My Plant-Based Family

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

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Vegan Tuna Salad

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I grew up eating Tuna Fish, yeah, that’s what we called it. Several times throughout the year it would be Tuna Fish time. My mom made it in a giant Tupperwear bowl, the same one she used for Potato Salad, and take it to family get togethers. Of course, we don’t eat tuna but I still like the flavor, we make our Vegan Tuna Salad no, formerly known as Not So “Tuna” Salad.

Vegan Tuna Salad

I have realized that Tuna Salad and Chicken Salad recipes greatly differ by region, kind of like Chili. So while I will share the way I made it this is in no way the right way. I think it has a lot of potential as a template.

When you make it, feel free to try other veggies to mix things up a bit.

Vegan Tuna Salad

Vegan Tuna Salad

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 can drained)
  • 1 tsp Nutritional Yeast
  • 3 tbsp Vegan Mayo
  • 1/4 tsp dill (you could add more)
  • 1 tsp Bragg Liquid Aminos (you can substitute soy sauce or omit, just adjust other seasonings)
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • a few shakes of ground mustard ( you could use prepared mustard instead)
  • water
  • dried seaweed (I used Sushi Nori brand)

Do

  1. Put all of these ingredients in a food processor with 1/4 cup of water.
  2. Process ingredients adding more water if necessary to get the right consistency. Don’t over process or it will be “paste like” it needs to be a little chunky.
  3. Chill until ready to eat.

Serve

This made a little more than 2 cups so double the recipe for a large family. We ate this on sprouted grain bread, my husband had toast. I also like it on crackers or with a pita. It could be eaten atop a mixed green salad as well. If you like celery in your tuna salad add it, I’m not a fan of raw celery so I omited it. I like lots of onion so I’ll add it next time. I was planning on adding a pickle but we were out. A splash of lemon juice would be a nice touch as well.

The Sushi Nori dried seaweed gives this the fishy flavor. If you’d rather have a “chicken” salad just omit the seaweed.

Yield: 4 servings

Vegan Tuna Salad

Vegan Tuna Salad

This easy vegan Tuna Salad recipe is great on sandwiches, salads, wraps or with crackers.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas (or 1 can drained)
  • 1 tsp Nutritional Yeast
  • 3 tbsp Vegan Mayo
  • 1/4 tsp dill (you could add more)
  • 1 tsp Bragg Liquid Aminos (you can substitute soy sauce or omit, just adjust other seasonings)
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • a few shakes of ground mustard ( you could use prepared mustard instead)
  • water
  • dried seaweed (I used Sushi Nori brand)

Instructions

  1. Put all of these ingredients in a food processor with 1/4 cup of water.
  2. Process ingredients adding more water if necessary to get the right consistency. Don’t over process or it will be “paste like” it needs to be a little chunky.
  3. Chill until ready to eat.

Did you make this recipe?

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Category: Recipes

Many moons ago I would make a delicious spicy chicken salad. It was simply shredded chicken, mayo and a can of drained rotel. I’d like to incorporate the rotel into this recipe as well.

Vegan Tuna Salad

What would you add to give this recipe your favorite “tuna” salad flavor?

Refried Beans???

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Refried beans, well not exactly, unfried beans, beans sans grease (lard or extra fat). Let’s just call them unfried beans.

Oil-Free Refried Beans

When my husband and I first got together he did all of the cooking. He taught me how to cook Mexican food and when he would make refried beans he would put a little oil in the pan then add the cooked beans then smash them with a potato masher. Once I started doing all of the cooking I omitted the oil. He didn’t notice unless I would say something. I then got lazier and would just put the cooked beans into my Magic Bullet to save all of the work of mashing them.

Oil-Free Refried Beans

Now that I have a food processor I have a super simple recipe for Refried, er Unfried Beans.

Unfried Beans

Ingredients

  • 2 cups cooked pinto beans (black beans would work too)
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • small amounts of water
  • hot sauce (optional)

Do

  1. Add cooked beans and all of the spices to the food processor and process.
  2. Add small amounts of water until the desired consistency is reached.
  3. Taste and add more seasonings if desired.

Serve

These beans were really good. I’d even say they rival any canned refried beans that are seasoned. They were quick and easy. This was the perfect amount of beans for my husband and my nachos. If you are making bean burritos or just beans to accompany something else make more, this recipe is easy to double or triple.

