My Plant-Based Family

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

Meal Plans

Meal Plan Monday: Unscheduled

by Leave a Comment

This will be a different kind of week for us. Our big kids are visiting this week, at least three of us have a stomach bug that is going around, and we plan to eat out a few times. With all of that in mind the Meal Plan will be a little less planned out this week.

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be cereal, oatmeal, and toast with fruit. It kind of a free for all at breakfast time. We also have leftover pancakes and breakfast stir fry from yesterday’s brunch.

Lunch will be leftovers, PB&J, easy pasta with marinara, wraps or bean burritos. 

Snacks will be hummus and veggies, crackers, apples and banana’s with peanut butter, chips and salsa, and smoothies.

Dinner is a bit up in the air. Since a few of us are a little sick it is hard to plan out our week. We are hoping to go to the zoo one day, my husband and the big kids are planning a trip to the driving range and the big kids will be spending time with friends as well. With that in mind we plan to eat:

Nachos made with quinoa/lentil “meat”, Unfried Beans, guacamole, Homemade Salsa, and faux cheese sauce.

Burritos made with beans, Mexican Rice, and other fixings.  

Fajita’s using my Portobello Fajita recipe along with all of the things I mentioned above. 

I also plan to make some carrot cake cupcakes this week.

Do you notice a trend, yes we love Mexican food. Our big kids who are not plant-based eaters will be very receptive to this menu. We want our new lifestyle to be inviting to them. Hopefully they don’t get sick or else we may all be living on a steady diet of crackers this week.  

Meal Plan Monday: Back to Basics

by Leave a Comment

I love good food! LOVE IT! I’ve been eating a Plant-Based diet for 6 months and my taste buds are still changing, I’m loving food I never liked before and giving new foods a chance. I like to try something new every week when possible.

This week we are craving a return to simple foods, the foods we are when we first started our journey of healthy eating. Plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables along with whole grains. My Meal Plan this week will not be sexy but it provide nourishment and comfort. The picture above is our fruit and a few of our veggies for the week. We also have 3 bunches of banana’s not pictured along with spinach, 5 lbs of carrots, red bell peppers, celery, kale, beets, sweet and white potatoes. We normally don’t get so many tomatoes but I’ll be making salsa soon!

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be oatmeal, smoothies made with fresh and frozen fruit (and kale and spinach), toast with peanut butter and fruit, and maybe even a bowl of cereal.

Lunches are usually dinner leftovers for us but right now I’m hooked on wraps. I’ve been eating wraps made with spinach, bell peppers, carrots and hummus. So good!

We eat lots of snacks too. I love fresh veggies and hummus! Yes I’m on a big time hummus kick. I just bought more dried chickpeas so hopefully I’ll experiment with more hummus recipes. I love hummus with carrot sticks (and do does my 3 year old) so were go through a lot of carrots, 5 lbs last week! Fresh fruit and smoothies are a good snack too. Last week I let my boys have a lot of crackers so I’ll be reigning this in this week.

Dinner

Monday: Baked Potatoes with broccoli

Tuesday: Beans and barley, this will be my first attempts at cooking pearl barley. We will have additional veggies as well. I’m also planning on making homemade salsa.

Wednesday: Couscous with steamed broccoli and spinach

Thursday: Soup, yay! I’ll use various odds and ends (including any veggies that I forgot to use previously.

Friday: This is usually a date night so I don’t cook a big meal.

On the weekends we eat leftovers. I’ll often pull everything out that we need to eat and we will create a meal out of that. This weekend our big kids are coming to visit for a week! We are very excited to see them! Since they are teenagers I will be doing A LOT more cooking. The eat a typical teenager diet so it will be interesting to see if I can win them over with my Plant-Based cooking. More about that next week.

Is your Meal Plan ready for the week?

