My Plant-Based Family

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

Holly Yzquierdo

May 2, 2016 Weekly Meal Plan

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People don’t eat healthy by accident. It takes effort. A Weekly Meal Plan is an important first step to healthy eating.

Occasionally I get emails and comments asking if these meal plans are for a day or a week or what. I’ve created meal plans for so long that I sometimes forget to include all the details. Most weeks, I create a weekly meal plan. Since we eat leftovers and don’t mind repeats I only plan 4-5 meals for breakfast, 4-5 for lunch, and 4-5 for dinner.

I don’t normally assign meals by day but for understanding sake, I decided to give it a try. I’m going to change up the format too. Instead of listing separate breakfast, lunch and dinner I’ll post all meals by day. I hope that will clear up any confusion.

Weekly Meal Plan for Plant-Based Diet

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Healthy Vegan Baking

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I’ve shared recently how I gave up on baking for a while. I felt like I would spend hours in the kitchen trying to make something allergy-friendly and healthy only to fail. I’ve finally gotten over my fear of failure and you can too!

Lucie at WIN-WIN Foods has created a Healthy Vegan Baking ecourse that will teach anyone how to create healthy, delicious treats.

Healthy Vegan Baking eCourse

Allergy-Friendly

If you are like me and avoid dairy and eggs this ecourse will show you how to bake everything from cake, sweet breads, cookies, cream pies, heck…even tiramisu. Plus all of the lovely fillings and frostings.

The best part, these are all healthy, you don’t have to feel guilty about making them.

The eCourse also covers oil-free, gluten-free and soy-free options.

Healthy Vegan Baking eCouse

Healthy Vegan Baking eCourse Content

When you sign up for the 7 week ecourse you’ll get a new module each week. The modules include:

  1. Intro to Healthy Vegan Baking (and how not to get overwhelmed)
  2. Baking with Unrefined Flours (including gluten-free options)
  3. Healthy Fats and Low Fat Baking (including oil-free options)
  4. All about Egg Alternatives and A Little About Non-Dairy Milks
  5. Banishing Sugar and Finding the Best Alternatives (including natural calorie-free options)
  6. Decorating Desserts Naturally (icings, frostings, colorings and other decoration options)
  7. Putting All the Knowledge Together and Troubleshooting

Plus you get AMAZING recipes!!! You will also get live Q&A sessions each week and a private Facebook group. 

Healthy Vegan Baking eCourse

Still undecided?

This course is for you if you:

  • Struggle to bake delicious but healthy treats.
  • Have a lot of food allergens to avoid.
  • Used to be a great baker but can’t get the hang of plant-based baking.
  • Can spend 1-2 hours per week learning how to bake.

For me, this ecourse is a gold mine! Every subject is covered. Don’t wait too long, enrollment closes on May 8th. What a great Mother’s Day Gift!

This page contains affiliate links.

Strawberry Banana Muffins

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My youngest son has been picky about breakfast lately. He isn’t interested in anything quick or easy, except fruit. Muffins are just about the only thing he will happily eat, especially these Strawberry Banana Muffins.

Strawberry Banana Muffins gluten-free and plant-based

A while ago I gave up on gluten-free baking. It was hard and it wouldn’t always turn out the way I wanted. After speaking with some expert bakers at last years Food Allergy Bloggers Conference I worked up the nerve to start again. Except this time I decided to stick to gluten-free all purpose baking mixes. After all, I don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Strawberry Banana Muffins gluten-free and plant-based

If you struggle with gluten-free baking too I recommend getting an all purpose mix and giving it another try. Update: It’s been a few years since I created this recipe. Now I always use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour.

These muffins are perfect this time of year when strawberries are in season but you can also use frozen strawberries. To use frozen strawberries just run them under cold water to defrost them and let them sit and drain (I used a small strainer) while I mixed up the rest of the ingredients.

Gluten-Free Strawberry Banana Muffins

Ingredients

  • 2 bananas (plus more listed below)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ½ cup plant-based milk
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1¾ cup gluten-free all purpose flour baking mix
  • 2 cups diced strawberries
  • ½ cup diced bananas

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your muffin pan by using a spray oil or parchment liners.
  2. In a large bowl, mash 2 bananas, then add in sugar, vanilla and plant-based milk. Mix well.
  3. Add in baking soda, salt and gluten-free flour blend and stir to combine.
  4. Fold in half a diced banana and the diced strawberries.
  5. Scoop in equal parts into the muffin tin.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes. Check for doneness and bake for 5-10 more minutes if needed.
  7. Allow to cool before serving.
Strawberry Banana Muffins gluten-free

Because of the strawberries these muffins will be really soft, and somewhat gooey on the inside. The strawberries “cook down” and leave hollow spots. They taste delicious and get this, they even freeze well.

Strawberry Banana Muffins gluten-free and gluten-free

They aren’t the cleanest but if you don’t mind licking your fingers you won’t mind. I wouldn’t eat them in the car on the way to work though.

