Vegetarian Meal Plan

The number of vegetarian people are increasing each year and there are people who are actually looking for a meal plan that is healthy and does not involve eating meat. Whether you are a vegetarian due to religious, cultural or health reasons, it is essential that you draw up a meal plan that is healthy and nutritious. Since meat and sea food is excluded from a vegetarian diet, you need to supplement it with good protein sources for vegetarians like legumes, whole wheat, and dairy. You also need to eat a variety of nuts, soy products and green leafy vegetables to make up for omega 3 essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. A healthy vegetarian diet plan might also be adopted by overweight people to lose weight. It is a very healthy way of eating and who knows you might stick to it for the rest of your life.

Vegetarian Meal Ideas

To draw up a good vegetarian meal plan that leaves you satiated and full, you need to have some good vegetarian meal ideas. Try to come up with meal ideas that are not boring and run of the mill. Vegetarian food can be made flavorful by the addition of herbs, spices and other condiments. Do not have only steamed vegetables as side dishes as it will get pretty monotonous after a while. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar, lime juice and grenadine syrup and see how much the taste improves.

Day	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Monday	1 white bread with peanut butter, 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, I banana	Potato and leek soup, vegetable fried rice	Tofu stir fry with couscous, steamed baby carrots with balsamic reduction
Tuesday	½ cup oatmeal with skimmed milk, ½ cup wild strawberries	Red pepper pasta, steamed broccoli	Cold cucumber and mint soup, wild rice pilaf with raisins
Wednesday	1 granola bar, 1 brown bread with peanut butter	Green vegetable salad with vinaigrette dressing, Black bean soup	Vegetable miso broth, Steamed rice with stir fry vegetables
Thursday	Vegetable sandwich, cranberry juice	Thai green curry, steamed noodles	Vegetable quiche, tomato and mint soup
Friday	½ cup muesli with fresh fruits, 1 banana	Baked potato, onion and celery soup	Tofu and bok choy stir fry, brown rice pilaf
Saturday	1 slice whole grain bread with peanut butter, 1 glass freshly squeezed orange juice	Red pepper soup,Four cheese pasta	Tomato and feta cheese salad, Chickpea and spinach curry
Sunday	½ cup muesli with fresh fruits, ½ grapefruit	Romaine and watercress salad, yellow lentil soup	Salad wraps with hummus dip

This vegetarian meal plan can be modified according to your preference or your specific diet. If you are want a vegetarian meal program for weight loss, then you need to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and ease up on cheese, butter and wine. The method of cooking involved will also have an impact on how many calories you are actually consuming. If you cook all your vegetables in butter instead of oil and add a lot of cream to it than of course such a vegetarian diet will not help in you in losing weight. Also keep a check on the kind of dressings used in salads. Try to use simple homemade vinaigrette as salad dressing instead of cream and mayonnaise based ones. Stir frying and steaming are two excellent methods of cooking vegetarian food. It is not only healthy and uses minimum oil but also retains the nutrients of the vegetables.

You can also have a special vegetarian meal programs for runners and athletes. Eating vegetarian food is healthy and you can come up with many variations in recipes.