Prepare a list of your family’s favorite meals and work off that list as you make your plan. Write down what you have in your fridge, freezer, and pantry and use that to build your meal plan. Tips for Meal Planningįirst things first, write it down. Then, I share exactly what a week of meals looks like for our family (with all recipes linked) in the hopes of showing you that it is all possible with a little bit of forethought and planning. Below are my secrets for streamlining the process and keeping things as efficient as possible. Feeding your family nutritious home-cooked meals should not be something we dread. So given all this, you still are probably wondering, how do you make it happen each week? We are all so busy and life is stressful. It is a wonderful (and very messy) bonding experience for us. They get better with each recipe and I love to see them learn and for their confidence in the kitchen to grow. With all the cooking I do throughout the week and all the time we spend together, it would be impossible not to involve them in the action. Their greatest kitchen skills are mixing, pouring, measuring, pressing buttons on kitchen tools and licking the stirring spoons.
#Vegan meal planner how to#
They are starting to learn how to use a kid-safe knife and prep some softer vegetables and fruits with me too. And they love to bake cookies and muffins with me too. They love helping me make smoothies and pancakes. I do all the cooking in our household and I try and involve the kids whenever possible. So that is a bit about our family and our dietary preferences. For us, plant-based protein comes from peas, chickpeas, black beans, quinoa, black beluga lentils, nuts and seeds. I also try and incorporate healthy fats each day from nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans), seeds (sesame, pumpkin, chia, flax, hemp) and avocado. I also tend to focus on whole grains like quinoa, brown or black rice and oats. I aim for a variety of fruits and vegetables depending on what is in season. Outside of my food sensitivities/allergies, I'm very focused on making sure we get balanced meals throughout the week. I'm also allergic to dairy, eggs, soy, peanuts and corn. Carrots are a new addition to their vegetable rotation with my new method of preparing them.Īs for me, I'm gluten-free, vegan and seem to do better with my migraines when I avoid refined sugars.
Those are usually our go-to veggie sides. For dinner they usually go for roasted sweet potatoes and peas.
#Vegan meal planner mac#
My kids love fresh fruit, smoothies, applesauce, yogurt, granola, avocados, hummus (only if I make it lol), sandwiches, muffins, mac n cheese, creamy pasta and basically anything dipped in ketchup! I have to get extra creative with vegetables and sneak them into smoothies. And, involving them in the cooking process is a huge piece of our overall healthy eating success because it gives them ownership over the meal. My philosophy has always been to lead by example and make it as fun as possible. I never pressure or force them to eat a certain way. But they are willing to try things usually and the more I offer the better they seem to get. nothing too spicy or too flavorful and it definitely cannot look "weird" or "too brown" or "gross"). I would not categorize any of them as picky eaters but like any kid they do have their preferences (i.e. Thank goodness!Ĭurrently, my kids are ages 3, 5 and 7.
I even got him eating Brussels sprouts and mushrooms which he used to not like. He will pretty much eat anything I make and never complains. When it comes to food, my husband, Bobby, is as flexible and easy to please as they come. My hope is you can draw from this general weekly example and create something that will work for your crew. Every family is different and every person in every family is usually a bit different when it comes to what they can have and what they like. Our family dietary preferencesīefore I dive into our family's typical plant-based meal plan, I thought I would share a little bit about our food preferences. Below I'm sharing it all and I sincerely hope you find this helpful and inspirational as you think about your own families. With five of us this means a typical week includes 140 meals! This is where meal planning, meal prepping and a couple of mom-hack shortcuts come in handy (especially during busy weeks). So 4 meals per day per person (if you count snack-time which for us is basically a mini-meal).
This includes breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner for all seven days of the week. So today, I'm sharing an example week that looks pretty standard for our family. I oftentimes get asked what a typical week of plant-based and gluten-free eating looks like for our family of five.