So I've mentioned to some of you out there that Brent and I are doing this DVD exercise program called Power 90. It's 90 days and we're on day 46. Halfway through, woo hoo! So we did the 1-2 workouts for the first half and now we're moving on to the 3-4 for the second half. They are slightly harder and longer. The first half was during the holidays, of course. We didn't want to worry about the diet during the holidays so now that we're a little in shape and have no excuse to eat chocolate anymore, we're working on the diet. We decided to try out being vegetarians for the last 45 days. Sometimes I think I need to make a major change like that to make it more interesting and easy. Gets the focus off the ice cream (no ice cream is allowed) and onto the veggie diet. I've always wanted to try it out anyway. No, we're not going vegan. We'll still be eating eggs and a little cheese and drinking milk. That makes it a whole lot less complicated.
Thought I'd share our first triumphal vegetarian dinner recipe with you~
Veggie Pasta Salad
1 box Barilla Plus Rotini Pasta, boiled and rinsed (has extra protein and the omega 3s)
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 can whole olives, drained
baby carrots, sliced into quarters and slightly steamed
brocolli, cut up and slightly steamed
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
grape tomatoes, whole or cut in half if you prefer
fresh spinach, torn
italian salad dressing to taste (I used the Good Seasons mix kind)
Toss all ingredients together, sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top, stir.
Refridgerate a few hours.
Makes enough for two nights for a family of five.
Serve with rolls or fruit or whatever.
Good and Pretty!
Update: I'd stir the spinach in right before serving next time, gets really soggy.
11 comments:
It pains me to think about not eating meat, but the salad looks really good!
YOU ARE AWESOME!
vegweb.com if you want to try some vegan recipes, and I have a vegetarian starter kid magazine with some pretty tasty sounding recipes if you'd like me to give it to you sometime :)
Wow, that does look good. I'm going to try it. Now, is that picture one of your first for your "cookbook"?
Yummy! I did the vegetarian thing for a while. We were eating out a lot at the time (no kids so we'd go on impromptu dates regularly) and that was really hard. Try ethnic restaurants, they're a bit easier. Lots of our regular meals were adaptable for vegetarian too: fajitas and tacos, leave the meat out. We added green chilies to our tacos about that time, and olives & sour cream became more regular. Try some hummus in your sandwiches or just on tasty crackers: it's good stuff. Good luck!
You go girl!!! The salad looks beautiful.
That looks yummy. But I would have to agree...how can you not be eating a nice juicy steak??? That salad would go great with one. Lol. I'm only giving you a hard time. Good luck with it...you'll have to let me know how it goes. Mike had wanted to try that workout program...but he would rather die first than not eat meat!
I can't imagine a diet without ice cream. I'd rather die.
There was a time when I was little that when people asked me what I was going to be when I grew up and I would reply "vegetarian", I've never been daring enough to take the plunge and try it for real.... I've heard you can substitute garbanzo beans for a lot of meats.... Good Luck!
Lauren, Thanks, I'd like to look a look at that sometime!
Cathy, I guess it's up to me to make that cookbook, huh?
Kristen, the ice cream is the hardest part. But probably the biggest reason for even trying this. I need a distraction!
wow, your amazing ! i can't believe your giving up meat. even if it is for 45 days or possibily longer :( your salad looks really yummy though. i'm definitely going to have to try it !
I didn`t like it that much.
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