My Plant-Based Family

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

Unprocessed

BBQ Cauliflower Bites

by 7 Comments

For a girl that doesn’t eat meat, I really love barbecue sauce. Vegan barbecue is something I fully support. These BBQ Cauliflower Bites hit the spot. If you are looking for a plant-based version of BBQ Wings, give these a try.

Homemade vegan BBQ Cauliflower Bites. Similar to vegan wings.

Years ago, friends and I would share boneless BBQ wings in our late night chats. We’d order a bunch of appetizers and catch up.

Just because I avoid chicken doesn’t mean I have to avoid barbecue sauce. Especially this Homemade BBQ Sauce.

Vegan Barbecue Wings

You can make these with or without the breading. I’m sharing a gluten-free breading for the cauliflower but you can make it with wheat flour or skip the breading all together.

Homemade vegan BBQ cauliflower bites. Similar to vegan wings.

BBQ Cauliflower Bites

Ingredients

  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 1 cup Gluten-Free flour blend
  • 1 cup unsweetened and unflavored plant milk (I use rice milk)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 recipe Homemade BBQ Sauce

Do

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Rinse cauliflower and cut into two-bite-sized pieces (about 2 inches or so).
  3. In a medium bowl mix the rest of the ingredients (except BBQ Sauce) together. I recommend adding the milk a little at a time because you may not need the whole cup. Stir with a whisk until the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.
  4. Put a handful of the cauliflower pieces into the batter then remove with a fork and place it on the cookie sheet.
  5. Once all of the cauliflower pieces have been dipped in batter and arranged on the cookie sheet bake for 15 minutes.
  6. After 15 minutes carefully remove the hot cauliflower and dip them into the BBQ Sauce. Put them back on the cookie sheet and bake for 5 more minutes.

Serve

These BBQ Cauliflower Bites are best served right out of the oven.

Vegan BBQ Cauliflower Bites

Vegan BBQ Cauliflower Bites

Sweet and tangy vegan BBQ Cauliflower Bites are the wing substitute you need.

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 head of cauliflower
  • 1 cup Gluten-Free flour blend
  • 1 cup unsweetened and unflavored plant milk (I use rice milk)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 recipe Homemade BBQ Sauce

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. Rinse cauliflower and cut into two-bite-sized pieces (about 2 inches or so).
  3. In a medium bowl mix the rest of the ingredients (except BBQ Sauce) together. I recommend adding the milk a little at a time because you may not need the whole cup. Stir with a whisk until the batter is the consistency of pancake batter.
  4. Put a handful of the cauliflower pieces into the batter then remove with a fork and place it on the cookie sheet.
  5. Once all of the cauliflower pieces have been dipped in batter and arranged on the cookie sheet bake for 15 minutes.
  6. After 15 minutes carefully remove the hot cauliflower and dip them into the BBQ Sauce. Put them back on the cookie sheet and bake for 5 more minutes.

Notes

These are best fresh from the oven and do not reheat well.

Did you make this recipe?

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

© Holly Yzquierdo
Category: Main Dish Recipes

Need more barbecue ideas? Try these delicious recipes!

Vegan BBQ Sandwich...You'll never guess the secret ingredient!

Vegan BBQ Sandwich

Grilled Portobello Burgers and Vegan Potato Salad

Grilled Portobello Burger

Incredible vegan and gluten-free avocado grillers

Avocado Grillers

What are your favorite things to barbecue? Don’t forget the sides like grilled corn, veggie kabob’s, potato salad and pasta salad!

Strawberry Lemonade

by 5 Comments

I love short cuts in the kitchen. If there is an easier way of doing things I want to know.

My kids have been asking for “Lemon Juice” which is their way of asking for lemonade. We never buy the store-bought stuff. Last week a kid in our neighborhood was selling lemons door to door and I bought three; I appreciate a boy trying to earn a little cash. A lot of our neighbors have citrus trees but we don’t.

We have a Blendtec. Why not just peel the lemons and blend away? This probably wouldn’t work with an inexpensive blender, but if you have a Blendtec or a Vitamix you’re in business.

I’ll give a quick note, this recipe has a lot of room for variation. Start slowly adding a little at a time because lemons are different sizes, have differing amounts of juice and varying levels of tartness.

