My Plant-Based Family

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

Meal Plans

Meal Plan Monday: Calling All Bloggers

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Attention, Attention, Calling All Bloggers!

I want to feature your Meal Plan on Meal Plan Monday during the month of July.

Who Can Participate

Anyone can submit a Meal Plan but preference will be given to people with blogs, websites, etc. You do not have to be 100% plant-based/vegan to submit a Meal Plan but the Meal plan must be. Additionally if your blog/website doesn’t portray an plant-based/vegan lifestyle you will not be selected. For example, you can have a photography, faith, knitting, finance, etc. blog that is acceptable but if you typically have pictures of meat or lifestyle choices that are harmful to animal you will not be considered.

What to Send

Email me your Meal Plan with links to recipes (from your blog or elsewhere) along with a few pictures, including a picture of yourself. Please include a brief biography and links to your blog, website, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. Mention how many people you cook for, if cooking for children include their ages, and list any food restrictions.

It isn’t necessary that each day is completely planned out but your Meal Plan must include at least 4 separate breakfasts, lunches, and dinners; planning leftovers is acceptable. Here are a couple of examples of Meal Plans, here and here; but your Meal Plan can be different.

When

Meal Plan will be featured during the month of July. All submissions should be made by Sunday, June 30th, however the sooner the better.

How

You can submit your Meal Plan in the form below or send me an email with all of your information.

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Website’ type=’url’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

If I receive a lot of questions I’ll update this post answering them!

Update: I’m no longer accepting submissions! If a spot opens up and someone is not able to participate I’ll mention it on My Plant-Based Family’s Facebook page!

Meal Plan Monday: Less Packaged Food

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Do you ever fall in the packaged food rut? We are there.

Ever since we discovered my son’s allergies I’ve been relying on packed food for often. BA (before allergies) we ate a lot of beans, grains, fruit, and veggies with a constant supply of nuts and nut butters. We cut out all beans since he showed some intolerance to those tested but are hoping to reintroduce soon. We also had to remove several grains, some veggies and fruit and all nuts. That leaves me a bit perplexed but my son is feeling so much better and his skin is looking and feeling great. He has had a few cross-contamination episodes that have caused flare ups but I really want to establish and healthy baseline so I can accurately gauge the effect of foods we reintroduce.

I’ve been attempting sun butter sandwiches with gluten-free bread but he will only take a few bites. Sometimes he will tolerate the bread but never the sun butter. I’ve tried a few different brands to no avail. He will occasionally eat sun flower seed kernels.

He loves GF noodles and will happily eat them anytime they are served. I’ve never liked serving my family a lot of pasta but it is an easy food for a 2 year old.

I’ve also been giving my kids unsweetened applesauce, mostly to get them to take their probiotic (it’s a powder that needs to be mixed in something). I also load it with chia seeds and hemp seeds.

I don’t consider any of those too bad, my only concern is they take up a large portion of their calories instead of whole food. My biggest concern is the large number of products like fruit strips, GF cereal and cereal bars I’m now buying.

I’m hoping to move away from those easy convenience foods and back to whole foods, while also avoiding those foods my son has an intolerance too. If you have tips or suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments. You can see the full list of the foods my son is avoiding here.

Salad and GF Pasta

Meal Plan

Breakfast

  • Overnight Oats (for me)
  • Baked Sweet Potatoes
  • GF Muffins
  • Toast with fruit and sun butter
  • GF Cereal

Lunch

  • Veggie Stuffed Pita
  • Veggie and Hummus Sandwich or Wraps
  • Garden Salad
  • Baked Potatoes with Steamed Greens
  • Leftovers

Snack

  • Veggies and hummus
  • fruit
  • smoothies
  • Chips and avocado
  • applesauce with seeds

Dinner

I’m trying to add more greens to my meals. We have 3-4 meetings this week in the evening so I may not be cooking much but I’ll have a plan on the days I can.

Have you taken a Meal Planning break this summer? I’m always tempted too and I may from time to time but I always do better with a plan.

 

 

Meal Plan Monday: Slow Cooker Time

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Calling all Slow Cooker Experts! Despite the heat, I love Arizona. This time a year I do a lot less cooking and a lot more assembling. I’m hoping to use my crock pot more so please fill me in on your favorite slow cooker recipes! All oven cooking will be reserved for the morning before it gets too hot. large fruit bowl

Meal Plan Monday

Breakfast

  • Overnight Oats (for me, not my son)
  • GF Cereal with Rice Milk
  • Toast and fruit
  • Baked Sweet Potatoes
  • GF Pancakes

Lunch

  • Veggie and Hummus Sandwich
  • Sunbutter and Jelly Sandwich
  • Quinoa and Steamed Veggies with Happy Herbivore Brown Gravy (adapted to be GF)
  • Taco Salad
  • Leftovers

Snacks

My kids usually have a mid-morning and a mid-afternoon snack.

Dinner

Salad and GF Pasta

I have to bring snacks to a meeting this week so I’m planning fresh fruit, veggies with hummus and the Best (Gluten-Free) Brownies in the Whole Wide World. This is the only time I plan to use the oven this week. If I’m feeling extra industrious I may bake some Gluten-Free Cherry Muffins too.

We have a few busy evenings this week but thankfully I already have some leftovers ready for quick meals.

What are your favorite slow cooker recipes?

 

Meal Plan Monday: A Whole New World

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If you think this is your typical Meal Plan Monday you would be wrong, very wrong.

