So for the past week I’ve kept track of what we ate, starting from last Monday. This has been really helpful to me to see what we eat and to help me to make our meal plans. I have never done this before, but I figure I would like to give it a try. What I do make sure to do is make enough of a meal so that there are leftovers for the next day for either lunch or dinner. If I am baking (which I often do) I usually double or sometimes even triple a recipe so that there is enough to last a while for snacks or treats and for my husband to have to take to work. I haven’t really baked since Christmas (except for bread) and made my first cookies of the year yesterday (oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip).
Today I wanted to share what our past week in meals looked like, to help new vegans or aspiring vegan families get an idea of what vegan snacks and meals our family eats. First, a few helpful notes.
For snacks I allow fresh fruit (we usually have apples, bananas, oranges or grapes), raw vegetables (carrots, peppers, cucumber, broccoli or cauliflower with catalina dressing to dip) nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, cashews or sunflower seeds), fruit source bars or dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, prunes, banana chips), rice cakes or whole wheat crackers. If I have baked muffins or cookies we have that sometimes too.
Our family eats a lot of the same thing and doesn’t mind leftovers. I find that this is a great money saver. I also try as much as possible to never throw food away, ever. If the girls don’t finish their plates, I save the food to have as their snack when they are hungry later or someone else eats it. I noticed that we ate a lot of soup this week because I was sick and made two pots of soup on Thursday, we finished the soup today at lunch (that’s a lot of soup!). I love to make soup because it is cheap and filling and healthy. A pot of soup and loaf of homemade bread feeds our family of four for at least two meals and costs around $11.60.
We eat a lot of oatmeal, which is again, cheap, filling and healthy. A 2.25 kilogram bag of oatmeal costs $4.98 and lasts us a few weeks, feeding us all for many breakfasts (at least 13). With our morning oatmeal, we always have fresh or frozen fruit (usually chopped apples, blueberries or strawberries), nuts (pecans, walnuts or almonds), pure maple syrup and either soy or almond milk. Everyone likes their oatmeal different in the family and different ways on different days too. This again is a huge money saver compared to cereal or even toast. I can’t believe how a loaf of whole wheat bread costs $4.69. I am trying to make more of our own bread again to save money, plus it tastes so much better!
Another cheap, filling breakfast that we often have is pancakes, with banana on the side or thawed frozen berries. It costs $6.98 for a 2 kg bag of whole frozen strawberries or $13.98 for a 2 kg bag of frozen blueberries. We often use berries in our oatmeal as well. I think I will have to do a separate posts on how much I spend on food for our family and the ways I stretch our money to buy the healthiest ingredients as well. I never knew that I had so many tricks and ways to save! 🙂
We also had cereal a lot this week too because I got 4 bags of Mesa Sunrise cereal on sale for $7.49 a bag (a savings of $3.00/bag), so we have a lot of cereal on hand at the moment. Kesa also can never live without puffed kamut or wheat cereal and snacks on that often at bedtime. We always have either unsweetened almond breeze milk or the girls favorite ‘red milk’ Organic Silk.
Alright, here it goes!
Monday
Breakfast – Cereal and sliced banana with unsweetened almond milk (Mesa Sunrise or Kamut Puffs)
Snack – Fruit and nuts
Lunch – Veggies Love Macaroni and Cheese
Dinner – Oatmeal and Blueberries/Walnuts or Pecans and Soy or Almond Milk
Snack -Fruit
Tuesday
Breakfast – Oatmeal and Strawberries/Pecans/Milk/Maple Syrup
Snack – Fruit/Nuts (bananas)
Lunch – Zucchini Basil Linguine with Red Peppers and Vegan Parmesan Cheese
Snack – Nuts/Dried Fruit/Crackers
Dinner – Tofu Nuggets, Mashed Potatoes, Corn and Green Beans
Snack – Cereal and banana (Mesa Sunrise or Kamut Puffs)
Wednesday
Breakfast – Oatmeal and Strawberries, maple syrup, nuts and milk
Snack – Fruit (apple slices and peanut butter)
Lunch – Leftover nuggets, potatoes and vegetables
Snack – Fruit Source Bars
Dinner – Smoky Hickory Black Bean and Quinoa Burgers, potatoes, salad and raw vegetables (peppers, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower) and dip
Snack – Cereal with sliced banana
Thursday
Breakfast – Oatmeal and apples, cinnamon, maple syrup, walnuts, milk
Snack – Crackers and juice (whole grain Ritz)
Lunch – Tomato Cabbage Vegetable Soup and Quick Rise Whole Wheat Bread
Snack – Peanut Butter and Jam Sandwiches, Grapes and Silk
Dinner – Leftover Burgers, potatoes, salad and raw vegetables.
Snack – Fruit
Friday
Breakfast – Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes
Snack – Fruit (apples, grapes)
Lunch – Leftover Soup and Bread
Snack – Rice Cakes and Fruit Bars
Dinner – ‘Honey’ Dijon Tofu Salad Sandwiches and raw vegetables
Snack – Oatmeal and blueberries/nuts/maple syrup and milk
Saturday
Breakfast – Cashew Butter and Apple Butter Wraps with Banana and Almond Milk
Snack – Apples
Lunch – Leftover Soup and Bread
Snack – Nuts/Dried Fruit
Dinner –Tofu Bacon Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich and Caesar Salad
Snack – Cereal and Banana
Sunday
Breakfast – Toast with Almond Butter and Apple Butter, Banana and Almond Milk
Snack – Fruit
Lunch – Leftover Soup and Bread
Snack – Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Dinner – Tofu Dogs, Salad and Raw Vegetables
Snack – Chocolate Chip Cookies and Almond Milk (recipe below)
Here is the recipe for the Chocolate Chip Cookies I made last night!
