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What four vegetarian dinners under 45 minutes look like

Here’s that week’s grocery list, grouped the way the download groups it:

• Produce. bell pepper: 1/2 cup; garlic: 4 1/4 cloves; green bell pepper: 1/2 of one; mushrooms: 1 cup; onion: 1 1/4 cups; onion: 1/2 medium; onion: 1/4 of one.
• Dairy, eggs & refrigerated. cheddar cheese: 3/8 cup.
• Canned & jarred. diced tomatoes: 1/4 × 14.5-oz can; garbanzo beans: 3/4 × 15-oz can; kidney beans: 1/4 × 14.5-oz can; low-sodium broth: 1 1/4 cups; pinto beans: 1/2 × 15.5-oz can; stewed tomatoes: 1/2 × 14.5-oz can; tomato sauce: 1 1/4 × 8-oz cans.
• Grains, pasta & bread. bulgur: 1/4 cup; dried lentils: 1/2 cup; quick brown rice: 1/4 cup.
• Frozen. corn: 1/2 cup; frozen sliced okra: 1/4 × 16-oz package; frozen spinach: 3/4 × 10-oz package.
• Oils, sauces & condiments. hot sauce: 1/4 tsp; vegetable oil: 1 Tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp.
• Spices & baking. black pepper: 1/8 tsp; chili powder: 1 Tbsp + 2 1/4 tsp; cumin: 1 7/8 tsp; Italian seasoning: 1/4 tsp; oregano: 1 tsp; salt: 3/4 tsp.

Buy ingredients you can use twice

When dinners share onion, garlic, tomatoes, broth and cumin, you buy fewer different things.

The planner won’t repeat a dinner until it has used every recipe that fits. Several soups or chilis can still taste alike, so in a seven-night plan we’d swap one by hand.

If you eat vegetarian, 18 of the 49 recipes fit, and 10 of them take 45 minutes or less. Press Shuffle for a different first dinner and a new week around it.

Amounts scale with servings: 2 servings of a 12-serving soup buys 1/6 of every ingredient. That’s exact, but it can leave odd fractions of a can.

For a short week, cook the full batch once, eat it twice and freeze the rest. The plan for two with leftovers works that out for you.

Choose dinners you want to cook

Each recipe links to Food Hero for the method, the nutrition label and often a video. The listed time covers prep and cooking. There are plenty of soups, chilis, skillets and stews, so check the week for variety before you shop.

The recipes and serving sizes come from Food Hero, a collection of tested recipes from Oregon State University. Follow the linked recipe for the method.

The FDA and USDA say leftovers keep three to four days in a fridge at 40°F (4°C) or below. Every plan here stays inside that limit.

By Ian T. ButlerLast updated October 4, 2026