's the perfect time to omit meat from your diet! It's not at hard as you think and I'm here help you through. Please leave a comment! It's good to share you thoughts, experiences, and hesitations. Not only can I help you but other readers can chime in with their advice and experiences as well. If you're looking to go meatless I've got 5 Basic Meatless Recipes for you that will help you on your way. If nothing else, you'll have a whole weeks worth of ideas covered. And if you need even more ideas than these, check out my free meal plans. 

Before I get into the recipes, let me give you some tips to help you enjoy and conquer these recipes. When you're omitting meat from your diet, you may very well be omitting the food you eat the most. In America, meat has taken over so much of our plates over the past decades that today we hardly recognize it. So it's natural for you to wonder 'what will I eat?'. FIBRE IS KEY. Fibre is what fills your stomach. It is also key to health, longevity, and disease prevention- especially when we're talking cancers. There is no such thing as too much fibre, so don't be afraid of it. EMBRACE it! We have a loooong colon and our health depends on lots of fibre pushing all our food through it. The American Dietetic Association recommends at least 20-35 grams of fibre and most Americans only consume 15 grams or less! So, focus on fibre. This means whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. And eat a variation of them throughout your day. 

Tip 1) Start with Breakfast and focus on Fibre

-Breakfast to stop eating: Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit, Pop Tarts, or Nothing.

-Breakfast to Embrace: Fruit & Almond Milk Smoothie, Veggie Sweet Potato Hashed Browns, or Fruit & Nut Oatmeal. 

Tip 2) Contiue with Lunch and add Veggies

- Lunch to Skip: Chicken Sandwhich, Fast Food, Burger

- Lunch to Embrace: Mixed Green Salad, Hummus with Raw Veggies, Bean Soup    

Tip 3) Stay Hearty & Fresh with a Colorful Dinner

- Dinner to Skip: Meat & Three, Frozen Entree

- Dinner to Love: Beans & Three, Vegetable Pasta Salad, Veggie Stir Fry

What I just gave you was an outline. You need to eat lots of food and eat it all day in order to be satisfied, energized, and to be healthy. You must put nutrition into your body and a variety of it. If you get hungry, it's likely not because you're leaving behind meat. It's because you aren't eating enough, enough variety, or because you're focusing on the fact that you aren't eating meat. You must work through those things or you'll always deal with them. So here are 5 Basic Meatless Recipes that you'll love and feel satisfied after eating. 

- Enchillada Lasagna

- Low-Fat Zucchini Panini 

- Spicy Red Pepper & Broccoli Shells

- Spicy Black Bean Burger

- Three Bean Chili

Try these every night for a week, paired with oatmeal or a smoothie for breakfast and a green salad for lunch. That's a whole week of healthy, plant based, cholesterol free eating. Come on! What's holding you back?

Red Beans & Rice Soup

I'm sorry to say that I've been with-holding this recipe for at least three weeks. I had a gorgeous picture of the dish on my iPhone and I was being lazy about uploading it to publish. Lo and behold, phone breaks and I get a new one. No more picture. But as soon as I make this bad boy recipe again I'll take another fantastic pic and redeem myself. So, I haven't come up with a recipe this unique yet tasty in quite some time. I took three of my strong passions; soups, beans, and slow cookers and put them together in a way that's appropriate for the summer months. So if your crock pot is collecting dust during the heat this year, go ahead and break it out for fun and try this recipe. I know what you're thinking, red beans and rice is not a novel idea. But trust me, this flavor is unique! The broth is the icing on the cake to this already fabulous classic comfort dish. Getting to the actual recipe, if you don't have a crock pot you should buy one, but I'll go ahead and write two variations of cooking methods for you just incase. 

What You'll Need:

cooked brown rice, enough for 1/2c - 1c per person
1 red onion, diced
1 red onion, quartered
1 white onion, quartered
3 cups dry beans, 2 cups kidney and 1 cup black
3 stalks celery, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 carrots, chopped into 1/2 pieces
8 cups of veggie broth (I used water + no chicken bullion = perfect)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp italian seasonings
1 T olive oil (optional, you may substitute water for a no added fat version, I didnt)
1 tsp cajun seasoning
sea salt and black pepper to taste 

How You'll Do It:

First things first with this recipe, you'll need to get your dry beans soaked and ready to cook with. Rinse and drain your beans and put them in a large pot on high heat. Add enough water to cover them by double and add the quartered red and white onion. Bring to a boil and allow to cook on a high simmer for 60 minutes. In the mean time, I like to go ahead and get my crock pot heated on high and ready to use. Once you've got about 10 minutes of cooking time left for your beans, go ahead and saute your veggies. Heat a saute pan on medium high and add oil if using, otherwise substitute water. Once the pan is hot add the diced onion, peppers, celery, carrots, and 1/2 tsp of cajun seasoning. Saute veggies, allowing onions to carmelize, and adding water as needed to prevent sticking and deglaze the pan. Veggies should be soft to mostly soft after about 8 minutes of sauteing. Once they're done you transfer the entire contents of the saute pan to the heated crock pot.

After your dry beans have boiled for a good hour, they should be wrinkley and starting to expand. Pour everything from the pot to a collander and then transfer the contents of the collander to the crockpot. Add your broth, bay leaves, cajun seasonings, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper. Cook on high for 5-7 hours.

If you're cooking with canned beans instead, use about 6 cans of beans- four kidney and two black. Add the beans to the crock pot after rinsing and draining from the cans. If you're not using a slow cooker, simply add all ingredients to a large pot instead of crock pot and cook ther for a total of 1-2 hours. As long as your beans of choice are tender to eat and the flavors have infused nicely, you're good to go. Personally, I believe mine turned out so delicious due to the extended cook time. I started making this around 11am and enjoyed it for dinner at 7pm.  And it was awesome! Serve this soup over a dome of brown rice and enjoy the tangy & spicy freshness of this hearty summer soup. 

thoughts of mark bittman

 courtesy of ted.com