help me with a meal plan - vegetarians especially!

[Rainbow_Mumma]

I cannot stand red meat this pregnancy raw or cooked just the taste and the smell is too much for my stomach so I haven't been eating it and I've been feeling the consiquences I guess now I'm lacking iron as im not eating vegetarian dishes just the sides that everyone else had (mash & veg etc) now every day im just so tired, too tired to really function.
Running a business single handed which means me making all the orders in a reasonable time as well as keeping the house reasonably clean and looking after the kids is just too much with zero energy. So my best thought is to go vegetarian for a bit with the odd bit of chicken and fish here and there (although fish is iffy)
So can anyone help me we do our shopping on friday night and shop fortnightly, we aren't on a huge budget at the minute in fact its very tight so can anyone help by giving me a daily meal plan so im getting all the nutrients etc that i need so i can feel human again and feed my growing babies properly.

Thanks for any help or suggestions

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

High iron foods such as spinach can help. All dark green plants are good for iron - as well as the skin on the potato! Leave it on when you mash potatoes too, it tastes great. Make gravy from the veggie water, that will help.

You can make lasagne/bolognaise with aubergine, courgette, peppers and mushrooms. That tastes good.
Another favourite veggie meal here is stir-fryed courgette, pepper, mushroom and tomatoes with rice and kidney beans in a chilli sauce.
Ratatouille is another nice one.
Dippy egg and soldiers - that's great for you.

Good luck!

[luna moth]

High iron foods such as spinach can help. All dark green plants are good for iron

Actually, the iron in spinach can hardly be used by the body because spinach also contains so much oxalic acid that it inhibits your iron absorption. This was discovered AFTER Popeye was invented to advertise spinach. It's still delicious, and great for you, and loaded with folate, but don't count on it as iron.

Your best non-meat sources of iron:
Lentils
Chickpeas
Beans (baked beans are awesome and easy)
Wholegrains
Dried fruits (apricots and dates top the list)

I can drop you a link to my blog - but it's getting updated fairly sporadically at the moment because I'm enormous and my food is not currently that amazing.

Ideas:
Chickpea and pumpkin curry
Hommus and wholegrain crackers
Lentil and vegie soup (I found this so easy to get down in early preg)
Bean stews, bean salads, bean dips.
Kidney beans are awesome in mexi-dishes. Burritos, enchiladas, whatever. Just use them in place of mince.

Canned beans are pretty high in salt, but they're easy. Dried beans are way cheaper, and there's instructions on the blog for how to do them properly. Good luck - PM me if you want more help. Arimeh has a great monthly meal plan that I helped her out with, I'm sure she'd share with you