What are some quick healthy easy vegetarian meals?

I want to be a vegetarian but I already have enough trouble finding healthy low calorie foods as a non-vegetarian. So if I was to become a vegetarian what would I eat? I could have cereal for breakfast, fruits for snacks, but what about lunch and dinner?

-Salads with balsamic-type dressing. Make sure to add some beans or chickpeas for satiety and protein. Avoid using a lot of cheese or heavy dressing. At lunch I sometimes pour my salad onto a low-carb or low-calorie wrap and eat it that way for a change.

-Stir fries. You can even use a frozen or pre-chopped stir-fry veggie mix, and protein can be beans or tofu (if you live in New England, there's this brand called Tofettes in the refrigerated tofu section of the grocery store, and the terriaki flavor is absolutely amazing)

-Chili. You can set it up in a slow cooker so it's ready when you get home, or you can make it fast on the stove using a pre-mixed spice packet and a can or two of beans, a chopped sauteed onion, and a can of crushed tomatoes.

-Veggie burgers. They're fast, easy, and on a low-calorie bun, not too bad for your diet.

-At lunch, hummus and pita or a small pbj or pb and banana. Experiment with pita fillings.

-If you eat eggs, you can make an egg-beater omelet or quishe with lots of veggies

-Add a can of black beans, a fresh chopped tomato, and some fresh-chopped cilantro to seasoned brown rice

-Search vegweb.com and allrecipes.com for ideas

Beans, beans, good for your heart...:):)

I love LOVE lentil curry---with or without brown rice.  Dice a baked sweet potato over your lentil curry, plop some yogurt on top, sprinkle toasted pumpkin or sunflower seeds, and munch away! 

 Have you ever baked a spaghetti squash?  When it's done you can toss the "innards" with olive oil, cumin, salt, pepper, and it is sooooo good.  Or top it with spaghetti sauce right out of the jar.

And go get some of those Morningstar brand "crumbles"---you can use them like ground beef in soup or lasagne, without the gross greasy fat. 

 

 

Get frozen corn and black beans- sautee the frozen corn until soft, add black beans and salsa, heat through and ENJOY! I sometimes throw in extra veggies and have a piece of toast with it.

You can make some great vegetarian sandwiches, and then serve them on a healthy whole grain bread or wrap!  Grilled veggies, grilled tofu, egg salad,  hummus, peanut butter, reduced fat cheese ... all can be great!

You could also make some vegetarian nachos using whole grain tortilla chips, reduced fat cheese, some salsa, seasoned black beans, peppers, onions, etc.... very quick and tasty!

You can make some great hearty, healthy soups and chilis in a slow cooker/crockpot .... then freeze in individual serving sizes.

You could make a healthy vegetarian scramble or omelette using your favorite veggies (onions, mushrooms, peppers, garlic)... and you can add things like salsa and cheese, if desired! You can use Eggbeaters, plain eggwhites, or even an egg substitute.

You could make some healthy vegetarian sushi using your favorite fillings and brown rice ... yum! And don't forget to have some edamame! (Spicy avocado-radish rolls with olive is nice, if somewhat untraditional!)

You can make some vegetarian pasta using a low-fat tomato/marinara sauce (you could even add in some Boca crumbles) ... and then serve the sauce with either a whole grain pasta or (my favorite) tofu shirataki noodles! Yum yum yum!

You could have a yummy fruit-protein shake with a salad, too ... or toast... orwhatever else you want!

=^..^= MOLLY

And sometimes we make tacos using beans and mushrooms and grilled onions in taco seasoning .... yum yum yum!

 

=^..^= MOLLY

oh i love veggie foods!

i second pretty much all of these! stir frys are very easy, especially w/ inexpensive frozen veggies. i love asian veggies w/ peanut sauce over pasta...not very low cal tho lol

i like to mix kidney beans and chick peas together with some other choice veggies and italian dressing and eat it as a bean salad.

carrots and hummus anyone??!!

there is a low fat zucchini bread recipe on this site that i use all the time and it is amazing! i usually substitute corn starch for the eggs tho....works just as great!

 smart dogs are about 45 calories each with 9 grams of protein. i usually just have 2 cut up with ketchup but they also taste good on wheat buns. add some sauted peppers and onions or sourkraut or relish......the list goes on!

just make sure you add veggies to everything and experiment with different spices and dressings. it wont get boring i promise! 

