So, what do you eat?

I feel like I've been posting a lot about food and grocery shopping, but cooking is a passion of mine so I'm going to keep talking about it. As I've mentioned before, we've gone mostly vegetarian lately. I'd like to find a local, healthy meat source, but when we do we'll probably just eat meat a few times a month. Maybe just for Sunday dinners. We still have a bag of frozen chicken from Costco in the freezer that we're trying to use up right now, but I think we only have one meal left. I think that cutting out meat has been one way to keep our grocery bill low. We also don't buy chips, soda, lunch meat, or very many processed foods (canned soup, Hamburger Helper, bakery items, frozen foods, etc) at all. Most of the time my shopping list includes produce, bread, and dairy products like yogurt, cheese, and milk. I also go to Costco occasionally (like every six months or so) to stock up on things. I've found that I can often buy things on sale for cheaper than Costco though. But I regularly buy butter, rolled oats, granola bars, canned vegetables, chocolate chips, and a few other staples there.

For some reason I'm fascinated by the idea that what I eat is probably totally different from other people. It's interesting that regular meals or snacks in our house are not at all what other people might eat. I remember in high school when I would eat at a friend's house and her family ate all kinds of things we'd never have at my house: Reuben sandwiches, Hamburger Helper, bagel sandwiches. My kids only eat cold cereal for breakfast. We're too hungry to take the time to cook in the morning, and S-Boogie refuses to change. I sometimes cook oatmeal, but she doesn't like it. I usually try and buy the healthy varieties of cereal, but it's definitely something that I stock up on when it's on sale because our store's regular price is way to expensive (5 or 6 dollars a box). I've lately discovered that our Target has cheap cereal, even though it doesn't really sell groceries. I don't go there very often but when I do I usually stock up. I also make my own granola somewhat frequently. I don't really buy stuff that's specifically for lunch; we just eat leftovers or sometimes peanut butter sandwiches or quesadillas. The last week or so we've had:

Last Monday: Crepes filled with hash browns, cheese, and scrambled eggs. We had some kind of fruit with it, but I can't remember what now (oranges?). For our FHE treat we had more crepes filled with raspberries and vanilla yogurt.

Tuesday: Lasagna, made with lentil spaghetti sauce. I made this sauce a few months ago and froze several containers of it. Lasagna is an easy recipe to make meat free and I prefer it without meat. I think we had corn and oranges with it.

Wednesday: Falafel, couscous salad, and fruit. I've never tried falafel before, but I liked it. We just used a mix, and then I tried making my own pitas. They tasted good, but my rolling and baking technique needs more work.

Thursday: I'm pretty sure we just had leftover lasagna since we had so much.

Friday: Oatmeal cookie pancakes and hash browns (I make the pancakes without the bananas). Normally I would make some kind of fruit topping or a fruit smoothie to go with pancakes, but we were feeling lazy.

Saturday: We had a ward "international dinner" and I brought a potato salad from Spain and a "tres leches" cake from Mexico.

Sunday: I used some chicken to make the most incredible pot pie in the world. It takes a lot of work, but it is one of my new favorite recipes. I've made it before without the meat by just increasing the amount of vegetables and I thought it tasted just fine. I was planning on having salad, but got lazy and we just had cut up pears with it.

Monday: Leftover lasagna again because we still had two pieces hanging around the fridge. I made these yummy bread sticks and we also had salad and fruit.

Tuesday: I made the lentils and rice and the Greek salad from this post for a friend who recently had a baby. We also had some fruit (strawberries).

Wednesday: This yummy quiche, the last of the bread sticks, and sauteed vegetables that I got last week from the produce delivery. I love getting produce and we've enjoyed the variety of new things we've tried. Last night we had broccoli rabe and patty pan squash sauteed with garlic and onion.

I think tonight we're just having leftovers; we actually do that at least once a week since many of the recipes I have make a lot of food. I usually try to make things interesting with new side dishes or something when I do use leftovers. I just thought I'd post a week's worth of recipes that are almost all made without meat. So far I haven't gotten bored with the meatless thing, but we'll have to see how I feel in a few more months.

Comments

Kengo Biddles said…
Miki bought me a "Tapas" recipe book for my birthday, and we've been making some of the recipes in there. I'll thumb through and find you some vegetarian ones and e-mail them to you...the coupling of two things you like, vegetables and Spain. :) Mmm.....


Now I'm hungry.
Emma said…
Those are some great recipes. I didn't know you found my recipe blog!
We typically have meat 3-5 times a week. I often made a Mexican or pasta dish (like last night) that has no meat a few times a week. And when most recipes call for 4 chicken breasts I can get by with 1 or 2. We also have fish and pork and occasionally red meat. I guess since you found my recipe blog you know what we typically have.
TJ said…
have you tried quinoa lasagna? you replace the pasta with the cooked quinoa. you don't add any egg to the ricotta, and just layer mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta cheese with the sauce and quinoa starting with the sauce. it cooks in half an hour in the oven at 350. my kids and everyone else i've ever made it for LOVE it. i'll have to check out those recipes you've got linked....always looking for something new.
Earth Sign Mama said…
That chicken pot pie sounds very similar to a dish Grandma used to make--she was the Queen of Chicken you know. Don't forget Brocolli Cheese Casserole!
M said…
I ate a really good lentil soup at a Turkish restaurant here...it's red lentils, tomatoes (just a little bit), a whole onion (per cup of lentils), butter, and cayenne pepper. Yummmy...and BeeBoo eats it. Which I think is weird cause it's spicy. But she likes it!
Kailey said…
I'm the friend with the baby, and I ADORED the lentils with rice... thanks for the recipe FJ! I suggest everyone try it, YUM!! And the salad was perfect, I am a kalamata freak. Oh, and by the way, wasn't there supposed to be a certain picture posted on here (he he)?? Thanks for giving me something to read during my midnight feeding! Man I feel like a milk cow.
Unknown said…
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Kristeee said…
I have to say that I'm impressed. IT sounds like an excellent way to not only be healthier, but to save money, too. If you ever find a way to make vegetables look and taste like steak, please let me know. Then my hubby might go for making a change in diet. :)
Gina said…
So many of these recipes look great! I think I'll try a few this week. Here's an easy recipe for homemade falafel we had last week. It was pretty good and cheaper than a mix: http://www.culinate.com/content/1706/Falafel
Gina said…
I made that lentil dish tonight. Yumm! It really is good.
Ice Cream said…
I've found I can make almost all my regular recipes meatless by just adding more or new vegetables. And I actually like Mushroom burgers without the burger. I'm trying to get my kids to eat beans so I will often put a meat they don't like and a type of bean dish on the table so they can choose their protein. It has helped my daughter finally like beans more than meat. Now I just need to convince the other 3.

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