My Plant-Based Family

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

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Gratituesday: Late Nights

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Two of our “big kids” have been here for almost two weeks and our oldest flew in on Monday night…late. My “little boys” go to bed about 7 and my husband and I normally call it a night between 9 and 10. For the last two weeks that has not been the case. I still don’t know how my husband is getting up so early everyday and functioning at the office. I get to sleep until 6 or 7 in the morning so I have it much better than he does.

Even though I am not getting near enough sleep I am so thankful that our kids are wanting to spend time with us. We watch movies, laugh, eat, play, talk, and have a pretty good time.

What are you thankful for today?

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Meal Plan Monday: Feeding Teenagers

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Our big kids have been here for almost two weeks and I know my plant-based cooking is taking a toll on them,especially the fiber. When my husband and I went for our weekly grocery shop this weekend our 13 year old asked if we could pick him up some Doritos. We told him the place we shop doesn’t have Doritos, he was taken aback. No we didn’t make another stop.

Our oldest is flying in this evening so there will be one more mouth to feed. I don’t think he will be as hard to please.

I took out my Happy Herbivore cookbooks and asked the big kids to look through them and pick some meals they would like to eat this week. I was hoping to get buy in. They picked a few recipes but I’m not sure how well they will go over. I decided that pasta is usually well received and it’s easy so we will have pasta a few times.

When we go out to eat the teens can order anything they want but I’m only going to cook healthy, plant food. I did buy them some junk food for movie night, that moved earned me a couple of big hugs.

Meal Plan

Breakfast has been oatmeal, cream of wheat, and cereal lately and that seems to be working out easily enough. My husband has also requested Breakfast Quinoa and Breakfast Rice.

Lunches will be leftovers. Our fridge is full of leftovers right now; pizza, Lentil Fetoosh Salad, hummus and pita, and a black bean burger. I’m sure the teenagers will continue to eat PB&Js as well.

Snacks will be fruit, smoothies, crackers, chips and salsa, and other random things

Dinner is a little tougher to plan because I never know exactly what we have going on. Here are a few items I plan on making:

Macaroni and Cheeze*

Happy Herbivore Arroz Amarillo* with Black Bean Soup and soft corn tortillas

Spaghetti with Mushrooms and red sauce

Brown Rice, Steamed Broccoli, with Happy Herbivore Brown Gravy or some other creamy sauce

Nachos*

Baked Potatoes

*item’s the kids picked out

How do you please your omnivore teenagers? Do you have any tips for me?

Fitness Challenge: 1 Month Update

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About a month ago my husband and I made a commitment to get more fit. We were not able to get exercise in everyday and I was not able to run as much as I had intended but I do believe we are more fit than before. additionally, I don’t think we would have worked out as much had we not made the commitment together. 

I took measurements at the beginning of the challenge, some stayed the same and others decreased. I don’t claim that the measurements are 100% accurate but they are the best I could do. Three things factor into the accuracy, Milk Production, Clothing Choice, and Bloatiness. I’m a nursing momma so my “size” is always in flux. Also the bra I was wearing a month is too big and let’s face it all bras are not the same. Lastly, bloatiness (yes I’m pretty sure I made that word up) also changes day to day.

I don’t think anyone is actually interested in my actual measurements but I will list the change. By putting it out there I am more likely to keep it up. There was no measurable change in my hips, butt or biceps. However there was noticeable change in my:

  • Chest -1.5 inches
  • Tummy -1 inch
  • Thigh -.5 inch
  • Calf -.25 inch

These are not earth shattering. What is nice is that my size 6 jeans are getting loose! One year ago I would have told you that I would never be able to fit into a size 6, EVER! That makes me happy!

Another thing that makes me happy is that my body looks more fit, less fat and more muscle. Even though my measurements for my bicep haven’t gone down there is definitely less fat and my arm is leaner. I’m hoping the same is true for every area. My weight decreased by about a pound or one and a half pounds. It is at the lowest it has been in almost 10 years.

