My Plant-Based Family

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

Stir Fry

Meal Plan Monday: Are You Snowed In?

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Meal Plan Monday

Just in case you are snowed in, this week’s Meal Plan will focus on comforting meals that use basic ingredients that I usually have on hand. Here is an old list of basic supplies but I warn you it is in desperate need up an update, which I’ll try to do soon. If you bought my ebook The Plant-Based Diet Starter Guide then you already have an updated copy in the book.

Plant-Based “Snowed In” Meal Plan

Breakfast

Lunch

  • Sandwiches (peanut butter, sunbutter, veggie, etc)
  • Taco Soup with Baked Potato
  • Bean Burritos make with Unfried Black Beans and grains or veggies
  • Leftover Chili with Bake Potatoes
  • Veggie Soup

Dinner

These recipes do not use a lot of fresh fruit or veggies but if you have them I recommend you add them. I wanted this Meal Plan to be pretty basic and rely on beans and grains. Add any extra veggie you have. If you are snowed in, I hope you have plenty of food stored.

I’m in the process of cleaning out my freezer and it is amazing some of the stuff I find in there. If your freezer is full try planning a meal or two based on food you have in your freezer. I have several soups stored in 2 serving containers including Green Chili, Cilantro and Rice Soup, Chili, and Enchilada Soup.

Are you snowed in? What foods do you rely on during emergencies?

 

Breakfast Stir Fry

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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.

Muffins, Yes Please!

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I did a little baking yesterday. I’m not quite ready to share the recipe because I’d like to duplicate it first. But I will share the pictures and hopefully the recipe next week.

These Cherry Muffins were fresh from the oven. See how the cherry goo is still oozing out. This is one of those times where oozing goo is a good thing, trust me. I also made some with fresh blueberries.

I was actually trying to make more of a cupcake than a muffin but oh well. These were still yummy. I always feel like I need to offer a disclaimer when I bring muffins to friends. My muffins are really good, they have flavor BUT they do not taste like muffins/cake that is made from butter, milk, white sugar and white flour. Once you eliminate those options from your diet these are great! My non-plant-based friends have liked my muffins as well but I’m sure they are thinking that something is missing. (Something is missing, all of the over-processed junk that is bad for you!)

We also revisited the Stir Fry, you may remember that we had a bad experience  and took a stir fry sabbatical.  This one was good, although not a masterpiece.

I used noodles because we are avoiding rice and rice products due to an allergy. This is the leftover portion, there were actually a lot more veggies but we scooped those up first thing.

We also snacked on Jalapeno Hummus and organic tortilla chips after dinner because sometime we feel a little bit piggy. But seriously if organic tortilla chips, hummus made without added fats (oil and tahini), whole wheat muffins made with real fruit and without added fat is the worse thing we eat I’m not to worried. 

Later today I hope to make Banana Bread. I made a really good banana bread. I’ve made it hundreds of times, even though it is whole wheat everyone loves it. 

Have you made the switch to a plant-based diet? What is holding you back? Join me and countless others as we regain control of our health. 

Progress Report: Unprocessed Challenge

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This week I’ve been only eating unprocessed food. I’ve enjoyed some really good food but I’ve also let a bad attitude get in the way a few times.

I miss my toast. I decided not to eat bread at all, even my sprouted grain bread, because I was eating it way too often. It would find its way into breakfast, lunch, snack and dessert some days.

Eating processed food was really more of a habit than hunger. When I’d give my son a handful of animal crackers I’d normally eat a few too but not this week.

A few things that helped…

  • Having food already cooked and ready to eat.
  • Cutting fresh fruit and veggies for easy snacking.
  • Hummus!
  • Supportive husband and friends, and public accountability.
  • Cooking delicious food so you don’t feel deprived.

So what have I been eating this week…

If you remember on the weekend I cooked black beans and quinoa. I heated them up together in a bowl and added chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, cumin, and onion powder. I laid them on a bed of greens, added salsa and mashed up half and avocado. A few squirts of lime juice and it was delicious! It reminded me of a salad from Chipotle. When I mention eating a bean and grain bowl this is what it is like sans greens. I love it with tortilla chips but not this week, roasted corn would be amazing in this.

Yesterday I cooked Minestrone Soup, one of my husbands favorites. I changed teh recipe a bit but we didn’t miss any thing I left out. I competely forgot about the green beans, too bad a have some in the freezer ready to go. I left out the noodles and veggie broth since they are both processed. The soup simmered for hours and tasted great. There was hardly enough left for my husband to take to work. Maybe if I wouldn’t “quality” check so often there would have been more. 😉

Fresh veggies and Jalapeno Hummus! Easy, delicious, unprocessed!

Smoothies! Who doesn’t love smoothies? We have been eating these for our after dinner snack/dessert. My husbands favorite this week was made with frozen bananas, frozen cherries, and a little almond milk. I like frozen banana, a few frozen cherries, a little peanut butter, a little cocoa powder and almond milk. You can make them with whatever you have, for a tropical flavor add frozen mango and/or pineapple.

Earlier this week I ate leftover Enchilada Soup. This time I made it with millet instead of rice. It was tasty.

