I realize the food blogging world is pretty saturated, and the participants out there range from Novice to I’ve-quit-my-day-job-because-my-cooking-food-styling-and-photography-skills-pay-my-bills Professional.
Although those professional sites all feature amazingly beautiful food and photography, I am only going to link to a couple sites that I feel more closely identify with my blog: those offering simple and un-intimidating vegetarian-to-mostly meatless recipes that you won’t have to totally change your pantry to make. While most food sites now offer vegetarian or meatless options and recipes, I am going to link to those sites that are exclusively vegetarian/vegan. I hope this helps in your mostly-meatless journey!
This site is maintained by a team of collaborators who are all vegan/vegetarian/whole food loving. I love that this site offers the choice of vegetarian or vegan recipes, and stresses using whole, real ingredients instead of just substituting meat replacements in a meal. Their tips and hints are awesome: how to make any meal meatless, four ways to use ingredients, their nutrition page, to name just a few. I also love their Make it Meatless posts: they take a well-known “meat recipe”, and show you how to “meatless-ize” it. And if that wasn’t enough, they also have weekly meal plans complete with a printable meal plan and shopping list.
This blog’s owner is actually named Erin (her initials are ELLA), and I love this blog because she shows it’s possible to positively change your dietary lifestyle. She explains how her family ate like typical Americans (fast food, eating out a lot, large meals, meat-laden meals, etc.), until her dad had a heart attack at the age of 45. The whole family changed how they ate–cutting processed foods and meat in the process. Her blog showcases seasonal vegetarian meals that are “pantry-inspired”–you don’t need crazy exotic ingredients to “live natural. be healthy. eat delicious.” (her slogan). I love her DIY suggestions, spice blends (Christmas gift basket!), Homemade Inspirations (homemade versions of common over-the-counter processed condiments, etc.), and her great stocking a whole foods pantry suggestions.
This is a husband and wife team who have put together a mostly vegetarian blog. They love cooking with colorful seasonal ingredients with simple preparation and gourmet plating. Seriously. Their photos make you think it’s a menu from a gourmet restaurant, but if you read the recipe, you realize it’s easy peasy. Their recipe page is amazing: You will find recipes listed by season, diet (vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, raw, etc.), meal type, and ingredient. I also like how they take a photo of the ingredients they use in that recipe (remember one of my favorite cookbooks?–If I can see a photo of the ingredients required for that recipe, I feel like it’s pretty doable!).