My Plant-Based Family

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

Meal Plans

Get out of the rut with a Plant-Based Allergy Friendly Meal Plan

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If you’ve been in a cooking run summer is the perfect time to break out of it. I hope you’ve noticed the new summer fruit and veggies that are available this time of year. We just bought our first bag of plums, last week it was apricots. Instead of reaching for an unhealthy snack choose seasonal fruit. Make sure you buy extra and keep some in the freezer for smoothies.

If you struggle to get more fruit in your diet try a piece of fruit with every meal and reach for fruit in place of dessert.

For those of you who struggle to include enough veggies throughout the day try adding salads to your meals. Make sure to include your favorite seasonal veggies. Follow me on Pinterest and Instagram for more ideas. If you really aren’t a salad person and can’t be persuaded try raw veggies and a good veggie dip.

Meal Plan for a plant-based diet! It's also gluten-free and nut-free! Perfect for anyone trying to eat healthy this summer!

Plant-Based Allergy Friendly Meal Plan

Breakfast

  • Chia Seed Breakfast Bowl
  • Smoothies
  • Apples with WOWBUTTER
  • Cereal
  • Baked Potatoes

Lunch

  • Dinner Leftovers
  • Veggie Sandwiches
  • Taco Salad
  • Soup and Salad or Baked Potatoes

Dinner

I’ve got a few more ideas too like a Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler or maybe Chocolate Pudding Pops.

What are your favorite summer fruit and veggies?

I also want to thank each of your for the incredible support concerning my Open Letter. I’m still trying to respond to all of the messages, comments, and social media shares.The message of the Open Letter has touched so many of you personally. Thank you all for helping to spread awareness and save lives!

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Meal Plan Monday: Stocked and Ready to Go

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Prepping foods on the weekend help me feel like I have a great start on the week. Yesterday I cooked brown rice and soaked white beans, I’ll cook the beans today. We also did our regular grocery shop, our bi-weekly Costco trip and I took my husband to Whole Foods for the first (and second time). The first one didn’t have what I needed so we drove a little farther to the next one.

I feel like we spent a lot of money this weekend because we were out a lot but we have a kitchen FULL of healthy foods and we took our kids out to eat a couple of times.

Meal Plan

Plant-Based Meal Plan

Breakfast

I’m working on some new breakfast ideas this week. Additionally, we have apricots, strawberries, blueberries and grapes to add to our meals. We always have apples but are enjoying the new variety that summer brings.

  • Fruity Grain Bowl
  • Smoothies
  • GF Pancakes
  • Cereal
  • Muffins, maybe Blueberry

Lunch

Lunches will be quick this week, using mostly leftovers with sandwiches to fill in the gaps.

Dinner

My husband has already made his request and the rest is up to me, and our crazy schedule.

Snacks

I don’t mention snacks on the Meal Plan every week but we eat a lot of snacks. Usually fruit, my 3 year old eats at least 5 apples everyday, he is obsessed. We eat other fruit also, along with veggies. Most of the time when I need a snack I’ll grab a baked potato or a little leftovers. I feel like my kids are grazing ALL DAY.

I’ve also been making some dips that are amazing. I’ll share those soon! I have high hopes to do some baking this week. If I do I’ll be sure to show it off on Instagram.

I’m going to try some new recipes from Sweet Debbie’s Organic Treats after my next trip to the store. It uses a few flours I don’t normally have and I couldn’t remember what they were while at the store this weekend. The recipes are nut free, vegan and gluten-free so I’m excited to try them. If you’ve made any recipes from this cookbook let me know which one I should make first.

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Meal Plan Monday: Full of Berries and Tomatoes

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I took a little break from the computer last week because we traveled to Michigan for our daughter’s graduation. We aren’t quite unpacked yet but we are slowly getting back to normal. I made Veggie Pad Thai last night and I’m soaking beans now. In a little while I’ll cook a batch of rice to use in various recipes.

Even though I didn’t take my computer I used my time off to plan and brainstorm. I have a couple dozen recipes I hope to show you over the next few months.

During the month of June I want to work on getting some extra ingredients and maybe a few meals prepped and in my freezer. We’ve been having too much food waste lately. My plan is to put serving sizes of cooked rice, beans, sauces, etc. into the freezer for an easy to grab dinner. I’ll come up with a better plan for this later, hopefully. 🙂

For now I’m focusing on berries and tomatoes!

Meal Plan

Plant-Based Meal Plan

Breakfast

Fresh berries are showing up in the stores. They are my breakfast inspiration.

Lunch

I’ll be focusing on simple, mostly unprocessed foods for lunch.

  • Baked Potatoes with steamed broccoli
  • Veggie Wraps with cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, red onions and greens
  • Tomato Soup with a salad or baked potato
  • Leftover Lentil & Quinoa Salad
  • Sandwiches with SunButter and fruit for the kids

Dinner

Most of our meals with be oven-less for the next few months. That leaves the stove, Crock-Pot, and grill as viable options.

If you need an idea for working more berries into your meals try my Blueberry Salad Dressing! It’s oil-free and very kid-friendly!

