Linda requested tried and true tactics/recipes for the busy new
vegetarian. Here are a few of mine:
1. The crockpot. I put beans to soak before I go to bed and in the
morning pour off the soaking water and put them in the crockpot with
whatever other ingredients I want for a bean soup that will be ready and
smell terrific as we come in the door after a long hard day. That, with
some good bread and a salad, is a very satisfying meal.
2. Stir-"fried" lowfat tofu and veggies over brown rice. Put the rice on to
cook while you put the rest of the meal together. I use whatever veggies I
have;
last time was peppers, onions, zucchini, mushrooms, and a little bit of
sad-looking celery. Flavor with garlic, ginger, mirin, and soy sauce.
One of my favorite combinations is tofu with broccoli, carrots, and
onions. It's not just healthy and tasty, it looks gorgeous!
3. Pasta fazool. Make your regular marinara (or use some from a jar) and
throw in a can of white beans or garbanzos. Make a salad while the pasta
cooks. Top with ff cheese if you want.
4. Roll-your-own burritos. Set out bowls of heated fatfree refried beans,
chopped lettuce, chopped tomato, salsa, fatfree grated cheese, nonfat
sour cream, whatever else your family would like, and let them put
together their own burritos on fatfree flour tortillas (Mission brand is
pretty widely available, and I also found some almost ff whole wheat and
sprouted wheat ones at the HFS yesterday in the refrigerator case.
5. Here in Tucson summers are HOT, so I make vast quantities of gazpacho
on weekends to serve with heated-up bread of some kind (my SO, for
reasons I don't understand, has to have something hot at dinner or it
doesn't count as a meal--thank heaven for microwaves!)
6. Stuffed baked potato bar.
Bake (microwave?) a big potato for each person and set out
the following (these are just a few suggestions): nonfat sour cream, ff
grated cheese, salsa, chopped red onions or scallions, chopped jalapenos,
veg chili, cooked & drained frozen chopped spinach or broccoli, whatever
else you can imagine.
All this stuff is REALLY easy!
Bon appetit!
Vicki
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Victoria Modarresi Dept. of English
vmodrsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx University of Arizona
(520)621-1836 FAX (520)621-7397 Tucson, AZ 85721
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