Going Vegetarian for 1 month

Hello readers and welcome to the New YEAR!! As a family we have decided to fast meat for the month to go along with our Church's annual 21 day fast. Along with cutting out meat from our diets we will also not be eating sweets, cookies, chocolate, chips, pop, ice cream and any other really good junk food. Also for the month to get the noise out of my head I will be fasting from face book in hopes to use that time (aka children's nap time) to listen to a series called the Agape Road by Bob Mumford; in hopes to go deeper with God finding new strength and vision from Him.

So starting Sunday this family is going all Veggie!!! Being a Dietitian I of course have read a lot on the subject and here are a few good things to prepare for our fast. (Hope this is helpful for our church family reading this)

The food guide principles we will be following is as follows:

Eat Most

Grains: such as wheat, rice, barley, corn, oats, rye, millet and buckwheat

Food made from Grains: pasta and bread

Fruits and Vegetables

Eat Moderately

Dairy: Milk, yogurt and cheese

Pulses: peas, beans of all kinds and lentils

Nuts

Eggs

Eat Less

Sugar, Honey, butter, cream, margarine and oils

Just like meal planning and making things from scratch on our regular diet I will do the same on our new fast diet. This will help make it easier for me to shop and stay on our budget. We haven't set a new grocery budget for this year but until we do our year end budgeting I will say that we will eat as vegetarians for $62.50/ week.

So today when I was out shopping I stocked up on clearance items such as breads (only whole grain. When we say whole grain it means that when you look at the 1st ingredient on the label it should ready whole grain), buns, flat bread. I also picked up some Balkan style yogurt which is filled with probiotics and is all natural. Remember if you are cutting back on sugar all those yogurts that are no fat are full of sugars. Now for the pantry I picked up pasta, canned beans, dried beans, tomato paste, canned tomatoes, and a few different sauces to add flavor such as sweet chili sauce.

* A side note for Moncton shoppers: the Co-op had some great sales on veggies and dried beans this week and don't forget if we are starting the fast on Sunday to check the market this week to get some other great deals on local produce!

So with all that said this week will be a slow start to our fast cause I am not sure how well the guts are going to handle going on just beans!! heheheh.....So we will integrate that stuff slowly. Here are some meal ideas that I am thinking for the fast. I will post recipes every couple of days and Micah has agreed to be the food critic on them! hehehe.. Let me know if you have more foods to add to the list.

Meal ideas for 21 days of no meat!

Veggie chili

Falafel with homemade pita bread

Honey baked lentils

BBQ lentils

Nacho salad in tortilla bowl

Chef Salad

Omelets

Quiche

Vegetable soup

Lentil soup

Veggie pot pie with sweet potato crust

Rice and bean Quesadilla's

Minestrone soup

Veggie pizza (for Eben)

Vegetable stir fry

Sweet and Sour Noodles with veggies

Winter Vegetable casserole

Greek Salad

Quinoa pilaf with cranberries and almonds

Tomato soup with pasta and basil

Spaghetti Primavera

Veggies Nachos (using baked tortillas for chips)

Weeknight Dinner

Crockpot pineapple beans

Potato and Pea curry

Bean salad

Carrot soup

Red lentil soup

Baked beans on toast

Hummus sandwiches

Tomato and Basil salad

Potato salad (no mayo)

Sesame spinach salad

Avocado egg salad

So there is a list of some of the ideas I have gotten from many friends. I will post the recipes as well try them out!! Hopefully you can enjoy along with us as we fast to get closer to God and hopefully shed off some of the excess weight we are carrying around.