Unprocessed

Name: Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 heaping cup of fresh raspberries, if you need to use frozen allow them to thaw first; 1/2 cup of water; up to a 1/2 tsp of red wine vinegar; 2 Tbsp maple syrup (more or less to taste); a dash of salt and pepper

Meal Plan Monday: July 6, 2015

July 6, 2015 by Holly Leave a Comment

After last weeks short week and holiday weekend this week will like feel a lot longer. We didn’t do much prep on the weekend but we are starting the week with a fridge full of fresh produce and a fresh bot of cooked brown rice. Jim will cook beans tomorrow in the Instant Pot and we will be ready for the week.

I expect to work a lot of hours this week and will rely on different combinations of our basics. This usually involved brown rice, black beans, chopped lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and other veggies. We will need to cook some potatoes but those make a great breakfast, lunch or snack. I also ordered more Bob’s Red Mill’s Gluten-Free Steel Cut Oats from Amazon that will arrive on Tuesday.

In addition to the items mentioned above we also have carrots, celery, cucumbers, cauliflower and a lot of fruit including: apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, kiwi, mangoes, grapes, blueberries and plums. I’m sure there is more but this is what comes to mind.

Instead of sharing a Plant-Based Meal Plan with a lot of separate meals I’ll tell you how we will stick to these basic ingredients to build several meals.

Meal Plan Monday

Breakfast

Lunch

Veggie Sandwich using lettuce, tomato, cucumbers and peppers
Baked Potatoes, maybe Taco Potatoes
Salads, maybe even the Black Bean Mango Salad
Beans and Rice with salad

Dinner

Bean and Rice Bowl
Taco Salad
Bean Burritos
Veggie Burritos/Tacos

We will round out all of our meals and snacks with fruits or veggies (or both).

The great thing about a simple menu like this is that it is easy. You don’t have to buy a lot of foods that will go to waste because a lot of simple ingredients that we always have on hand. If these ingredients seem odd to you check out our Basic Pantry List.

I’ve cut down our choices but our family loves these meals. You should hear our kids beg for black beans for lunch. For years, our 6 year old would not eat black beans, or should I say, only eat them begrudgingly. He has come a long way and over the last month has proclaimed that they are his favorite. He has always like pinto beans but two people in our household have an intolerance to them so we have switched to black beans.

On that note, if any of you know of a super deal on black beans let me know. We go through a lot of them.

This page contains affiliate links.

Once a Week Cooking

June 26, 2015 by Holly 11 Comments

Sometimes it’s nice to go a whole week without cooking. Sure, some people do that all the time, they just eat take out or fast food. I’m talking about a whole week eating homemade, plant-based food without having to cook it everyday. It’s possible if you do Once a Week Cooking.

I’ve shared this before, in fact it’s regularly one of my top pins.

Once a Week Cooking

If you want to try Once a Week Cooking I recommend that you plan meals that will reheat well, serve you for more than one meal and give yourself several hours to get the cooking done.

I’ve selected several recipes that meet this criteria, they are on this week’s meal plan.

You can adapt this to suit your time and dietary constraints.

What to Cook

Cheesy Broccoli and Rice Casserole in the Crock Pot
1 cup of lentils to use in Quinoa Lentil Salad
2 cups quinoa or brown rice to use in Quinoa Lentil Salad, Breakfast Quinoa and soup
1 pound black beans to use in Mango Salad, Burritos, Soup and other meals
3-4 Sweet Potatoes for breakfasts
Enchilada Soup
Mexican Rice for burritos or other meals
Lasagna

Plan to start with the items that will take the longest too cook or that you need for other meals. If you are cooking beans you will probably want to start with those. If you are using canned or already have beans cooked you can move on. I already had beans and rice cooked when I started, we usually have beans and rice cooked at all times.

I also use multiple cooking options, for instance I cook beans in my Instant Pot, the casserole in my Crock Pot, most other things on my stove and the lasagna in my oven. The sweet potatoes can be made in the Instant Pot, Crock Pot or the oven.

Steps to Getting it All Done

1. Cook beans and rice. Either ahead or start here.

2. Get the Crock Pot going with the casserole.

3. Start cooking the lentils, quinoa and Mexican Rice on the stove.

4. Start preparing ingredients for the Lasagna. (The lasagna takes a long time so you can save time by eliminating this).

5. Wash and bake sweet potatoes.

6. Chop veggies and make the soup. (Beans and rice must be cooked in order to make the soup.)

7. Prepare additional veggies for salad.

Overwhelmed?

You can simplify this with a few modifications. This was more than enough food for us this week.

