Pickled Plum
Vegan Meal Plan

Benefits of Meal Planning

Meal planning offers a multitude of benefits that can make cooking more enjoyable, especially when you have a busy week coming up. Incorporating Meal Planning into your cooking routine not only simplifies the process but also contributes to healthier eating habits, financial savings, and a more enjoyable overall cooking experience. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits:

Time-Saving: Meal planning saves time during the week. When you already know what you’re cooking, you can streamline your grocery shopping and meal preparation.

Reduces Food Waste: By planning your meals, you buy only what you need and use ingredients efficiently, reducing food waste and saving money.

Healthier Choices: Meal planning encourages thoughtful menu choices. It allows you to incorporate a variety of nutritious ingredients and take out some that are not so healthy.

Budget-Friendly and Reduced Last Minute Decisions: It helps you stick to your budget by avoiding impulse purchases and dining out. With a meal plan in place, you won’t resort to unhealthy takeout or fast food when you’re too tired to decide what to cook.

Less Stress: Knowing what you’re going to cook each day reduces stress in the kitchen. You can also plan easy, quick meals for busy days, or make a few dishes ahead of time that you can freeze and enjoy later.

Diverse Menu: Meal planning allows you to experiment with different cuisines, expanding your culinary horizons and keeping mealtime fun and interesting.

Portion Control: You can portion meals appropriately, reducing the chances of overeating.

Customization: Tailor your meals to dietary preferences or restrictions, ensuring that everyone in your household is taken care of.

Eco-Friendly: Reducing food waste and choosing local, seasonal ingredients as part of your meal plan can have a positive impact on the environment.

The Complete Digital Meal Planner

Stay organized with The Complete Digital Meal Planner. Create a weekly meal schedule, plan meals, save your favorite recipes, and shop smarter. Reduce stress and enjoy delicious meals with this easy-to-use meal planner. It’s meal planning made simple!

How To Create A Healthy Vegan Meal Plan

Eating vegan food is anything but boring! You don’t have to settle for quinoa bowls and avocado toast for the rest of your life. Look at all the different countries around the world offering delicious vegan dishes that are colorful, tasty, and packed with goodness. The key to keeping a vegan diet exciting is to constantly experiment with new ingredients and flavor combinations. Being on a vegan diet these days is exciting, and you’d be surprised at how easy it is to turn a pescaterian or a vegetarian dish into a vegan. I do it all the time! The more you cook without animal products and the easier and more natural it will be to skip them whenever you are creating a meal.

Here are few tips on how to create your own vegan recipes and meal plans that are nutritious and tasty.

1. Diverse Protein Sources: Incorporate a variety of plant based proteins such as lentils, beans (chickpea, navy beans), quinoa, tofu, tempeh, seitan, chia seeds, edamame, and buckwheat. Experiment with different cooking methods – baking, air frying, broiling, steaming, sauteing – to enhance flavors and textures.
2. Abundant Vegetables: Include a rainbow of vegetables such as sweet potato, bell peppers, kale, spinach, carrot, beet, squash, and broccoli, to ensure a wide range of nutrients. Highlight seasonal vegetables to keep the meals fresh and flavorful.
3. Some Fruits: Fruits such as blueberries, strawberries, apples, oranges, pineapple, bananas, and melons, are full of fiber, vitamin c, and antioxidants, which are all good for the mind and the body. Just make sure not to eat too many since fruits contain sugar and can lead to weight gain if you consume too many on a daily basis. I suggest eating one or two per day.
4. Healthy Fats: Integrate sources of healthy fats like avocados, nuts, seeds, grapeseed oil and olive oil. These fats not only add richness to the meals but also provide essential nutrients.
5. Whole Grains: Opt for whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, farro, and oats to boost fiber intake. Whole grains contribute to a feeling of fullness and provide sustained energy.
6. Creative Flavoring: Use dried or fresh herbs, spices and condiments to add depth and variety to dishes. Experiment with different cultural flavors to keep the meals interesting.
7. Balanced Meals: Ensure a balance of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in each meal.
   This balance helps maintain stable energy levels throughout the day.
8. Vitamin B12 Consideration: Be mindful of vitamin B12 intake by incorporating fortified foods or supplements such as nutritional yeast, fortified breakfast cereal, plant based milks (soy milk, almond milk), and fortified meat substitutes. This is crucial for a well-rounded and balanced vegan diet.
9. Incorporate International Cuisines: Explore recipes from various cuisines to introduce diversity and excitement. This broadens the palate and keeps the meal plan interesting.
10. Sweet Treats: Include vegan desserts or snacks to satisfy sweet cravings. Utilize natural sweeteners like monk fruit sugar, maple syrup, agave, or date syrup. For those wondering about whether honey is vegan or not, the answer is no – it is not considered vegan since honey production involves the use living bees.

