Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times Quinoa with Spiced Lentil Dal

If one of your goals for 2013 is more healthful eating, the Recipes for Health columnist Martha Rose Shulman can get you started. She has proposed five delicious vegan meals for the New Year that may also save you some money. She writes:

Here is a New Year’s project for you. Take an inventory of your pantry, freezer and refrigerator and cook for a week without buying anything except items that you and your children may consume on a daily basis (for me that means bananas). That is what I’m doing this week, and I have decided that I will also make my meals vegan.

Here are some of the items ending the year in my pantry, freezer and produce bins: quinoa (regular, red and rainbow); a bag of mixed dried sprouted lentils packaged by Tru Roots (“Sprouted Lentil Medley”); a bag of yellow lentils (toor dal) from the Indian grocery store across the street (how handy that Mark Bittman had inspired me to explore the world of dals with his New York Times Magazine article in early December); rice in various colors – brown, Alter Eco’s purple jasmine; red Bhutanese; wild, Arborio and basmati; a bag of black beans; rice noodles; farro. I have had a big acorn squash lying around for over a month now, and in my refrigerator there are a few carrots, half of a purple cabbage, tofu, celery, beets and beet greens and a red pepper. There are various frozen stocks in my freezer, including a vegan pho broth from my recipe tests of a few months ago.

This is a healthy, hearty and inexpensive way to begin the New Year and we have been eating extremely well. In fact there is enough on hand that I might extend this to a two-week exercise.

Here are five vegan meals from the pantry to get you started on a year of healthful eating.

Quinoa With Spiced Lentil Dal: A dal that is spiced up by a little bit of cayenne.

Warm Lentil Salad With Balsamic Roast Squash: A lentil salad with a cumin-scented vinaigrette.

Vegan Pho With Carrots, Noodles and Edamame: A pho without some traditional ingredients is still very much pho.

Rice Bowl With Sweet and Sour Purple Cabbage, Red Peppers and Baked Marinated Tofu: A colorful dish that uses up any sticky rice left in your pantry.

Enfrijoladas: A simple delicious dish that will use up corn tortillas in your freezer and black beans from the pantry.