Baaaad Blogger

I have about 5 days worth of posts piled up and I haven't gotten around to them.

But first:
Healthy Choice is repackaging their frozen entrees and adding to their line up. To my surprise, they've added quite a few vegetarian options. Here are a couple of our favorites so far.




In summary...

This week is about rethinking. What are your favorite meat meals? How can you turn those veggie? I've made a veg shepherd's pie, eggplant parmigiana, stir fry and one of my signature dishes, balsamic chicken, without the meat.

Remember there are things you can add for texture and flavor -- portabello mushrooms, tofu crumbles, eggplant. Just experiment and explore.

It's a big flavor world out there...make it yours!

Day Two: Confetti Beans and Rice

This is one of my "go to" meals at any normal time of the week, month or year. It's super easy and super fast and really healthy. Plus my kids LOVE it.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, diced ($.25)
1 can black beans, drained ($.89)
1 can corn, drained ($.79)
1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained slightly (you can drain completely if you want less "sauce" in your meal ($.80)
Seasonings (season to taste): Cumin, Chili Powder, Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder (pennies)
Tbs. of olive oil (pennies)
Rice (I used the Steamables Brown Rice -- 2x packs because we love our beans and rice ($2.50)

Heat skillet medium high and pour in olive oil. Saute onions until translucent. Add corn and saute for a few minutes more. Add tomatoes, black beans and seasonings and stir. Cook until hot and bubbly, stirring often to prevent sticking or burning to the bottom of the pan.

Serve over rice.

OK...let's total

Cost for the meal: $5.23/4= $1.31

You can use just regular rice (the kids were screaming about being hungry for dinner so I went with the time saving method), which is probably about $.50 for the serving, so essentially, you can have a highly nutritious vegetarian meal for less than $1 a person. AMAZING.

Also, this makes a lot. It doesn't really sound like it, but it does. Enough for 2 or 3 of us to have seconds if we wish.

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OK, let's talk nutrition.

Everyone knows that meat = protein. Beans and legumes are good sources of protein as well. However beans do not contain all of the amino acids that a meat protein would have.

Beans have a certain type of amino acid and rice has another...together they are a complete protein.

Since I made brown rice tonight, it gave the meal some additional protein. Total protein count -- 10g.

UP NEXT: Tomorrow is Italian night with pasta and a "fresh sauce". Tune in!

Day One: Falafel

Tonight was Middle Eastern night and what a great way to kick off Veg In April. Lots of flavor and fun colors. I mean, who doesn't like hummus?

Now...here's where I reveal my secrets...tonight's meal came from a box. Two to be exact and one tub of hummus. Let's face facts, I'm a UBER busy working mom and as much as I would love to ground chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and spices (OK, not really, but it sounds like something I would like to do), getting great food from a box is just as good.



The falafel mix was $2.99 and made about 15 little patties -- that's $.50 a patty. The tabbouleh was $1.50 and I added a little bit of feta cheese (about $.50 for the portion), English cucumber ($.20 for the portion) and a tomato ($.25). I added a little olive oil and lemon juice (pennies). We added some pita and hummus ($1.50 for tonight's portions).

Grand total -- $6.94/4 = $1.74 per serving!

And check the nutrition per serving:
falafel
7 g protein
15% DV iron

tabbouleh
5 g fiber

Pretty good for day one.

I should also add that we ate vegetarian for breakfast and lunch today too.

UP NEXT: Tomorrow is my favorite weeknight standby confetti beans and rice. What makes it confetti? You'll see!