Why Create A Vegan Meal Plan?

It’s helpful to get in the habit of creating meal plans for two reasons: it keeps your meal rotation interesting and ensures that you get all the nutrients you need. Without a meal plan it’s easy to fall into bad habits such as reaching for a premade frozen meals, or using too many unhealthy vegan meat substitutes. Remember that eating vegan doesn’t necessarily mean eating healthy – there are just as many unhealthy vegan foods as there are regular foods. To eat healthy one has to commit to cooking homemade natural foods as often as possible. It’s okay to take it easy once or twice a week but anything more than that can lead to weight gain.

Will I lose Weight As A Vegan?

As mentioned above, eating vegan food does not necessarily lead to weight loss. If you eat vegan burgers, mac and cheese, and other vegan foods using lots of processed ingredients and fats, you will not lose weight – you might even gain a few pounds. But if you take the time to cook vegan dishes from scratch and using mostly natural ingredients, you will notice a difference in how you feel (your body will thank you for it) and will also most likely lose some weight.

Is A Vegan Diet The Same As A Plant Based Diet?

No. A vegan diet excludes all animal products, including meat, dairy, eggs, and honey. Veganism also extends beyond diet as it aims to eliminate the use of animals for food, clothing, and other purposes to reduce harm to animals and the planet.

A plant based diet primarily focuses on consuming whole, plant-derived foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. Those on a plant based diet may occasionally allow to include small amounts of animal products on occasion, but overall prefer not to. A plant based diet emphasizes on health benefits and often centers around promoting a diet rich in nutrient-dense, plant-based foods.

Vegan Meal Plan Menu (Dinner Ideas)

How To Meal-Prep Your Week

Doing a little prep before the work week begins is always a great way to save time in the kitchen after a long day. I do mine on Sundays while listening to my favorites tunes or putting on one of my favorite reality tv shows (a guilty pleasure). This way cooking doesn’t feel like work but more like a relaxing meditation.

Here is how I do my own prep at home:

• I make a list of all the vegetables that need chopping and do as much chopping ahead of time. Especially garlic and onions since many of my recipes use them and they are my least favorite ingredients to chop. I save them separately in storage containers and arrange them neatly in my fridge.
• My husband and I prep all of our morning green juice ingredients and save them in storage containers. This way we can grab a container, dump it in the blender and add water and juice. Quick, easy, and healthy!
• I always have a container of cooked brown rice in the fridge since we eat it so frequently.
• I make salad dressings and stir fry sauces ahead of time, even if they are very simple and quick to make. I never buy store bought since they contain too much sugar and are generally unhealthy.
• Once every other week I make a pot of soup and tell myself there cannot be any leftovers. This forces me to eat healthier and it also saves me time and money (making soup is cheap!).
• I have a weekly menu I refer to so I don’t forget about ingredients that need to be thawed or purchased at the grocery store.
• Speaking of groceries, I like to do mine on a Tuesday or a Wednesday so I can get the freshest ingredients.

Download The Meal Plan

Tips For Successful Meal Planning

1. Prep your least favorite part of the meal ahead of time. If it’s chopping onion like it is for me, do it ahead so it doesn’t deter you from cooking dinner. If it’s boiling eggs, boil them ahead for the same reason.
2. Pay attention to what makes you not want to cook or what makes you say “let’s just order takeout”. Is it a specific part of cooking – chopping onions, having to cook rice, etc… – or is it simply because you are too exhausted? Say you already have cooked rice and prepped veggies in your fridge and all you had to do was cook a protein and saute some veggies, would you still avoid cooking or would the process look more appealing?
3. Keep an inventory of what’s about to go bad in your fridge and freezer. This will save you a ton of money! Make two inventory lists: one for the fridge and one for the freezer. The ingredients that are about to expire should be placed at the front of your fridge and freezer – just like grocery stores do! – so they can be used as soon as possible.
4. Try to do to keep your visits to the grocery store to a minimum. Once you have your meal plan for the week ready, make a grocery list of all the ingredients you need. This way you greatly minimize trips to the grocery store (I only need to go once or twice per week).
5. Keep your kitchen clean. This is so important! My husband hated cooking until I showed him that keeping his work area and kitchen sink clean made the world a difference. It creates less chaos around you which in turn creates less chaos in your head. It’s also very easy to keep your counters clean – as soon as you are done using a pot, plate, or bowl, wash it! This way your kitchen sink will remain empty and you won’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of cleaning left to do once you are done cooking. I learned that trick by working in professional kitchens. This is the only way restaurant kitchens can function successfully – by being as tidy as possible.

Download The Vegan Meal Plan

Vegan Meal Plan
Pickled Plum.