Strawberry Lemonade

Lazy Strawberry Lemonade

Ingredients

  • 1-3 lemons (I used one giant lemon) peeled with seeds removed
  • 1 cup of strawberries with stems/leaves removed
  • water
  • sugar or other sweetener

Do

  1. Put lemons, strawberries, 2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of sugar in your Blendtec.
  2. Blend until everything is liquefied.
  3. Add another 2 cups or water and 1/4 cup of sugar (if desired) and blend. Repeat this step until your lemonade has the perfect sweet/sour mix.

I used 6 total cups of water and 3/4 cup of sugar for the whole pitcher. My starting lemon was the size of a grapefruit.

This is so easy I call it Lazy Strawberry Lemonade but you could leave out the strawberries and just have Lazy Lemonade.

Yield: 6 Servings

Strawberry Lemonade

Strawberry Lemonade

This is so easy I call it Lazy Strawberry Lemonade!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Additional Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1-3 lemons (I used one giant lemon) peeled with seeds removed
  • 1 cup of strawberries with stems/leaves removed
  • water
  • sugar or other sweetener

Instructions

  1. Put lemons, strawberries, 2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of sugar in your Blendtec.
  2. Blend until everything is liquefied.
  3. Add another 2 cups or water and 1/4 cup of sugar (if desired) and blend. Repeat this step until your lemonade has the perfect sweet/sour mix.

Notes

This recipe has a lot of room for variation. Start slowly adding a little at a time because lemons are different sizes, have differing amounts of juice and varying levels of tartness.

Did you make this recipe?

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

© Heather Mayes

Triple Berry Porridge

by 1 Comment

I use my Instant Pot all of the time for dinner but I wanted to use it for breakfast too. I’ve been trying to work a little more variety into our diets because for the last few months we’ve been eating the same things over and over. It’s all things we like but I know eventually we will get tired of it. The last time I was a Costco I found an organic quinoa, amaranth, millet blend and I really wanted to incorporate it into our meal plan.

Triple Berry Porridge

Breakfast was the perfect option! If you don’t have the quinoa, amaranth, millet blend you could use equal amounts of any grain with a similar outcome although cooking times may be affected. All of the grains I used were gluten-free.

Triple Berry Porridge gluten-free and vegan

Triple Berry Porridge

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Steel Cut Oats (I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free)
  • 1/2 cup Quinoa Amaranth Millet Blend (I used Organic Quinoa Ancient Blend)
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 cups frozen organic berries (we buy a three berry blend at Costco)
  • Plant-milk as desired
  • Maple syrup, optional
  • Chia or hemp seeds, optional

Do

  1. Dump the oats, quinoa blend, water and berries into the Instant Pot.
  2. Close the lid and press Manual then use the arrows to select 10 minutes.
  3. Once cooked (and it beeps) press cancel or unplug and allow the pressure to release naturally.
  4. After the natural release, carefully open the lid and give it a good stir.
  5. Add plant-milk until you porridge reaches your preferred consistency. I like it thick but my sons like it thinned.
  6. Spoon the porridge into bowls and add optional ingredients like maple syrup, seeds and more berries.

You don’t have to have an Instant Pot to make this. You can cook it in a Crock Pot in about 7-8 hours or on the stove 20 to 30 minutes. Both will require more liquid.

This page contains affiliate links.

Meal Plan Monday: A Little Late

by Leave a Comment

I’m a little late with this week’s meal plan. I hope you don’t mind.

I had such a busy and great weekend that I was half way through my work day today when I realized I didn’t write or schedule the meal plan.

On Saturday I drove an hour to visit the lovely Mandi from Nosh and Nurture and a few of her friends. We baked a lot of gluten-free cookies!

We also had some house guests this weekend so it was louder than normal but really fun. We even managed to get our grocery shopping done this weekend!

produce

This is just part of our haul. We’ve got celery, peppers, limes, lemons, onions, mushrooms, honey dew melons, strawberries, black berries, kale, broccoli, black beans, lettuce and more!

Our week will just as busy as the weekend so we will be keeping meals simple. I’m only planning to cook 2-3 times and eat leftovers the rest of the time. I’ve been eating a lot of WOW Butter and Jelly Sandwiches lately.  This weekend our house guests really thought they were eating peanut butter, and didn’t believe it was peanut free.

A Plant-Based Vegan Meal Plan

Breakfast

Cereal, baked sweet potatoes, toasts and other leftovers.

