My Plant-Based Family

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

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Got Snacks?

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I don’t know about you but I love snacks! While I always recommend that people reach for fruit and veggies as a first choice sometimes I really want crackers, chips, cookies, etc.

I don’t have a problem incorporating tasty but maybe not super healthy snacks occasionally. If I were fighting disease I would be much more careful with my diet. It is important to me to know what ingredients are in my snacks and how they are sourced.

I made this confession this week on Instagram. I loved these BBQ Chips by the way. It had been years since I’ve had a BBQ flavored chip. This girl loves BBQ!

Sometimes it’s hard to find products I can really get behind. I often order online when I find sources I can trust since they aren’t always at my local grocery store.

A fun way to try new snacks it so subscribe to the Vegan Cuts Snack Box.

Vegan cuts snack box

The Vegan Cuts Snack Box comes once a month with 7-10 vegan goodies. It’s only $19.95 with free shipping in the US. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter I’ll often share Vegan Cuts special sales as they come. This is the perfect time of year to sign up for a subscription (and you can easily cancel at any time).

In last months box I received 10 different products (some full size some sample size) including Earth Balance Mac and Cheese,  Cobra Corn, Barnana, One Potato Two Potato and many more.

If you find a product you can’t live without you can order it from the Vegan Cuts Marketplace. I subscribed to the Vegan Cuts Beauty Box almost as soon as it came out and I’m always pleasantly surprised with the quality of the products. I found my favorite skin care products, nail polish and more through Vegan Cuts.

I’m an affiliate for Vegan Cuts because I love what they do. The holiday boxes are always my favorite. The next Vegan Cuts Box ships October 20th so sign up now so you don’t miss the deadline.

This page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links I make a small amount from each sale at no additional cost to you. 

When the “Vegan” Husband is Tempted

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As a blogger, I share snippets of my life as I write. Today I think you will have a clearer view of who we are. I’m so pleased to have my husband Jim writing on the blog today. Jim does a lot of things behind the scene’s at My Plant-Based Family from eating recipe experiments that didn’t quite work, to editing, and now writing.

When your Vegan Husband is Tempted

Please welcome Jim!

You’re driving home from work, the whole way home you are tempted by fast food places advertising horribly unhealthy yet appealing items such as burgers, fries, tacos, burritos, pizza…  you name it, I know better…  but I’m still tempted.  So what do you do?  I’m reminded of a line from a movie “you’re cheating on your wife with fast food”, or something like that.

Intro

Hi, I’d like to introduce myself, I’m Jim.  You obviously already know my wonderful wife and you know many of My Plant-Based Family’s stories but as my beloved has mentioned, I’ll be contributing much more to the BLOG going forward.

Wanting to honor God and honor my wife

OK, so here’s what I do, I’m reminded that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.  I want to honor God by stewarding my body and my health by taking care of what he has given me.  I also want to honor my wife and do what I can to plan for a healthy life going forward, sometimes I eat in a very healthy manner, like the following:

jimslunch

Daily Meals (what I should be eating)

Vega One shake for breakfast
A 5 Cup serving of an assortment of colorful vegetables and fruit for lunch
Some awesome meal that my wife has created for dinner
For snacks, I’ll eat apples or carrots or something similar

If you choose a low nutrient meal once in a while, that’s OK, just don’t let it get out of hand

I can eat this way for weeks, but let’s just say that I give into temptation on a Friday night… unfortunately, I don’t usually have a single bad meal, it’s usually a series of bad meals, but then on Monday I’m back on the straight and narrow.  So I guess what I’m saying is that it’s OK every once in a while to choose a nutrient poor meal but make sure that you help yourself by putting in safeguards that will help you bounce back from the nutrient poor meal.  You could prepare your next meal ahead of time or you could also plan a fast right after the nutrient poor meal, either of these could help curb your temptation for nutrient poor food.

What about you? Are you ever tempted? How do you handle it?

A quick note: Jim is not vegan but mostly sticks to a plant-based diet and eat’s vegan most of the time. You can read Jim’s weight loss story here. 

The Forks Over Knives Plan Giveaway

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I recently had the opportunity to receive an advance copy of The Forks Over Knives Plan: A 4 Week Meal-By-Meal Makeover by Alona Pulde, MD, and Matthew Lederman, MD. You’ll remember them as the husband and wife team from Forks Over Knives. The Forks Over Knives Plan debuts today and I’m ready to tell you what to expect!

Forks Over Knives Plan

What You’ll Find Inside

One of the things I hear over and over again from readers is that they have watched Forks Over Knives but they aren’t sure how to make the transition. The Fork Over Knives Plan teaches you how to make that transition one meal at a time starting with breakfast, followed by lunch then dinner.

Part 1

The Fork Over Knives Plan starts by sharing Dr. Pulde and Dr. Lederman’s stories. It gives us insight as to how they became doctors and learned about a whole food, plant-based lifestyle and what it did for each of them. Second, we learn why the “Plan” works to reverse and eliminate disease. Next we learn what a whole food, Plant-Based Diet looks like. You’ll be happy to learn you don’t need to live on a diet of green salads alone and it’s important to get enough calories (which is easy to do on their plan).

Part 2

The second part of the book covers the 4 week transition. Week 1 you focus on making healthy choices at breakfast. They also discuss how to read nutrition labels, what to have in your pantry and protein.

Week 2 encourages healthy choices at lunch, now you are up to 2 healthy meals per day. It also discusses Meal Planning, calcium and will power. Week 3 helps you transition toward a healthy dinner and offers helpful suggestions like cooking in bulk or cooking with friends. There is also a discussion on fats, oil and cravings.

