My Plant-Based Family

Eating Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet recipes, On a Budget.

Archives for March 2012

Meal Plan Monday: Unscheduled

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This will be a different kind of week for us. Our big kids are visiting this week, at least three of us have a stomach bug that is going around, and we plan to eat out a few times. With all of that in mind the Meal Plan will be a little less planned out this week.

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal, and toast with fruit. It kind of a free for all at breakfast time. We also have leftover pancakes and breakfast stir fry from yesterday’s brunch.

Lunch will be leftovers, PB&J, easy pasta with marinara, wraps or bean burritos. 

Snacks will be hummus and veggies, crackers, apples and banana’s with peanut butter, chips and salsa, and smoothies.

Dinner is a bit up in the air. Since a few of us are a little sick it is hard to plan out our week. We are hoping to go to the zoo one day, my husband and the big kids are planning a trip to the driving range and the big kids will be spending time with friends as well. With that in mind we plan to eat:

Nachos made with quinoa/lentil “meat”, Unfried Beans, guacamole, Homemade Salsa, and faux cheese sauce.

Burritos made with beans, Mexican Rice, and other fixings.  

Fajita’s using my Portobello Fajita recipe along with all of the things I mentioned above. 

I also plan to make some carrot cake cupcakes this week.

Do you notice a trend, yes we love Mexican food. Our big kids who are not plant-based eaters will be very receptive to this menu. We want our new lifestyle to be inviting to them. Hopefully they don’t get sick or else we may all be living on a steady diet of crackers this week.  

Whole Wheat Cherry Muffins

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One year ago if someone would have mentioned whole wheat muffins I would have thought of dry, unappetizing bricks. I couldn’t be more wrong. These plant-based are delicious. 

Whole Wheat Cherry Muffins that are plant-based and delicious.

Now that I’ve been enlightened I think of delicious treats, add in a little fruit and I think of tiny bites of heaven. I love a good whole wheat product. 

Before we transitioned to a plant-based diet, my idea of muffins were closer to cupcakes. Super sweet and full of oil.

These muffins have no added fat or dairy making them a healthy choice.

Cherry Muffins that are whole wheat and vegan.

Whole Wheat Cherry Muffins

These are a nice dessert, snack or as an addition to bunch.  You can substitute blueberries for the cherries for variety. These are not super sweet which I know a lot of you appreciate.

Cherry Muffins are whole wheat, plant-based and vegan.

How to Make Whole Wheat Cherry Muffins

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ cup turbinado sugar
  • ½ cup applesauce
  • 1 cup plant milk
  • 1 cup diced cherries (I use frozen cherries that I buy from Costco)

Instructions

Step 1 – Preheat

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2 – Mix

In a big bowl, mix all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar).

Step 3 – Add Applesauce and Milk

Add applesauce and milk and mix.

Step 4 – Add Cherries

Add cherries and mix until just combined.

Step 5 – Pour Batter

Pour batter into paper muffin liners until 2/3 full.

Step 6 – Bake

Bake for 25 minutes.

Step 7 – Test

Test for doneness with a toothpick. Then let cool.

Whole Wheat Cherry Muffins

Cherry Muffins that are whole wheat and vegan.

Cherry Muffins that are whole wheat and vegan.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ cup turbinado sugar
  • ½ cup applesauce
  • 1 cup plant milk
  • 1 cup diced cherries

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a big bowl mix all dry ingredients.
  3. Add applesauce and milk and mix.
  4. Add cherries and mix until just combined.
  5. Pour batter into paper muffins lines until ⅔ full.
  6. Bake for 25 minutes.
  7. Test for doneness with a toothpick then let cool.

Notes

Frozen cherries work great.

Did you make this recipe?

We'd love to see it! Tag us and use #MyPlantBasedFamily!

© Heather Mayes

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Gratituesday: Simple Things

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Simple things make my heart happy.

A cup of coffee

Staying in bed a few more minutes

Stinky baby toes

Time with my husband

A verse of scripture that speaks to the heart

A quiet house (but only for a little while)

Chocolate

The way our babysitter LOVES our boys

A new recipe that works

Trying new things 

Warm, homemade soup

Sun light streaming through the windows

Visits from family and friends

Our church family

Seeing my boys grow 

Time in prayer

New friends

Anticipation

Long hugs

Faithful friends

Just Simple Things

Every week Laura at Heavenly Homemakers hosts a Gratituesday link up. If you are in need of encouragement head over to see what other bloggers are thankful for.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Meal Plan Monday: Back to Basics

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I love good food! LOVE IT! I’ve been eating a Plant-Based diet for 6 months and my taste buds are still changing, I’m loving food I never liked before and giving new foods a chance. I like to try something new every week when possible.

This week we are craving a return to simple foods, the foods we are when we first started our journey of healthy eating. Plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables along with whole grains. My Meal Plan this week will not be sexy but it provide nourishment and comfort. The picture above is our fruit and a few of our veggies for the week. We also have 3 bunches of banana’s not pictured along with spinach, 5 lbs of carrots, red bell peppers, celery, kale, beets, sweet and white potatoes. We normally don’t get so many tomatoes but I’ll be making salsa soon!

