My Plant-Based Family

Eating Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet recipes, On a Budget.

Planning

Meal Plan Monday: How I Plan

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I sit here a fully admit I don’t know what we are eating this week. At the end of the week half of our household will be going on a trip to see family. I did not buy much at the grocery store because I did not want to leave a bunch of food that would go bad.

I thought that this would be a good opportunity to walk you through how I Meal Plan. First I take all of the food we have into consideration:

  • Carrots*
  • Potatoes*
  • A little Spinach
  • Sprouted grain bread
  • Oatmeal*
  • Cooked quinoa**
  • Cooked pinto beans**
  • Several vats of hummus
  • 7 cups of cooked chickpeas**
  • Fresh (but going downhill) Strawberries**
  • Several Gluten Free Cereals*

At the store I picked up:

  • Almond Milk
  • Bananas
  • Apples
  • Broccoli**
  • Freeze-dried Veggies I wanted to try (Bleck…not a fan!)*

Item with * will be fine when I return from traveling and do not need to be used immediately. Items with ** can be frozen and used another time. I have a well stocked pantry and freezer so I have other options available. When my fridge is empty I plan meals based on what produce is the best value while also balancing nutrition and taste.

The Meal Plan

Breakfast will be oatmeal, Breakfast Quinoa, cereal and smoothies.

Lunches will be leftovers, Nachos made with Pinto Beans, PB&J or AB&J, Not So Tuna Salad sandwiches or wraps, and my favorite Spinach, carrot and hummus Wrap.

Snacks will be hummus with fresh veggies, smoothies, chickpeas, and fruit with nut butter.  

Dinner will not be completely planned because I want to focus on using up everything the will not last while I travel. A few of the things that we may eat are:

  • Bean Burrtios
  • Quinoa Tacos
  • Veggie Soup with Chickpeas
  • Steamed Spinach with Chickpeas (I had this yesterday and it was tasty)
  • Nachos
  • Baked Potatoes
  • Potato and Broccoli Soup
Each evening I’ll decide what needs to be eaten and focus on that food type. Some things can be combined like the beans and quinoa to make nachos, or everything thrown together for soup. Most of these things are already cooked so I’ll just have to throw it together and warm it up, or throw it in a pot to simmer. 
 
I also try to eat several different colors of food throughout the day. If I feel like we are missing out on something I’ll make a smoothie because I can throw in spinach, blueberries, pineapple, mango, cherries, or strawberries and feel like we are covering all of or bases. We typically eat a lot of whole grains and carrots so we are rarely missing out on those. 
Do you Meal Plan? It saves me money and frustration each week, give it a try.

Meal Plan Monday: Scavenger Hunt

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Our schedules are returning to normal this week, our big kids are back at their mom’s house and (at least for now) we are healthy. I find myself paying extra attention to every little cough or sneeze, hoping it is nothing. 

Each week when I prepare our Meal Plan I take several factor into consideration; a few of them include:

  • What food we have on hand
  • What food is seasonal/better value
  • Our schedule
  • Likes/dislikes
  • Nutrition/variety

This week I’m also continuing my experiment on my 1 year old. It is not as ominous as it sound. He seems to have some allergies/sensitivities to several foods and it shows on his skin. He has reactions to rice, peanuts, and probably dairy although that has been removed from my diet since he was 9 month and he has never eaten it. My experiment is to see if gluten is also causing a problem. 

My normal grocery trip felt much more like a scavenger hunt, and not a fun one! Since I’m new to the whole gluten-free arena I wanted to find a few convenience foods that would be appropriate for a 15 month old. So I’m searching for vegan, rice-free, peanut free and gluten-free. I did not find much. If you have any idea’s for me please share!

 

On to the Meal Plan

Breakfast this week will be Breakfast Quinoa, buckwheat pancakes, cereal and smoothies. I’m hoping to get more ideas, preferably things my 1 year can feed himself. 

Lunches will be leftovers, wraps, baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, and veggie soup.

Snacks will be strawberries, hummus (we have a ton the big kids didn’t touch last week) with veggies and maybe tortilla chips, nachos, fruit with almond butter and smoothies.

Dinner

Monday: Baked Potatoes topped with steamed broccoli and spinach. I like to steam red bell pepper with the spinach for a unique flavor.

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Couscous with sauteed veggies (in a veggie broth). 

Thursday: A new Chickpea dish, I’m trying to decide between a few from Happy Herbivore.

Friday: Hopefully this will be a date night so I’ll just make something easy for the boys.

I’m attempting to have an easy week regarding meal prep. I’ll also be juicing for my husband. Everything I cooked last week was nutritious but we ate out a few too many times so this weeks focus will be on simplicity and nutrition. 

I always have good intentions when I make the Meal Plan but I rarely follow it. Life happens and plans change. Sometimes there are just too many leftovers to warrant cooking another meal. Other times I forget to prep/soak something (like Chickpeas). I often use snack time to make sure we are getting plenty of fruit and veggie variety. 

I will likely experiment with making some of my favorite baked goods gluten-free as well. 

Do you have any suggestions for me regarding vegan, gluten-free, rice-free, and peanut free food for a 1 year old? Thankfully he is a really good eater and loves veggies. He devoured my quinoa this morning.  The only veggie he doesn’t like (so far) is cucumber and I don’t like it either. 

Meal Plan Monday: Unscheduled

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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

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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

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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?

Portobello Fajitas

Portobello Fajitas

Plant based fajitas for everyone, even if you don't like mushrooms!

Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

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

Instructions

  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.

Notes

Serve in a warm tortilla with fresh guacamole and salsa.

Did you make this recipe?

We'd love to see it! Tag us and use #MyPlantBasedFamily!

© Heather Mayes

Meal Plan Monday: Lotsa Leftovers

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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.