1. Cook fewer foods.

Instead cooking black beans and lentils just cook one and use it in place of both. Instead of cooking plain brown rice, Mexican Rice and quinoa choose one, but make sure you cook enough for all of your meals.

2. Have Foods Prepped.

You may be wondering, isn’t’ the purpose of once a week cooking to only cook once? Yes, however some foods like beans and grains take a while to cook. If you do this ahead of time you can knock an hour or more off of your cooking time.

3. Skip Difficult Recipes.

The lasagna recipe I made isn’t really difficult but it is a multi-step recipe that takes a lot of time. Replace it with a pasta dish instead and you’ll save a lot of time.

Do you batch cook or do once a week cooking? I’m considering creating a short batch cooking eCourse if there is enough interest.

Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

June 18, 2015 by Holly 8 Comments

Oil-Free Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing is my family’s favorite salad dressing. Sweet and tangy, this salad dressing is everything you need to take your salad up a notch.

This page contains affiliate links.

My boys love salad but used to be suspicious of salad dressings. They love this Raspberry Salad Dressing. When I make this, they eat big salads and are more adventurous with the salad ingredients.

This Oil-Free Raspberry Vinaigrette is the only salad dressing my husband requests. It’s definitely husband and kid approved!

If you are new to eating a whole food plant-based diet, you’ve probably discovered how hard it is to find a good, oil-free salad dressing. Without oil, many salad dressings are thin and watery. Not this dressing!

Even though raspberries are low in pectin, they have enough to help thicken this Raspberry Dressing without the need to add extra thickening ingredients. It’s a vegan salad dressing with no added fat that tastes really good!

Oil-Free Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

Ingredients

1 heaping cup of fresh raspberries, if you need to use frozen allow them to thaw first
1/2 cup of water
up to a 1/2 tsp of red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp maple syrup (more or less to taste)
a dash of salt and pepper

Do

Pour your raspberries, half of the water, half of the vinegar and maple syrup into a blender. I used my Blendtec. Add your salt and pepper.
Press the pulse button and allow to process until everything liquefies. Pour in slightly more water if needed.
Give your dressing a taste test. Add more vinegar and maple syrup if needed. Some berries are sweeter while others are sour so this isn’t an exact science. I made it as written above and it was perfect for us.
If you adjusted your ingredients pulse again until your salad dressing reaches the right consistency and flavor.

Your salad dressing will be a beautiful raspberry color and taste slightly sweet with just enough kick.

This will make about 1 1/2 cups depending on how much water you use. Store this dressing in the refrigerator and use within 5 days.

Yield: 4

Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

This sweet and tangy oil-free, whole food salad dressing is vegan and gluten-free. Get your family eating more salad than ever before with this Oil-free Raspberry Vinaigrette!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 heaping cup of fresh raspberries, if you need to use frozen allow them to thaw first
1/2 cup of water
up to a 1/2 tsp of red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp maple syrup (more or less to taste)
a dash of salt and pepper

Instructions

Pour your raspberries, half of the water, half of the vinegar and maple syrup into a blender. Add your salt and pepper.
Press the pulse button and allow to process until everything liquefies. Pour in slightly more water if needed.
Give your dressing a taste test. Add more vinegar and maple syrup if needed. Some berries are sweeter while others are sour so this isn’t an exact science. I made it as written above and it was perfect for us.
If you adjusted your ingredients pulse again until your salad dressing reaches the right consistency and flavor.

Notes

This will make about 1 1/2 cups depending on how much water you use. Store this dressing in the refrigerator and use within 5 days.

More Oil-Free Salad Dressings

I’ve got a lot of incredible oil-free salad dressings. You can see all of them on my Sauces, Dips and Salad Dressing Page but other than this Raspberry Salad Dressing, these are my favorites!

This page contains affiliate links.

Meal Plan Monday: June 15, 2015 and a 15 Minute Recharge

June 15, 2015 by Holly Leave a Comment

This weekend we spent time in the pool, had a family move night (at home), attended church and spent some time resting.

We work really hard during the week and need time to recharge on the weekend.

I know that we have to be careful about spending too much time in the sun and use sun screen, I even wrote about it last year, but I feel great after 15 minutes in the sun. I don’t get burned but I get nice and hot and start to sweat. Even when I have a headache, if I can go outside and relax for 15 minutes I feel so much better. Do you have a 15 minute recharge?

We did a little bit of cooking as well. Sweet Potatoes and small red potatoes, brown rice and black beans were all cooked in my Instant Pot. I shouldn’t say “we” because my husband cooked them. He does most of the cooking these days. Isn’t that awesome?

Meal Plan

Our boys start swim lessons this week so we wanted to be prepared for the week since our schedule will be different. I know all of that swimming will have the boys extra hungry.