You can go veggie for a day and even the most dedicated carnivore will sigh in delight at the food you serve if you plan for it right. Vegetarian doesn’t mean eating just salad, or rabbit food. You can of course eat salad, and fruit, and other plants, but you’re not limited in any way when you want a little added protein to your vegetarian meal for vegetarian day. Vegetarians eat dairy products, which mean that you can have cheese and eggs as well as beans in the place of the meat protein that you might normally indulge. Here are some ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner to make going veg for a day easy.
Breakfast
Everyone loves omelets for breakfast. Why do without on vegetarian day? Make yours extra special by adding extra veggies such as chopped tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, spinach with just a little Swiss cheese for additional flavor. The trick to making extra fluffy omelets that don’t break apart is to add a tablespoon of pancake batter per egg to the mixture and beat with a beater or a stand up milkshake mixer to add in some additional oxygen to the mixture. Serve omelets with sliced fresh tomatoes drizzled with a little olive oil and sea salt along with toasted wheat English muffins.
Lunch
Everyone loves a good sloppy Joe, but did you know that you can make this vegetarian rather easily. You might not realize it but ground meat really doesn’t have much flavor, it’s all in the sauce. The fact that it is simple to make is a bonus. Simply use your normal recipe and change the meat out for black beans or tempeh.
Tempeh is a soy derived meat substitute that also has grains like barley in it. Some have additional spices so if you buy some, look for one that is only lightly flavored or not flavored. Even if you do not like tofu you will like tempeh because when used in saucy recipes it takes on the flavor of the sauce and is delicious and is nothing like tofu. The texture is very much like ground beef. Serve with coleslaw and baked French fries to complete your lunch for vegetarian day.
Dinner
For your dinner on vegetarian day try making a hearty vegetable white lasagna for dinner and you can’t go wrong. Instead of red sauce use a white cheese sauce, instead of meat use sliced eggplant and any veggies you want to use such as spinach, mushrooms, onions, broccoli and cauliflower. Use the no boil noodles to make it super simple to pop into the oven and take out in an hour, bubbling with cheesy goodness. You won’t miss the meat. Serve with a Italian salad and garlic bread and you’ve got a winner.
Snacks
When you go veg for a day you want to be full and not hungry and tempted to go for the meat snacks. For snacks blend up some date dip by soaking pitted dates covered in water for an hour, poor off half the water and blend in a high speed blender like a magic bullet until smooth. Add in some cinnamon if you like. Slice your apples, dip and enjoy. Tastes like caramel apples but this snack is completely vegan. Not bad for vegetarian day.
If you would like a good dessert to pair with that dinner why not make a delicious bread budding. Just use your normal recipe but substitute for non dairy items if you want it completely vegan, or keep it like it is for vegetarian. Note: Avoid using any ingredients with gelatin since it is made with beef or pork bone marrow. You can also lighten it up by serving a delicious fruit salad instead. You don’t want vegetarian day to be too heavy, but you do want everyone to not miss the meat.