My Plant-Based Family

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

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Company is Coming

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We love having friends over for dinner. We used to have company over all the time. Once my little guys were born it got harder but we still enjoyed having company, just not as frequently. Since going plant-based we haven’t had many dinner guests. Most people think we are now super weirdo’s who eat nothing but cardboard and iceberg lettuce.

Before going plant-based my husband was “king of the grill” part of his secret was topping each steak with a tablespoon of butter just before serving. I could make a mean roast, pork roast, or anything else, of course they were usually topped with “cream of” soups. A while ago I made a meal for a friend and cooked a little chicken. I hadn’t cooked meat in months but this time would be the last. I had found the chicken in my freezer and thought it was better to pass it on than throw it away. My meat cooking days are now over. I couldn’t stand seeing and smelling the chicken as it was cooking. I will not elaborate any further.

We have had a few plant-based friends over to share a meal. Each time I’ve made Mexican food, which has always been my specialty whether we were having meat or not. I hoping to broaden my “company’s coming over” menu soon. I’m excited to have a friend coming over this week who is interested in a plant-based diet. I’m just not sure what to make. If you real Meal Plan Monday I had left Thursday blank and asked for suggestions. Now that my friend is coming over I’m hoping to thing of something creative and delicious and I’m still looking for suggestions.

What do you make when company is coming over? Do you have any tried and true recipes that appeal to omnivores? Please share!

Meal Plan Monday: Weekend Cooking for Weekday Meals

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Maybe a post like this isn’t helpful; talking about weekend cooking on a Monday…oh well it’s what I do. On the weekends (and sometimes on Fridays) I like to cook things that take extra time like beans and grains so I don’t have to take the time during the week. My husband has been doing an amazing job of cutting veggies on the weekends to save time other days.

This week I have black beans and black-eyed peas to work with. My husband will probably eat most of the black-eyed peas for lunch because he and the 1 year old are the only ones who really like them. I had chickpeas too but I used most of the to make “Not So Tuna Salad” but it got a little thin so now it’s more of a dip. I have about 4 cups of it so I may freeze some of it if I don’t come up with another clever use but I’m thinking of eating it on a baked potato.

This little bit of preparation on the weekends greatly reduces the chance of a dinner time emergency run to the nearest drive thru. When I have beans or grains already prepared it also gives me a direction to go with my meal planning.

On the produce front we have the usual suspects along with a few special items: baby spinach, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, celery, a red bell pepper, potatoes, peaches, nectarines, green apples, yellow apples, mangos, grapes, cherries, a pineapple, a watermelon, half a golden melon, some kale, a few tomatoes, a few jalapenos and bunches and bunches of bananas.

I’m thinking of making a fruit salsa since I have a good variety of fruit.

Meal Plan

Breakfast isn’t really planned out everyday but will be made up of toast, oatmeal, cereal, farina, fruit, and maybe pancakes. Today I had whole grain toast with peanut butter topped with thin slices of green apples. It was so good! One of my favorite things!

Lunches will be equally easy and mostly made up of sandwiches, wraps, baked potatoes, beans and  grain bowls, and other leftovers.

Snacks are usually fruit, veggies with hummus, smoothies, or other quick and easy things. Lately my boys have been stealing apples off the counter to share. The little one will rope the big one into his exploits. When we leave carrots sticks out the 3 year old steals them too.

Dinner is planned out a little better, the trick is sticking to it. 🙂

Monday: BBQ Chickpea Salad with Fruit Salsa and Black Beans

Tuesday: The Broccoli and Brown Rice Casserole I posted last week, my family’s favorite.

Wednesday: Busy Day/Busy Night Baked Potatoes with steamed veggies and fruit

Thursday: Help me decide! What would you make?

Friday: Crock Pot Veggie Soup

So what do you think? Do you have any suggestions for me; I have a pretty well stocked pantry maybe I’ll make my normal Mexican fare. If you Meal Plan share it here! The more the merrier!

Brown Rice and Broccoli Casserole

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I’ve mentioned a Brown Rice and Broccoli dish that my husband and teenage daughter LOVE. I’ve even given an unofficial recipe. Today I’ll give the official version.

I’ve made this with millet and it wasn’t a huge hit with the family but I like it. It would be great with couscous, noodles, or even quinoa. I don’t bake this one because it is still to hot for me to use the oven most days so I guess this isn’t really a casserole. Once it cools down I’ll try an oven version but for now I cook the rice, steam the veggies, and make the sauce in separate pans so it is a little dishwashing intensive.

