Planning Your Meals—Dinner

Dinnertime is one of the most squandered parts of our day. We’re tired, we’ve been busy, we may not have a lot of time, so we grab something and eat it in front of the TV or computer. If you have roommates or live with your family, try making mealtime a ritual of togetherness. Work together to prepare it, sit down and savor it, and use this time to catch up on your day, Use dinnertime to experiment with new twists on old favorites. Substitute portabella mushrooms and sautéed onions for the ground beef in your favorite lasagna, or make a great vegetarian chili.
Make a big pot of soup on the weekend and refrigerate or freeze portions of easy weekday meals. By cooking more elaborate dishes when you’re relaxed and have the time, you can prepare for a hectic week by stocking up on homemade, heat-and-eat dinners.

Once a week, make a list of the dinners you’d like to have during the week and buy all the ingredients during a trip to the store. Be realistic. On nights that you know you’ll be working late or feeling extra tired, choose meals that are easy to prepare. Then post the list on your refrigerator, so you’re committed to making that meal! This will keep you from grabbing a peanut butter sandwich just because you don’t know what to eat!

Planning Your Meals: Snacks

Snacking is a part of life. Everyone snacks, whether between meals or in the evening. Sticking to your vegetarian diet when it comes to snacking is a lot easier than people think. Having a midmorning or an afternoon snack is a good way to avoid hunger pangs later on, which might cause you to overeat at lunch or dinner. Snacks also help you maintain a healthy metabolism as well as a healthy eating schedule. And as a vegetarian, you have a wide variety of snacks to choose from.

Some sensible vegetarian snack ideas include:

Rice milk and fruit smoothie
Cookies and rice milk
Graham crackers and rice milk
Fruit
Fruit salad Oatmeal cookies Fig Newtons
Rice pudding Frozen fruit bars Yogurt
Bran muffin
English muffin
Wheat toast and peanut butter
 Cereal with rice milk
Bagel with jelly

If you simply take the time to glance around your cupboards and refrigerator, you’ll easily find many more snack ideas to add to the list.

Planning ahead can help you keep on track with your meal plans and schedule. It will also keep you from excuses such as “there’s not enough time to cook a meal” or, “I don’t have the right foods to make dinner.” Excuses like these can easily lead to slipups and poor meal choices. One rule of thumb for planning ahead when it comes to a vegetarian diet is to prepare food that can be stored in the refrigerator or freezer and eaten at a later date. Set aside a few hours on the weekend to prepare three or four meals for the upcoming week. Having ready-made meals available to eat is key, because when you are too tired or too busy to cook, you’ll be able to stick to your vegetarian diet.

Here is a list of foods that can be made and then stored in the refrigerator to serve as ready-made meals:

Coleslaw
Cucumber and tomato salad
Fruit salad Hummus Potato salad
Three bean salad Black bean salad Black bean dip Fresh salsa
Vegetable salad with leafy greens

Here is a list of foods that can be made and then stored in the freezer to serve as ready-made meals:

Soups
Vegetable lasagna
Pesto (for pasta)
Any type of vegetable casserole
Fruit salad
Vegetarian chili
 Moroccan chili
Lentil chili

You can also freeze breads, muffins, cookies, and other bread products. Keep them in small plastic bags that you can easily grab if you are in a hurry or on the go!