Meat & Dairy Free Week Menu Plan

This is the menu plan I made for our meat & dairy free week. We are attempting to see if eliminating dairy helps Joshua with his "issues." I'm also curious to see how eliminating dairy effects the rest of us. It's really not something we need in our diets so I'd love to learn how to at least limit our dairy consumption. We generally don't eat a lot of meat so I just threw that one in there.

What I discovered this week (so far anyway) is that we consume more meat & dairy than I thought. Mike and I went out to sushi Tuesday night (thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids!) Before we went I had already borrowed the excuse of "fish isn't really meat" from many other vegetarians I'd met. I never understood this, but I was willing to borrow it as my excuse to eat sushi. What I didn't realize until I got my sushi roll was that there was cream cheese in it! Oops. The things we don't even think about..... I was not about to let it sit there, nobody's perfect. There are plenty of sushi options that fit in with the meat and dairy free, like the other roll I got which was the avocado roll. I am just so used to ordering the same two rolls, Alaskan ( I think) with salmon, cream cheese and crab and an avocado roll, that I do it without even thinking.

Wednesday we went to a favorite sandwich place of ours for lunch. I got the veggie sandwich on wheat and remembered to ask for no cream cheese. Mike also remembered to ask for no cheese, but it wasn't until we got our order that we realized his had turkey on it.... oops again. Old habits die hard, but we're working on it.

The smoothie recipes I link to may contain dairy, I substituted soy this week.

Monday

Breakfast - Cereal with soy milk & fruit
Snack - Whole wheat toast with peanut butter
Lunch - Split pea soup and breadsticks
Snack - snack tray with almonds, pistachios, fruit and pretzels
Dinner - Quinoa casserole

Tuesday

Breakfast - PB & J muffins with fruit
Snack - Fruit smoothie
Lunch - Pasta salad
Snack - peanut butter crackers & fruit
Dinner - Sushi

Wednesday

Breakfast - Eggs, fruit & whole wheat toast
Snack - Apple & peanut butter
Lunch - Veggie sandwich
Snack - Fruit & pretzels
Dinner - Leftovers

Thursday

Breakfast - Cereal with soy milk & fruit
Snack - Whole wheat toast with peanut butter
Lunch - Peanut butter & jelly with fruit
Snack - Fruit smoothie & popcorn
Dinner - Pad See Ew & Curry with tofu & veggies & Miso soup

Friday

Breakfast - Waffles & fruit
Snack - Whole wheat toast with peanut butter
Lunch - Tabouli salad & fruit
Snack - Fruit smoothie & pretzel/nut tray
Dinner - Vegetarian chili & salad

Saturday

Breakfast - Frittata, pancakes & fruit
Snack - Fruit
Lunch - Leftovers
Snack - Hummus, veggies and fruit
Dinner - Vegetarian spaghetti & roasted cauliflower

Sunday

Breakfast - Eggs, whole wheat toast, veggie sausage & fruit
Snack - Fruit
Lunch - Veggie stir fry
Snack - Hummus, veggies & fruit
Dinner - Leftovers

Creamy Pasta Salad

This was lunch for Day Two of our dairy free, meat free week. It is not vegan, but can easily be made vegan by using vegannaise instead of mayonnaise. The beans add protein where the meat would be for some and the variety of colorful veggies makes this as pretty as it is tasty! Pair it with a side of fruit and you have a perfectly balanced meal with food from all the food groups.

I'm eating this right now.... it's good :) I made it last night and let it chill overnight. I sent some with Mike for his lunch at work and he enjoyed it too.

Ingredients:

16oz. pasta of your choice. I had a mix of misfit macaroni that I used. The ends of the bags of some large macaroni, small & whole wheat.
1 cup chopped baby spinach
1 cup diced carrots
2 tomatoes (seeded and diced)
1 can white beans (any beans really) drained and rinsed
1/2 cup mayonnaise (or vegannaise)
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon paprika
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Boil pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Mix diced veggies and beans together with pasta.

In a small bowl combine mayonnaise, vinegar and other spices. Mix well and adjust as needed.

Pour dressing over salad and mix well. Refrigerate overnight.

Vegetarian Split Pea Soup

Split peas are full of healthy fiber, helping to lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar. Just one cup of cooked dried peas provides you with over 60% of your daily fiber needs.

Day One of meat and dairy free week. I thought I'd try a vegetarian split pea soup recipe. I found this one on AllRecipes.com. I made some changes and ended up with the following recipe. This isn't your "traditional" split pea soup. Knowing my Father-In-Law would say "This would be great..... with ham" as soon as he looked at it I wanted to wow him with how much flavor this soup could have without ham. I looked at what I had on hand and what the recipe called for, tweaked some things around and ended up with a fantastic soup! Joshua gobbled this up with amazing speed :)

Ingredients:

2 cups dry split peas
1/2 cup barley
1 cup diced carrots (I had baby carrots on hand, this was about 15 of them)
4 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 teaspoon Thyme
1 teaspoon basil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
2 cups tomato & roasted red pepper soup
5 1/2 cups vegetable broth (this makes a thinner soup. If you like it thicker start with about 2 cups less broth, you can always add more later if you want to.)
2 cups water

Directions:

Mix ingredients into your slow cooker. Turn on high for 4 hours and then low or warm until you are ready to eat!