My Plant-Based Family

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

Brown Rice

Meal Plan Monday: Too Hot for Comfort Food?

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Minestrone Soup

It may be over 100° F but that isn’t too hot for me. Comfort foods go over well with my family. For lunch today I finished off some leftovers by mixing brown rice and lentil-pinto chili together; right now I am so full I can barely sit up straight. 🙂 Just so you know I didn’t eat bowls and bowls of it. I probably had about 1 1/2 cups (not quite a full bowl), but between the lentils, beans, brown rice, and veggies that is a lot of fiber. To modify a famous quote, “fiber is a girls best friend.” Everything we eat wont fall under the comfort food category but I hope a few will.

Meal Plan

Breakfast is usually quick and easy foods. We have been on the go almost every morning for the last few weeks and my boys want to eat all morning. I’ve been letting them have cereal for their first breakfast, this usually just keeps them busy while I make their real breakfast or work on something else. We normally eat oatmeal with fruit, I like to add almond butter to mine. Breakfast Quinoa is another versatile favorite but it is hard for my little guys to eat without a big mess.

Lunches are usually pretty simple too. Most of the time it’s leftovers, but sometimes we have nut butter and fruit sandwiches, salad wraps, or and easy soup.

Snack time is a great way to make sure you are getting all the veggies you need. We like raw veggies with hummus, my husband and son have even been eating cups of raw baby spinach with the smallest bit of balsamic vinaigrette. Fruit and greens smoothies are always popular here, of course I don’t tell the teenagers I put greens in it.

Dinner is where I actually put forth effort. 🙂 I try to cook enough for lunches and sometimes dinners on other nights. My husband almost always takes lunch (plus breakfast and snacks) to work each day.

Monday: Pasta and red sauce with mushrooms, tomatoes, and onions. We will also have a large salad made with Spring Mix, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, any other veggies I can find.

Tuesday: Broccoli and Rice casserole. This has been my teenagers favorite dish since they came here to visit. My daughter asks for it all the time and today my husband told me it is in his top three favorite meals. I’ve made it with millet but they didn’t like it as much. It is perfect with brown rice or couscous. I’ve mentioned how I make this but I’ll post an official recipe later this week.

Wednesday: We have a long day of appointments and plans all day so this will probably be an eating out kind of day.

Thursday: Black Bean Taco Salad

Friday: Minestrone or Potato Soup

I don’t post our meals for the weekends unless we have something special planned. I cook some meals but we like to finish off all of the leftovers, buy groceries and start the week fresh.

Have you planned your meals for the week? Today I cooked a pot of chickpeas but I haven’t planned a specific meal for them. They may become hummus or perhaps BBQ Chickpea salad.

Meal Plan Monday: In The Beginning

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When my husband, little boys and I first started eating a Plant-Based Diet we ate a lot of comfort foods; Chili, Lentil or Quinoa Tacos, Nachos, Baked Potatoes were normal fare for us. I also made baked goods to help ease us off the junk food we were accustomed too. Since our teenage daughter had decided to live with us I thought it would only be considerate to eat more of these types of foods. One of the problems is we started eating plant-based in the winter, it is summer now so some of the foods we are then just don’t seem as appealing now.

My husband and I are happy with simpler meals, we can eat rice, lentils, and leafy greens and be satisfied. That is a tall order and would have been impossible for us in the beginning. It took a while for our taste buds to accept the kinds of food we like now.

A few days ago I made baked potatoes for dinner. I had some chili in the freezer that I thought would make a perfect accompaniment. I was right! Both of our teenagers liked it and my daughter even requested that I make it again this week. Yesterday my daughter flipped through my new Forks Over Knives Cookbook and picked out recipes she was interested in; I’m hoping to try a few this week.

Meal Plan

Breakfast is toast, fruit, muffins, and cereal more often than I would care to admit. We have oatmeal once or twice a week, usually with raisins, cinnamon, and a touch of agave.

Lunch is usually leftovers, nut butter sandwiches, bean and grain bowls, Big Salads, or bean burritos.

Snack ideas include: hummus with veggies, chips and salsa, smoothies, or fruit.

Dinner this week will include 3 Bean Chili, Beans and Rice, Black Bean Burgers with Twice Baked Potatoes, Quinoa or Lentil (or both) Taco Salad.

There are three nights this week with activities so we will be eating early, late, or out on those days. If you are wondering how I have time to cook so much food let me assure you I’m not slaving in the kitchen every day. Yesterday I cooked a big pot of lentils and a big pot of brown rice. I soaked pinto beans last night and cooked them today. Even if I don’t get the black beans cooked I have enough pintos and lentil to get several good meals made. By cooking beans and other foods that take a long time during my “down time” I can get dinner together in about half an hour.

