My Plant-Based Family

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

Menu Plan

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!

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.

Meal Plan Monday: In The Beginning

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When my husband, little boys and I first started eating a Plant-Based Diet we ate a lot of comfort foods; Chili, Lentil or Quinoa Tacos, Nachos, Baked Potatoes were normal fare for us. I also made baked goods to help ease us off the junk food we were accustomed too. Since our teenage daughter had decided to live with us I thought it would only be considerate to eat more of these types of foods. One of the problems is we started eating plant-based in the winter, it is summer now so some of the foods we are then just don’t seem as appealing now.

My husband and I are happy with simpler meals, we can eat rice, lentils, and leafy greens and be satisfied. That is a tall order and would have been impossible for us in the beginning. It took a while for our taste buds to accept the kinds of food we like now.

A few days ago I made baked potatoes for dinner. I had some chili in the freezer that I thought would make a perfect accompaniment. I was right! Both of our teenagers liked it and my daughter even requested that I make it again this week. Yesterday my daughter flipped through my new Forks Over Knives Cookbook and picked out recipes she was interested in; I’m hoping to try a few this week.

Meal Plan

Breakfast is toast, fruit, muffins, and cereal more often than I would care to admit. We have oatmeal once or twice a week, usually with raisins, cinnamon, and a touch of agave.

Lunch is usually leftovers, nut butter sandwiches, bean and grain bowls, Big Salads, or bean burritos.

Snack ideas include: hummus with veggies, chips and salsa, smoothies, or fruit.

Dinner this week will include 3 Bean Chili, Beans and Rice, Black Bean Burgers with Twice Baked Potatoes, Quinoa or Lentil (or both) Taco Salad.

There are three nights this week with activities so we will be eating early, late, or out on those days. If you are wondering how I have time to cook so much food let me assure you I’m not slaving in the kitchen every day. Yesterday I cooked a big pot of lentils and a big pot of brown rice. I soaked pinto beans last night and cooked them today. Even if I don’t get the black beans cooked I have enough pintos and lentil to get several good meals made. By cooking beans and other foods that take a long time during my “down time” I can get dinner together in about half an hour.

While rice cooks, or beans heat up I can chop, steam, or otherwise prepare veggies.   

What are you eating this week?

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?

Meal Plan Monday: Feeding Teenagers is Hard

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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?

Meal Plan Monday: Feeding Teenagers

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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?