I’m using lots of tomatoes lately. My garden is in production mode! I gave a friend all of my ripe tomatoes before our trip and came home to find about a dozen more ready to go. I even left 4 or 5 for the bugs and birds.

Is your garden coming together? I’d love to hear what you are growing and how you work it into your Meal Plan!

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Last Week of School Meal Plan

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This is the last week of school in our area. Next week kids in our area will  be running wild. It will be short-lived because it is too hot so most kids stay inside playing video games all summer. We gear up for swimming lessons at the beginning of June. My kids sleep really well while they are taking swimming lessons.

As summer begins (temps are already over 100 degrees) it becomes really important to keep the kitchen cool. I try to avoid the oven unless it is something I can cook early in the day. Most of our meals are either made on the stove, in the crock pot or served cold. Don’t forget about the grill though. You don’t have to be a meat eater to enjoy your grill this summer.

Meal plan

Plant-Based Meal Plan

Breakfast

Even though it is easier to serve cereal spending a little more time on breakfast is well worth it.

Lunch

We love leftovers for lunch, especially when we can make something “different” from the previous dinner. Switching veggies can transform a meal or adapt a salad to a wrap.

Dinner

The Taco Muffins are the most difficult meal planned for dinner and I made it yesterday (in a loaf pan). I like to have an easy meal planned for Monday’s. This week I may even dig into my stash of canned beans to save a little time. I’m neck-deep in work but we still have to eat.

 

Over the weekend I was featured in a guest post about my ebook, The Plant-Based Diet Starter Guide. Read the guest post HERE! There is also a discount code for 25% off the PDF version. If you’ve been waiting to purchase my book, now is the perfect time.

 

Spring Meal Plan

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Have you created your Meal Plan for the week yet? If not, what is standing in your way? Is it too hard, too time consuming, or just too much trouble? I’ll admit I don’t always stick to our plan 100%. Sometimes I am missing an ingredient, or our plans will change. Some days I just don’t get the prep work done ahead of time. Still having a Meal Plan helps to focus my food prep and keeps me cooking instead of order takeout or eating cereal (again) for dinner.

As the weather heats up here in Arizona I know my days using the oven are numbered and I’ll be switching to the Crock Pot for more of our meals. Using the Crock Pot also helps me have dinner prepared at the right time. Often I get distracted and don’t start dinner until too late. If it’s in the Crock Pot I’m ready.

On the plus side my garden is producing and I think I’ll be harvesting my first ripe tomatoes this week. I see some jalapenos growing out of the little blossoms, and I have more basil than I know what to do with.

Spring Meal Plan that is vegan and Gluten-free

Spring Meal Plan

Breakfast

Every morning I get us super early and make a homemade breakfast for my family. Just kidding, we’ve been relying on cereal quite a bit lately. Some days we have oatmeal or other oat-free hot cereal like Bob’s Red Mill Mighty Tasty Gluten-Free Hot Cereal. I prefer dinner leftovers for breakfast but most mornings are made up of the following:

  • Cereal with fresh blueberries and mangos
  • Toast with SunButter Natural Sunflower Seed Spread and Apples or bananas
  • Breakfast Rice with Cinnamon, Apples and Raisins
  • Baked Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon
  • Baked Potatoes with a little sea salt (I’m the only weird on who eats this)

Lunch

I eat leftovers whenever they are available but my kids normally want sandwiches. We usually have a fruit or veggies as a side.

  • SunButter Sandwiches with jelly
  • Gluten-Free Pasta with marinara
  • Leftover Soup with Baked Potatoes
  • Veggie Wrap OR Veggie Sandwich on tasted bread

Dinner

I usually put more work into dinner that the other meals. We have several evening appointments this week so I’m hoping to make many of these meal ahead.

If you need some ideas for Cinco de Mayo meals check out last weeks Mexican Food Meal Plan! It is full of Vegan and Gluten-Free ideas!

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Plant-Based Mexican Food Meal Plan

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You may think it is silly of me to have a Mexican Food Meal Plan. You would be right since we eat Mexican food most of the time. It’s just who we are. Our fresh fool supply is also extremely low since we haven’t been to the store in a while but I still have beans and grains along with a few tomatoes and jalapenos so all is well.

By the way, I hope you all had a great Easter! My husband and teen son were both out of town so our weekend wasn’t typical. We are all trying to get back into the swing of things.

Mexican Food Meal Plan

Breakfast

Some of these items don’t quite fit with out Mexican food theme but that is ok. I usually prefer a quick breakfast but I don’t mind combining a few things that are already cooked.

Lunch

You’ll notice most of these recipes use black beans. I cook a large batch to use in multiple recipes to save time.

Dinner

If I have enough leftovers I may not make all of these dishes. I’ll definitely make the first two because they make great leftovers and I can use them in other meals.

I may even try to work in my Taco Muffins!

Does a Mexican Food Meal Plan look like something you can get behind or do you have a different set of favorites? If you’ve tried some of these recipes I’d love to hear which are your favorites!

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