 

Portobello Fajitas

by 16 Comments

I do not like mushrooms! I’ll eat them if the flavor isn’t too powerful but I prefer not to. Enter portobello mushrooms, I have been won over. Today I made another batch of portobello fajitas, a pasta bake containing portobello’s, and I’m baking some portobello slices now as well.

I have heard a lot of people commenting about mushrooms being a good stand-in for meat but as a former mushroom hater I wasn’t having it. Now I can see it! I’m reformed and embrace the mushroom, especially served like this.

Portobello Fajitas

Ingredients

  • 1 Portobello Mushroom
  • 1/2 an onion cut into slices
  • 1 bell pepper cut into slices
  • 1 cup veggie broth
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • a generous shake of salt
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp liquid smoke
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Do

  1. Remove the stem and slice mushrooms. (If you are making Portobello steaks you can leave just remove the stem).
  2. Mix the remaining ingredients together and allow the the mushroom and veggie slices to soak in the marinade for 30 minutes or so.
  3. Broil the mushroom and veggie slices for 4-5 minutes then flip and broil for 4-5 more minutes.
  4. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.

Serve

These are great served in a warm tortilla. I love them even more with fresh guacamole and salsa but they are good plain too. You could also top a salad with these and even add roasted corn! YUM!

Does this look like a steak fajita or what? Have you embraced the shroom and if so how do you like it?

Meal Plan Monday: Lotsa Leftovers

by Leave a Comment

Lentil Tacos

This week will be a lot different than most weeks due to the incredible amount of leftovers. Normally my meal plan doesn’t cover the weekends so we can use up all of the leftovers and have a fresh start for Monday. That also means a lot of cooking at the beginning of the week. This week we have way too many leftovers and a few fresh ingredients that need to be used soon. My plan is to do a little cooking Monday to use the fresh ingredients then eat leftovers for a few days until the full on cooking resumes. It looks like I’ll have an easy week in the kitchen, if I’m smart I’ll use that extra time to accomplish other tasks, like cleaning and organizing but I doubt that will happen.

I am not dreading eating these leftovers because they are delicious! I have Unfried beans, Mexican Rice, a lentil and quinoa “taco” mix, portobello fajita’s, and much more.

Meal Plan

Breakfast will be oatmeal, toast with nut or apple butter and fruit, smoothies, and the occasional bowl of leftover soup. We may have blueberry pancakes toward the end of the week too.

Lunches will be wraps, leftovers (potatoes, pasta, Mexican food), sandwiches, soups, and French bread Pizza. The pizza will likely make an appearance at the beginning of the week as I have spinach, onions, bell pepper and mushrooms that will make a lovely lunch.

Dinner

Monday: Portobello steaks, baked sweet potatoes, and steamed asparagus

Tuesday: Burritos made with leftovers

Wednesday: Any remaining leftovers (Mexican food, yeah baby!)

Thursday: Pasta with veggies and salad

Friday: Is usually a date night so I make something easy for the kids like baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes or pasta.

Breakfast Stir Fry

by 7 Comments

Last weekend I was craving two things, fresh veggies and a breakfast scramble. I used to make breakfast scrambles that included eggs, cheese, milk, and whatever veggies we had on hand. I wasn’t really craving the eggs and dairy part of the scramble but more of the feel and memory of our family enjoying a leisurely breakfast on the weekend. Thankfully we had plenty of fresh veggies, leftovers and some diced potatoes in the freezer. Since there was no “scramble” involved this had to be known as a Breakfast Stir Fry.

Breakfast Stir Fry: A savory, plant-based breakfast that is hearty and delicious.

