7 Gluten-Free Vegan Dinners

So one thing I love reading about on other blogs is what other people are eating, and since my favorite meal of the day is dinner I figured I would show you my dinners for a week. On top of this, these meals are all gluten-free and vegan, thus showing the endless meal possibilities you can have...despite not using meat, dairy, or gluten. Also, one thing to note about my meals is that they may not look "complete" by the traditional means...you know with a side of a fruit or a small salad, as well as the main course. I do this mainly because I eat my fair share of fruits and greens throughout the day in my smoothies (some have 4-5 fruit servings each, not to mention about 1 or 2 cups of greens per smoothie), so I feel pretty covered in this area. Now although I'm not religious in "proper food combining" I do try to avoid eating fruit with a meal like one of these dinners because fruit digests the quickest of all foods, so to add it into this meal (with slower digesting foods like protein and grains) it would get backed up in my digestive tract...thus causing bloating and gas- no fun! So, here are the yummy meals I had this week...

Mexican Lasagna. Just tried this recipe for the first time, and it rocked! I modified the recipe from Nava Atlas' recipe, "Tortilla Casserole" which you can find online here. Here's my tweaks to the recipe: use pinto beans, instead of scallions I used 1/2 an onion, for the vegan cheese I used Cheddar Daiya, I didn't include "steamed veggies", instead of one can crushed tomatoes I used 1 cup crushed tomatoes and 1 cup salsa. Basically the layers are: corn tortillas, bean/tomato mixture, and then cheese. Boy was this a yummy Mexican lasagna! You've gotta try it!


Baked Spaghetti. So, I don't have an exact recipe for this one, I just kind of thought it up one day when I was craving baked spaghetti. All it is is Tinkyada pasta, organic pasta sauce and then vegan mozzarella cheese (Dayia) and I baked it in the oven for about 15 minutes. Yummy! I paired this with some gluten-free biscuits that I turned into "garlic bread" with the help of some vegan butter, garlic, and oregano.

 
Broccoli Skillet- We've been making this meal for a while now and although we originally got it from Vegan Express by Nava Atlas, where it was called, "Pineapple Stir Fried Rice" on page 87, we have changed it quite a bit. As I mentioned before, I don't like to have fruit with my meals, so we took the pineapple out, as well as the coconut milk they have you add. So what's left: this meal is basically brown rice, a chopped onion, a full head of broccoli, 2 carrots, 1 red pepper, 1 tomato...all diced and sauteed. Some of the yummy spices used are: ginger, curry, and instead of soy sauce I use Braggs liquid aminos. To top this all off, I put some chopped cashews on top- yummy!

Sweet Potato and Lentil Chili. This is one of my favorite meals because I love sweet potatoes and the fact that it combines lentils and beans to give this baby and I a protein boost, makes it even better! I tried to find the recipe online, but I didn't, it's in the cookbook called, Eat, Drink & Be Vegan by Dreena Burton and it's on page 101. It has some great flavors in it like cinnamon, chili powder, and nutmeg. Delicious!

 
Eating Out...Noodles and Company! So I finally have another place that I can eat out at other than Chipotle, it's Noodles and Company! After checking out their website, I realized that they have rice noodles as seen in their "Pad Thai" menu item on this special nutritional information chart. I then combine this with their Marinara sauce and what to you get...this yummy gluten-free, vegan bowl of spaghetti! This pregnant mama gets a "Regular" size bowl and boy do I eat it fast, notice the pic below of my empty bowl! Love this place! Now, just a head's up...if you are very sensitive to gluten, you might want to avoid this just because I once found a wheat macaroni noodle in one of my bowls, luckily I caught it before I ate it, but still I was okay even though it touched the other noodles. Just thought I'd give you a head's up!

 
Veggie Burger, Roasted Sweet Potatoes, and Vegetarian Baked Beans.  So once a week we have our one of our favorite meals...Veggie Burgers.  Over the years it began as turkey burgers and chips,  then to veggies burgers, and now to veggie burgers and roasted sweet potatoes.  My favorite burger to use is any type of Sunshine Burger as they have a very short ingredient list and are gluten-free, soy-free and obviously vegan.  Since this meal is pretty filling, I usually omit the bread, but you could use any gluten-free bread or bun you would like. 

As for our "side dish" we have these lovely and delicious "Lifestyle 180 Roasted Sweet Potatoes" from the book, You: Having a Baby by Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz. It's basically sweet potatoes chopped into small cubes, tossed in some oil, garlic, cumin, and salt and then baked in the oven.  We call them "Cutie Cubes" and boy do they make our house smell so good when they are baking! To finish off the meal, we have some  vegetarian baked beans (here's my favorite brand).  Top it all off with a little organic ketchup and you've got yourself one lean, mean BBQ dinner!

Macaroni and "Cheese" Soup, this recipe is from Vegan Soups and Hearty Stews for All Seasons by Nava Atlas. The best thing about this recipe is that it is actually high in protein because the base of the soup is pureed white beans...which probably doesn't sound so great, but you can't even taste them! Here's a link to the recipe, and here's the modifications I made: didn't add the dill, used cheddar Daiya cheese, left out the peas, and used Tinkyada rice pasta. Perfect for a cold fall day!

Now with all this healthy, gluten-free, vegan meal planning going on you have to now that B and I make sure to squeeze in a fun treats! Here's Brandon's treat, a berry-banana smoothie with a Twizzler straw! LOL! ( :Here's one of my treats from this week: Rice Dream Vanilla Ice Cream, Ah!laska Chocolate Syrup, and Jo-Sef Simply Delicious Chocolate O's (aka "Oreos" these are gluten-free, dairy-free, and egg free!).

So, that's my week of yummy gluten-free, vegan meals! Do you have any you gluten-free vegan dinners to share, post below! ( :