Betsy Bailey

I love pasta, but I don’t usually have a lot of variations – most of my creations are some combination of noodles, ground beef, red sauce and cheese. Sometimes I’ll get crazy and alfredo it up. I’m a busy working mom. I love to cook, but I just don’t have enough time or energy to play in the kitchen. Besides, my family is picky and they don’t want to try new foods.

Isn’t that lame? Because, really, there is no excuse! Going (somewhat) vegetarian has forced me out of my comfort zone with food and I’m finding it’s incredibly fast and easy to discover new recipes. We’ve had a couple flops, but we’ve also had some interesting successes. I’ve been impressed by how my family has taken to this culinary adventure.

This week so far we’ve tried two new pasta dishes.

• Garlicky White Beans, Sage and Orecchiette

• Whole-Wheat Pasta with Broccolini and Feta

>> Read on for recipes and my impressions of these meals

To get you caught up:

Day 2 of our vegetarian adventure I had chicken taquitos for dinner. It was one of those rare fend-for-yourselves nights. And technically I wasn’t ready for whole hog vegetarian, right? Right.

Day 3 of our vegetarian adventure we had Chick-Fil-A. Yes, I know. Lest you think I’m failing miserably at this so far, let me direct you to…

Day 4 of our vegetarian adventure… I had steak. See?! I can fail worse! It was good, too.

Day 5 of our vegetarian adventure we had a chicken/veggie stir fry with funny little pastas. I didn’t eat the chicken. It was okay. Simple, fast, bland, boring… but healthy. Everyone was satisfied except me. My palate doesn’t like boring. I need to get my menu plan and shopping list together so I can make more interesting fare.

Day 6 of our vegetarian adventure was pizza night. So much for planning and shopping. I’m on a tight work deadline and my kids all had dental appointments right after school. Even getting dinner made was too much of a challenge. I had a big salad (with bacon bits, I confess – the shame, the shame) and one large slice of cheese pizza.

<sigh>

>> Am I ever going to get this figured out? Read on…

Lately I’ve been dealing with some (relatively minor) health problems. To get my immune system back on track – and hopefully avoid surgery – my doctor referred me to a naturopathic doctor on her staff for an herbal protocol. In addition to supplements, the protocol also requires THREE MONTHS of vegetarian diet, heavy on the fruits and veggies.

Observing the horrified expression on my face, she backpedaled a teensy bit and said that if I absolutely must have meat, then I could have a small portion of chicken, turkey or fish no more than once per day. I barely like chicken. And fish/turkey not at all. I’m a red meat girl!!! And pork. So this is a blow.

Not to mention the challenge of preparing family dinners for anywhere from five to seven people! Initially, I just rejected the idea, but over the past week, I’m starting to come around. First of all, I certainly could stand to eat healthier. Plus, like most women six months postpartum, I could afford to lose a few pounds (like 30).

So I started doing some research on vegetarian recipes, and WOW have I been impressed with the results. I found some gems, like the following…

>> Check out these yummy vegetarian recipes