I have quite a few friends who are either vegetarian or vegan and have always been intrigued by the notion of cutting out meat and animal products from my diet. I knew there were benefits from opting to not eat meat, but was unsure of the actual pros & cons of doing so and wondered how potentially difficult that may be. Considering I grew up and still currently live in meat and potato central, meat-based protein was/ is always the center of any dish. I somehow got Kevin to agree to going vegetarian for a week… well, a work week. Before diving into the meatless week, I did some research and found that these were the most prevalent reasons that becoming vegetarian could be beneficial:
Positively Impact the Environment
Animal Welfare
Combat Disease/ Improve Health
Avoid Toxins
Knowing all of these benefits, it made me even more interested to see how easy going meatless was in practice. I perused Pinterest for some lunch & dinner inspiration, in addition to the already vegetarian meals I have in rotation (these are few & far between, but I do have a couple!) and made my shopping list! In addition to discovering how easy becoming vegetarian would or wouldn’t be, I also wanted to see how much it would affect my grocery budget and how we would feel throughout the week. During the week, I have the same thing for breakfast every morning- two scrambled eggs, 1/2 an avocado, and a pinch of cheddar cheese- which is already a vegetarian meal so I didn’t need to brainstorm a meal for breakfast. Below is the menu I came up with for lunch and dinner, including ingredients:
Monday
Lunch: Lasagna Roll-Ups
Lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, pasta sauce
Dinner: Creamy One-Pot Zucchini, Mushroom, and Pea Pasta
Spaghetti noodles, heavy cream, grated parmesan cheese, sweet peas, mushrooms, onion, zucchini
Tuesday
Lunch: Lasagna Roll-Ups
Lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, pasta sauce
Dinner: Zucchini Taco Boats
Hollowed out zucchini stuffed with Spanish rice, tomatoes, corn, black beans, onion, and cheddar cheese
Wednesday
Lunch: BBQ Ranch Chopped Salad
Pre-packaged Dole Salad from Hy-Vee
Dinner: Buffalo Chick Pea Bowl
Chick peas, sweet potato, zucchini, buffalo sauce
Thursday
Lunch: Lasagna Roll-Ups
Lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, pasta sauce
Dinner: Creamy One-Pot Zucchini, Mushroom, and Pea Pasta
Spaghetti noodles, heavy cream, grated parmesan cheese, sweet peas, mushrooms, onion, zucchini
Friday
Lunch: Lasagna Roll-Ups
Lasagna noodles, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese, pasta sauce
Dinner: Cheese Ravioli Spinach Artichoke Lasagna
Layers of cheese ravioli with spinach, artichokes, cream cheese, sour cream, heavy cream, garlic, mozzarella in between
Now that you’ve got a blueprint of what we actually ate throughout the week, I am going to evaluate how becoming vegetarian for a week affected our budget, cooking, and how we felt.
Budget: Like I have said in previous blog posts, I try to keep our grocery bill to around $100 per week and was pleasantly surprised when our grocery total came to $86.90. That was an early check in the pro column 🙂
Taste & Ease of Cooking: Lasagna Roll-ups are a meal that I prepare for us on a regular week so this is one that we already knew we would like and was easy for me to batch prepare and “meal prep” for my lunches. (Kevin had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for his lunches!) Monday’s dinner is also something I have prepared before and we definitely enjoy. Because it’s a one-pot dinner, the ease of preparing & cooking this meal was pretty simple. The zucchini taco boats on Tuesday are something I have previously done, but typically I add taco seasoned ground beef. Because I cut out the ground beef, it took me 10 minutes less than it typically does- another plus in the pro column! I actually have a post where I dictate exactly how I prepare the buffalo & sweet potato bowls I made on Wednesday. You can view it here. This was an easy swap and took much less time than the chicken usually does. The last meal was a Kevin find… and looking at the ingredients, I think you can see why. LOL. He came across this meal on Facebook and told me this was his one request for the week… so of course I had to make it! This meal was very dairy heavy, so definitely not vegan-friendly, but it was super delicious! (Like, super delicious!)
How We Felt: I’m not going to lie, I think I would have to give up meat for 2-4 weeks to actually see how beneficial it would be and try to not use as much dairy in my recipes 🙂 Because quite a few meals were pretty heavy on the dairy ingredients, I did’t feel less bloated, however; I did feel much less sluggish!
Now, I don’t see us giving up meat any time soon… or ever… but I definitely think the benefits of incorporating more meatless meals outweighs any cons. It was much easier to do than I was anticipating and honestly, the hardest part I thought would be getting Kevin to agree- and that was surprisingly easy! This is my way of telling you that it is worth looking into and becoming more educated about why others choose to eat plant-based and why it might be beneficial for you to consider a “Meatless Monday”… or be super daring like us and try an entire week without eating any meat!
Aunt Jill and I are on our 3rd year of going vegetarian…maybe pescatarian is a better word. We do eat fish and seafood on occasion…my first concern was protein so we decided to go with seafood. We also eat veggie pizzas, plant based burgers and sausages (like Beyond or Impossible Burgers, or Beyond Sausages). They are very good…we eat pasta, beans and or rices it’s roasted veggies…takes a while, but you should try to get creative. We use Pinterest A LOT!!! Great article, Em!