Breakfast Stir Fry

Ingredients

  • 1/2 chopped onion (I left them pieces big)
  • 1 sliced carrot
  • 1/2 sliced large bell pepper
  • 1 cup diced potatoes, I used frozen but baked potato would work too. If they are not already cooked you’ll need to cook them first.
  • 1/2 cup leftover beans
  • 1 sliced jalapeno
  • Bragg Liquid Aminos (optional)
  • Broccoli

Do

  1. Add onion and carrot to a large, hot skillet (you will want one with a lid), stir regularly.
  2. After the onion and carrot cook for a few minutes add bell peppers, continue to stir regularly. If the food is beginning to stick to the pan add a few tablespoons of water. 
  3. When the carrots are getting crisp tender and the onion translucent add the potatoes, beans and jalapeno. The potatoes will make everything stick!
  4. Once the potatoes and beans are warmed through add the Bragg Liquid Aminos stir one more time then add the spinach and asparagus, do not stir them, put on the lid. You want the spinach and asparagus to sit on top of the other veggies so they get steamed.
  5. Check everything for doneness after 5 minutes.

Breakfast Stir Fry: A savory, plant-based breakfast that is hearty and delicious.

Serve

I served this in warm tortillas, both flour and corn. It was great in both. The corn tortillas added a great flavor to the breakfast. We also add fruit smoothies to help balance this meal. The potatoes really made this stir fry seem like breakfast food instead of dinner. I plan to make this a regular breakfast option at my house (and hopefully get a better picture).

This can be made with whatever you have on hand. The two things that are necessary (in my opinion) are onions and potatoes but feel free to use your favorite veggies.

Breakfast Stir Fry: A savory, plant-based breakfast that is hearty and delicious.

Meal Plan Monday: Spring Break

by Leave a Comment

This week is Spring Break in Arizona. While our schedule will not be impacted much some of my friends will have their kids home a little more than usual during the day. A few of you may have a house full of extra kids too. If you have school aged kids (who are in school all day, as opposed to home schooled) you may not realize all of the eating they will be doing this week. 

I’d like to encourage you and maybe even challenge you to have healthier options available for them. We have teenagers who live in another state and I can guarantee given the choices of a bag of chips, ice cream, and cookies they wouldn’t consider a “healthy” snack. However they do love healthy food. They get excited about a big bowl of fruit, smoothies, homemade baked goods which are almost always healthier than their store bought counterparts. I don’t think you need to deprive your kids of all the junky, unhealthy snack food they will beg you for, there is a time and a place for those but they shouldn’t be the only stuff they eat. 

If you work and have to leave your older kids home alone I know your options are limited. I will never try to make you feel bad for doing the best you can! Someday’s the best I can do it getting my 3 year old to eat a banana before bed because he doesn’t want dinner. Last night he ate half and pb&j and half a banana. No 4 course meal here. 

Meal Suggestions for Kids

  • Nachos
  • Hummus and Veggies/tortilla chips
  • Bagels with nut butter and fruit
  • Bean Burritos
  • Bean Dip and tortilla chips
  • Roasted or Baked Potatoes
  • Pancakes
  • Bagel or Pita Pizza’s
  • Anything in a tortilla
  • PB&J (there is nothing wrong with PB&J)

These are just easy and yummy foods that your kids may like. All kids are different and some go through a really pick phase. Most of these meal ideas are easy to throw together and older kids could even do the cooking. If your kids are on Spring Break hopefully they will not have homework. This could be a great opportunity to do some cooking with your kids. Or if the weather is nice pack up an easy meal for a picnic.

Meal Plan

Breakfast this week will be oatmeal, pancakes, smoothies, toast and cereal.

Lunches will be leftover split pea soup, dinner leftovers, and some of the meal suggestions from above. 

Snacks are usually fruit, smoothies, hummus, toast, or muffins.

Dinner 

Monday: Another attempt at a Lentil Loaf, this time with quinoa, Dirty Mashed Potatoes, and steamed asparagus

Tuesday: Breakfast for Dinner! Pancakes, Breakfast Stir Fry, and Smoothies

Wednesday: Spicy Chopped Salad

Thursday: We may be having company over so this day hasn’t been decided 

Friday: Lettuce Wraps and leftovers

What are some of your favorite Plant-Based Meals for your kids?