meatless dinner ideas

Today, I'm one of many food bloggers participating in a special awareness event -- Food Bloggers Against Hunger. This is a topic that is personally very important issue to me. Did you know that someone on government food assistance (SNAP) will typically receive only $3-$4 a day to purchase food for themselves? Could you imagine spending only $1 for each of your meals? I recently watched the new documentary, A Place at the Table, and it left me wondering if I could buy food to make a healthy family meal for 4 on just $4. I went shopping to find out if it was possible with one of my most frugal meals, Meatless Sloppy Joes.

Meatless Sloppy Joes

dark red kidney beans (rinsed, drained, divided)

olive oil

onion

garlic

salt

pepper

carrot

chili powder

brown sugar

oregano

red pepper flakes (optional)

tomatoes

sandwich rolls

In a food processor, pulse half of the kidney beans until all mashed up.

In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion, garlic, salt and pepper to pan and cook for about 5 minutes or until onion is translucent.

Add the grated carrots, chili powder, sugar, oregano, and red pepper flakes to the onion mixture. Cook for about 2 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low-medium and cook for 10 minutes or until thickened.

Stir the mashed beans and the remaining whole beans into the tomato mixture.

Heat thoroughly and serve mixture on the sandwich rolls.

For a family a three - I was able to make two meals out of this recipe! Which puts my cost as $2.81 per meal! That is awesome! Love this recipe! Thanks so much for sharing!

The only thing I did different was mash up all of the beans instead of just half because my son will not eat a single bite if he sees a bean. haha!!

There’s no cream in this creamy pasta recipe. Instead, the roasted zucchini creates a delicious, creamy sauce. It’s perfect as a meatless main dish or as a side with your favorite protein!

Pasta with Creamy Zucchini Sauce

onion (cut 1/2-inch)

garlic (smashed)

zucchini (skin on cut in 1/4-inch slices (from 3 to 4 medium))

extra virgin olive oil

broth

kosher salt and black pepper

parmesan cheese (fresh grated)

pasta (such as cavatappi, fusilli

Onion

Pasta

Toss zucchini with garlic, onion, olive oil, salt and pepper and spread on a sheet pan. Roast 425F about 25 minutes, until tender and browned, tossing halfway.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. When boiling, add the pasta and cook according to package directions for al dente.

Drain the pasta reserving some of the water and return to the pot.

Remove the vegetables from the oven when done and transfer to a blender. Add the parmesan cheese and broth. Puree until smooth.

Toss with the pasta, adding reserved water, as needed to loosen the sauce to your desired taste.

Top with fresh black pepper and serve with Parmesan cheese, if desired.

This was delicious! It will be a great recipe for when my garden overproduces zucchini! I had a little leftover sauce and we used it as pizza sauce with sliced tomatoes,  crumbled sausage and fresh mozzarella!

This was delicious! Used home grown zucchini and garlic, with lentil pasta. Colouring was more olive than green (our zucchini skin was thick and dark) but still tasted great. Has made it to the summer recipe list already.

Garlicky, delicious, and satisfied my pasta craving without blowing all my WW points.  The biggest victory - my 17 year old who has refused to eat zucchini in the past went back for seconds!

Surprisingly delicious for such a simple recipe! Made a 1/2 batch with 1 lb zucchini; nice and bright green.

I loved it! Didn't have parm so used some italian blend cheese shreds and had no broth that wasn't industrial size so put a can of chicken noodle soup in and it was still great! Also added some basil.

This was delicious! I made it as written. I made the sauce early in the day then heated it up when we were ready for dinner.  Some people commented on their sauce being brown in colour. Mine was a sage green. We ate more than we should have. It was that good! 🤗 We will definitely make this again!

A surprise how good this is. I was out of parm. so used some laughing cow wedges which melded right into it. Great way to use zucchini.

This is delicious!! My husband was a bit on the fence, but loved it.  Can this be canned vs. stored frozen?

The flavor was outstanding, and my husband was extremely skeptical.  I did add a little mozzarella, as suggested to the pasta and sauce mixture.  Next time, I will nuke the sauce a minute or two in the microwave as we like our sauces very hot and it was only warm after I finished blending everything even though I heated up the broth and used some hot pasta water for thinning. That said, it’s a delicious way to get vegetables into a picker eater.

The perfect recipe for summer zucchini! I've made this recipe twice already. The roasted vegetables don't have to stop at pasta sauce. I roasted some summer squash along with the zucchini, added a bit more chicken broth and made the most delicious soup.

WONDERFUL!  I did cook up some extra large shrimp (little butter/garlic) and added the flavorful liquid from that in the zucchini sauce as well.  It was delicious :-)

This was so creamy, tasty and absolutely delicious! Very easy to make and will definitely make it again!

I never leave comments… but this recipe is so so so so good and easy, I just had to!!! I topped mine with some crumbled sausage. Holy yummmmm.

Wow- seems like such simple recipe but absolutely blew everyone away. 

We substituted yellow peppers for onions and added a bit of red pepper for a subtle heat. 

Absolutely delicious- will make lots more. Thank you Gina!!

Top 2 meatless dinner ideas recipes from across the web

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Meatless Sloppy Joes

Pasta with Creamy Zucchini Sauce

Top 2 meatless dinner ideas recipes from across the web

The most viewed meatless dinner ideas recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Meatless Sloppy Joes

Pasta with Creamy Zucchini Sauce

The most viewed meatless dinner ideas recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine