Happy Wednesday! For those of you thinking about going vegetarian or vegan or perhaps even enjoying "meatless Mondays," you might worry that vegetarian meals are laborious to prepare. And I'm not gonna lie - they definitely can be so. There is sometimes a lot of veggies to cut, tofu to press, lentils to cook and assorted things to sauté.
But we all have those nights when we don't want to spend two hours in the kitchen making dinner. I have days where I feel really energetic and motivated to try recipes and create something great. But not as often as I'd like. More frequently I just want to get something reasonably healthy on the table as fast as humanly possible. If you're the same way, then I hope my What I Ate Wednesday posts can provide you with some helpful suggestions for quick and healthy vegan options.
Here's a look at all the foods I enjoyed this past Monday. You'll see that vegan eating doesn't need to be difficult. I started the day with a smoothie made with banana, frozen strawberries, blueberries, chia seeds, orange juice and water. That's my basic smoothie combo for mornings when I don't yet feel like eating.
Of course by lunch I was starving. I was craving comfort food and there were no leftovers in sight. So I popped vegan faux chicken patties in the oven and prepared rice in my rice cooker. While the chick'n and rice were cooking I prepared the simple vegan mushroom gravy from The Oh She Glows Cookbook: Over 100 Vegan Recipes to Glow from the Inside Out
. I also quickly boiled some green peas. This was a hearty and satisfying vegan lunch.
For dinner, we prepared pizzas on store-bought flatbread. My husband made a quick pizza sauce in the blender using diced tomatoes and spices. I put that on my pizza and topped it with Daiya vegan cheese, yellow pepper slices and kalamata olive slices. We also roasted potatoes and had steamed broccolette with olive oil, minced garlic and salt. Another comfort food vegan meal that's not too laborious to cook. Sure you have to peel and cut potatoes, but then you have time to do other things while they roast. I'm thinking casseroles should be my thing this winter! I love when you can pop your meal in the oven and head off to do other things while it cooks.
My little girl has become quite the baker. She often asks me what I would like her to bake for dessert. On this particular day, I didn't hesitate. "Chocolate chip cookies!" She made our favourite classic vegan chocolate chip cookies from How It All Vegan!. Don't worry, I didn't eat this whole stack of cookies - I just thought they looked nice all piled up like that. I did eat three of them though!
And that's it - my day of vegan eats! What do you think?
How often do you eat vegetarian or vegan meals? What do you make when you want something quick?
always looking good! I really would like to have home made pizza more often though I wish my kids would have some veg on theirs. My breakfasts are mostly smoothies or overnight oats because first thing in the morning I really can't be bothered cooking or preparing food. I'm amazed that people make themselves things like tofu scrambles or big hashes. I'm starving when I wake up and want to eat right now!
ReplyDeleteI will definitely try the faux chick patties with the vegan mushroom gravy. I love mushroom gravy on anything! Casseroles are a great week night meal, I usually make a baked spaghetti with veggies once a week. The easiest of course is my slow cooker. I love a vegan chili or vegan meatballs and peppers. Easy,yummy and fast!
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