Did you know that beans and unfried beans freeze well? You can make a big batch then package the whole beans into smaller serving sizes to freeze for later. I like to use a quart size freezer bag because I can lay it flat. I’ve also made large amounts of unfried beans to use when we had company stay with us. They could make nacho’s, burritos, or a host of other things quickly.

Do you cook your beans? You will save a lot of money if you do. Read my post on “Plan for Success” if this is uncharted territory for you, in it, I detail how to cook beans.

Also, check out my Unfried Black Bean recipe!

 

Meal Plan Monday: Be Cheerful

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Happy Monday! Did you hear that cheerfulness? I’m choosing to be cheerful. You should decide now if you will be cheerful today too. Soon the days distractions will take all of your attention, perhaps even a few annoyances will pop up, or maybe even something awful. Let’s do our best and choose to be happy and count our blessings. I know it is not always easy, trust me, but I’ll try.

This weekend I cooked a pot of black eyed peas and a pot of chickpea’s. I have a pot of pinto beans that have soaked all night and I’ll start cooking soon. You may be thinking, whoa, that is a lot of beans. You are right! We ate all the leftovers over the weekend and hand almost nothing that could be thrown together without a lot of prep.

My husband LOVES black eyed peas, I have no idea why. I have memories of eating one spoonful a year on New Year’s Day because it was supposed to bring good luck. Maybe I should give them another chance, but not for luck just to see if I can appreciate them now.

Recently I’ve ran across several recipes that call for chickpea’s and I’m hoping to give them a try this week. In our house pinto beans are like a miracle food that can be turned into any number of delicious meals in a hurry. So now I have black eyed peas, chickpeas and pinto beans cooked, how will that fit into the meal plan? 

Meal Plan

Breakfast is pretty predictable at my house. We usually eat toast, oatmeal, breakfast quinoa, and sometimes cereal. I hope to cook a big batch of whole wheat pancakes sometime this week for quick breakfasts and snacks on the go.

Lunch is usually leftovers or sometimes a PB&J. I made homemade cashew butter last week so I may try to use it, unfortunately no one in my house seems to really like it. This week the chickpea’s will make a few lunch appearances for me and black eyed peas for my husband.

Dinner

Monday: Mock “tuna” salad (made with chickpeas)

Tuesday:a Spicy Pinto Bean dish that is yet to be created, or maybe nachos or burritos

Wednesday:Cajun Chickpea Cakes from Everyday Happy Herbivore. I love this cookbook! I hope these will pair well with black eyed peas and steamed spinach.

Thursday: Mega Garden Salad with avocado dressing

Friday: Split Pea Soup

I don’t usually assign side dishes because most of the meal I cook are full of veggies. I do have a quite a bit of produce this week. We will be eating carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, red bell peppers, kale, spinach, asparagus, onions, apples, bananas, oranges, and pears. 

Remember how earlier I mentioned choosing to be cheerful, I’m glad I did. In the last hour and a half I have had a few inconveniences including being spit up on, bitten, changing two poopy diapers, kissed several boo boos, started cooking the beans because my computer was frozen, and other typical things that happen with two adventurous boys. Somedays I would have let them derail my cheerful attitude, but not today. I don’t know that I’ll get through the whole day unscathed but I’ll do my best.

 

Dirty Mashed Potatoes

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Nothing says comfort food quite like Mashed Potatoes and Gravy.

 

There was  only a tiny bit of mashed potatoes left after the four of us ate. I wanted to stuff my face with the rest of them but I resisted.

These Mashed Potatoes are really easy to make. I’ll give estimates on amounts but it will really depend on your preference and the size of your family.

dirty mashed potatoes

Dirty Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

  • potatoes (I used four small-medium sized, see the ambiguity here)
  • cauliflower (1/4 of a head, or 1 1/2 cups of florets)
  • water
  • salt
  • garlic powder or fresh garlic
  • onion powder
  • black pepper
  • unsweetened plant milk (I used Almond milk)

Do

  1.  Bring water to boil.
  2. Wash and cut potatoes in to smaller pieces. I left the skin on but you do not have to. Add them to the boiling water.
  3. Wash and cut cauliflower into florets. Add them to the boiling water.
  4.  Once the potatoes and cauliflower are both soft, carefully drain the water. Return the potatoes and cauliflower to the pan or place in a large bowl.
  5. Mash the potatoes and cauliflower with a potato masher. Add milk to get the a creamer consistency. Try 1/4 cup at a time.
  6. Add salt, pepper, garlic and onion powders and mix well.

