My Plant-Based Family

Feeding My Family a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet, On a Budget

Planning

Meal Plan Monday: Simple Food, Simply Good

by Leave a Comment

Minestrone Soup

For the next few weeks (at least) I want to focus on how to begin eating a Plant-Based Diet. Even if you’re not ready to give up meat and dairy entirely I hope to encourage you to include more fruit and vegetables in your diet.

If you are an all or nothing kind of person I would advise you to commit to a diet free of any animal products for at least 30 days. If that seems more difficult than climbing Everest then try to add more whole foods and slowly eliminate animal products. It was definitely easier for me than I thought, more difficult for my husband, and the hardest on my now three year old. My husband still wants steak occasionally and my three year old asks for cheese regularly. My one year old has always been plant-based and has a love of fruit and veggies of which I am envious.

This weeks Meal Plan is made up of simple foods that can be found in any grocery store, with the exception of maybe couscous. Couscous is really yummy and easy to make, if you’ve never tried it, you should. The taste reminds me of pasta. If this Meal Plan doesn’t seem tasty to you take a look at previous Meal Plans or Recipes.

Meal Plan

Breakfast is usually quick things like oatmeal, toast, smoothies, fruit with almond butter or left over pancakes. Also we usually eat twice in the morning, once when we get up and once mid morning. I recommend rolled oats or steel cut oats, they take a few extra minutes to cook but they keep you full longer. A typical bowl of oatmeal for me will include cinnamon, diced banana, craisins, and maybe some seeds or nuts, a splash of real maple syrup adds an extra sweet touch as well.

Lunch is often leftovers, PB&J, Not So Tuna Salad, leftover Baked Potato, a spinach and hummus wrap or something easy. If I’m feeling really motivated I might make pancakes or soup with veggie odds and ends.

Snack is a must at our house. Hummus makes a regular appearance. I shared on Facebook how I could not find hummus or chickpea’s in the small town my mom lives in and had major hummus withdrawal. Some of my family members had never heard of or had hummus but it is one of my favorite things these days. I like to eat hummus with raw veggies like carrots or spinach. I don’t always have humus so sometimes I eat leftovers for snack or fruit or smoothies.

Dinner is the meal that gets the most attention. We all eat the same thing even my one and three year old’s. My one year old has a wheat/gluten allergy so most of what I make now is wheat/gluten free. I’m new to this so I’m still transitioning and figuring it out.

Monday: Baked Potatoes (make extra for easy lunches) topped with steamed veggies, beans, or chili.

Tuesday: Beans and Brown Rice served in a bowl or tortillas. You can used canned beans or make your own which is cheaper. Make extra brown rice for a quick lunch. If you’re not sold on eating brown rice try mixing white and brown rice until you acquire a taste for it, it will happen just ask my husband.

Wednesday: Minestrone Soup is easy to make and soooo delicious. I’ll be using wheat/gluten free noodles in this soup. Last time I made it I didn’t make nearly enough and graciously let my husband take some of the leftovers for lunch even though I secretly wanted to hide it and keep it all to myself. Shh don’t tell him! He was always the guy who didn’t like soup so just give this one a chance.

Thursday: Couscous with roasted veggies like onions, peppers, broccoli, and mushrooms. I may even marinate them in balsamic vinegar and veggie broth for a little while before cooking them if I am organized enough that day.

Friday: Typically a date night for me and my husband so the kids get baked sweet potato or something just as easy while we eat hummus from Pita Jungle.

I don’t plan out our weekend meals because I like to use up leftovers and cook as little as possible. I will usually soak beans and cook them on the weekend. If you cook a big pot you can save some to eat during the week and store some to put in the freezer for a quick meal.

Do you have any questions about eating a plant-based diet? Feel free to ask in the comments, email me at myplantbasedfamily@gmail.com, or for the quickest reply ask on My Plant-Based Family’s Facebook page. 

Are You Ready for a Change?

by Leave a Comment

Are you ready to change your life? If not what will it take; sky high cholesterol or blood pressure, too much weight that won’t go anywhere, or a dire diagnosis?

