It’s Ash Wednesday, which means time to start planning some meatless options for today and every Friday until Easter.
When I was younger Lent usually meant we got to eat more Macaroni and Cheese and, while I may or may not have given the kiddos “Snackaroni” for lunch, I love finding new things to eat each Friday that are healthy and delicious!
For us, Lent has always meant looking forward to a welcome excuse/reminder to eat seafood! I have some great healthy recipes for seafood! I also have been experimenting with some awesome meatless recipes and options for meat substitutions.
So, today I’m sharing some of my current favorite recipes – perfect for Lent!
Seafood
Fish w/olive oil and Cajun seasoning. We do this all the time! Next to my dad’s famous (seriously, famous) fish fry, this is my favorite way to eat fish. I typically buy packs of frozen fish at Aldi – I get the Swai because it is the cheapest and a yummy, meaty fish. Tilapia was on sale for the same price last week, so I stocked up on that.
I’s so easy! I take about a 1/4 cup of olive oil and brush it onto each filet. Then I sprinkle each semi-generously with cajun seasoning – yum! Bake in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes.
Crab cakes. This is a recipe I love! It came from one of my many Weight Watchers cookbooks. I’m telling you, it’s an obsession – anytime I find one, I have to have it! We’ve been making these for years and love them. It’s so easy too, we use imitation crab and they are delicious.
Shrimp and potato tapas. Another Weight Watchers recipe! The flavors of this dish are phenomenal!! Something really magical happens when the vinegar is added at the end. Mmmm… I think I saw a bag of raw shrimp in the freezer…
Truly Meatless meals
Lentil tacos. I couldn’t find a photo, but I’ve started doing taco meat with a combination of turkey and lentils. We love it, and don’t miss the extra meat at all. This Friday, I’m going to try with just the lentils. I may even combine some from the Raw Taco recipe below and the Popped Lentils and see what we come up with. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Spaghetti with Lentil Marinara. As you can tell, I’m a big fan of substituting lentils for meat. I even wrote about all the awesome benefits of lentils. This recipe uses lentils in the “meat” sauce for the spaghetti. The recipe didn’t call for it, but I love adding a veggie.
This recipe makes me think lentils would a great substitute in Sloppy Joes too. I used them in combination with turkey for my Manwich Loaded Baked Potatoes, but this recipe wouldn’t miss the turkey at all with a few more lentils!
Raw tacos. This is a recipe I found during the Move, Nourish, Believe Challenge for the “Go Raw” day. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but it was delicious! We made it without the cashew “sour cream” but I think I’d try it next time because it did need a little sauce. This isn’t the exact recipe I followed because that one had the cashew “sour cream” but I think this one is exactly what I did for the walnut taco “meat.”
Breakfast
Egg over-hard with tomatoes, green chilis, and avocado. My favorite way to eat eggs for nearly the past year has been with avocado. I’ll chop up some fresh tomatoes when I can, but we had a can of diced tomatoes with green chilis leftover from another recipe and it was awesome! I’ll definitely be doing that from now on! Who could miss the sausage or bacon with this meal?
Egg white scramble with garlic and shrimp. I would have never believed this one until I tried it! Someone in one of my first dietbets mentioned having shrimp with their eggs, so I gave it a shot. Yum! I keep some olive oil in spray bottle so I just give the pan a spray with a little chopped garlic or garlic salt and scramble some egg whites and add in my shrimp at the end. It is so good and really gets you going for the day!
Get creative!
The following are some great snacks, but are also great options that you can get creative with and make some really amazing meals!
Roasted chickpeas These are awesome! The link I included is they way I’ve made them a few times, but the possibilities are endless! I even tried them with coconut oil and cocoa powder… That one could use a little tweaking, but I think I can get it!
Black and White Bean Salad. I’ve raved about this recipe more than once! Ever since I stumbled upon it, in yet another Weight Watchers cookbook, I have been finding so many different uses for it! Check the link for the recipe and some of the first meals I made with this “salad” back when I first started experimenting with it. Recently, we also found that is is amazing with spaghetti squash – I just cut the squash in half and filled the cavities with the Black and White Bean Salad before cooking. Yum!
I hope this list has helped give you some ideas for meals during Lent, or just Meatless Monday. You can find these and other recipes snuggle into my Pinterest boards Meatless Mondays, Lovin’ Lentils, and Food – Healthy Eating.