Serve

I served this with brown gravy, a Lentil Loaf and steamed spinach. The mashed potatoes were perfect, savory and delicious. I think I could have eaten the whole pot by myself. I didn’t taste the cauliflower at all but my husband mentioned that they smelled like cauliflower. These would also be good with broccoli, although that would be noticeable. 

I just mentioned that I served brown gravy. You can find that recipe here at the Happy Herbivore. I love Lindsey’s blog, and her cookbooks. I use them all the time. I halved this recipe for us and we had plenty leftover. The gravy was delicious! My husband topped his Lentil Loaf with it and he isn’t a big fan of nutritional yeast.

I hope to try this Lentil Loaf again soon. I couldn’t find a recipe that used the ingredients I wanted to cook with so I made up my own. It needs some tweaking still but I think if will be a winner. 

These are also great with Portobello Steaks! Be sure to use my Mushroom Marinade!

Muffins, Yes Please!

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I did a little baking yesterday. I’m not quite ready to share the recipe because I’d like to duplicate it first. But I will share the pictures and hopefully the recipe next week.

These Cherry Muffins were fresh from the oven. See how the cherry goo is still oozing out. This is one of those times where oozing goo is a good thing, trust me. I also made some with fresh blueberries.

I was actually trying to make more of a cupcake than a muffin but oh well. These were still yummy. I always feel like I need to offer a disclaimer when I bring muffins to friends. My muffins are really good, they have flavor BUT they do not taste like muffins/cake that is made from butter, milk, white sugar and white flour. Once you eliminate those options from your diet these are great! My non-plant-based friends have liked my muffins as well but I’m sure they are thinking that something is missing. (Something is missing, all of the over-processed junk that is bad for you!)

We also revisited the Stir Fry, you may remember that we had a bad experience  and took a stir fry sabbatical.  This one was good, although not a masterpiece.

I used noodles because we are avoiding rice and rice products due to an allergy. This is the leftover portion, there were actually a lot more veggies but we scooped those up first thing.

We also snacked on Jalapeno Hummus and organic tortilla chips after dinner because sometime we feel a little bit piggy. But seriously if organic tortilla chips, hummus made without added fats (oil and tahini), whole wheat muffins made with real fruit and without added fat is the worse thing we eat I’m not to worried. 

Later today I hope to make Banana Bread. I made a really good banana bread. I’ve made it hundreds of times, even though it is whole wheat everyone loves it. 

Have you made the switch to a plant-based diet? What is holding you back? Join me and countless others as we regain control of our health. 

Meal Plan Monday

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Today I am posting much later than normal. We had a family “situation” to deal with this morning. Additionally I usually have the meal plan worked out on the weekend and even as I type I’m not sure what we are having when.

First some reflection (I’m stalling while I think up a Meal Plan), boy am I glad my Unprocessed Challenge is over. Today is a day for some processed food. Did you survive the Unprocessed Challenge? I did not finish strong.

On Saturday we celebrated my 3 year old’s birthday by hosting a brunch and having a few families over to celebrate with. I will not mention all of the animal products that were cooked in my kitchen. I was blown away by how much I spent for one meal (there were a ton of leftovers too), almost $90. That is a week of groceries with some eating out.  I’m so glad I don’t normally buy animal products! I am also thankful that we were able to send our friends home with leftovers so I didn’t have to waste it. 😉

Also, I finally took my new food processor out of the box. Can you guess what I made? Oh yes, Chocolate Mousse and Guacamole! Then I made Jalapeno Hummus! What is your favorite thing to use your food processor for? I need some ideas. I hope to use it more this week.

On to the Meal Plan.

For breakfast we will be eating toast with nut butter and fruit (my favorite), oatmeal, cereal, and pancakes.

Lunches will be leftovers, baked potatoes, grain and bean bowls, and sandwiches.

Snacks are sometimes just like lunch. Yes, I eat all the time! I’m sure I will have some of the hummus I made last night with fresh cut veggies. I’m gonna try my hand at granola bar making. I haven’t made them since we when to a Plant-based diet. If they turn out I’ll brag about it soon.

Dinner

Monday: Stir Fried veggies with noodles and (hopefully) an awesome sauce. If this doesn’t turn out well we will have nachos.

Tuesday: Lentil loaf, mashed potatoes, and broccoli or salad

Wednesday: Bean Burritos 

Thursday: Couscous and Veggies

Friday: Baked sweet potatoes for the kids and take out for the parents, woo hoo!

I also plan to do some baking this week. If you follow me on Facebook you’ll sneak peak pictures.