With more and more vegetarian and vegan options popping up I’ve started to get curious.Especially with the price of meat rising I figured this was also a way to save some money at the grocery store. Not only are the options looking and tasting more appealing, there are some pretty good health benefits of removing some meat from our diets. So, I decided I would take a week and experiment with some meatless meals!
According to Every Day Health there are 9 Health Benefits of switching to a plant based diet. I’ve also included the link to their page which really elaborates more on each benefit.
- May lower your blood pressure
- May keep your heart healthy
- Help prevent Type 2 Diabetes
- Help with weight loss
- Could help you live longer
- Could decrease your risk of cancer
- May improve your cholesterol
- May minimize your risk of a stroke
- Keep your brain strong
If you’re looking to give this a try, here are all of my recipes that I had for the week! Overall I really enjoyed trying some new recipes throughout the week. I never once felt I wasn’t eating enough food and I still had great energy. If it wasn’t for my husband I’d probably say I’d be down to even try this for the long run! Maybe in time, we shall see!
Breakfast Options
Strawberry Banana Overnight Oats
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup milk (I used Oat milk)
- ½ cup diced strawberries
- 2 tsp Maple Syrup
- ½ cup Oats
- 3 Tbsp plain greek yogurt
- ½ a banana and a few sliced strawberries to top
Directions
- Blend together the milk, diced strawberries and maple syrup
- In a small bowl combine oats, greek yogurt and blended mixture
- Stir to combine and store in a container overnight
- Top with sliced banana, sliced strawberries, some more greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey
Greek Yogurt (Honey flavored) topped with Muesli and a side of a sliced orange
Snack Options
- 1 small apple with 2 Tbsp peanut butter
- 1 cup of sliced carrots and cucumber with 2 Tbsp Hummus
- ¼ mixed nuts
Lunch Options
- Mixed Green Salad with dressing of choice and topped with chickpeas and avocado
- Pesto Zoodles sauteed with spinach, peas, artichoke hearts, and cherry tomatoes. Topped with parmesan cheese
Dinner Options
- Lemony Greek Chickpea Soup – Dishing Out Health with a side salad and roll. We had this for three nights because it was just delish!
- Vegetable Stir Fry – Dinner at the Zoo over Jasmine Rice
- Margherita Pizza and Side Salad
Dessert Options
- ⅓ of a Chocolate Bar
- Vanilla Ice Cream with fresh berries
And that’s a wrap on my week of meatless meals! I hope you give some of the recipes a try. Even if you don’t do a full week of meatless meals a way to ease into it could be doing meatless Mondays. If you’re cooking up any meatless meals please share them with me too! I would love to add more recipes to my vegetarian options.