I’ve been speaking to a lot of people lately who are interested in making the switch to a plant-based diet and I can assure you it is not as difficult as you may think. For the next few weeks I’ll focus on the “how to’s” of making a change to a plant-based diet. Topics will include Tossing the Junk, How to Shop, Eating Out, What to Eat, plus the usual Meal Plans and recipes.

So what are you waiting for?

On a side note I’ve been traveling since the middle of last week so my blogging has been a bit irregular. Next week I’ll be back in a in a routine and return to the regularly scheduled program. 😉

Snacking While Traveling

by Leave a Comment

We have not taken a family trip since before we went to a Plant-Based Diet. A lot of the fun of our trips was related to food. We would pack a ton of snacks and stop at gas stations and buy tons more. Once we little one’s came along we had to be intentional about buy them healthy and kid friendly snacks because there was no way I would feed my precious babies the garbage we were eating. 😉

Another tradition that will continue is making a freezing PB&J’s or AB&J’s. They slowly defrost throughout the day for a quick and timely lunch. We pack easy to eat fruit and crackers, dried fruit and trail mix has always been a big hit with us. 

This year we will take Go Go squeeZ. GoGo squeeZ is applesauce in little handy pouches, I know you’ve seen them. They are easy to use because they require no dishes, perfect for my 3 year old. (They are a much better deal at Costco so if you have a membership buy them there instead of a regular store.) Additionally they are all natural and gluten, nut, and dairy free.

I’ll share my experience of traveling with kids and eating a Plant-Based diet in a few weeks, but for now I seek your advice. What would you take on a trip?

If you follow My Plant-Based Family on Facebook you will get to see how it is going in real time because somethings are just to funny to wait. 

Meal Plan Monday: How I Plan

by Leave a Comment

I sit here a fully admit I don’t know what we are eating this week. At the end of the week half of our household will be going on a trip to see family. I did not buy much at the grocery store because I did not want to leave a bunch of food that would go bad.

I thought that this would be a good opportunity to walk you through how I Meal Plan. First I take all of the food we have into consideration:

  • Carrots*
  • Potatoes*
  • A little Spinach
  • Sprouted grain bread
  • Oatmeal*
  • Cooked quinoa**
  • Cooked pinto beans**
  • Several vats of hummus
  • 7 cups of cooked chickpeas**
  • Fresh (but going downhill) Strawberries**
  • Several Gluten Free Cereals*

At the store I picked up:

  • Almond Milk
  • Bananas
  • Apples
  • Broccoli**
  • Freeze-dried Veggies I wanted to try (Bleck…not a fan!)*

Item with * will be fine when I return from traveling and do not need to be used immediately. Items with ** can be frozen and used another time. I have a well stocked pantry and freezer so I have other options available. When my fridge is empty I plan meals based on what produce is the best value while also balancing nutrition and taste.

The Meal Plan

Breakfast will be oatmeal, Breakfast Quinoa, cereal and smoothies.

Lunches will be leftovers, Nachos made with Pinto Beans, PB&J or AB&J, Not So Tuna Salad sandwiches or wraps, and my favorite Spinach, carrot and hummus Wrap.

Snacks will be hummus with fresh veggies, smoothies, chickpeas, and fruit with nut butter.  

Dinner will not be completely planned because I want to focus on using up everything the will not last while I travel. A few of the things that we may eat are:

  • Bean Burrtios
  • Quinoa Tacos
  • Veggie Soup with Chickpeas
  • Steamed Spinach with Chickpeas (I had this yesterday and it was tasty)
  • Nachos
  • Baked Potatoes
  • Potato and Broccoli Soup
Each evening I’ll decide what needs to be eaten and focus on that food type. Some things can be combined like the beans and quinoa to make nachos, or everything thrown together for soup. Most of these things are already cooked so I’ll just have to throw it together and warm it up, or throw it in a pot to simmer. 
 
I also try to eat several different colors of food throughout the day. If I feel like we are missing out on something I’ll make a smoothie because I can throw in spinach, blueberries, pineapple, mango, cherries, or strawberries and feel like we are covering all of or bases. We typically eat a lot of whole grains and carrots so we are rarely missing out on those. 
Do you Meal Plan? It saves me money and frustration each week, give it a try.

Meal Plan Monday: Back to Basics

by Leave a Comment

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?