Feeding My Family a Whole Food, Plant-Based Diet, On a Budget
This week, our plant-based meal plan will use quinoa, various pasta and potatoes multiple times. Why? Quinoa, pasta and potatoes all cook quickly. Well, the potatoes cook quickly in my Instant Pot.
We have a busy week and it’s the last week of school. I’m sure it will take us a few weeks to get into the swing of things with our new schedule. I’m even taking a little break next week so you won’t be seeing me around.
As the weather warms up I move away from comfort foods and include more veggies in my weekly meal plan. Don’t get me wrong, I still love one pot meals and hearty dinners but my veggie intake always increases in the summer.
I add more veggies in two main ways, stir frys and veggies with hummus.
My favorite stir fry right now is this Pineapple Chickpea Quinoa Stir Fry. It hits the spot and tastes even better than I expect every time. After our weekend shopping trip I plan to make Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus soon.
If you remember last week I changed up the format of the meal plans a bit to help make them easier to follow.
Mother’s Day is coming up Sunday. Will you be showering you mom with gifts or really good food?
I never plan a big Mother’s Day celebration because I don’t want to spend the day working to “celebrate” me. Of course, a girl has to eat and restaurants are always busy on Mother’s Day. Might as well enjoy good food (and some gifts).
I’m a big fan of Mother’s Day brunch. I love breakfast foods and I don’t always take the time to make them.
Since it is Mother’s Day I’m going to give you ideas for EASY brunch ideas. First, I have a tip for you. Every brunch seems better if you have a big, pretty bowl of fruit. This time of year I love strawberries, cantaloupe, cuties (because they separate so easy), grapes, blueberries and anything else that strikes your fancy.
Start with some easy muffins or sweet breads. Choose one or two recipes depending on how much you need. These can be made the day before. I prefer:
Make a big pot of oatmeal and have an assortment of fruit, seeds and nuts to mix in. I love making Steel Cut Oats in my Instant Pot. You can prepare everything the day before and then easily make the oatmeal right before brunch.
If oatmeal is more of an everyday food instead of a “special” food have pancakes instead. You can use many of the same toppings or if you want a decadent option add Enjoy Life chocolate chips. We have a big electric griddle that makes cooking a bunch of pancakes really easy.
Everything can’t be sweet. I love having Breakfast Tacos or Breakfast Hash. You can make them mild or with a little kick. Sometimes I’ll do a tofu scramble when I’m out of tortillas. Usually the tacos win.
Serve with coffee and you have a Mother’s Day brunch that dreams are made of, especially if I don’t have to do the dishes.
Of course, gifts are always a nice touch!
Today you can get a great deal on the Instant Pot at Amazon. This is a great starter model and it’s a screaming deal. You should get one for all of the mom’s in your life. But really, my husband loves cooking in our Instant Pot so really anyone who needs a gift would love it.
There is only a few days left sign up for the Healthy Vegan Baking eCourse. Lucie did an amazing job creating this course that will tell you everything you need to know about healthy plant-based (and allergy-friendly) baking. After this weekend enrollment closes so sign up! It makes a great Mother’s Day gift.
If you are looking for something more personal you can always write your mom (or wife) a letter or clean the house, acts of service are sweet gifts. Of course, a Fitbit isn’t bad either.
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People don’t eat healthy by accident. It takes effort. A Weekly Meal Plan is an important first step to healthy eating.
Occasionally I get emails and comments asking if these meal plans are for a day or a week or what. I’ve created meal plans for so long that I sometimes forget to include all the details. Most weeks, I create a weekly meal plan. Since we eat leftovers and don’t mind repeats I only plan 4-5 meals for breakfast, 4-5 for lunch, and 4-5 for dinner.
I don’t normally assign meals by day but for understanding sake, I decided to give it a try. I’m going to change up the format too. Instead of listing separate breakfast, lunch and dinner I’ll post all meals by day. I hope that will clear up any confusion.
I’ve shared recently how I gave up on baking for a while. I felt like I would spend hours in the kitchen trying to make something allergy-friendly and healthy only to fail. I’ve finally gotten over my fear of failure and you can too!
Lucie at WIN-WIN Foods has created a Healthy Vegan Baking ecourse that will teach anyone how to create healthy, delicious treats.
If you are like me and avoid dairy and eggs this ecourse will show you how to bake everything from cake, sweet breads, cookies, cream pies, heck…even tiramisu. Plus all of the lovely fillings and frostings.
The best part, these are all healthy, you don’t have to feel guilty about making them.
The eCourse also covers oil-free, gluten-free and soy-free options.
When you sign up for the 7 week ecourse you’ll get a new module each week. The modules include:
Plus you get AMAZING recipes!!! You will also get live Q&A sessions each week and a private Facebook group.
This course is for you if you:
For me, this ecourse is a gold mine! Every subject is covered. Don’t wait too long, enrollment closes on May 8th. What a great Mother’s Day Gift!
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My youngest son has been picky about breakfast lately. He isn’t interested in anything quick or easy, except fruit. Muffins are just about the only thing he will happily eat, especially these Strawberry Banana Muffins.
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A while ago I gave up on gluten-free baking. It was hard and it wouldn’t always turn out the way I wanted. After speaking with some expert bakers at last years Food Allergy Bloggers Conference I worked up the nerve to start again. Except this time I decided to stick to gluten-free all purpose baking mixes. After all, I don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
If you struggle with gluten-free baking too I recommend getting an all purpose mix and giving it another try. Update: It’s been a few years since I created this recipe. Now I always use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour.
These muffins are perfect this time of year when strawberries are in season but you can also use frozen strawberries. To use frozen strawberries just run them under cold water to defrost them and let them sit and drain (I used a small strainer) while I mixed up the rest of the ingredients.
Because of the strawberries these muffins will be really soft, and somewhat gooey on the inside. The strawberries “cook down” and leave hollow spots. They taste delicious and get this, they even freeze well.
They aren’t the cleanest but if you don’t mind licking your fingers you won’t mind. I wouldn’t eat them in the car on the way to work though.
If you missed my Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread I think you should try it! Check out my bread and muffin page for more great recipes.
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