This week's cooking challenge

I mentioned to my husband that I was thinking of cooking classic summer dishes to deal with the heat. You know, cold soups, simple salads, chilled desserts. But then I thought, why stop at summer classics? Isn't a cooking experiment, especially one interesting enough to write about, supposed to be, I don't know, experimental? At least for the person who is cooking. And that is why I've opted to cook vegetarian for the next week.

But it isn't the only reason I've chosen to cook meatless for a week. Besides the obvious health benefits of cutting growth hormones and cholesterol from your diet, eating meatless is supposedly easier on the wallet. Meat is usually the most expensive element of a meal and by cutting that out and replacing it with an alternative form of protein you can make a meal with more health benefits for less money. But, and here's the big but, does it taste as good? Both my husband and I are pretty big carnivores. We like steak (not that we can afford to eat steak but we still like it) we like meatloaf, we like chicken. I mean, we eat beans, mostly of the baked variety, but not often. Certainly my husband would not be terribly thrilled by the idea of tofu or textured vegetable protein (TVP). And honestly I have very little idea of what to even cook if meat isn't a part of the dish. What will we eat for a week? Will this require a lot of time spent chopping stuff? Will I have to buy all sorts of expensive ingredients just to make it taste okay? Will it fill us up? Can I find this stuff in town? For tried and true vegetarians I'm sure that that list of questions sounds absurd, but for me they are real.

So I've compiled a list of concerns:

1) It might be all fine and well for the food to be uber-healthy, but if it takes me hours to prepare then it just doesn't fit my lifestyle. So whatever I cook must be easy to compile in a reasonable amount of time, say, 30 minutes or less.

2) It needs to be recognizeable, for the time being. I'm prepared to explore other cuisines and so forth, but I think our family needs recipes to start out with that are familiar. Lasagna, spaghetti, nachos, omlettes and so forth. Just without the meat.

3) It needs to be true vegetarian. What I mean by this is complete proteins and full nutrition. I don't want gaps in my diet, especially as I'm nursing so responsible for two people's nutrition. This means I can't just take my spaghetti sauce recipe, take out the meat and call it a day. Something has to replace that meat. Which brings us to...

4) Soy and so forth. Stretching our horizons a bit is good for us. TVP, soy-based products such as tofu, beans and grains we don't usually eat, and so forth. I want to cook with this stuff and see if it is as good as the real thing.

5) It must be worth it financially. This might seem a little harsh, but if it costs the same amount or more than the meat version, why would I change?

Here are the recipes I've chosen:

Mushroom and Goat Cheese Frittata - from Million Menues
With 5 minutes of prep time and 15 minutes of cooking time, I'm hoping this would work when you need something fast. It also seems to be easy on the pocketbook, certainly under $10. I've never made a frittata, but with a side salad I think this will be a fast and fun meal.

Cheese and Bean Quesadillas - from Million Menues
Here's a good bean dish that shouldn't startle us at all. Everything is familiar and it looks easy to compile because it calls for canned refried beans, rather than having to soak and cook my own.

Veggie Burgers
Okay, this is the chance to try those 'pretend meat' options from the grocery store. We'll see what my options are when I get there. Are they any good?

'Meat' loaf
What about comfort food? Can you invite guests over for a family style supper and not have to serve something that is all vegetables? I need to explore the world of textured vegetable proteins and whether they can be substituted for ground meat.

Itsy-Bitsy Teeny-Weeny Colored Polka-Dot Rotini - from Crazy Plates
This recipe will definately be renamed if it stays a staple in our house! Multi-colored pasta with peas cooked in a spicy coconut broth. I feel like pasta is a great fall-back meal but I need to take a look at other sauces besides cream and tomato based ones.

Chop Chop Teriyaki Tofu - from Company's Coming Most Loved Stir-Frys
Here's the tofu! It had to come in sometime. Marinated in the teriyaki sauce it will, with any luck, win over even my meat-loving family. We really like stir-frys because of how quickly they come together.

Caesar, Corn and Red Pepper Risotto - from Weekday Wonders
I love the idea of risotto, but again I've never made it. I always thought of it as buttery and fat, but this version promises to be creamy and yet light. We'll see.