My Plant-Based Family

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

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Our 4th of July Menu

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It’s the 4th of July and in the US, we are celebrating Independence Day. I’m enjoying a nice long weekend with family and friends and I’ve neglected to plan for the holiday.

Today, I’ve got a great 4th of July menu planned even if you don’t have time. I’m using items from my basic pantry and fridge staples list.

Plant-Based Burger

This Veggie Burger uses beans and rice and they are easy to make without a lot of prior planning.

Kidney Bean and Quinoa Veggie Burger is a great plant-based option for vegans.

Plant-Based Side Dish

Pasta Salad is an easy side dish, it uses basic ingredients and is a crowd-pleaser.

Sweet and Tangy Pasta Salad is gluten-free, vegan and perfect for summer potlucks.

 

Plant-Based Dips

I love dips! If you’ve been here a while you know that already. Holidays call for Hummus and salsa with a side of raw veggies and tortilla chips.

Jalapeno Hummus is plant-based and oil-free recipe will win over any critic.

Oven roasted salsa

We can’t forget the fruit! This easy dairy-free fruit dip is easy so easy to make even the kids can help.

Chocolate Fruit Dip

Plant-Based Dessert

I can’t think of a better dessert for the 4th of July than frozen fruit treats! No need to turn on the oven with these delicious treats. Choose from Triple Berry Yogurt Pops or Mango Lime Ice Pops.

Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops are dairy-free and suitable for vegans. These frozen treats are easily made with a yogurt alternative and fresh fruit.

Mango Lime Ice Pops are a great frozen treat that is healthy and tasty. These vegan treats are still creamy even without the dairy.

How are you celebrating the holiday? Will there be delicious plant-based food there? If so, take pictures and tag me on Instagram so I can see.

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Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops

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When I mentioned my obsession with making dairy-free frozen treats last week I wasn’t exaggerating. Remember the Mango Lime Ice Pops! I’ve been making every flavor of ice pop and frozen treat I can imagine. I’m only limited by my selection of fresh fruit but I’ve also tried a few other options like these Frozen Yogurt Pops.

I love making frozen treats with just fruit but I decided I wanted something a little creamier! I bought Silk dairy-free yogurt alternative and fresh berries to make these treats come to life.

Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops are dairy-free and suitable for vegans. These frozen treats are easily made with a yogurt alternative and fresh fruit.

I wanted to buy vanilla yogurt but my store was out so I went with plain. If you use vanilla yogurt it is already sweetened and you can skip the sweetener. If you use the plain flavor you’ll probably want to add a sweetener like maple syrup or stevia. I recommend you blend everything up first to make sure. If you find sweet berries you may not need much, but sometimes berries are a little sour.

Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops are dairy-free and suitable for vegans. These frozen treats are easily made with a yogurt alternative and fresh fruit.

I really wanted to take advantage of the beautiful berry colors (although my white tile floor wasn’t as excited). It’s really hard to measure berries for a recipe so I just estimated amounts and used my Blendtec to blend it all together. You’ll get a vibrant blend of fruity yogurt that is hard to resist. I do recommend a taste test at this point to see if you need to add sweetener. If so start with 1 tablespoon of maple syrup or a packet of stevia and move up from there.

Do your best to get it into your freezer pop molds. After I filled them to 3/4 of the way to the top I carefully dropped blueberries, diced strawberries and halved blackberries into the mold and used a wooden ice-pop stick to push them where I wanted them. This wouldn’t have worked in a juice but since the yogurt and fruit blend was thick and creamy the fruit stayed just where I put it. I also inserted the sticks here too.

Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops are dairy-free and suitable for vegans. These frozen treats are easily made with a yogurt alternative and fresh fruit.

The serving size will vary based on your freezer mold size. This recipe should make 4-6 frozen treats.

Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops

Triple Berry Frozen Yogurt Pops
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • ½ cup non-dairy yogurt
  • 1 cup of fresh berries
  • sweetener (optional)
Instructions
  1. Pour ½ cup of non-dairy yogurt into a blender.
  2. Pour in half of the berries.
  3. Blend in blender until smooth.
  4. Taste and add sweetener if needed. I recommend maple syrup or stevia then blend again.
  5. Once appropriately sweet, spoon into freezer molds until ¾ of the way full.
  6. Carefully drop berries into the molds using whole blueberries, diced strawberries and halved blackberries.
  7. Place sticks into the molds and freeze over night.
  8. To loosen freezer pops, dip the molds into warm water then gently pull out the freezer pops.
  9. Store in the freezer until ready to eat.

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Mango Lime Ice Pops

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I’m going to fess up, I have a slight addiction to frozen treats. Yes, that Banana Pudding Ice Cream was just the start! Now my kids have caught it too! I’ve been making loads of vegan ice pops that are out of this world. These Mango Lime Ice Pops are a delicious frozen treat!

Mango Lime Ice Pops are a great frozen treat that is healthy and tasty. These vegan treats are still creamy even without the dairy.

As soon as the temperatures rose above 100 degrees here in Arizona I started making a bunch of different ice pop recipes. We’ve had two strong favorites and I’m sharing one of them today.

This Mango Lime Ice Pop may be one of the most refreshing frozen treats I’ve ever had. It’s made with 4 simple ingredients, mango, lime, coconut water and stevia. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

I love mango but I prefer it with other flavors like my Black Bean Mango Salad. My husband and youngest son will eat mango by itself. I think lime is the perfect addition to mango and once you try this frozen treat you will too.