In our meat-eating days I would make a chicken and rice casserole that used cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soups AND a stick of butter. Bleck! We loved it then but now I can’t imagine! So unhealthy! This is our stand-in casserole.

Brown Rice and Broccoli Casserole

Ingredients

  • 4 Cups Cooked Brown Rice (More or less for depending on the number you are serving)
  • 3 Cups steamed, chopped Broccoli (other veggies could be added)
  • 1 recipe HH Brown Gravy (I use brown rice flour to make this gluten-free)

Do

  1. Pour cooked rice into a large casserole dish.
  2. Add broccoli or other veggies and gently mix.
  3. Prepare HH Brown Gravy recipe and pour it over rice and broccoli. Stir until everything is incorporated.
  4. Enjoy!

Serve

This is so easy to make. It re-heats well so I’ll often make it early in the day and reheat it for dinner. It is a great potluck dish. Many of my readers are the only one’s in their family who are plant-based, this recipe will work for you. Simply set aside half for you and allow your family to add chicken to their portion. This would also be good with a faux cheese sauce instead of the Brown Gravy sauce.

 UPDATE!

Try my latest version of this that is easier and tastes even better! The Crock Pot Broccoli and Brown Rice Casserole will knock your socks off! It’s one of our favorite recipes!

cheesy rice casserole image700

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.

Oh Poo!

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Yes that is right POO! Poop, excrement, stool, feces, (insert other inappropriate words) or whatever you prefer. In our house poo seems a little less scary when your 3 year old starts yelling it in a crowded room. Don’t worry that is as provocative as it’s gonna get, I think. Yesterday I saw someone in a Plant-based/vegan Facebook group mentioned how much more regular her family is, especially her kids who are going through a ton more diapers everyday. Oh honey, I can sympathize. Until just a few months ago I had two Plant-Strong Pooping Machines in diapers. Thankfully the 3 year old is (mostly) done with diapers. My 1 year old still turns our 2-4 poopy diapers in a typically morning, ah the good life of a diaper changing momma.

We talk about poop a lot at my house. What can I say, I have little boys . Besides, poop is an interesting subject. My three year old is constantly talking about how big, how much, what color, what shape and what he sees in it. He also talks though not getting it on his clothes, the floor, his hands, and the lights, I’m not sure why that one ALWAYS comes up but it does.

In my early 20s I had a friend who sold a line of  supplements and one was a probiotic. During the sales demonstration they talked about how some people, especially women would go days to a week without having bowel movements. Of course I saw no problem with that, who wanted to poo more? Wasn’t I silly?

My Pooping Habits (Feel free to skip this part)

I wasn’t regular until my first pregnancy. Wow, what a relief, I looked forward to that moment of the day. After going plant-based things really took off. You will often hear plant-based eaters talk about feeling lighter, that is because they are having multiple bowel movements a day and their food is digesting faster. Meat and oil both slow down digestion, if you eliminate those from your diet you will process your food faster. My “potty times” are typically quicker and cleaner than they used to be, there is no struggling because things are moving well.

Start Reading Again 🙂

Beans and grains along with a variety of fruit and veggies will help anyone wanting to “lighten up” and be more regular. I can tell when I eat something that is not so good for me because my digestion slows down. Imagine your digestive track like a highway. Vehicles move toward their destination at various speeds but they are essentially going the same direction. Some cars are fast, others are bigger but slower, and some just cause problems. During rush hour there are more cars but they are moving slower, other times of day there are fewer cars traveling quicker. Get the picture?

I imagine some things like fruit to be like sports cars or motorcycles, moving quickly. Bigger cars and small trucks are like some veggies, while larger trucks are like higher fiber foods. Occasionally there are hiccups or events that cause backups on the road. To much traffic, barricades, an accident that everyone has to stop to look at. Several months ago while driving the highway was closed, a semi with hazardous chemicals had collided with another vehicle. Both sides of our divided highway was closed for hours. If I went out and ordered fried chicken my digestive system would respond in a similar fashion, complete closure. Even now if we go out to eat and my food is cooked with oil I can fill the “traffic” slow down.

Please don’t hold the above example to scientific or medical scrutiny, it is just a picture to make a point. The food we eat isn’t really racing to the finish, it is getting mixed up and broken down together.

