If you have been following me for a little while, one of our New Year’s resolutions was to try to eat a few meatless meals a week. Maybe because we watched the documentary, What the Health. If you haven’t seen it, it’s eye opening. Although we still love a good steak, we just wanted to cut back on how much meat we were consuming. We were up to 4-5 nights a week! It was time to switch it up a bit.
It’s really been kind of fun experimenting and so far, so good! As a result, we have been changing our weekly meals and found a few that we love. Below are recipes ready under 30 minutes, meatless, and easy to make.
Asian Style Pasta
I love pasta, carbs in general really. Who doesn’t?! But I have been experimenting with different typs of pasta and I like this is veggie pasta from Marianos. It’s made up of 30 percent made from veggies and like it a lot. The texture isn’t compromised and holds on to sauce well.
I paired it with broccoli and cauliflower, topped with Soy Vay Hoisin Garlic Sauce, found at Mariano’s or Target. I think other pasta alternatives like Banza would work well too. You can definitely add chicken or another protein to this, but I think it’s great meatless!
Ingredients:
- 1 package of cooked Veggie rotini
- 1 red sliced red pepper
- 1 package of frozen broccoli and cauliflower (frozen works too)
- 1 tbsp green onion
- Soy Vay Hoisin Garlic Sauce
- Sesame oil
Directions:
- Cook pasta according to the directions on the box and drain.
- Add cooked broccoli, cauliflower and chopped red peppers.
- Add 2 tbsp Hoisin Garlic sauce
- Sprinkle 1 tsp sesame oil
- Keep on low, stirring until the sauce covers the pasta evenly
- Top with green onion
- Enjoy!
(This was a sponsored Instagram post with Soy Vay, but all opinions expressed are my own)
Calabacitas
In Spanish, calabacitas means ‘zucchini’. It is a dish of (usually) squash, corn, and peppers. There are so many variations, and it is can be a side dish or main entree. We probably have this at least once a week. It takes about 20 minutes or so, which is perfect for a weeknight meal.
Ingredients:
- Two zucchini, diced
- 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
- 1 can black beans, drained
- 1/2 can chickpeas
- 1/2 chopped onion
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 packet Sazon Goya seasoning
Optional: Tortilla chips for serving, shredded cheese or tortillas
Directions
- First, add onion, garlic and olive oil to pan and cook until onion is brown.
- Then, drain tomatoes (you don’t have to, it’s a just a preference of mine). Let this cook for a few minutes.
- Add zucchini, drained black beans, and chickpeas.
- Now add Goya seasoning and cook until the zucchini is cooked through. (I use this seasoning on so much. We order packs of it at a time.)
- Finally, serve with cheese, avocados, sour cream, tortilla chips or make tacos with tortillas.
- Enjoy!
Sweet Potato Tacos
This is probably one of my most liked Instagram posts (you can see it here.) It’s crazy, because I literally threw it together. We had sweet potatoes that were about to go bad, so I thought why not use them in tacos instead of tortillas.
Let me put this into context. Noah was being extremely fussy and a typical toddler this night, Manny was running late from work and I had just about had it with the day. He was at my feet the entire time I was cooking (which is why I have very little photos of it!), but it’s crazy, because they turned out AMAZIIINNNGG. Funny how some things just work out that way.
Adding ground turkey would be good too, but meatless was great for us!
Ingredients: (makes about 3 sweet potato tacos)
- 1 8 oz can drained black beans
- 1 8 oz can drained diced fire roasted tomatoes
- 3 sweet potatoes
- 1 avocado
- 1/2 cup shredded cheese
- 1/2 cup green onion
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- Taco seasoning (pre-made or this one)
Directions:
- First, heat sweet potatoes for 2 minutes or until cooked through
- Next, combine all your taco seasoning ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside.
- Then, cook onion in garlic and onions until golden brown
- Now add drained tomatoes and beans. Cook until the beans are tender.
- Next, add your taco seasoning to the beans, tomatoes and onions. Cook for 5 minutes or so, until everything is covered with seasoning.
- Lastly, fill sweet potatoes with beans mixture, top with cheese, green onion and avocado. Optional- sour cream
- Enjoy!
For additional weeknight inspo, you can check for other ideas here. I have been experimenting with different meatless recipes a lot lately, so let me know what you guys think!
As always, thanks for following along and you can sign up for weekly emails here and on Instagram.
Until next time,
Christine
There are some affiliate links in the post, but all the opinions expressed are my own.