Week 4 is all about fine-tuning your lifestyle and making small changes to get everything working well. There is also discussion on eating out, traveling and carbs.

Part 3

The last section is recipes, glorious recipes! A 100 recipes to be exact! Later this week I’ll share a delicious Fall recipe from The Forks Over Knives Plan.

If you’ve been intimidated by the science in other plant-based books or you’ve tried eating plant-based but would get stuck along the way then The Forks Over Knives Plan may be what you need. You’ll be encouraged by stories from other people who have been on the same journey.

The Giveaway

You can even win your very own copy! The giveaway is open to US residents only. If you don’t live in the US or don’t win the giveaway you can still find it in bookstores and Amazon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received a free copy of The Forks Over Knives Plan. I didn’t receive any compensation. All opinions are my own.

This page contains affiliate links.

The Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle

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Every fall my news feed gets filled with pictures of leaves, Pumpkin Spice stuff and the Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle. Have you heard of this yet?

The Healthy Living Bundle is this incredible bundle of resources including ebooks, eCourses, memberships, and products.

Let’s take a look at some of the ebooks available.

And the eCourses!

Don’t forget these special offers for products/store credit!

 

I don’t want to mislead you. This is a LOT of information and a lot of it isn’t plant-based or vegan BUT I feel like it is such a great deal you really can’t pass it up. I didn’t even list everything!

Here is the thing, it’s less than $30 for over $1000 in ebooks, eCourses, memberships and products!

 

The Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle is only available for a few more days! That’s how they can offer this at such a good deal. Don’t wait because it will be gone.

If you still have questions check out the FAQs page.

This page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using a link I will make a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

A Behind the Scenes Update

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We have had a whirl wind of activity lately BUT it’s not finished. I wanted to fill you in on a little bit of what is going on behind the scenes.

a Behind the Scenes Update

New Fall Meal Plans

I’ve been working like mad creating Custom Meal Plans. They take a long time, especially when dealing with food allergies or other food restrictions. You may not realize that a Custom Meal Plan can range from 30 to 50 pages. When was the last time you typed that up for someone?

I know many of you are curious about the Custom Meal Plans but spending $30 to $40 just isn’t in your budget right now. I completely understand and I really want to help. I can’t make the Custom Meal Plans cheaper, they just take too long, in fact at some point I may have to raise the price.

The Solution

Later this month I will unveil 2 Fall Meal Plans that are created just like the Custom Meal Plans. They will be for one week but will include the Menu, Prep Sheet for those who want to cook a majority of the meals on the weekend, a shopping list and all of the recipes. This will be the perfect solutions for those of you who are interested in the Custom Meal Plan but aren’t quite ready to invest in the full priced Meal Plans.

I’ll share more details as we get closer to their Launch Date. Make sure to follow me at My Plant-Based Family on Facebook for more clues.

The Gluten-Free Lunch Box Class

Yesterday I announced the Gluten-Free Lunch Box Class that I’m hosting in Mesa, AZ on September 20th at 9 am. Many of you reached out to me about wanting to attend via conference call or video chat so I’m currently planning an online course. I’m really excited but still working out the details so stay tuned for those.

If you are interested in attending the live class or an online class (that will occur at a different time) please email me so you receive all of the updates.

Fresh Focus LLC

I’m officially a business now! Last month I completed all of the filing requirements to form an LLC in the state of Arizona. I’ve very excited because I have several new projects I’ll be launching this year and I wanted them under the Fresh Focus LLC banner. Don’t worry, My Plant-Based Family will still be your source of Allergy-Friendly Plant-Based Food and information.

More

There is much more in the works here but you will just have to wait to see the rest. I hope you are as excited as I am even though I don’t think that is possible. Stay tuned for more updates!

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest!

4 Food Pictures that were Epic Failures

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Sometimes recipes just don’t work. As a food blogger it isn’t enough for my recipes to taste good they also have to look good. Today I want to share some of my epic failures. Some of these foods tasted great (to me) but looked awful.

food pictures that were failures

Why am I sharing my failures?

We live in a society where achievements are judged by comparison. I’m guilty of it myself but I work hard to let comparison encourage improvement, not condemnation.

My everyday achievements will never measure up to someone else’s highlight reel. As a blogger, I typically only show my highlight real. I don’t intentionally try to mislead anyone but I don’t think you’d come back if I only posted my epic failures.

Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole

cheesy rice casserole and 010

To be clear, this casserole tasted pretty good. I ate several pans while I was testing recipes but it never looked pretty. Sometimes pretty is important.

Fiesta Mac

casseroles 048

I’m not giving up on Fiesta Mac yet. I’ll make it again eventually and hopefully snag a beautiful photograph. It’s really easy and taste delicious so I should put it on my to do list for Back to School month.

Gluten-Free Pancakes with Peach Topping

pancakes, nicole 003

I know, these look revolting. They were edible. My kids loved them but they are weird. I have a new (and better) recipe now. I’ll share a beautiful picture of them one day.

Strawberry Swirl Oat Bars

brownies, garden HC grilled avocado 160 (156)

Go ahead and say it with me. WOW. I have nothing else to add.

It Takes Time to Improve

Let me assure you there were many more. Most pictures that were really bad got deleted soon after (my Enchilada Casserole). Thankfully most of these were taken a long time ago. My photography has improved a lot over the years but my older recipes still have unattractive pictures.

If you saw any of these pictures on Pinterest you would not pin them, it’s ok to admit it. The food I’ve made that tastes bad, yes that happens sometimes, does not get a picture.

I hope I’ve encouraged you today. Life isn’t Pinterest Perfect. It doesn’t need to be.