People have been vegetarians for centuries, but they haven’t always had it easy. A vegetarian meal plan makes all the difference in saving time and ensuring a balanced diet that doesn’t rely only on pasta and cheese.
The Quick, Easy, and Balanced Vegetarian Meal Plan
There are a myriad of reasons to be vegetarian – from health, to animal welfare, to environmental sustainability, to religious convictions – and we love to make life for herbivores easier. For those who aren’t quite sold on vegetarianism but want to try it or those who mainly want to cook veggie meals for a friend, we are here to help you, too!
Cook Smarts provides a weekly vegetarian meal plan (that doubles as a flexitarian meal plan since there is a carnivore version of each recipe!) that saves time, saves money, and keeps dinners balanced.
Enjoy a well-balanced vegetarian diet
One of the reasons vegetarians love us at Cook Smarts is that we don’t only use pasta and cheese. Over the years, we’ve listened to feedback from our vegetarian members and have made changes to meet their needs.
Our meal plan service now uses a mix of vegetarian proteins, often featuring lentils and beans, and try to only use a soy protein once a week. We also rarely ever do fake meats (unless we really think it will make the recipe). With us, you can enjoy deliciously balanced variety!
Discover a variety of creative vegetarian recipes
While it can be easiest on a restricted diet to eat the same thing over and over, Cook Smarts makes being a herbivore anything but boring. Every week our chefs craft new delicious vegetarian dinner recipes, so you’ll never find yourself in a dinner rut.
Here are just a few of the dinners you can enjoy with us!
Kitchen Hero Success Stories
Whether our meal plan members are full vegetarian or just prefer to eat more meatless meals, they all appreciate the diversity of vegetarian meals we provide. Our vegetarian meal plans have helped folks eat healthier, lose weight, and try new vegetarian proteins and vegetables in creative ways.
The flexibility of our meal plans allows Cook Smarts members to tailor the recipes to fit their needs. One of our members, Tiffany, has been eating a plant-based diet for 7 years now and adapts our vegetarian meal plans to be completely vegan!
As for Cook Smarts member Liz, this vegetarian of 10 years thought her food options were limited. But with our vegetarian meal plans, she discovered a whole new variety of dishes from around the world. She eats more nutritionally balanced meals now and has also lost 30 pounds!
Tiffany: Feeling Good with Plant-Based Cooking
Kitchen Hero Tiffany has been cooking plant-based meals for more than 7 years. Read about her cooking challenges and discover… Read more.
“Cook Smarts has helped me to expand my cooking skills, expand my palate, and try recipes I would have never attempted.”
– Tiffany L.
Liz: The World of Vegetarian Variety
Liz used to think her food options were limited, but now enjoys vegetarian meal prep recipes from around the world… Read more.
“As someone who is a full-time vegetarian, I would like to compliment this service because I barely eat tofu, fake meat, etc nowadays! Prior to Cook Smarts that was all I really ate, but now my grocery list is full of fresh produce, beans, lentils, nuts, and other varied sources of protein.”
– Liz C.
Benefits of a Vegetarian Meal Plan
A meal plan service like Cook Smarts doesn’t only save you money, it also gives you significantly more options and flexibility than meal delivery kits.
Save time
We save you hours each week by delivering healthy vegetarian recipes to your inbox and generating a grocery list.
Enjoy flexibility
We allow you to customize serving sizes, make ingredient substitutions, and access hundreds of easy vegetarian recipes in our archives.
Change up your diet whenever you want
We give you 4 versions (Original, Paleo, Gluten-Free, and Vegetarian) of every recipe to make dinners easy for the flexitarian who wants to switch between diets or the mixed herbivore-carnivore family.
“With one vegetarian and one picky eater and one lactose intolerant, meal planning has become a little disheartening lately, and I’m excited to make the meals I see . . . Thanks for all the resources you provide!”
– Kirsten R.
Join a community
We provide a private Kitchen Hero Facebook community where you can meet other vegetarians and share ideas, tips, questions, challenges, and victories.
Get Started with Vegetarian Diet Resources
Whether you’re ready to subscribe to our meal plan sevice now or prefer to try meal planning on your own first, we’ve got a bunch of free resources that can help you achieve your health goals. Make the vegetarian lifestyle easy with our helpful guides below!
Create a Smarter (Paleo, Gluten-Free, or Vegetarian) Pantry
Keeping your pantry stocked means you’ll never be far from a simple, healthy meal. Our updated guide includes paleo, gluten-free,… Read more.
The Best Vegetarian Protein Sources and How to Use Them in Meals
Our infographic illustrates the wide variety of vegetarian proteins that you can easily use to create healthy, satisfying protein-packed meatless… Read more.
7 Days of #Meatless Buffets
Our week's worth of meatless buffet-style meals includes 7 cooking formulas and a variety of fun, tasty, vegetarian dinners that… Read more.
Whole Grains 101
Discover whole grains with our new ingredient guide and infographic. Learn all about whole grains, including how to cook and… Read more.
Vegetarian Diet FAQs
1. What is the difference between a vegetarian and vegan diet?
A vegan diet is also called a “plant-based” diet and abstains from any food that does not come from a plant, including meats, eggs, and dairy. A vegetarian diet generally cuts out all meat, poultry, and fish, but there are several types of diets within vegetarianism.
- Lacto-ovo vegetarians don’t eat meat, poultry, or fish, but do eat eggs and dairy products.
- Lacto vegetarians don’t eat meat, poultry, fish, or eggs, but do consume dairy products.
- Ovo vegetarians don’t eat meat, poultry, fish, or dairy products, but do eat eggs.
- Partial vegetarians that eat fish are called pescatarians and those that eat poultry are pollo-vegetarians.
2. What are the health benefits of eating vegetarian?
According to the American Dietetic Association, “appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.” Many studies over the years have had positive reportings of vegetarians having lower risk of heart disease and certain cancers. Read more from Harvard Medical School here.
3. Will I lose weight on a vegetarian diet?
There is not necessarily a direct cause and effect between a vegetarian diet and weight; it all depends on what and how much you are eating. Omitting meat definitely does not mean cutting out junk foods or unhealthy eating habits. Yet, with a carefully planned diet, this recent study showed that a restricted vegetarian diet may help a person lose weight faster than a diet including meats.
4. Are there risks for going vegetarian?
It is important for vegetarians to make sure their meals are balanced so they get all of necessary nutrients. It is especially important for vegetarians to make sure they are getting enough protein, vitamin B12, iron, zinc, and omega-3 fatty acids. Luckily, these can be found in fresh produce and quality supplements. Read more here.