This week we’re swapping Main Dish recipes that don’t include meat. As I mentioned earlier this week, occasionally opting out of meat can be great for your budget as well as lessen wear and tear on the environment.
I started doing this years ago when we went to one income. I had read Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy, a great book to get you thinking how to save on food costs. One of her suggestions was to serve a meat-less meal once a week. We’ve done that intentionally for a dozen years now, and we’re just fine.
My children are self-professed carnivores, and it can be hard for them to take — at times. In lean seasons, we’ve gone meatless 6 out of 7 nights. But, we have several regular meals to which they have just become accustomed: beans and rice, bean tostadas, pasta with red sauce, and cheese enchiladas.
I prepare these with Las Palmas sauces. These are our very favorite canned sauces. (And believe me when I say we’ve tried many different kinds.) I have made my own enchilada sauce, but have found that for flavor and quality, it’s much easier and tastes better to open a can. I was particularly pleased to see coupons for this sauce in last Sunday’s paper.
An added plus is that these enchiladas freeze very well, so if two pans are too much for one dinner, freeze the other pan.
Cheese Enchiladas
Makes 2 dozen enchiladas
vegetable oil
2 dozen corn tortillas
28-ounce can Las Palmas red enchilada sauce
4 cups grated jack and/or cheddar cheeses
sliced black olives
sliced green onions
In shallow saucepan, heat 1 inch of vegetable oil. Soften tortillas in oil and drain on paper towels. Grease 2 9×13-inch baking dishes. To assemble, place small handful of cheese down the center of each tortilla, roll and place seam side down in greased baking dish. Pour sauce over tops of rolled tortillas. Sprinkle remaining cheese as well as olives and onions over top. * Bake in 350F oven until heated through and cheese is melted. Serve with Mexican rice. beans, and a salad.
If freezing, wrap, label and freeze at the * point. To serve, defrost completely and continue with directions.
How about you? What’s your family’s favorite meatless main dish? Share it with us today!
Here’s how to participate in Ultimate Recipe Swap:
1. Post your recipe on your blog. Please mention www.lifeasMOM.com in your post so that your readers know where all the other good recipes are hanging out. Then, come back here to add the link to your post to Mr. Linky below. (Find instructions for Mr. Linky here.)
OR
2. If you don’t have a blog, simply post your recipe or tell us about it in the comments section.
3. Above all, please stick to topic. Today is meatless main dishes. So if your recipe doesn’t fit the theme, it will be deleted. Thanks for understanding.
Recipe links that do not stick to the theme or other guidelines will be chopped.
Have a story to go along with your recipe? We’d love to hear it! If you have a topic suggestion for future swaps, go here.
Looking forward to seeing what you have to share!
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Your ideas look great! We don’t do meatless, as my dh doesn’t want to. But he does love Mexican food, so maybe I could get away with these dishes.
I am looking to do more meatless meals for our family so this is AWESOME! I can’t wait to see all the great ideas!
Those look really good! Thanks for hosting!
~Liz
We try to have a meatless dish each week, too. Sometimes it's as simple as macaroni & cheese or cheese pizza. Other times, I go to the trouble of making a lentil or bean dish. The kids are used to my strange meals.
We try to do meatless once a week. One of our long time favorites are Spinach and Mushroom Quesadillas with Pepper Jack Cheese. I serve it with guacamole for dipping. For sides we either have black bean and corn salad or spanish rice.
what a great recipe swap! for those of you who do it for frugality, an added bonus is nutrition. legumes (beans and lentils) are very nutrient dense, an execllent source of protein and other antioxidants! 3 cups of beans are recommended per week by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans! make a pot of beans every week and eat them warm one night then save the rest to rinse and put on green and pasta salads. or puree them and add fresh/roasted garlic and other spices for bean dip.
my favorite is just simply rice, black beans, and rotel.
Sorry about the ham, I wasn’t thinking it was included in the recipe.
I took it off.
~Liz
Can’t wait to check these all out!
Sounds really yummy. It is about 15 minutes till my lunch break and these recipes are making my tummy growl.
What a great sounding recipe! I don’t even think my “meat and taters” hubby would miss the meat with the olives in there… another of his great loves.
Sounds yummy!
Thank you!! I’m a vegetarian, so finding a yummy enchilada recipe *and* a list of recipes to explore that won’t be needing substitutions has made my morning!
I only eat ‘meatless’. But I really see meat–if you do eat it–as being a side dish. Beans, veggies and whole grains really should be more of a focus! Plus, they taste better to me
My favorite is breaded and fried or baked tofu cubes. Serve with salad, whole grain bread and sauce for dipping (sweet chili sauce is my favorite but sweet and sour, ketchup, and plum sauce work well too).
Yum! Great recipes, everyone! I linked up to an older post of mine featuring veggie burritos.
Thank you so much for hosting this. I really need to increase our meatless meal options and there are definitely some good ones on this list! Thanks so much.
Yum! We prefer homemade mole sauce, so this is a great idea since I am completely out of meat (and money) till the end of the month. I just made a large pot of fresh beans, and have some in the freezer so that and rice will be great with these for dinner tonight!
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