There are really a lot of options when it comes to eating unprocessed. Some recipes can be slightly adjusted to become unprocessed. A few other things to consider are…

The Best Chili Ever
The Happy Potato
Avocado Chocolate Mousse, if made with date paste it becomes unprocessed
Stir Fry

How have you been doing? Is it difficult for you to stick with it? Do you have any tips or recipes for the rest of us? Leave a comment below and encourage someone else with your journey.

Did you know that My Plant Based Family is on Facebook? To hear more about what’s going on in my kitchen check it out.

Stir-Fry-Bleh!

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Stir-Fry never sounds good to me, but in the last 4 months of eating this way it has been awesome every time I’m made it. Truth be told, I am NOT a lover of vegetables. Shocking I know, what with this Plant-Based Diet and all. Even still, every time I made stir-fry it tasted amazing, as if God worked a miracle right there on my plate.

Until last night. The stir-fry was awful. I’m not sure what I did different but bleh, yuck, and more bleh!!! By popular vote stir-fry will not return to the Meal Plan for at least a few weeks.

Sometimes things just don’t turn out. Sometimes it happens several times in one week.

Take these muffins for example. The first time I made them they were good, but not quite sweet enough more my taste. They were perfect for my husband who, unlike me, isn’t cursed with a big honking sweet tooth.

The First Attempt

The second time I made them….what the???

Pitiful Second Attempt

They sank, were wet, and just plain pitiful. On the plus side they tasted great. I had hoped to use these for my 1 year old’s birthday, but that wasn’t going to happen.

Third Attempt

The next day I made these. Big difference. I finally realized what I did wrong. I left out 1 cup of flour. Genius I know. But I learned a lesson: when reading chicken scratch directions pay careful attention to detail. And, follow the recipe, I always want to tweak them.

See the Difference

The third attempt was good enough for a Birthday Celebration! And this is how we do it.

Birthday Cupcake
Adult version with Cherry Glaze
First Time Having Sugar
Sugar Rush

What to Eat…Part 4

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On the weekends I typically get out of my normal routine. One of the casualties is drinking water. Do you drink a lot of water? Your whole body will function better if you do. Over Christmas vacation our teenagers were visiting (they live in another state) and the oldest had a headache two days in a row. I asked if he had an water recently and he had not. As soon as he started drinking water he felt better. Water helps every part of our body. So stop reading, get up and get a big glass of water.

The Apple Muffin recipe I promised is at the bottom of the post.

Today’s Meal Plan

Breakfast: Pancakes

There are a lot of pancakes recipes out there. I tried a new one today from The Happy Herbivore Cookbook by Lindsay S. Nixon. It tasted great and the pancakes were light and fluffy. I used whole wheat pastry flour and made half of the batch with blueberries. The blueberry pancakes were superior to the plain.

I also love pancakes with peanut butter or topped with fruit. 

Lunch: Baked Sweet Potatoes

Before changing my diet I had only had baked sweet potatoes at restaurants, mostly Salt Grass Steak House. Restaurants typically serve baked sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar and/cinnamon.

Baked sweet potatoes are easy to make and really good for you, sans dairy and sugar. If your in a hurry you can even “bake” it in the microwave. Our microwave has a “baked potato” button. To prepare a potato just wash thoroughly, wrap in plastic wrap (if your cooking in the microwave) poke a few holes in it then bake until soft. If your cooking them in the oven wrap in foil and bake 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of your potato. While your at it save time and bake a big batch.

I like to add cinnamon to my bake sweet potatoes but my husband has them plain. Everyone in our home loves them. We have convinced our toddler that the peel is the best part, which he repeats continuously as he eats us.

Dinner: Stir Fry

We are never “in the mood” for stir fry. I usually make it once my veggie drawer starts looking pathetic and we need to use up all of the veggies that I had good intentions to cook. Something magical happens every time and it ends up tasting so good. 

Ingredients
  • carrots
  • onion
  • broccoli
  • peppers
  • any other veggies that need to be eaten
  • cooked brown rice, or noodles
Do
  1. In a heated skillet add carrots and any other veggies that are hard and need the longest time to cook. You not need oil. If the veggies start to stick add a spoonful or two of water to your pan. Keep stirring veggies.
  2. Add onions and peppers.
  3. Add broccoli and other fragile veggies that don’t need much cooking time. 
  4. Spices can be added now. 
Serve

Serve with warm brown rice or noodles. This could also be served with other cooked grains like millet or amaranth for some variety. 

 

Apple Muffins

Ingredients
  • 1 cup rice flour
  • 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup corn starch
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp allspice
  • dash nutmeg
  • 1 cup applesauce
  • 1/2 cup agave
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup diced apples
Do
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  3. Add applesauce, agave and 1 tsp vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
  4. Add 1 cup dice apples and mix until just combined. 
  5. Spoon batter into paper lined muffin cups until 3/4 full. You can sprinkle extra oats or cinnamon on the muffins before baking if  you’d like. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Serve

Try not to burn yourself by eating these fresh from the oven. I took them to a ladies Bible study and they were a big hit. We ran out quickly so I plan to make more soon.