Meatless Mondays And the Wild and Wooly Dunns.

As I have said before we as a family are trying to eat healthier. Our busy lives don’t always make it easy and I look for things with a way to build a tradition or a good habit or something along those lines. So I found a campaign about eating Meatless on Mondays. There is more to the whole movement than just eating vegetarian for one day a week.

Meatless Mondays has many a websites and an articles on the subject and I will post soon a list on links to things I have read or want to read on the subject. We are doing it and here comes the predicament.

We have some standbys that are meatless and I find that we are eating them a lot! Don’t get me wrong, they aren’t bad meals but I get sick of repetition and I think the kids do too. I like it when Holly is really exited to eat something because it has been awhile since we have had it. I think the kids would not care if we ate the same thing every week. But I like to vary it up for better nutrition and variety.

Our stand-bys include spaghetti just a jar sauce or this sauce paired with garlic bread (usually store bought). A version of my mom’s lasagna the recipe is will come soon or penne rigate casserole from the Family Nutrition book by William and Martha Sears. They are all pasta. We used to eat a lot of pilaf--almost a red beans and rice dish--that we adapted from Amy Dacyczyn and her Tightwad Gazette recipe. But we had a flying bean problem for a while which had us stop making it.

Back to the predicament. Not too long ago I was drawing a blank and needed some help fast I was planning the weekly menu and couldn’t think of anything to make for Meatless Monday. So I did what any mom home alone with her computer would do these days. I posted to facebook and Twitter the following:
“I really need some non-pasta, kid-friendly, vegetarian recipes or ideas.....grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup is passe too. HELP!”

I started to get responses right away I want to thank Mark, Nancy, Kate, Sherri, Stephen, Lynn, Viveka, Kristin, Heather, Karen, Jacqui, Renee, Mary, and Maggie for all the suggestions. Well maybe not the lima loaf.

I got many suggestions for dishes here is an edited list:
Quinoa
Pilaf
Fried rice
Soups and Stews without meat
Fake chicken nuggets
Tacos / burritos with out meat
Pizzas
Veggie Chili
Omelets (and other egg dishes)
Potato pancakes
Turnip Au Gratin
Quiches
Broccoli Cheese Casserole



And a few for cook books:
The Imus Ranch cooking for Kids and Cowboys
any cookbook by Jeanne Lemlin

And a few for Websites:
Vegetarian Times 
http://pdxvegancookingclub.blogspot.com/
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/
http://www.fatfreevegan.com

So the first thing I did was MornignStar Farms Chick'n Strips and Buffalo Wings with Green beans and French Fries. Griffin Said they were the best Chicken Nuggets I had made. And he knew they were fake. I call that a win.

I also went to the library and Checked out The Imus Ranch cooking for Kids and Cowboys. We tried the Cowboy Sloppy Joes. We all liked them. Holly was so pleased with it that when she was unpacking groceries and saw TVP she was really exited.