Vegetarian Week

Photo above: avocado toast with hard boiled egg

Vegetarian Week

Last week I was out of town for a few days. I came home Friday night to a nearly empty refrigerator and tried my best to plan some meals based upon things we had on hand, things we needed to use up, things that had been in the freezer too long... you get the idea.  I planned a number of meals... some just for me, some just for my husband, and some for both of us.  The plan included taco pizza, slow cooker Italian shredded beef, split pea soup, and egg scrambles with veggies.  I shopped Saturday morning and by the end of Saturday, it occurred to me I had eaten a vegetarian diet all day.  More precisely, I had eaten an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet (which basically is a vegetarian diet which includes eggs and dairy products).  It got me to thinking that if I could eat this diet it for one day, maybe I could do the same for two days.  Today marked one week of an ovo-lacto diet and I really liked it.

Here's a snapshot of some of the meals I had. As you can see, I had a lot of variety.




From the freezer, the last of my 10 bean soup garnished with a ton of fresh parsley and a big splash of balsamic vinegar. Delicious!



Fresh pear and cottage cheese.



A healthy wrap with avocado, cucumber, and red bell pepper.



Steel cut oats, banana, cinnamon, chia seeds, peanut butter, and almond milk.



Another healthy avocado wrap, this time with sugar snap peas, cucumber, and red bell pepper.



Overnight oats with banana, chia, almond milk, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, and vanilla and topped with toasted almonds and flax seeds.





Slow cooker split pea soup with NO ham.



This was breakfast each day.  Egg scramble with loads of veggies (mushrooms, spinach, jalapeno, red bell pepper, and onion).



Even a treat that I shared with friends... these are blondies made with banana, cannellini beans, walnuts, chocolate chips, and oats.



A sampler plate with cucumber slices, hard boiled eggs, Greek olives stuffed with garlic and jalapeno, and apple.



I ran out of split pea soup so I made up a huge pot of 15 bean soup (with tomatoes, bell pepper, carrots, and onion). For flavoring I added in garlic powder, oregano, basil, and marjoram.




I experimented with some tofu but have only nibbled on it. It was made with tamari (gluten free soy sauce), garlic powder, and black pepper; I am finding this too salty.  It's not my favorite, but I learned a lot from making this.  I'll try another recipe.



The muffins above were a big old flop but that was my fault. These are vegan bran muffins made with chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour, banana, flax meal, almond milk, molasses, and a few other ingredients.  I added way too many HUGE frozen blueberries and it resulted in many undercooked spots in the muffins.  I'll try this recipe again and will stick closer to the recipe as written.  The recipe did not call for frozen blueberries.



Apple and almond butter.




Another creative and healthy wrap... seasoned black beans, shredded ice berg lettuce, and hard boiled egg.

What a delicious and healthy week I had!  It was an interesting experience. I've often said I could probably switch to a vegetarian diet so it was fun to challenge myself to see what meals I could come up with this week.  When I contemplate a vegan diet, I know I would miss cottage cheese, yogurt, cheese, and eggs.  After this experience this past week, I know I will have many more vegetarian days and weeks.  This week, I also tried to educate myself more about plant-based foods which are high in protein.  I will definitely try to add more of these foods into my diet in the near future.