What are your favorite recipes for Lent? Or, what are your favorite meatless recipes?
What a great collection of Lent-appropriate recipes! It’s always a challenge finding unique meatless Friday meals. I think my favorite meatless meal is gluten-free mac & cheese (I cheat and use Amy’s frozen meals) and a homemade shrimp and roasted corn salad. Thanks for giving me great Lenten menu-planning options!
Jacqui recently posted…Gluten Free Crockpot Beef Stew – #5MinuteRecipes
Thank you Jacqui! Isn’t it funny how we can draw a complete blank on meals during Lent? It really surprised me how many things I had eaten recently that would be perfect for Lent. Of course, I can never think of them when Friday rolls around. Hopefully this year I’ll remember these options! Thanks so much for stopping by Jacqui!
Thanks for sharing – both seafood options look fantastic! I’m not Catholic so Lent isn’t an issue for us, but I want to try both of those recipes ASAP!
Stacey recently posted…Weird Things my Kid Does #1
Everything looks great, especially the tacos and salad. It’s nice to have a couple meals each week without any meat, even though sometimes I find it a bit challenging. Thank you for sharing all these great recipes!
~Bre
Bre & Ree recently posted…wheat-free, dairy-free, morning glory muffins
Thanks for checking it out, Bre! If you liked those you would love the Taco salads we had tonight! I cooked my lentils in broth (chicken broth bc it was all we had at the cabin) with taco seasoning. When they were cooked I stuck some of them in a pan to pop and give them a bit of a different texture. It was SO good!!
My 10 year old daughter told me yesterday that she was excited for Lent. I questioned her because it sounded like an odd choice of words. Then she tells me she really loves eating fish, so she’s excited to eat more of it. I’m not sure that’s really in the spirit of Lent, but I guess I’ll take it! I love eating fish too! I made fish cakes with salmon and they are yummy!!
Rabia @TheLiebers recently posted…10 Friends Every Woman Needs
That’s how I always felt too!! Yum! Salmon cakes sound delicious – I may have to do that next week!
It’s funny. Meatless Fridays used to be a true sacrifice for me. Now that we eat meatless about half of the time, I’m conflicted by whether or not it is a sacrifice at all! Especially with yummy recipes like these!
Lisa @ The Wellness Wife recently posted…A Salad to Fight Inflammation and Migraines
Exactly! We’re trying to do meatless more often. For some reason,I still struggle when the pressure is on on Fridays. This roundup was really to show myself how many meatless meals we really do! Not much of a sacrifice… 🙂
We already eat fish several times a week but that’s as close as I can get most of my family to get to meatless. I do have one son who is a vegetarian but he cooks for himself. That black and white bean salad looks awesome!
Carla recently posted…Hask Argan Oil and Keratin Hair Care Products Review
I love your Lent roundup. I think I would gravitate towards the seafood. 🙂
Traci recently posted…Unicorn Poop Cookies
We just had taco salads made with lentils and, I glottal tell ya, it rivaled one of the seafood recipes for sure! I couldn’t believe how good it was! Thanks for stopping by!
these all sound delicious but i am especially intrigued by the raw walnut taco meat! thank you
best,
diane
stopping by from the SITs girls link party
red or green? recently posted…Pizza with Green Chile, Chicken & Cheese (gluten free)
It was one of the most adventurous recipes I had ever tried but the flavors turned out great! Thanks for stopping, Diane!
I am visiting from SITS – congrats on being featured today! I love the design of your blog — very clean and simple. I never thought about roasting chick peas before, but roasted anything is delicious, so I will give it a try! I like the eggs idea too. Thanks!
Susan Maccarelli recently posted…22 Humorous Writing Prompts For Bloggers
Oh my goodness – you have to try the chickpeas! They are delicious! I’m still working in the perfect timing – they can turn out hard like corn it’s, but I like them crispy on the outside with a little chew to the middle and it’s a little difficult to get that timing perfect… Thanks so much for stopping by!
the shrimp and potato tapas sound great!
MarfMom recently posted…Friday Favorites
You have to try them – amazing!
My family eats “meatless” by this definition almost all the time. Here’s a recent four weeks of dinner menus that might give you some inspiration.
Thanks for the new ideas! I did not know you could pop lentils.
Becca @ The Earthlings Handbook recently posted…A Real Man
Thanks! Popped lentils are my new favorite thing – love them!