I used the yellow mangos but you could use the pretty green/red/yellow ones. You could even use frozen mango but I’d let it thaw a little. After cutting up my mango I had about 1 1/2 cups. If you have a little more or a little less it will still work.

Mango Lime Ice Pops are a great frozen treat that is healthy and tasty. These vegan treats are still creamy even without the dairy.

Other than the simple ingredients you’ll also need a mold for making frozen treats, unless you are doing the small cups or ice cube method. I have two different molds for making delicious frozen treats but I used this one from Amazon. Don’t forget to buy the sticks unless you are using molds that come with sticks.

This recipe makes four frozen treats with a little left over that we ate right then without freezing it! I will definitely make these again!

Mango Lime Ice Pops are a great frozen treat that is healthy and tasty. These vegan treats are still creamy even without the dairy.

I was a little concerned that my kids would think they tasted too “grown up” but they loved them too.

Mango Lime Ice Pops

Mango Lime Ice Pops
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 2 yellow mangos
  • 1 lime (juice and zest)
  • ½ cup coconut water
  • 2 Stevia packets
Instructions
  1. Peel mangos and remove the flesh.
  2. Wash the lime then use a microplane to peel the lime zest.
  3. Squeeze all the juice out of the lime into a measuring cup.
  4. Pour coconut water in the measuring cup (with the lime juice) until it reaches the ½ cup mark. You will use more or less coconut water depending on how much lime juice you have. Pour in Stevia.
  5. Blend in a high powered blender then carefully pour into your treat molds and freeze over night.
  6. To remove the ice pops from the mold, submerge the bottom of the molds in warm water being careful not to get the treats wet.

 

Summer Meal Plan with Shopping List

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Summer…I love summer but it does not put me in a cooking mood. When it’s hot I look for easy, no cook meals whenever possible. I’ve created a summer meal plan with hearty salads, easy pasta and a delicious stir fry.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll cook occasionally but typically it’s in my Instant Pot, Crock Pot or something really quick on the stove.

When possible I’ll do a little batch cooking. If you aren’t familiar with batch cooking it is when you cook a large amount of something and use it multiple times. For example, I could cook a big batch of chickpeas and use them all week long in tacos, stir frys, hummus, etc.

Summer meal plan that is plant-based with gluten-free options. Includes shopping list and recipes in a download.

This week I’m going to share a meal plan that uses simple recipes so you won’t have to cook every day. [Read more…] about Summer Meal Plan with Shopping List

Vegetables That Are High In Protein

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I’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately. Everywhere I’ve gone people have taken notice of my plant-based diet. Their first thought is always about protein.

“Where do you get your protein?”

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that question over the last two weeks I could buy a week’s worth of groceries.

I don’t mind the question. It gives me a chance to share about plant-based eating. Sometimes I forget that the plant-based diet is really a foreign concept to people.

I’ve already answered the question, “Can I get enough protein on a plant-based diet?” Today I want to talk about vegetables that are high in protein.

Do you worry about protein on a plant-based/vegan diet? Don't! There are a ton of vegetables that are high in protein. [Read more…] about Vegetables That Are High In Protein

Overnight Oats

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I want to eat a healthy breakfast but some days I don’t have the time to cook. Overnight Oats are a healthy option for busy mornings.

Plant-Based Overnight Oats

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You know I love my Instant Pot Oatmeal but Overnight Oats are even faster. Just spend a few minutes before bed and a few minutes in the morning for an easy breakfast.

I use old fashioned oats. Bob’s Red Mill oats is our brand of choice. But if you need gluten-free I recommend GF Harvest Oats! Their manufacturing process is as good as it gets for keep gluten out of the picture.

We use Rice Dream for most of our cooking. My kids love the vanilla but I prefer the regular unsweetened. I like that it’s shelf stable so I can keep a few in my pantry and not worry about running out without a backup. I have 3 cartons in my pantry right now!

Plant-Based Overnight Oats

Overnight Oats

Overnight Oats are also perfect for travel! Just bring a bowl or jar with the oats pre-measured. Then pick up some plant milk and fruit at your destination. Easy peasy!

Overnight Oats
 
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Prep time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 1 serving
Ingredients
  • ½ cup oats (I used old-fashioned oats)
  • ½ cup plant milk
  • ½ banana, diced very small
  • ¼ cup chopped strawberries
  • ¼ tsp cinnamon
  • sweeten to taste with maple syrup
  • bluberries
Instructions
  1. In a bowl, combine the oats, cinnamon, maple syrup and milk, mix until combined.
  2. Allow to sit in the fridge overnight.
  3. Dice the bananas and slice the strawberries.
  4. Mix the banana with the overnight oats, then add the strawberries and top with blueberries.

Plant-Based Overnight Oats

I love bananas and add them to almost all my overnight oats because they are so sweet. I’m really focused on cutting down my sugar intake. Bananas add the sweetness I want. Sometimes I’ll add a touch of maple syrup too.

If strawberries, bananas and blueberries aren’t your thing try raisins or peaches or diced apples.

Sometimes I’ll get a little “fancy” and add fresh ginger or hemp seeds. Really, you can add whatever you like. The fruit is completely optional.

Plant-Based Overnight Oats

For more information on oatmeal and to see my favorite oatmeal picks check out my Ultimate Oatmeal Guide.

Check out more delicious breakfast recipes on my Breakfast Page!