My Plant-Based Family

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

kids

Veggie Kids

by Leave a Comment

Meet my Veggie Kids! They are 3 1/2 and 20 months. The are also both pretty stinkin awesome!

Sharing an apple

Their whole world revolves around food. They are “good eaters” and normally eat a lot, although they prefer to graze. I hear requests all day long for apples and banana’s. The 20 month little guys says “amanas” instead of bananas.

Sometimes one apple just isn’t enough.

The 3 1/2 year old loves eating leaves; he eats spinach mostly but will eat raw kale too. We give him a tiny bit of salad dressing to dip the leaves in.

Eating his leaves.

We made the move to plant-based 1 year ago and I’m so happy with their progress. Before we made the switch the big guy was a drive-thru, fast food junkie! He has come a long way.

He doesn’t really prepare his own meals. 🙂

The little guy hasn’t really been exposed to much unhealthy food. He can’t handle gluten so fast food isn’t really an option.

Soaking wet, checking out this tree.
Becoming quite the “tree hugger”

A few of their favorite recipes are: GF Apple Muffins, GF Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, Baked Potatoes, Parfaits, Smoothies, Unfried Beans and Mexican Rice, Brown Rice and Broccoli Casserole among other recipes you can check out on my Recipe Page.

All Purpose Mushroom Marinade

by 13 Comments

Some nights you just need an easy, kid-friendly meal; and nothing is easier than pasta.

We used gluten-free pasta because my 20 month old is gluten-free. He loved this pasta and the mushrooms.

This was his first time successfully feeding himself. He normally eats with his hands but he always tries to use the spoon. He totally rocked spooning this pasta into his mouth. He had seconds of this by the way.

I’m not typically a mushroom lover but my marinade really takes them to a whole different level. So if you don’t like mushrooms you will want to try them this way; if you like mushrooms this may become your favorite way to prepare them.

Mushroom Marinade

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp Braggs
  • 1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce (vegan)
  • 1 Tbsp Liquid Smoke
  • 1 Tbsp Balsamic vinaigrette
  • 1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
  • 1 Tbsp Cooking Sherry (optional, I use in Italian dishes but not Mexican)
  • 1/2 to 1 cup of water
  • Mushrooms of your choice, we prefer Portobello

Do

  1. Mix all liquids for the marinade in a large bowl and stir to incorporate them all.
  2. Wash mushrooms and pat dry.
  3. Slice them then add to marinade.
  4. Let them soak 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Cook the mushrooms however you prefer. I simmered these with onions for the pasta but will often grill them for fajita’s.

Serve

This marinade is extremely versatile. I use it, adjusting where necessary, for all of my mushroom recipes. I’ve had people who didn’t like mushrooms tell me they really enjoyed them this way. It’s a lot easier than the recipe I came up with for my Portobello Fajita’s. My Portobello Burgers are pretty good too if you are in a Portobello kind of mood.

I served this with a big ol’ garden salad! Yes that was just MY salad, in a serving bowl. My husband and 3 year old had their own. 😉

Just in case you are wondering, the Pumpkin Bread from yesterday’s post does make a delicious breakfast, especially with a cup of coffee.

Party Worthy Parfait

by 19 Comments

Welcome back to day 2 of the Vegan Month of Food, a.k.a The Vegan MoFo. Today I’m setting my sights on the parfait.

Making parfait’s are super easy if you have kids they can help or make their own. If you own a large glass bowl or trifle dish they can make a perfect center piece for a party or make these in individual glasses like I did. These are healthy enough for an on the go breakfast but tasty enough for dessert too.

Parfait

Ingredients

  • Vegan yogurt (I use coconut, almond or soy milk yogurt)
  • Diced fruit of your choice (apples, berries, or bananas)
  • Granola
  • Nuts and/or seeds
  • Vegan chocolate chips (hey I’m not judging)

Do

  1. Layer granola, yogurt, nuts/sees, then fruit.
  2. Repeat step 1 two to three times to fill your container.
  3. Refrigerate until ready to serve

Serve

This was a big hit at my Healthy Cravings group served as a dessert. We ate the leftovers for breakfast and lunch for a few days after. A few of my favorite variations include Cinnamon granola with diced apples, Almond granola with mixed berries, granola with vegan chocolate chips and bananas. I like to top this with chia seeds right before serving. My son thinks they are sprinkles! 🙂

This recipe is kid friendly, omni friendly, and gluten-free if you use gluten-free granola.

What is your favorite parfait combination?

Meal Plan Monday: Feeding Teenagers is Hard

by Leave a Comment

 

A few weeks in and I’m still attempting to feed my teenagers. I say attempting because they are not super enthusiastic about our plant-based eating. I take my hat off to all of you who have successfully transitioned your teenagers (or unwilling husbands) to a healthy diet. Since we only have 6 weeks with our “big kids” and they are not really on board there is only so much I can do.