While rice cooks, or beans heat up I can chop, steam, or otherwise prepare veggies.   

What are you eating this week?

Black Bean Goodness

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I finally did it, I made Black Bean Soup. I had never eaten it but had it on my Meal Plan several times. About a month ago I finally got a taste of Black Bean Soup from Paradise Bakery. It was lovely and I decided I would make it soon. This was the week. I put it on the Meal Plan, bought beans, and finally made it. Since I have been working out (almost daily) I’ve been needing more food. I was craving a huge bowl of fuel so I made Potato Soup on Monday and Black Bean Soup on Tuesday! They were both delicious!

Spicy Black Bean Soup

Ingredients

  • 6 cups soaked beans, 3 cups unsoaked
  • water to cook beans
  • 2 onions
  • 2 jalapeno peppers
  • 2 tomatoes (optional)
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tbsp chili powder (of more to taste)
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (optional)
  •  a few tbsp of Better than Bullion Veggie broth (optional)

Do

  1. Measure out 3 cups of dried black beans, sort them (look for random rocks to remove), the rinse them.
  2. Put in a pot or large bowl and cover with water (overnight or for several hours).
  3. Discard soaking water and rinse beans. Place beans in a pot with clean water that covers beans.
  4. Cook the soaked beans on the stove (medium heat) for about an hour. Test beans for doneness by tasting or by placing a few beans on a spoon and lightly blow on them. If the skin cracks and starts to peel back they are done. If they are not done cook for an extra 30 minutes or more.
  5. Take approximately half the beans and place them a  food processor or blender along with some of the water and blend until smooth.
  6. Add the onion, jalapeno, garlic and tomato to the blender and wiz, chunky is ok.
  7. Pour this mixture back into the bean pot and simmer.
  8. Add chili powder and cumin. I added the Better than Bullion Veggie Stock here. Why didn’t I add it to the beans when they were cooking? So I could save some unseasoned black beans in case I make Black Bean Brownies.
  9. Simmer until flavors are incorporated.

Serve

Eat this delicious soup with corn bread or corn fritters for a “southern” inspired flavor. This is also great poured over brown rice with a bit of avocado (lunch today). Although this is called spicy, my 1 and 3-year-old kids LOVED it. It was not too spicy for them.

My husband can’t eat seeds but loves spicy food. Instead of adding the jalapeno to the blender I just stabbed it with a knife a few times so the seed stayed in, I then added it to the pot to simmer for a while. The soup had a nice spicy, but not too spicy flavor.

My husband resisted black beans when we first began eating a plant-based diet. Even if you are not in love with the flavor you should eat them because of how good they are for you. I happen to love them!

A cup of cooked black beans provides 227 calories, 15 g of protein, 1 g of total fat, no saturated fat or cholesterol, 41 g of carbohydrate and 15 g of fiber. Black beans contain no saturated fat or cholesterol. One cup of black beans also provides 20 percent of the daily value, or general recommended amount for adults, for iron and 5 percent of the daily value for calcium. Black beans also provide significant amounts of the minerals magnesium, phosphorus and manganese, and the B vitamins thiamin and folate, or folic acid. LiveStrong

Bean and Grain Bowl

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I’ve mentioned that I LOVE to make (eat and share) Bean and Grain Bowls; I’ve said it often enough I assume you know what I mean but in case you don’t allow me to explain.

I try to have at least one type of grain and one type of bean cooked and in the fridge at all times. It doesn’t always happen but it is a goal none the less. I keep a few cans of beans in the pantry too.

I recently had a lunch meeting where lunch was being provided, I didn’t know what would be served but I was certain I wouldn’t be able to eat it. As I was rushing to get ready I stopped and put some cooked quinoa, some rinsed black beans (from a can) and a few tablespoons of salsa in a container. I didn’t even taste test it.

Once I got to the meeting pizza was being served. A friend of mine, who is working toward a Plant-Based diet, was there too; I gave her a taste of my quinoa and bean bowl and she LOOOVED it! She went out and bought the ingredients and made it for her family.

You don’t have to use quinoa and black beans AND it doesn’t have to be in a bowl.

This was made with cooked Barley (not gluten free), pinto beans, and homemade salsa served on a corn tortilla (pictured above). It was very tasty as well. If you are looking for maximum “comfort food” taste without the guilt you can make these nachos, pictured below, using a grain that has been seasoned with Mexican spices. I like to use my homemade taco seasoning, Chili Powder, Garlic Powder, and Onion Powder, sometimes I’ll add cumin and tomato sauce.

