Are you a planner? I am. Do you make lists? I do. I make lists of things to do, what to buy, and weekly menu planners. So when I decided to do 6 weeks meat-free, I made a list of tried and tested vegetarian dishes I could prepare and recipes that I have always wanted to make. I wish I had a photo of that list. It looks cool. I wrote it in purple pen in a spiral notebook. I was flowing with ideas. I logged at least two dozen recipes off the top of my head.
But the notebook is in my desk at work. For no good reason. So instead I have a photo of a generic list. Did I mention sometimes I like making lists with Sharpie marker or colorful pen?
So anyhow, after a good 10 minutes of brainstorming for recipes, I looked back over my list and began to classify the dishes and strategize. There was an emerging pattern – pastas, beans and eggs, oh my! So I thought if I could come up with seven categories, I could look for five or six recipes within each category.
The easy three are the aforementioned pasta, beans and eggs. Then I added a veggie burger category because I love me some burgers. We can have them with sweet potato fries or some lentil or hummus chips and really hang out. It will seem like a junk food meal! Well, almost. One of the avant garde stores where I shop carries a variety of brands.
The remaining three categories are meat substitute (now called plant meat), soups, and vegetable dishes, although there is room for tweaking. I’ll stop now, because I’m staying under 300 words.
Stay tuned. Next time: Dry Beans 101.
Six Weeks Meat-free 
I love lists. I write mine in pink sometimes. I’m not a big meat eater but seem I’d miss the protein from chicken as we eat that 5 days a week. I keep a list of dinner ideas on the fridge and will add a new recipe to it, if it passes the, let’s have it again test.
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I’m a list maker too! and very veggie. I recently tried the Beast Burger- and, well, i that is what meat is like, I’m not missing anything! thanks for sharing
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