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be oatmeal, smoothies made with fresh and frozen fruit (and kale and spinach), toast with peanut butter and fruit, and maybe even a bowl of cereal.

Lunches are usually dinner leftovers for us but right now I’m hooked on wraps. I’ve been eating wraps made with spinach, bell peppers, carrots and hummus. So good!

We eat lots of snacks too. I love fresh veggies and hummus! Yes I’m on a big time hummus kick. I just bought more dried chickpeas so hopefully I’ll experiment with more hummus recipes. I love hummus with carrot sticks (and do does my 3 year old) so were go through a lot of carrots, 5 lbs last week! Fresh fruit and smoothies are a good snack too. Last week I let my boys have a lot of crackers so I’ll be reigning this in this week.

Dinner

Monday: Baked Potatoes with broccoli

Tuesday: Beans and barley, this will be my first attempts at cooking pearl barley. We will have additional veggies as well. I’m also planning on making homemade salsa.

Wednesday: Couscous with steamed broccoli and spinach

Thursday: Soup, yay! I’ll use various odds and ends (including any veggies that I forgot to use previously.

Friday: This is usually a date night so I don’t cook a big meal.

On the weekends we eat leftovers. I’ll often pull everything out that we need to eat and we will create a meal out of that. This weekend our big kids are coming to visit for a week! We are very excited to see them! Since they are teenagers I will be doing A LOT more cooking. The eat a typical teenager diet so it will be interesting to see if I can win them over with my Plant-Based cooking. More about that next week.

Is your Meal Plan ready for the week?

 

Portobello Fajitas

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I do not like mushrooms! I’ll eat them if the flavor isn’t too powerful but I prefer not to. Enter portobello mushrooms, I have been won over. Today I made another batch of portobello fajitas, a pasta bake containing portobello’s, and I’m baking some portobello slices now as well.

I have heard a lot of people commenting about mushrooms being a good stand-in for meat but as a former mushroom hater I wasn’t having it. Now I can see it! I’m reformed and embrace the mushroom, especially served like this.

Portobello Fajitas

Ingredients

  • 1 Portobello Mushroom
  • 1/2 an onion cut into slices
  • 1 bell pepper cut into slices
  • 1 cup veggie broth
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • a generous shake of salt
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Do

  1. Remove the stem and slice mushrooms. (If you are making Portobello steaks you can leave just remove the stem).
  2. Mix the remaining ingredients together and allow the the mushroom and veggie slices to soak in the marinade for 30 minutes or so.
  3. Broil the mushroom and veggie slices for 4-5 minutes then flip and broil for 4-5 more minutes.
  4. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

Serve

These are great served in a warm tortilla. I love them even more with fresh guacamole and salsa but they are good plain too. You could also top a salad with these and even add roasted corn! YUM!

Does this look like a steak fajita or what? Have you embraced the shroom and if so how do you like it?

Portobello Fajitas

Portobello Fajitas

Plant based fajitas for everyone, even if you don't like mushrooms!

Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 Portobello Mushroom
  • 1/2 an onion cut into slices
  • 1 bell pepper cut into slices
  • 1 cup veggie broth
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • a generous shake of salt
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Instructions

  1. Remove the stem and slice mushrooms. (If you are making Portobello steaks you can leave just remove the stem).
  2. Mix the remaining ingredients together and allow the the mushroom and veggie slices to soak in the marinade for 30 minutes or so.
  3. Broil the mushroom and veggie slices for 4-5 minutes then flip and broil for 4-5 more minutes.
  4. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

Notes

Serve in a warm tortilla with fresh guacamole and salsa.

Did you make this recipe?

We'd love to see it! Tag us and use #MyPlantBasedFamily!

© Heather Mayes

Gratituesday: Abundance

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We have been eating leftovers since Friday, and we love it. I made a huge feast for us and some friends and I even sent home some of the leftovers with them. Truth be told, if there leftovers weren’t as tasty we may not be as grateful, but we should be. 

If we go hungry it is because of choice, not because of means. We have been blessed. We can’t afford everything we want but we can usually buy everything we need. 

We have made the choice to invest in good, healthy, whole food. This doesn’t have to be as expensive as some say it is but it isn’t super cheap either. We don’t always buy organic but sometimes do. The food we buy rarely comes in boxes, it is often not on sale, and there are no coupons.

My family eats healthy food everyday. There are some days where we eat too many animal crackers or make poor choices based on poor planning or junk food cravings but on the whole what we eat nourishes our bodies.

I’m so thankful that we have the means to feed our family well. We don’t have the latest gadgets, we don’t have cable, and if we are up on the latest trends it is by accident BUT we have our health! Our health is fueled by our food!

To read about how I overcame multiple health problems including reoccurring UTIs, bladder spasms, and a possible interstitial cystitis diagnosis read my story here.

I’m happy to say I’m still symptom free which is another thing to be thankful for!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!