Brown rice, chickpea’s and steamed veggies make a great bowl as well, if you’re looking for more flavor add in your favorite Asian inspired sauce.

Yesterday I even mixed up some beans and grains that stuffed them into bell peppers then stuck them on the grill. One pepper contained my usual quinoa and black beans with corn, diced tomatoes, and jalapenos; but the other was quinoa and lentils.

So let your imagination run wild, as wild as beans and grains can get. Maybe try a different grain every week. I use quinoa a lot but millet  and amaranth are also good options. Some grains like Rye, Wheat, and Barley naturally contain gluten so if you are gluten free you may want to do a little research before trying them.

Meal Plan Monday: Fueled For Fun

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I finally made it to the store this weekend. The last few weeks we have been so busy we would just run in for banana’s, almond milk, and what ever else we needed for survival. This week my kitchen is stocked with anything a girl could ask for.

Last night I made a Mexican Quinoa Dish that was so amazing my husband and I ate a huge serving bowl full. Since it was full of healthy, yummy goodness neither of us had that overeating bloaty feeling. YAY for eating plants!

While grocery shopping I had one of those experiences that only really happen a few times a year. I’m pushing my cart through the store and smell a glorious medley of apricots, nectarines, and peaches. I stopped my cart and backed it up, then filled bags with yummy summer time fruit. If you shop at Sprout’s I was the crazy lady smelling the pineapples too! This happens to me in the fall when apples catch my attention too.

Meal Plan

Breakfast this week will be bagels (I found them on clearance), oatmeal, Breakfast Quinoa, my husband likes Baked Sweet Potatoes with a little cinnamon, toast, and fruit.

Lunches will be leftovers (more quinoa), nut butter sandwiches, GF pasta with veggies, leftover pancakes (from Father’s Day), and anything else inspiration stirs up.

Snacks will be fruit since I have apricots, nectarines, apples, bananas, pineapples, cantaloupe, honey dew, oranges, blueberries and a couple of peaches. I’m sure I’ll have peanut or almond butter on the apples and bananas. I found some organic soy yogurt on clearance that my husband and boys will have. Hummus and veggies are sure to make an appearance as well. A few months ago I would set hummus and carrots on the counter and munch every time I would walk by. I came to realize my hummus addiction was out of control so I have cut back substantially. 🙂

Dinner will come in the form of “Build You Own” nights. I’ll have grains, beans, veggies, and sauces at the ready and we can pick what we want. So for Monday we may choose Baked Potato topped with spicy lentils and a side or broccoli. Tuesday we may have a wrap with quinoa, beans, salsa, diced tomatoes and jalapenos. The “Build Your Own” foods will be:

  • Quinoa
  • Brown Rice
  • Millet
  • Black Beans
  • Pinto Beans
  • Lentils
  • Baked Potatoes
  • New Potatoes
  • Bell Peppers
  • Tomatoes
  • Jalapenos
  • Spinach
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Portobello Mushrooms (these will probably be grilled)
  • Avocado

I’m experimenting with this style to see if I can save time and cut down on a little waste. My husband usually takes leftovers for lunch so this may help us be better prepared to that too.

What are you eating this week? Are there any grilled veggies in your future? Are you in love with summer fruit like I am?

Meal Plan Monday:Quick Meals

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About a month ago several friends of mine were talking about how busy there summers were going to be. I just sat back with a smirk because I had almost nothing planned, that is until my calendar started filling up. This week is a very busy week in our household. We had a much busier weekend than normal and didn’t even do our normal grocery shopping. 

My goal is to make due with what we have, maybe make a fruit and almond milk run, and have all dinner take less than 30 minutes to prepare. Breakfast and lunches usually only take about 5 minutes to make. I like to cook beans and grains on the weekend so they can be heated for a quick meal, alas I did not do that this weekend. I’ll make sure I cook these when I find spare time in the afternoon. 

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be oatmeal, toast, cereal, and fruit.

Lunch will be sandwiches, wraps, or leftovers, inventive I know. 

Snacks will be fruit, mini muffins I made over the weekend, and chips and salsa.

Dinner 

Monday: Brown rice with taco seasoned lentils, corn, salsa and guacamole.

Tuesday: Baked Potato (busy evening)

Wednesday: Veggie Stir Fry (made with spinach, carrots, red bell pepper, onions, garlic, and some frozen veggies to round things out)

Thursday: Spinach Dal

Friday: Bean Burritos 

The only thing that will take over 30 minutes to make is the brown rice. I’ll make a big batch and use the leftovers through the week to save time later. 

Do you have any tips or tricks for saving time in the kitchen? What is your favorite quick meal?