Lunch

Mostly leftovers with the previously mentioned WOW Butter and Jelly Sandwiches. Most of the time I just do WOW Butter and apple slices in my sandwich and skip the jelly.

Dinner

Pasta with the Stuffed Mushroom filling. I’ll save time and just mix it all together instead of filling the mushrooms. It’s perfectly delicious and just a bit easier that way. We’ll have some raw veggies on the side.

Mexican Casserole was requested by my husband. Have you made this yet? It’s truly his favorite and makes great leftovers.

Veggie Pad Thai because it is my favorite thing right now! I can’t get enough and I eat more than I should. Double of the recipes and it will go farther.

If those meals don’t get me through the week I’ll supplement with Bean Burritos using Unfried Black Beans (from the freezer), Cilantro Lime Quinoa or Rice, and Pico de Gallo or maybe Roasted Salsa.

I’ll probably make a few baked potatoes to have on hand as well. I like to have the ready. I’ll slice them into wedges for my boys lunches or pour beans over it for a quick lunch.

What are you eating this week?

This post contains affiliate links.

Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms

by 2 Comments

I’ve got the answer to your pizza craving right here! You’ve heard of stuffed mushrooms but Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms are a whole new level of awesomeness!

If you like mushrooms you will love these. I recently posted a video on Instagram of my 4 year old enjoying these. If you don’t like mushrooms stay tuned and I’ll share my pizza hack with you!

Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms are vegan and gluten-free!

Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients

  • 2 8 oz packages of whole mushrooms (button or cremini)
  • 1/2 cup diced bell pepper, I used half red and half green
  • 1/2 cup diced tomato
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • 1 cup marinara

Do

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Wash mushrooms gently and remove stems. Dice the stems and set aside a 1/2 cup for the mix.
  3. Remove the gills. This step is optional but it will allow more “stuffing” in the mushrooms.
  4. Place the mushrooms in a muffin pan, I used a mini muffin pan. If you don’t have a muffin pan use a pan with sides.
  5. In a separate bowl, mix together a 1/2 cup of the diced mushroom stems, bell peppers, tomato and onion. Next pour in the marinara sauce and mix it all together.
  6. Fill the mushroom caps with the veggie marinara filling.
  7. Bake for 20 minutes.
  8. Carefully remove from oven, there will be liquid in the pan. Allow to cool slightly before eating.

You can add other ingredients like artichoke hearts, olives, faux sausage/pepperoni or cheese if you are in to that sort of thing. I wanted a basic veggie pizza flavor. This is completely guilt free as written so go for it!

This recipe made about 20 stuffed Mushrooms. You can also make it with portobellos but expect to cook it a little longer. The portobellos at our store looked pretty beat up so I skipped them this time.

You will probably have extra filling that is great on pasta, potatoes or my Pizza Hack!

Pizza Hack

I’ve been trying out some new gluten-free, vegan, Sprouted for Life bread. Like many healthier breads, it is pretty sturdy. I used it for my pizza crust and OH MY GOODNESS it was so good! I’m still trying the bread out and haven’t used it with a sandwich yet but it tastes amazing with this! Just spoon some of the veggie marinara filling over the toast and bake for 10 minutes.

For more great recipes visit my Recipe Page!

Healthy Dips

by 4 Comments

I’ve really been craving dips lately. I’m snacking on hummus right now! I thought it would be helpful to have links to all of my dip recipes in one place. A few of these aren’t exactly dips but I use them as dips so I’m including them here.

Some people might argue that dips are not healthy, I beg to differ. These are healthy dips.

In case you are wondering all of these are gluten-free and oil-free in addition to being vegan.

Healthy Dip Round Up

Get out your veggies, crackers and chips and get ready for this collection of healthy dips!

GF Vegan Spinach Artichoke Dip

Spinach Artichoke Dip

GF Vegan red pepper dip

Roasted Red Pepper Dip

GF Vegan Green Chili White Bean Dip

Green Chili White Bean Dip

Dairy-free Faux Cheese sauce

Faux Cheese Sauce

Oil-free black beans

Unfried Beans and Unfried Black Beans

pico de gallo

Oven Roasted Salsa, regular Salsa, Pico de Gallo and Jalapeno Hummus

You have likely noticed that I use the same bowls in all of these pictures! Some of the additional recipes link to photos with other bowls. Have you tried any of these dips? I’d love to know which dips are your favorite!

If you are a blogger leave a link to your favorite dip creations in the comments.