Whether you cook with meat or only vegetarian, whole foods only can seem intimidating, especially if you are trying to save money on groceries, like I am.
I have a lot of wonderful, tried and true recipes that our family loves, but I wanted to branch out a bit and find new ones to try as well. I asked several natural living bloggers to share their meat and vegetarian whole foods dinner ideas with us and the response was great! Most of these dinners, are simple, and go a long ways. All of them are made with whole food ingredients and I look forward to trying them out!
Many of these are also very budget friendly (just what I am looking for) and the few that are not, can be made to go further by serving pasta, rice/beans or potatoes with them.
Whole Foods Recipes for Dinner:
Creamy Tomato Mushroom & Chicken Looks like it would be quick and easy to make.
Grilled Chicken Fajitas Perfect for quick summer dinners.
Basic Quiche If you make your own pie crust, and your own sausage (or make meatless) and it’s totally from scratch. Recipe also includes different variations which would make a nice change.
Cheesy Pasta with Sausage and Herbs You had me at cheesy!
Easy Shepherd’s Pie Simple and delish, goes a long ways too.
Herb Crusted Salmon Not something I would put on my regular menu due to cost of salmon, but the next time I see it on sale, I will be trying this recipe for sure!
Easy Fluffy Meatloaf The way to make meatloaf go further is to serve it with piles of mashed potatoes.
Sweet Beef Scramble The potatoes in this help it to go a lot further.
Fresh Side Pork and Beans This is a crockpot meal and the beans themselves are sure to be a hit!
Lemon Garlic Talapia Another meal that I will wait for a sale before I try, but this sounds super yummy!
Sausage and Cabbage Delight. I don’t have smoked sausage for this recipe, but I will just use my plain sausage (after I’ve spiced it up good) instead.
Chicken Fried Rice A hint of Asian 🙂
Spicy Shred Big flavor with heat. My kind of meal!
Tuna Melts. These sound good, but I would definitely have to substitute the tuna for salmon.
Paleo Chicken Soup Another crock pot recipe.
Creamy Meatballs and Spinach All I can say is these sound yummo!
Vegetarian Whole Foods Dinner ideas:
Cheesy-Mexi Lentils and Macaroni I really like lentils and need to start doing more with them.
Fried Rice Make it with or without meat. The eggs alone will add a decent amount of protein.
Spicy Beans and Rice I’m thinking yummy served in a tortilla!
Green Onion Soup Not so sure about this one, but hubby does love soup!
Cozy Lentils Another soup recipe, use veggie stock instead of beef for vegetarian.
Grilled Veggie Quinoa I love Quinoa and this recipe sounds amazing!
Kid Friendly Beans and Rice Honestly, this sounds Kendra friendly as well 😉
Not all of these recipes are “dirt cheap” ingredients. But remember, you can save money through meal planning as well. Or do “pantry shopping”. Here is what I do: I always have certain things I have to buy at the store, and things I buy if they are on sale. Then when it comes time to plan a dinner, I look through my pantry for supplies (and ideas!).
Thanks for sharing my meatballs and spinach recipe! We loved it with some riced cauliflower… so yummy!
Hi Kendra! I love your site and have been following along for a while. Thanks for this post today! The timing was perfect as I’m starting a new weekly menu planning routine. I was curious, you mentioned you have certain pantry staples that you always keep on hand. Would you mind sharing what some of those are? Thank you so much! Have a blessed day!
Sure 🙂 things like pasta, quinoa, rice, milk, eggs, butter. ect…. we also buy our meat from farmers once a year so pork, chicken and beef are nearly always available to me and I just find creative ways to use them with what I have. I also can and freeze during the summer months, so that is available to use as well.
I know that’s not very helpful… 🙂 Things that I have to buy specifically would be produce, and cheeses, and stuff that I cannot make…
I can’t wait to try some of these. I am a vegetarian and I need some new recipes. Thanks!
Linda
Totally looking forward to trying some of these out. Thanks, Kendra!
So many great ideas for dinner here! Thanks for linking at Marvelous Mondays with us! Pinned to by party board.
These are some wonderful meal ideas! There are a bunch on here I’d like to try. Thanks for linking up to Saturday Night Fever! Pinned!
These are some great looking recipes! I’m pinning to look at them all more thoroughly later!
Found you through the Show Me Your Plaid link up.
Some great ideas in this post. Thanks for linking up at Share Your Stuff Tuesday. I pinned this post.
I try to cook with whole foods as much as possible. This is a great round up full of yummy ideas! Thanks for sharing at Simple Supper.
great list,I checked few of the recipes,Paleo chicken soup is interesting.thanks for sharing
Hi Kendra! I love all of these ideas and thank you so much for sharing at Best of the Weekend! Hope you have a happy and wonderful Sunday and a lovely week ahead!
Kendra, thanks so much for sharing my tilapia recipe! 🙂 I hope you love it when you get a chance to make it (it’s one of our favorites). This is a great collection of recipes; I’ll have to check them out!
Thank you for sharing my cheesey mexi lentil macaroni recipe with your readers Kendra! I never thought I’d like lentils, but after trying them a few times, my kids and I are all hooked! I’m pinning this list of ideas so it’s handy when I meal plan. Thank you again!!
Specially thanks for sharing green onion soup