I was not eating for weight loss during this time. I was actually eating much more than normal, especially in the beginning when I was getting the hang of working out. I was focusing on fueling my body. I ate lot’s of complex carbs, whole grains, and even some fries (gasp). I’m sure I would have lost more weight if I had been more diligent but I’m still pleased with my progress.

We plan to continue this challenge. We still wont be able to work out daily but hopefully at least 4 days a week. I also want to run more, I haven’t been running much. Sickness, injuries, and super hot weather play a role in that.

Gratituesday: Hearing

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Yes this is random Tuesday at My Plant-Based Family. I didn’t have a crazy experience or anything traumatic. But this is what happened.

We normally go to church on Saturday nights. Our church isn’t big enough to accommodate everyone who attends on a Sunday morning so there is an identical service on Saturday nights. We were always Sunday morning kind of people. We would get dressed up, even though that isn’t required, and go to church. A few times we decided to attend the Saturday evening service and LOVED it. It was more relaxed, there were fewer people, and it felt more intimate with a smaller group.

This last weekend I held my Food Demo on Saturday night so I attended the Sunday morning church service. I was a few minutes late and it was packed. You couldn’t help hear all of the voices surrounding you. On Saturday evenings you mostly just hear the Worship team. On Sunday morning I heard the beautiful sounds of worship; from the stage, from the people around me.

I couldn’t help notice the difference in sound. I was thankful to be a part of that experience. Then I started thinking about other things I hear. The sound of the dishwasher running as I lay in bed at night. The strong winds and thunder we have been hearing this week in Arizona. The sound of my boys calling my name over and over and over again or the high-pitched voice my three-year old uses to sing when his little brother is upset.

What if that was all taken away; not all of those things but the ability to hear them. I suddenly became very thankful.

I can not imagine life without the voices of my kids or my husband, my family or friends. I am thankful that I can retreat from all of the noise and find sanctuary in silence but I wouldn’t want to live in silence.

What are you grateful for today?

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Meal Plan Monday: Full House

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I’ve been absent lately but with good reason; two of our big kids are here with the third visiting next week and my first Food Demo is complete and was a success! I’ll talk more about the Food Demo later this week.

This weeks dilemma, what to feed omnivore kids for the next 5 1/2 weeks? Our daughter wants to be healthy so she is open to trying new foods. Our young teen son on the other had completely disregards food he thinks is healthy. For example, When I make “Unfried Beans” I make them the same way I always have, even when we were eating horribly. This weekend I asked him to taste test them for me. He put a bite in his mouth, he looked like we was going to vomit. I asked him what he thought, he said, “I liked how you used to make them, not this whole grainy healthy stuff, I like them like whole beans.” I told him I made them the same, I just used a food processor because I was making so many, he said, “they taste ok then.” I also stocked up on cereal to make life a little easier, the first day he didn’t want any of them because they were “weird and healthy.” While they were gluten-free they weren’t necessarily healthy, Kix, Chex, and some of the gluten-free Barbara’s Cereal.

I’ll make some of our normal favorites and try to adapt some of the kids favorites from pre-plant-based days.

Meal Plan

Breakfasts are our normal easy stuff like cereal, oatmeal, cream of wheat, and fruit with toast.

Lunches are equally easy; nut butter sandwiches, leftovers,  pasta, or other easy stuff.

Snacks are usually fruit, sometimes toast, muffins, banana bread, humus and veggies, or chips with salsa or avocado are fun too.

Dinner is where it gets a bit more tricky. I’m hoping to try some new stuff this week.

Monday: Pasta with veggies and a cashew cream sauce.

Tuesday: Baked Potato’s with a choice of steamed veggies or chili on top.

Wednesday: Tostada’s with Mexican Rice

Thursday: Brown Rice casserole with a whatever veggies are still available and some kind of “creamy sauce” to make it taste “normal.”

Friday: I’m not sure what Friday will hold but I don’t plan on cooking a big meal.

Depending on how our days go I may mix this up a bit. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have our kids here. We mostly ate out last week. Now I’m ready for a lot of home cooked meals. Plus my 30 day Fitness Challenge is almost “over” so I’ll share those details sometime in the next week. I will also be sharing a new recipe or two. Wow, I have more to do than I thought!

