Vegetarian Month - Wk 1 & Wk2

It is Vegetarian Month in our household, which always requires some mental gearing up and a lot of recipe searching. So far this year I am doing great! I only grumbled half as much as last year during the weeks leading up to it and even convinced Joe to do it in August instead of February when more fruits/veggies are in season and are somewhat cheaper.

The fun thing about eating vegetarian is that we get to try a lot of new recipes, which means our recipe books get good use for a month!  Normally, it takes me two weeks to get into the swing of it (and lots of cheating during lunch) and two weeks to get out of the habit, but this year I just dived right in and haven't cheated except once.  Lunch has become sandwich fare or noodles...grilled cheese sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly, egg salad sandwiches, mac and cheese, etc. I guess bean and cheese burritos would be good, too. We don't hold the kids to vegetarian month, of course- August eats her pureed meats and X eats chicken nuggets for lunch, but dinner is  meat-free.

It's fun for Joe and I (and even August who loves tofu and mushed up real food) but X is not a big fan of all these unfamiliar dishes.   His mealtime pickiness is, unfortunately, increasing.   He generally comes to the dinner table with, "I don't like that," as soon as he sees the meal and, after an obligatory bite the size of a dust speck, claims he is full all the way up to his eyes.  Of course he quickly backtracks on his fullness level if something he does like happens to make it on the table during the meal i.e. fruit, yogurt, bread, dessert.  :) It's hard to be patient and just let him try the food without making him eat it all.  I guess that's just the way I was raised.  I remember sitting at the table forever because I wouldn't eat my oatmeal.  X's Food Sense Nutrition program at his preschool teaches the idea that parents should provide nutritious options and make sure a little of everything goes on his plate, but then leave it up to him to decide how much he eats or if he even eats things at all (we require a bite, usually).

Tonight, red peppers got a thumbs down (but he didn't throw up - yay) and one bite of tofu and one snow pea got a thumbs up.  If he hates something, I try to leave the option open of him liking it in the future.  I might say something like, mmmm, I love red peppers! To which he would say, I don't!  Then I would say, maybe you'll like them next time or maybe you'll like them when you're a grownup. He usually agrees that he might like them as a grownup.

Joe came up with a great idea of fixing food along a theme each day and I tried to come up with a catchy way to remember which day is which.  So, Monday is Mexican; Tuesday is Italian (emphasis on T); Wednesday is Whatever day (I don't think Joe knows this); Thursday is Asian; and we've got nothing on the rest yet.  The funny thing is, we haven't followed them at all, but it's still fun to think we might and it helps us find recipes a little faster.

I would take pictures of our delicious meals but they are so good we just eat them up.  No, actually, I just hadn't thought about taking pictures until I started to blog. (Why do white lies come out so easily?)

Vegetarian Menu - Week 1
Day 1-Mon: Cereal (we were waiting on someone to come buy our car & she was 2 hours late!)

Day 2-Tues: Mexican black bean casserole - YUM!

Day 3-Wed: Ronzoni wheat spaghetti with chunky tomato sauce (kid favorite), corn and fresh green salad.

Day 4-Thurs: Cottage cheese casserole (crockpot) - X kept saying how good it smelled all day but when
he saw the casserole he didn't want any.  He is more of a keep-things-separate, don't-let-my-sauce-touch-my-spaghetti kind of kid.  You can't separate a casserole into its individual ingredients so he didn't like it.

Day 5-Fri: Hawaiian pork and rice, yummy rolls, cucumber salad, macaroni salad, fruit salad, cake/ice cream, etc.  Yummmmm. (Okay, pulled pork is not vegetarian at all but I was at a birthday party and Kirsten made such great food, I had to try some! It was delicious!)

Day 6-Sat: Corn on the cob, zucchini enchiladas (So good! August loved the enchiladas-we grind her food up and she just mmmms when she likes it.  So cute! Btw honey, I hope you're saving these recipes for next year!)

Day 7-Sun: Berry smoothie - which made A throw up, edamame, mushroom rice side with pierogots (some mashed potato concoction) that made X throw up. Oops.

Vegetarian Menu-Week 2
Day 1 - Mon: Nachos at the pool during FHE, and Cereal again! (Maybe it's just Mondays...?)

Day 2 - Tues: Tofu stir-fry with black bean sauce, sliced peaches with vanilla yogurt and granola on top (not quite Italian Tuesday but I didn't want the veggies to go bad in the fridge)

Day 3 - Wed: Green chile casserole (an egg/green chile combo)

Day 4 - Thurs: Hawaiian haystacks with cream of mushroom sauce instead of chicken (X ate the rice, a piece of pineapple, and lots of chow mein noodles after a lot of persuasion to get him to try just one)

Day 5 - Fri: Veggie quesadillas (so yummy! We had never had so many things in our quesadillas before...carrots, black beans, etc.)

Day 6 - Sat: Cake and ice cream leftovers from bday party (oh and all the veggies, too):)

Day 7 - Sun: Fruit, veggies, and chips from the party for lunch; cereal for dinner

Here's the recipe for Vegetable Quesadillas:
4 flour tortillas
1/2 c black beans, rinsed and drained
2 Roma tomatores, chopped (or none - we didn't have any on hand)
1/2 c bell pepper, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 carrot, grated (Joe cut these in thin slices instead and I loved it)
1/2 c Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1/2 c plain yogurt (or sour cream - our yogurt was moldy...)
2 Tbsp salsa
1/2 c lettuce, chopped (I don't remember lettuce being in it. Hmmm)

Warm a heavy pan over medium heat. Place a tortilla in pan and warm one side, then flip tortilla over. Place a fourth of the ingredients on one side of tortilla and fold other half over the filling. Cook about 3 minutes or until cheese is melted. Repeat and then eat! Yield: 4 quesadillas