Plant Based Meal Planning

How I plan my family’s plant-based meals

For dinner I base all of our meals around complex carbohydrates (starches), e.g. potatoes/sweet potatoes, whole meal pasta or brown rice. Sometimes we’ll have wholemeal bread/wraps, quinoa or pearl barley, but not as often.

So when planning meals I first choose potatoes, pasta or rice (or other complex carbohydrate). Then decide what to have with them, or what recipe to use them in. Almost all meals include legumes (eg lentils/chickpeas/black beans/red kidney beans are the ones we eat most often) and vegetables, either cooked or raw.

Super Simple Meal Formula

Also, you can put together a quick, simple and easy meal using this formula, as opposed to using a recipe. I like following this formula as I can just use whatever I have in my fridge/pantry and it’s easy. I don’t need a recipe that I have to follow. This sort of meal is sometimes called a nourish bowl, grain bowl, or Buddha bowl.

Click here to see the super simple meal formula

15 Minute Meals

I also keep on hand some staple ingredients that I can use to make super quick 10-15 minute meals. Below are three examples of some 15 minute meals that I make.

10 minute burrito bowl

10 minute chickpea pita pockets (or wraps)

15 minute rice and black bean soup

There are some staple pre-prepared ingredients available from the supermarket that will make quick meals really easy. My favourites are: canned beans (e.g. chickpeas/bnlack beans), frozen/canned corn kernels, microwave brown rice, pasta sauce or salsa in a jar, frozen/canned veggies.