I hope you all have a great week full of family and good food!

Where I Shop

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Lately I’ve gotten a lot of questions from new Plant-Based Eaters (and some who are only plant curious) about where I buy food. Since I live in Arizona the resources I have will likely be different from what you have available. Maybe if we all share our wisdom in the comments we can all find new ideas and help a newbie navigate the terrain. The things I share will be what works for my family, based on food budget, dietary needs and restrictions, family size and where I live.

Weekly Shopping

Every weekend we load up as a family and go to Sprouts. I love this store. If I really wanted to be frugal I’d go on Wednesday because that is double ad day but weekend shopping works best for our schedule.

Sprouts Farmers Market is an independent natural foods grocery store chain that focuses on “healthy living for less.” We sell farm-fresh produce and thousands of natural, organic and great-tasting mainstream foods at remarkably low prices, in a non-traditional farmers market-type setting.

Sprouts only has stores in California, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas; sorry friends if you don’t live in one of these states.  Sprouts has the best produce, it stays fresh for a reasonable amount of time and is well priced. I would pay much more if I bought the same produce at a regular grocery store. Additionally there are other “farmers markets” that are really more like a produce market (no farmers in sight) that have produce even less expensive but it is only good for a few days. At those places I can get a much better deal but since the produce only last a day or two I’d have to go often and it is not near by. I’ll occasionally shop there if I’m having a big party and need a lot of produce for one day. I prefer to shop at Sprouts. If I buy something that I don’t like I can take it back for a full refund.

What do I buy at Sprout:

  • produce
  • gluten-free items
  • Ezekiel Bread
  • dairy-free coffee creamers
  • bulk grains
  • nuts
  • turbinado sugar
  • nutritional yeast
  • Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips

Sprout’s also carries conventional and organic meat and dairy, health care items, vitamins, supplements, beauty and toiletries items and even Blue Bell Ice cream. If I could only shop one store it would be Sprout’s!

I am also a fan of Fresh and Easy. Of course this is less than a mile from my house and the first store you come to when leaving my neighbor hood, yes I’m one lucky girl. I was resistant to F&E at first, I had heard that it was expensive and didn’t have a good selection. Once my first son was born I tried it (because I got tired of being stuck in a big store for over an hour and a ton of creepy strangers trying to touch my newborn). I loved it. I could get anything I needed and be in and out quickly. Some things are more expensive but not everything. They have a lot of ready-made food but it almost always has meat, cheese or oil so I don’t buy those. I LOVE their fresh salsa’s, hummus, and they have a great clearance section. Most of all I REALLY LOVE their almond milk. I prefer the F&E brand of almond milk to all others! It is priced great too!

What do I buy at Fresh and Easy:

  • almond milk
  • coconut milk (occasionally)
  • hummus
  • salsa
  • cereal
  • banana’s (they are not cheap but convenient)
  • gluten-free items
  • organic tortilla chips
  • some produce
  • items from the clearance section
  • nutritional yeast

They also have a good selection of grains, pasta, and normal grocery store fare, it is just a little pricier than I get other places. If I need to run to the store for a quick ingredient F&E is my pick.

Every So Often

There are other places I shop occasionally. 

What I buy at Costco (once a month or longer):

  • agave nectar
  • beans
  • Naked Juice
  • quinoa
  • spices
  • hummus (occasionally)
  • organic tortilla chips
  • baby wipes

What I buy at Target:

  • diapers
  • toiletries
  • baby items
  • clothes
  • last-minute food items I forgot to get elsewhere

What I buy at Walmart (I only go a few times a year):

  • beans
  • brown rice
  • canned goods
  • toiletries

As you can see most of my shopping is done at Sprouts and Fresh and Easy. If I lived in rural Oklahoma near my mom I’d have to shop at small local grocery stores, Walmart, and use the internet. I’ve thought about buying more grocery items online but haven’t yet. In fact I may check into getting an Amazon Prime account to see if that would be helpful.

Where do you shop? Is there a store you use that you couldn’t live without? Share with the peanut gallery so we can all benefit!