Easy Vegetarian Dinners for your New Vegetarian

A study published by Vegetarian Times showed that 7.3 million people are vegetarians. There is no shortage of blogs, websites, and publications that give great tips, resources, and recipes for easy vegetarian dinners. When my own daughter announced she wanted to be a vegetarian, I wanted to support her choice. However, I also needed to figure out how I would incorporate that eating style into our already hectic weeknights.

My biggest challenge was how to sift through the options and find some recipes that would work for not only a vegetarian but also the entire family. Some of my best tips came from experienced friends or local Facebook groups. Veteran vegetarians were quick to suggest the best veggie burgers along with the best ‘five star’ recipes to try.

Embrace the health benefits of the vegetarian lifestyle

While researching new recipe ideas, I found numerous articles on the long term health benefits of incorporating more vegetarian meals into our lives. We have all heard about the benefits of a plant-based diet, but when I started really reading about it, it was incredibly compelling. Significantly lower rates of Type 2 Diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are all listed as some of the major benefits of the vegetarian lifestyle.

Other benefits include longer lives, fewer weight problems, and better skin….who does not want that?? It is hard to ignore the overwhelming evidence and volume of scientific studies. Reading about the incredible health benefits gave me a burst of motivation to make this work not only for my daughter but also for my whole family. I started to realize that easy vegetarian dinners could benefit the whole family. If you want a quick read on this, check out this article on US News .

Get the vegetarian involved

I went to some of my favorite health focused sites, borrowed a pile of vegetarian cookbooks, and even went to the library for some books/. I asked my daughter to find ten dinners with fewer than five main ingredients and a good balance of fiber, protein, carbs, and essential vitamins. We tried a new recipe each week – that’s right, I said “we”. If she was going to be committed to this lifestyle, we both needed to learn about different types of beans, tofu, and grains that hadn’t been part of our weekly meals before. We got good at searching the internet for easy vegetarian recipes. We also discovered that there are meal-planning services that can be helpful with this task. A meal planning service, like The Dinner Daily, can help build a menu that includes easy vegetarian dinners. The service can create a menu for us based on our preferences and save us a lot of extra planning time.

Make sure the other family members try the new meals

We always made enough of the vegetarian meal to have leftovers for my daughter’s lunch or dinner the next day. Whenever we tried a new meal, everyone was required to sample a spoonful of the new recipe. They were often pleasantly surprised at how delicious the meals were. Now, we have a rotation of easy vegetarian meals we use twice weekly as the main course for everyone.

In conclusion

Change is never easy. And if you are looking to add more vegetarian recipes to your weeknight rotation or you have a new vegetarian in the house, you will have to make some changes.

However, exploring vegetarian recipes will have far more benefits than just satisfying your new vegetarian. It will give you new ideas for delicious, healthy meals the whole family will enjoy. Whether you are planning for a vegetarian or you just want to introduce more healthy plant-based meals, adding easy vegetarian dinners to your weekly menus is always a good thing.