Everytime I change my 1 year olds diaper the 3 year old likes to see the poo, he talks all about it. It goes like this, “I need to see his poo” so I show him the diaper. He then says, “wow, that’s a lot of poo” then in an almost desperate voice he exclames, “it’s on his bottom.” He then talks about other “parts” but that is a subject for another day.

Another important part of the pooping process is water. You need to drink plenty of water for all of your bodily processes to work the way they were designed, pooping is no different. Water will help flush toxins and waste out of your system. If you are not having regular bowel movements you may really be full of poop, no offense!

Some people need probiotics to get their digestive system healthy. All probiotics are not created equally. I am not an expert on them so I wont recommend any specific type.

The moral of the story: Pooping is Good! More pooping is usually better!

Happy pooing!

Meal Plan Monday: Eating On Purpose

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“You wake up in the morning then what do you do? Do you do anything for yourself?”

I was asked this question last week and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since then. Most of the time I’m reacting or playing catch up. I have a 3 and a 1 year old that I stay home with, that mean’s I’m on crisis management duty all day. I’m very blessed to stay home with them but I’m not always intentional about how I spend my time.

My kids want to eat all the time, especially when they first see me. Basically they equate me with food. Sometimes if I’m out my husband will feed them. They will eat for a nice long time then go play. When I walk in the door they come running, “Mommy Mommy Mommy” followed by “Eat Eat Eat”! Does that happen to you?

On weekdays when my husband is working he usually leaves before the rest of us wake up (it is summer after all). My boys want to eat immediately. If it’s super early I make them wait as long as possible. That is usually about 30 minutes but sometimes an hour. I’ll give them a handful of cereal while I cook oatmeal or they will have something quick like toast or fruit. If I’m on top of things I’ll eat with them but sometimes I’m just not quick enough. I’ll use the time they are busy eating to do something important like go to the restroom (BY MY SELF) or start laundry, talk to my husband on the phone, or empty the dish washer. Then they get busy playing (so I think) and I make breakfast for myself. Whatever I make gets shared with them. It is almost impossible for me to eat anything by my self.

Since my breakfast gets stolen shared with my kiddos I don’t always get enough, but I also get busy. I’ll go a long time without eating again some days. Other days I eat again an hour or two later. Lunch time turns into a similar ordeal. Some afternoons I find my self really hungry and realized I’ve only eaten a tiny bit of food all day as I’ve run around. Dinner time is better because we all eat together as a family.

This week I want to eat on purpose. That will require a little more planning than I’ve been doing lately. When we first began eating plant-based I put a lot of effort into having plenty of prepared foods in my fridge ready to go. These days I haven’t been doing a very good job of it, I’ve gotten complacent. I want the food I eat to fuel my body, not merely “fill me up” for a while. I want what I eat to have a purpose and truly benefit my body. Eating foods that might taste good but doesn’t really benefit me needs to be a thing of the past.

I do better when I have beans and grains on hand. Throughout this week I want to cook some beans, grains, and baked potatoes for quick meals. It is also important to have a good supply of fruit and veggies. Our supply is very low. I would have to be very creative to make anything interesting with what I have available. I haven’t done my normal grocery shopping for the week but I hope too soon.

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be toast with nut butter and fruit, bagels, oatmeal, or breakfast quinoa.

Lunch will be leftovers, baked potatoes, sandwich wraps, noodles with homemade sauce, bean and grain bowl, etc.

Snack will be fruit, fruit and spinach smoothies, hummus and raw veggies, muffins, etc.

Dinner is more of a challenge right now. For the other meals I make food for the little boys and my teenagers eat from whatever is available. At dinner time I make one meal, there is sometimes different options like we all eat baked potatoes but you can top it with chili or with steamed veggies. I really appreciated all of the advice and encouragement last week on Meal Plan Monday. I still haven’t had a chance to respond to everyone but I hope to do so soon.

This week I would I hope to have Southwest Chopped Salad featuring BBQ Chickpeas, Stir Fry (My 13 year olds LEAST favorite food), Three Bean Chili, Rice and Veggie Casserole (this has gone over very well the last few weeks) and Breakfast for Dinner with whole wheat pancakes and gluten-free pancakes.

All of these dishes are tasty and require very little hands on time, the pancakes will take the most but they are quick and easy snacks for little hands. These meals also do take a lot of special ingredients, most of them I normally have on hand.

What are you eating this week? Do you eat on purpose or just reactively eat?