Vegetarian Dishes (Costco or Not)

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I’m not sure if this is an option for you, but we have a local guy in town that does catering, but as he says, “he’s not a caterer, he’s your family’s cook”. Basically, you can call him, tell him what you want or just some general parameters (7 vegetarian meals for 2, they like x and don’t like y), and he will make you however many meals you want, packaged however you want (individually/family sized/for two).

Lots of people use him for events, but they also use him to stock the fridge/freezer for new babies, elderly relatives, or on a weekly basis for convenience or special diets.

I know this is probably a unicorn, but if you search in their new town, maybe their is someone that does the same thing.

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We are vegetarians and we always get the grain and celery salad at Costco - it is delicious. It’s in the prepared food section.

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I live in vegetarian household that includes little kids and 2 full-time working parents.

Some ideas:

Pasta Salad

we make one with rotini pasta, tiny fresh mozzarella balls, halved cherry tomatoes (you can sub sundried tomatoes), red onion, black olives, bite size broccoli [throw the broccoli into the pasta water for the last 3 minutes] and fresh basil. Add olive oil to moisten all ingredients but not enough so that its pools in the bottom of bowl. salt & pepper to taste. Offer balsamic vinegar and/or dried red pepper flakes for those who like more oomph. You can add other ingredients to this–like carrot curls, roughly diced cucumbers, lightly sautéed zucchini/summer squash. Also feel free to sub bottled Italian dressing for olive oil.

Serve at room temperature or chilled. Stores well. We make huge batches for dinner and then enjoy it for lunch/snacks for the rest of the week

Couscous Salad

Cook 2 to 2.5 cups of Israeli couscous. Drain. Add 1 15 oz can drained chickpeas.
Cube 1 block of halloumi cheese and roll the cubes in flour. Shallow fry the cubes until they’re golden brown on all sides. Drain cheese on a paper towel. Wipe skillet clean, add a small amount of oil and sauté 1 bunch of broccolini cut into bite-size pieces (you can sub broccoli but it take slightly longer to cook), 1 red bell pepper, halved crosswise & sliced, and 1/2 a medium onion roughly diced. Cook veggies until they are tender crisp. Toss everything together in bowl. Add 1/2 cup of raisins and toss again. Top with cashews.

Serve barely warm or room temperature. Stores well if you don’t put the halloumi and cashews in until serving since those tend to get soggy when stored ready mixed in.

NOTE: halloumi cheese doesn’t melt when you cook it so there really aren’t any substitutes for it. You can find halloumi at most well stocked, larger supermarkets.

Corn salad (no cooking)

Strip the kernels off 3 ears of corn. 3-4 green onions, sliced crosswise use green & white parts, 1 lb, tomatoes roughly diced, 1/2 cup pistachios roughly chopped, 1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese, handful of both basil and mint, roughly chopped. Mix everything together. Stir together well 1/4 red wine vinegar and 1/3 cup olive oil & add to salad. Toss and serve at room temperature.

This is extra nice with crunchy croutons on top. Or a slice of crusty bread on the side.

Stores well.

Other suggestions–

eggplant rollatini. eggplant parm (I oven fry the eggplant on cookie sheets in a regular oven to speed up making the dish). Both freeze wonderfully

Lasagna, using roasted or sautéed cubed eggplant, zucchini and red bell pepper in place of the meat. No cook noodles speed up prep. So does jarred spaghetti sauce.

I don’t recommend freezing this because the zucchini makes the filling too watery.

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This one is super quick to prepare and very tasty and filling. A regular at our house:

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Other ideas:

A frozen spinach quiche. (Harry & David sells frozen ones. You may be able to find a ready made one at Costco, Whole Foods or at a local cafe or bakery.)

Frozen vegetarian tamales are pretty good too. There are cheese and green Chile tamales, bean and cheese, bean and corn and mixed veggie tamales (corn, tomatoes, zucchini and green Chile). We ate a lot of frozen Tucson Tamales during covid when we had new born twins. You can also buy them at many Whole Foods. Trader Joes also sells frozen tamales.

Stuffed shells Large cook pasta shells stuffed with a 8oz carton of whole milk ricotta cheese mixed with 1 egg and some parmesan cheese. (Cook shells and when cool enough to handle, pipe the filling in using a plastic sandwich bag with a corner snipped off. ). Place filled shells in shallow casserole dish, cover with spaghetti sauce and top with shredded mozzerella cheese. Freezes great.

Enchilada Casserole

Mix 1 can of drained pinto or black beans with 1 packet of taco seasoning. (Or you can use a combo of ground oregano, ground cumin, garlic powder, and smoked paprika) 1 small can of diced green chiles and some diced onion is nice addition to the beans, but not necessary.

[Alternate filling option: 1 can beans, 1/2 of a diced zucchini sautéed, some diced onion and 1/2- 1 cup frozen corn.)

Soften 6-8 corn tortillas wrapped in a damp kitchen towel or lightly misted w/ water & wrapped in plastic wrap in a microwave (1 minute ought to do it). Cover tortillas to keep them warm. Working one at a time., place a spoonful of bean mixture down the center of the tortilla and roll into a cylinder. Place rolls in a 8x8 baking dish. Continue with other tortillas (rewarm if they get too stiff to roll) until filling has been used up. Cover with a can of enchilada sauce (red or green–your choice) and top with shredded Mexican blend cheese (or a cheddar/monterrey jack blend)

It’s Ok if tortillas crack when you try to roll them. No one will notice.

If you find the rolling frustrating, you can make a casserole by using the tortillas like lasagna noodles and layering tortillas, then filling, then more tortillas

Freezes well. Makes good leftovers too

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I love stouffers vegetarian lasagna!

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One of my daughters has a friend who is a personal chef. A lot of what she does is meal prep. The friend is vegetarian, but cooks for all diets.

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Easy Costco meal: any of the pastas in the refrigerated section (cheese tortellini, mushroom ravioli, etc) and toss with the. best. pesto. sauce ever–love Costco pesto.

This could also go in their freezer. I freeze small amounts pesto, as we can’t always finish before the expiration date.

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We just picked up organic spinach and cheese ravioli from Costco yesterday, because they are on sale. My husband is excited about trying them with Rao’s spicy sauce. That and a salad will make a fine meal. ETA - and bread, don’t forget bread :).

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LOL I saw that today and wondered about it! Let us know how it is. I wasn’t sure how D/SIL felt about spinach.

Thanks for all the recommendations. I ended up making a protein (but meatless) filled pasta salad, zucchini bread and monster cookies at home. At Costco I bought them fruit, bagged salad, English muffins/PB, the cheese tortellini and a jar of pesto, the Milton frozen pizzas and some vegetarian Japanese noodle/veggies. Should get them through a few days of easy to grab food!

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Made the Jibon (Spinach and Cheese Casserole) @DeeCee36 linked above, and it was a big hit with DH. I added chopped ham, an extra egg, and was a bit generous with the cheese to fit my deep-dish pan.

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DH had leftovers for breakfast this morning, so I made another one, cut it into six wedges and froze them for future easy breakfasts – or lunches or dinners or sides… I’m going to make another one tomorrow, adding artichokes and mushrooms to the spinach for a more robust veggie version and freeze those wedges as well.

This recipe is so quick to pull together, low carb (no crust), and sets beautifully. Thanks, @DeeCee36! :blush:

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A heavy hand with cheese usually gets delicious results!!!

So many options with this dish. Very frittata like.

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