I do menu plan. I find it helpful to know what I plan to make and buy accordingly. It doesn’t always work out as sometimes people eat something I needed for a recipe or I forget something from my list. No plan is ever perfect. No person is ever perfect. we just do our best.

I thought that I might start sharing my menu plan for our family of 6. Remember that some are omni eaters (they eat meat), one is vegetarian (she eats eggs and dairy but no meat), and two whole foods plant based eaters. One thing that you will notice is that there is a cheat meal in there.

This week I am including breakfast, lunch, and snack menus just so you can see what we tend to do here. These are the things I prepare for and buy for but the teens do often go out and get junk food as they are young and couldn’t care less about their health. At least I sneak in a few vitamins in their evening meal.

Breakfast

My usual breakfast is a smoothie. I like to have a frozen banana, frozen berries, spinach and a few extra nutrition boosts. Usually I like to have some protein powder or seeds to up the protein in the smoothie. My favourite to add is hemp hearts which is shelled hemp seeds. I find that they blend well and are very neutral in flavour. They also don’t mess with the texture of the smoothie. I also have açai, spirulina, and ashwangdha powders. Can’t say any of those make any obvious difference but I have quite a bit of eat so working through them.

Lunch

The salad with whatever beans I have cooked is my go to meal. I like that it is easy to assemble and requires no cooking. Sandwiches are another good easy meal and sometimes when I am craving peanut butter I will have a pb&j. I know many WFPB people are iffy on peanut butter are it is rather fatty but as a whole food pureed I am ok with it but I am aware of the fat. Baked potato takes a bit longer but nice on a colder day just like soup or other leftovers. Sometimes I will make extra soup just for having at lunch or snack time.

Snacks

Popcorn is my favourite. I would happily have popcorn as a meal, I love it that much. I love it with butter though. I have not been having it with butter as butter is bad for me but the joy has also gone with the butter. The nutritional yeast does not stick without the butter….not even when using the Braggs aminos that others claim works. I am desperate for any ideas how to be healthy and have my popcorn joy back so if you have any ideas please comment.

Fruit / veggie sticks are obviously the healthiest choice. They can be very good but sometimes you need something more. I like to have a few of the oatmeal raisin cookies around for snacks and need to find a way to make my crackers again without a sourdough starter. sometimes I even snack on leftover soup. I like a warm soup in a mug on a cold day.

Dinner

Our cheat meal happens pretty much every Thursday night as I am shopping and cleaning so don’t want to cook a big meal. That meal is burgers. Those of us normally WFPB have store bought vegan burgers that do contain oil. So far I have not succeeded with a burger recipe I like but I have found faux beef and faux chicken burgers that I like. For now we are just being perfectly imperfect.

In the next week I will have a few of these recipes written up and will add links when that is done. I chose these recipes because I can do them reasonably inexpensively and make the most people happy at the same time. The meat eaters can add meat to their meals if they so choose (they are usually not bothered) and the rest of us are good to go. Also, though it is August, the temperature here is starting to wander downwards so warmer things sound nice again.

I am not sure how I am going to make an oil-free pastry for the pie yet but when I figure it out I hope to share. I will be dong the vegan Spanish omelette for only the second time so fingers crossed it all works out. That Chick’n Noodle soup is actually my daughter’s favourite with the chicken replaced with faux chicken which we have not used in this way. So you see this is a rather experimental week.

Stay tuned to get more recipes and to read a review of how this meal plan went next week. I will start posting my planned meals each Thursday morning as I am doing the planning anyway so maybe someone else can make use of it and simplify there week.