Healthy Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
I hate when I am looking up healthy baking recipes and come across recipes with ‘healthy’ in the title when they are still made with tons of sugar, butter and white flour. I decided to call this chocolate chip cookie recipe healthy, offering new hope to those who are searching for a healthier treat. These soft cookies are made with whole wheat flour, pure maple syrup in place of what would be sugar and canola oil instead of what would be butter. One of our new favorite cookies!
Makes 20 cookies
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 3/4 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 2/3 cup sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, sea salt. Add the chocolate chips. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, sunflower oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the medium mixing bowl and mix until combined. Drop a tablespoon-size amount of the cookie dough onto the baking sheet, leaving a bit of space between the cookies as they will expand. Continue to drop the dough to make 20 cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until very lightly golden.
The dough will seem kind of soft and oily, but this is the best batch of vegan chocolate chip cookies that I have attempted and the first I have posted, so believe me, these are really good!
I found keeping track of our family’s meals really helpful for me and am going to try today to sit down and plan out this week’s meals and stick to them. I foresee more variety as I am feeling better today and more like cooking again. We also did our grocery shopping on the weekend so I have a lot of ingredients to get creative with!
Do you find this post helpful? Would you like to see more meal plan posts? Do you have any specific questions you would like me to help answer for you in another post regarding the way our family eats, vegan food or meals? Let me know by leaving a comment below, I would love to hear from you! 🙂
Have a great day!
oh thanks for this post, i always go to try write out a meal plan but can never think of enough meals or stick to it.
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Yes,, yes, yes…..more info. We are not vegan, but are trying to be healthier, and your site is one we check out every day. The only one my husband looks at! He’s the cook, and many of your receipts have made it into his kitchen. The bread was great! Keep it up!
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Thanks so much! That comment made my day! 🙂
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Thanks for the post. I’m really bad at weekly meal planning, so maybe your menu will inspire me 🙂
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Your blog is amazing… thanks for helping make life a little easier for people who want to have a healthy, happy vegan family. 🙂
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Thank You Katie!
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Absolutely Love the meal plan! We’re meat eaters that have been trying to get closer and closer to a plant based diet for the last couple of months! You have certainly kept us headed in that direction! THANK YOU!!
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What a wonderful website! Great recipes and tips, thank you!!
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Thanks! 🙂
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Just popped them into the oven this second! 🙂 the dough is certainly good. didn’t have maple syrup so used sugar ( though my first choice is agave i didn’t have that either). so i put a tiny bit of warm water in and made the dough more..well doughy. added some cocoa and oats to some of the mixture and ciniman too. can’t wait to taste them . kiitos paljon ^-^
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sounds yummy! 🙂
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yes, then i put some chocolate icing in between ;). had to cut them becasue theres no way i can eat one at once hehe
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WOW!
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I made these for my family for a Valentines treat…oh my gosh…they were so good! Yummy.
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The whole family loved these. I even threw in some chopped walnuts! Thank you!
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Wow. That’s all I can say. I’m so glad I stumbled onto your website while looking for vegetarian meal plans. So far I’ve made your pineapple ginger fried rice, banana walnut bread and split pea soup and I’m in love! I’m throwing all of my other cookbooks away. I’ve been so overwhelmed with the millions of recipes I have to pick through. Your recipes are exactly what I have been searching for: easy, healthy and normal ingredients to make fabulous vegetarian recipes. The only recipe of yours that I’m scared to try is the tofu bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. I would love a copy of your recipe book. How do I get one? Does it have recipes that aren’t listed on your website? Does it have pics? I love pics especially when I’m new to vegetarian cooking.
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Thank you Amber! 🙂 I am very happy to hear that! There is information on the book here. The book is $30.00 and has 45 recipes which are not on the blog. There are 125 color photos of some of the recipes too. I wanted to make sure to include lots of pictures because I love a cookbook with pictures so that I know what exactly I am making. If you wanted a copy, send me an email with your shipping information to tiffanypidruchny@gmail.com and I can make up an invoice for you. Comment any time. Nice to hear from you!
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I love that your recipes are family friendly. My son is only 9 months old but I can see him eating most of these recipes a little later on. I’d love if you could post another meal plan. Since I’m a new vegetarian it’s hard for me to know what a complete meal looks like without the meat, if you know what I mean.
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Thanks for your kind words and for the suggestion! It is helpful to me to know that others benefit from these types of posts. 🙂
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This really is the best recipe ever! Thank you. I have made them several times and love them. I modified it today to add some blackstrap molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, and it was delicious. I made one out of the batch plain (no chocolate chips) and another with raisins instead. They were amazing.
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Thank you for your comment Crys! I am glad that you enjoy it! I know that we do! 🙂
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Made those already four times and it’s just the perfect cookie plus heathy…aka perfection. I have a sweet tooth and my kids too but I want them to eat healthy and not the common processed with tons of sugar that is everywhere. Thanks for the recipe 🍪❤️
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So glad to hear you like the recipe! 🙂 It is one of our favorites too!
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