Tips for Preparing Easy Vegetarian Meals

Author: Diana Pells

Preparing easy vegetarian meals can be exciting if you know what to prepare. With several free and easy vegetarian recipes on the internet, you'll hardly run out of recipe to try everyday. More importantly though, there are simple things you need to remember to come up with easy vegetarian meals.Complete StocksSometimes all you need for easy vegetarian meals are complete weekly food stocks of everything your family loves to eat. Always make sure that your grocery list contains different kinds of grains, cereals, pastas, pita bread, whole wheat breads, fruits and vegetables as well as some extras like spices. As an added tip, you might want to repack some of your veggies ahead of time especially peas, corn and beans into serving packs. This way you just have to grab pre packed veggies for the right number of servings for salads and recipesInstantsThere are some vegetarians who would rather prepare fresh meals than stocking up on ready-to-cook preparations from the store. It is true that fresh is almost always best. If you are really in a hurry though, you and your family might just benefit from an occasional instant meal. There are lots of easy vegetarian meals that you just need to pop in an oven. Examples would be veggie burger patties and frozen veggie pizzas.For freshly-cooked easy veggie meals, you can always opt for oven-ready lasagna noodles, canned beans, tortillas, bottled pickles and ready-made sauces.Simple RecipesIf you want to cook varied vegetarian meals, it is always advisable to have a list of recipes or a vegetarian recipe book ready. Of course, the easiest meal would be salads. Simply toss some greens, nuts, carrots, cucumber, tomatoes and cheese and you have you'll always have easy vegetarian meals. You might also want to have an occasional raw day when you just have to blend some fruits and vegetables for a satisfying meal. It would be a great idea though to increase the appetite boost of a good salad with some soup or an easy to cook pot meal like chili peppers and beans.LeftoversThere are certain leftover foods that you may want to consider to make easy vegetarian food. Bread, potatoes, rice, carrots, quinoa, beans and different kinds of soup are some of the items that freeze well. When cooking for the day's meal, simply cook a double serving, freeze the extra and then heat for another day. If you're family members are not picky eaters, then you can always inform them ahead of time that some days in a week are designated leftover days.PlanPlans would work well for easy vegetarian cooking. Take a few minutes off on a weekend to draft a complete weekly plan for all your meals so that you would at least know exactly what you need to shop for.HelpIf you still end up running out of great ideas for easy vegetarian meals then its time for you to learn new things. Spend some time every month to brush up on new meal ideas from cookbooks or online vegetarian sites for new creative ways to prepare easy meals.