I'm a TOTAL carnivore and not even a vegetarian, but with the increase in fiber/veggie intake I had this the other night and LOVED it:

Dinner: A bed of chopped celery & zucchini (& or yellow squash) chunks cooked in 1 tsp butter until tender, sprinkled with sweet basil, spread over salted spaghetti noodles, covered in spicy spaghetti sauce and topped with parmesan cheese. Heck, you can even add mushrooms (and so many other things), to this.

Also, have you tried making a portabella burger? If not, you should, here's a few links to a few different ways it can be made, once you see 'em you get the idea:

http://www.livingcookbook.com/recipes/vegetab les/grilledportabellaburger.htm

http://www.publix.com/aprons/meals/MainDish/S impleMeal.do?mealId=301&mealGroupId=1006

http://foodgeeks.com/recipes/recipe/19163,cheesy_portabella_burger_with _garlic_mayonnaise.phtml

Oh forgot to mention (I have lots of vegan/vegetarian friends, so that's why I know this stuff):

Tofu! Some people don't like the consistency, but you CAN make it firmer: buy the firmest kind you can, drain, then place between lots of paper towels, put between 2 cookie sheets and put something REALLY heavy on top (like, full water jugs or something). After some time, the water will have been squeezed out and you can do lots of neat things with it. I never thought of it as a "replacement" for meat but it sure does add that little bit of firm something when you use it after doing the above mentioned method.

They make these frozen vegetables now that you microwave in the bag. They are called "Steamfresh." I eat them basically every day. Also, tempeh is a great source of low calorie protein, as are Boca burgers. Beans and rice are good - if you don't have a recipe, you can buy it in a box, it only takes 25 minutes to cook and you can put it into lunch size tupperwares and refridgerate it. Uncle Ben's makes rice you can microwave in 90 seconds that goes well with the veggies, but that adds enough calories that it becomes a meal instead of a snack

Also, in the winter what it really good to munch on is vegetable sticks you can make yourself. Just slice root vegetables (I do carrots and parsnips) into sticks and bake them for 40 minutes, turning them over half way through, at 350 degrees. I eat these like french fries. They make good munchie food during movies. Parsnips have more calories than carrots. You can do asparagus or zucchini sticks too, but they only go for 20 minutes. The 100 calorie popcorn bags are good munchie food too. Or rice cakes.

I also eat those Amy's burritos. The beans & rice ones are 280 calories, so it's pretty much a meal, but they are really yummy. 

There are also a lot of great vegetarian soups out there. Do you have a Trader Joe's or and Aladdin's Restaurant near you? They both have great vegetarian soups. Or you could find your own recipe, make a double batch and freeze or refrigerate it. Soup reheats well. 

And of course, fresh fruit is always a good idea. 

Someone already mentioned tacos,  my friends and I just get a pack of the

Yves (http://www.yvesveggie.com/) ground round,

a package of low sodium taco mix (only use 1/3- 1/2 the mix as it becomes too dry)

some olive oil for the pan

some low cal cheese

low cal sour cream

tons of various veggies (lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, etc)

some black bean + corn salsa

taco shells, (hard or soft)

 

Just fry up the ground round in the pan with the taco mix and oil (takes 5 mins or so)

chop up the veggies, shred cheese, etc

eat and enjoy.  Not sure how super healthy these are ^_^

~

To start it might be easier to try to convert your current diet by eating the same things, but without the meat.  Just about any omnivore meal can be made vegetarian - either by omitting meat or substituting something for the meat.  What kinds of meals do you normally prepare?  Some good meat substitutes include tempeh, tofu, eggplant, mushrooms, chop up assorted mixed veggies to make a pattie, etc.  There are also lots of fake meats on the market - although they probably shouldn't be used on a regular basis.

i had this last night and it was pretty easy and a little "different" for me... baked potato cut up and covered with cheese, beans, salsa (make yourself or a can, i like to make it now) and spanish rice (lipton package) with a variety of veggies.

pretty simple, fairly cheap and really tasty!

Thanks for the recipes!

Thanks for the recipes!

Thanks for the recipes!