Last Friday we got the results back for my 2 year olds allergy test. I’ll give more details another time because there are way too many to discuss today. Meal Planning is now more important that ever, I have to be prepared, especially while I get a handle on all of these changes.

faux cheese and pico

Breakfast

I usually opt for quick meals in the morning. Most of these will be made ahead of time.

Lunch

We like quick lunches too!

  • Sunbutter and fruit sandwiches
  • Gluten-free noodles with red sauce or faux cheese sauce
  • Baked Potatoes with steamed broccoli
  • Gluten-free Pasta & Veggie Salad

Snacks

  • Smoothies
  • Apples with Sunbutter
  • Tortilla Chips with salsa, guacamole and faux cheese sauce
  • gluten-free muffins

Dinner

Have you noticed any of our typical staples missing?

shepherd pie VVP

Speaking of missing, if you missed this weekends Virtual Vegan Potluck check it out. I “brought” this Lentil based Shepherd’s Pie that is gluten-free, soy-free and vegan. It also happens to be delicious!

 

Meal Plan Monday: Back to Mexican Food (What we thought of the purchased meal plan)

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brownies, garden HC grilled avocado 160 (45)

My adoration of Mexican food has been greatly documented here! We enjoy it a few times a week, except last week. I had purchased a meal plan from Happy Herbivore as an experiment. I love her recipes and her cooking style is very similar to mine so I thought I’d give it a try.

Happy Herbivore Meal Plan Review

I knew going in that there was no Mexican food, she actually lists many of the recipes so you know what you are getting before you purchase it. The Happy Herbivore Meal Plans include a calendar with each meal planned out, a complete shopping list, and instructions for every recipe. It is very easy to follow. There are individual and family meal plans available for a low price.

What I liked

I thought the $5 price was reasonable, especially for busy people who don’t have time to sit and plan. The shopping was easy because everything was on the list. We were able to try new things we wouldn’t have picked on our own. The meal plan is mostly gluten and soy free but can easily be adapted and gives instructions for those substitutions. As already mentioned these plans are very easy to follow and takes most of the work out of preparing for dinner, of course you still have to shop and cook.

What I didn’t like

We had a few problems with the meal plan. First, it was too much food for us. I don’t cook a new dish for every meal. Second, I also spent about twice as much as I typically would. That really surprised me, I think it is because I bought wraps/crackers that I wouldn’t normally buy often. Also, the list included produce that was more expensive than I would typically choose, like frozen mango. Third, some of the recipes just weren’t our thing. If you follow me on Facebook, you heard that we had a bad experience with the Red Lentil Dal, BLECK! My kids weren’t very receptive to most of the dinner recipes, we gave them small amounts to try then ended up making them something else.

The Verdict

To be fair, we still have a lot of those groceries left because I didn’t follow the meal plan exactly. You could pick and choose which recipes work for your family. This weeks meal plan has plenty of Mexican food. I think the Happy Herbivore Meal Plans are a good idea for a lot of people, especially if you are open to trying a lot of different types of recipes and wanting to maintain a low calorie diet. If you are new to plant-based eating and want a no fuss plan for eating healthy then give these a try.

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Our Meal Plan

This week I’ll be getting back to normal, sort of. This is Healthy Cravings week so my cooking schedule will be a little different. On the plus side, it is a potluck so I don’t have to do all of the cooking. I’ve had smaller than normal RSVPs so I think the potluck part is a little intimidating for some.

You’ll notice that I don’t plan all of our meals. I try to cook large enough amounts that we have leftovers and my kids will often eat sandwiches for lunch. Sometimes I pull out a variety of raw veggies and salad dressing and we call that a meal. This work for our family better than a highly structured plan.

Breakfast Quinoa

Breakfast

I don’t like to spend a lot of time in the kitchen in the mornings so we will likely eat:

 

Lunch

We often eat leftovers for lunch, most of these dishes are easily built with leftover ingredients.

  • Veggie Wraps with greens, bell peppers, sliced carrots, and cucumbers
  • Black Bean and Quinoa Bowl with avocado
  • Baked Sweet Potatoes
  • Taco Salad

Snacks

We regularly have morning and afternoon snacks depending on our schedule. I try to focus on fruit and veggies most of the time. The kids love anything they can dip.

grilled avocado 160 (47)

Dinner

Is there one type of food you eat over all the others? Have you purchased a Meal Plan? Tell us about your experience!

Meal Plan Monday: Did You Plan?

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Confession time, I didn’t Meal Plan. This week I wanted to try something different so I bought a Meal Plan. We just started it so I’m not going to share all the details until I can objectively report back.

This is the first time I’ve bought a Meal Plan online. So far I’ve spent way more time on it than I would my own Meal Plan. I have a friend who buys meal plans online regularly and likes it.

Do you create your own meal plan each week/month or do you buy one? I regularly get referrals from Meal Planning and Recipe sites but I’ve never tried one until now. I hope to report back next week and let you know what we thought about this particular Meal Plan.

In the mean time I’d love to hear about your Meal Planning experience. If you really need some ideas check out the Meal Planning tab or the Recipe tab at the top of the page.

Until then I’ll share a few pictures of things we’ve been eating. Most of these photos are pretty rough but the food sure tasted delicious.

 

Shepherds Pie for the Virtual Vegan Potluck
Shepherds Pie for the Virtual Vegan Potluck

 

Mexican Casserole with homemade Pico
Mexican Casserole with Homemade Pico

 

Holly's House Italian
Holly’s House Italian

 

My 2 year olds fingers steal my Taco Salad
My 2 year olds fingers steal my Taco Salad

 

Grilled Portobello Steaks, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, green beans, and mushroom gravy.
Grilled Portobello Steaks, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, green beans, and mushroom gravy.