Well, it doesn’t have to be…but mine is. I’m not a good cook and I feel like I don’t have time to learn. No one else in my family is a vegetarian so any recipe that I try is a shot in the dark. The result is that I pretty much have 10 meals that I rotate through based on what I feel like eating each particular night.
I don’t feel like this is a vegetarian problem; it’s more of a lifestyle problem. Luckily, I think my problem is solvable. I just need to be open to new ideas and trying new things.
If you’re suffering from the same dinner plate boredom, here are 6 ideas to spice up your vegetarian meal plan!
1. Try a new recipe from a book you already own
You know, the books over there gathering dust. You purchased them with the best of intentions, but after an occasional glance the first couple days you never mustered up the courage to give that daring recipe a try. I’m not the stocked kitchen kind of guy, but I’m sure that you can find one in there that you already have the ingredients to.
2. Get creative with a potato
Start with a baked potato. Take a look in your cabinet and assess the situation. Select one can of beans of the type you have the most of. Select a vegetable that will also accompany the meal. This is where you get to be creative. Beans aren’t creative, but the type of vegetable you pick can be. Go wild, choose something you don’t think will go well on a potato. Now that you’ve made your selections, cook all three items separately, spicing as desired, and then top the sliced baked potato with your beans and vegetable. Add other potato toppings as desired.
3. Focus the meal around an unusual item
The problem new veggies have with cooking is that they used to prepare a meal by thinking of a main item (that being the meat) and then thinking of items that go with it. You can still think the same way, you just have to focus on a different center item like I did with the potato above. For example, imagine three of the most delicious slices of tomato lying in the center of a plate. What two or three other items could you mix in or add on the side. Personally, I think I’d chop the tomato and mix it with spinach, chopped potato, and a small amount of salsa.
4. Add flare to one of your regular meals
Choose something that you eat fairly regularly, but haven’t had in a couple of days. Substitute one of the regular ingredients or add in something extra. I quite often eat spaghetti with marinara sauce. It’s easy to make and cheap, but it’s not exciting anymore. To spice it up I could add veggie crumbles (a vegetarian ground beef substitute) or do something as simple as switching to spiral noodles.
5. Speaking of which, don’t be afraid of meat substitutes
…to create your old favorites. Although I in no way crave animal products anymore, I still have brushes of desire for specific meals that my mom prepared when I was growing up. Use substitutes to try to recreate the recipe.
6. Trust your instincts
Remember when your grandmother would just grab a pinch or handful of something and throw it in the pot? I was always baffled, but she had the confidence to know that it would turn out well. Pretend as if you absorbed that ability. Don’t be afraid to toss some corn into that pasta dish or add a spice that isn’t on the recipe card. The worst that happens is you learn not to do it next time 
Tags: adding excitement to your diet, Diet, meal plan, vegetarian