If you missed my Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread I think you should try it! Check out my bread and muffin page for more great recipes.

Yield: 12 Servings

Strawberry Banana Muffins

Strawberry Banana Muffins gluten-free

Gluten-free strawberry banana muffins made with fresh or frozen strawberries

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 bananas (plus more listed below)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • ½ cup plant-based milk
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1¾ cup gluten-free all purpose flour baking mix
  • 2 cups diced strawberries
  • ½ cup diced bananas

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your muffin pan by using a spray oil or parchment liners.
  2. In a large bowl, mash 2 bananas, then add in sugar, vanilla and plant-based milk. Mix well.
  3. Add in baking soda, salt and gluten-free flour blend and stir to combine.
  4. Fold in half a diced banana and the diced strawberries.
  5. Scoop in equal parts into the muffin tin.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes. Check for doneness and bake for 5-10 more minutes if needed.
  7. Allow to cool before serving.

Notes

To use frozen strawberries just run them under cold water to defrost them and let them sit and drain (I used a small strainer) while I mixed up the rest of the ingredients.

Did you make this recipe?

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

© Heather Mayes

April 25, 2016 Plant-Based Meal Plan

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I hope you have done your grocery shopping for the week and have your meal plan ready to go. If not, feel free to use this one for a little inspiration.

Don’t forget to check out Special Deals at Sprouts this month (sponsored by Small Planet Foods). We love Sprouts because they have great produce and great plant-based products!

We like to check the weekly grocery store ads before making our meal plan. I’ll figure out what is on sale and create my meal plan from the best deals. Right now bell peppers are a good deal so we will use those in a few dishes. When they are back up over a dollar each we will skip them.

Meal Plan

Plant-Based Meal Plan

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Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

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One of our family’s all time favorite recipes is Banana Bread. Our old family recipe is delicious but it is made with wheat. I have a gluten-free banana bread recipe but it wasn’t as close to the original as I wanted (maybe because it was refined sugar-free).

Gluten-Free, Vegan Banana Bread that is perfect for brunch, snack or to share with friends.

I found Jewel’s all purpose gluten-free mix and tried my regular recipe. It’s a cup for cup mix but I decreased the flour by 1/2 a cup compared to my original recipe, everything else stayed the same. I wanted to change it up a bit so I went for a cinnamon swirl.

The great thing about this recipe is it always impresses. Enjoy it at brunch, breakfast, dessert and potlucks.

How to Make Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Ingredients

  • 1 cup apple sauce
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 3 ripe bananas
  • ¼ cup plant-based milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1½ cup Jewel’s gluten-free all purpose baking mix
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a bundt pan with non-stick spray.
  2. In a large bowl mix apple sauce and sugar.
  3. Add bananas and smash with a fork.
  4. Pour in plant-based milk and vanilla and stir.
  5. Sprinkle baking soda and salt then dump in Jewel’s gluten-free all purpose flour mix.
  6. Stir everything together then scoop out about 1 cup into another bowl. Add one tablespoon of cinnamon to the bowl and stir.
  7. Pour the regular batter into the bundt pan. Then add spoonfuls of the cinnamon batter on top Swirl gently.
  8. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until done.
  9. Allow to cool completely before serving.

We love making banana bread in bundt pans because they are so pretty and the whole in the middle helps them cook more evenly. You can make these into muffins, just cook for 15-20 minutes instead.

gluten-free vegan banana bread

If you try this recipe with a different cup for cup mix let me know which one’s work for you.

See more recipes like this on my Breads and Muffins Page.

Yield: 12 Servings

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

gluten-free vegan banana bread

Gluten-free banana bread with a cinnamon twist.

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup apple sauce
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 3 ripe bananas
  • ¼ cup plant-based milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1½ cup Jewel's gluten-free all purpose baking mix
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a bundt pan with non-stick spray.
  2. In a large bowl mix apple sauce and sugar.
  3. Add bananas and smash with a fork.
  4. Pour in plant-based milk and vanilla and stir.
  5. Sprinkle baking soda and salt then dump in Jewel's gluten-free all purpose flour mix.
  6. Stir everything together then scoop out about 1 cup into another bowl. Add one tablespoon of cinnamon to the bowl and stir.
  7. Pour the regular batter into the bundt pan. Then add spoonfuls of the cinnamon batter on top Swirl gently.
  8. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until done.
  9. Allow to cool completely before serving.

Notes

You can make these into muffins, just cook for 15-20 minutes instead.

Did you make this recipe?

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

© Heather Mayes

April 18, 2016 Plant-Based Meal Plan

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The recipes in this meal plan have 3 things in common. They are plant-based, gluten-free and very easy to make. This week I need easy!

Speaking of easy, this last weekend I sent out my newsletter with some great shopping tips. If you missed them sign up today so you don’t miss the next tips!

Meal Plan

Plant-Based Diet Meal Plan

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