I think a lot of it is a mental game with them. I have cooked a few not so healthy meals that they think are healthy so they don’t like them. Does that make sense? The older kids are definitely more open to healthy eating than the youngest of the teenagers. I used to make spaghetti with ground beef in a red sauce (often I’d add veggies too); I made a delicious meal of organic pasta and red sauce with mushrooms, onions, and diced tomatoes. I don’t care what they say it was delish!

Some of the time I try to cater to their taste too much then I find myself not eating as well as I should. I have decided to fuel my body with nutritious food that I enjoy and if they don’t want it they can probably find something they can eat. I have been buying a lot more cereal than normal and even some granola bars.

There have been some successes too. Today our oldest said they broccoli I steamed was the best he had ever had. Our daughter enjoyed some broccoli in a millet based casserole and she doesn’t usually like broccoli. I expect more of these instances along the way.

When we eat out we try to find places where we can all get something we like. That is tougher than it sounds especially when we are in a hurry and need to feed my gluten-free toddler. The places I like to eat are a little more expensive than I’m used too, of course I’m not used to feeding 7 people for each meal. We got take out from one of my favorite places, Pita Jungle, one evening and the big kids didn’t like it. Lucky for me my daughter ordered the Spicy Black Bean Burger which I love! One son ordered nachos so we had to toss them because they had cheese and I don’t touch that stuff. We have also gone to Chipotle which worked out well because I got a meatless meal and they were able to order what they wanted.

I hope I don’t sound like a whiner because I am really HAPPY that they are here. I just want to be real with you all because I’ve had several people write to me about the difficulty they have feeding their kids healthy food. You are not alone my friends, you are not alone.

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be cereal (I refuse to buy cow’s milk), oatmeal, cream of wheat, or toast.

Lunch is often leftovers (I cook extra for this), an easy pasta dish, or sandwiches.

Snack is fruit, hummus and veggies, or other quick items that will tide us over until dinner.

Dinner is where I try to focus on more veggies and whole grains. This week we will have Pasta, a Rice and Veggie casserole, Lentils either as part of a bean burger or perhaps Mexican food and Chickpeas that I cooked this morning. I know of three busy nights already this weeks so I don’t have an official plan. I also have tomatoes, Portobello’s, and cauliflower that I need to use soon.

Do you have trouble keeping everyone happy in the food department?

Gratituesday: Late Nights

by Leave a Comment

Two of our “big kids” have been here for almost two weeks and our oldest flew in on Monday night…late. My “little boys” go to bed about 7 and my husband and I normally call it a night between 9 and 10. For the last two weeks that has not been the case. I still don’t know how my husband is getting up so early everyday and functioning at the office. I get to sleep until 6 or 7 in the morning so I have it much better than he does.

Even though I am not getting near enough sleep I am so thankful that our kids are wanting to spend time with us. We watch movies, laugh, eat, play, talk, and have a pretty good time.

What are you thankful for today?

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Meal Plan Monday: Feeding Teenagers

by Leave a Comment

Our big kids have been here for almost two weeks and I know my plant-based cooking is taking a toll on them,especially the fiber. When my husband and I went for our weekly grocery shop this weekend our 13 year old asked if we could pick him up some Doritos. We told him the place we shop doesn’t have Doritos, he was taken aback. No we didn’t make another stop.

Our oldest is flying in this evening so there will be one more mouth to feed. I don’t think he will be as hard to please.

I took out my Happy Herbivore cookbooks and asked the big kids to look through them and pick some meals they would like to eat this week. I was hoping to get buy in. They picked a few recipes but I’m not sure how well they will go over. I decided that pasta is usually well received and it’s easy so we will have pasta a few times.

When we go out to eat the teens can order anything they want but I’m only going to cook healthy, plant food. I did buy them some junk food for movie night, that moved earned me a couple of big hugs.

Meal Plan

Breakfast has been oatmeal, cream of wheat, and cereal lately and that seems to be working out easily enough. My husband has also requested Breakfast Quinoa and Breakfast Rice.

Lunches will be leftovers. Our fridge is full of leftovers right now; pizza, Lentil Fetoosh Salad, hummus and pita, and a black bean burger. I’m sure the teenagers will continue to eat PB&Js as well.

Snacks will be fruit, smoothies, crackers, chips and salsa, and other random things

Dinner is a little tougher to plan because I never know exactly what we have going on. Here are a few items I plan on making:

Macaroni and Cheeze*

Happy Herbivore Arroz Amarillo* with Black Bean Soup and soft corn tortillas

Spaghetti with Mushrooms and red sauce

Brown Rice, Steamed Broccoli, with Happy Herbivore Brown Gravy or some other creamy sauce

Nachos*

Baked Potatoes

*item’s the kids picked out

How do you please your omnivore teenagers? Do you have any tips for me?