I quietly instituted Meatless Mondays at our house. I sort of regularly planned or scheduled a meatless meal during our week but back in November I consciously planned them for Mondays and tried to keep them varied. I mean, pasta seems like the easiest & fastest dinner without meat and is a favorite food of mine so I might have been happy to eat pasta every Monday night! There were still a bunch of pastas on my Mondays but everything has felt different so far! Summer definitely seems like an easier season but it is a good habit I hope to keep up.
The verdict? So far so good! They don’t have to be Mondays necessarily, but I did totally find it helpful for speedier meals to start the week! I’ll keep at it and maybe it’ll stretch me to be more creative. We could definitely eat more veggies.
Here have been some of my favs:
Fall Fettuccine with Roasted Squash, Sage, & Alfredo
Baked Falafel Bowls
Bean & Cheese Quesadillas/Burritos – I froze a few burritos with beans, 2 cheeses, brown rice, and corn for lunches too!
Kale Pesto over Gnocchi
Shakshuka
Spaghetti w/ Tomato Sauce- I was solo parenting and had strep- the worsttttt. A 2-ingredient dinner was perfect- using my fav Kitchen Ready Tomatoes of course.
Grilled cheese & Tomato Soup – this may have been the first time the little one ate soup. He was into it!
Bfast for Dinner: eggs & hashbrowns
Veggie Calzone with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes
Tortellini
Fish tacos with Pear Pomegranate Salsa
Sesame Noodles & Edamame
I think that’s been most of them so far. It was also refreshing for a busy season to rely on many tried and true favs and not focus on new concepts and blogging all of them.
A bunch of my lunches tend to be vegetarian- quiche, soup, crostini, jazzy grilled cheeses, etc but it was good to be mindful to focus dinners around the theme.
A few other ideas that’ll hit next are some pizzas/flatbreads, Mexican things, more soups, and eggplant. I’m just not craving salads while it is 10-degrees around these parts. Any other cold-weather meatless meal ideas for me? Fish & mushrooms aren’t always favorites for all of us at our house.