Plant-Based Meal Plan: Week 1

This plant-based meal plan features a week of daily menus – including breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. I do the planning, so you don't have to.

I've set a goal to get more organized in 2020 – including planning my meals. A little planning goes a long way toward maintaining a healthy lifestyle. And, since I'm doing the work anyway, I figured I should share the fruits of my labor!

I will continue to post a new meal plan each week. Each plan will include a downloadable shopping list and links to recipes.

Veggie Primer Test Kitchen

Developing recipes, taking photos, editing photos, writing and editing posts takes many hours. In order to share new recipes with you more easily, I have created a Test Kitchen category – which features recipes I am tweaking or simply have not had time to photograph or write about in detail.

If you try these recipes, I would especially appreciate hearing your comments, questions or suggestions so I can continue to fine-tune the content.

Recommended Appliances

I rely on several small kitchen appliances to prepare plant-based meals, including:

• Food Processor
• High-Speed Blender
• Stick Blender
• Slow Cooker
• Instant Pot®

The Tools section explains why I value each item. Except I need to update the content to show I've replaced my rice cooker with an Instant Pot®. If you don't have one, you can experiment with traditional stove-top cooking, but I recommend going the pressure/multi-cooker route if you can.

Week 1 Grocery List

I've gone over the ingredients for every recipe in this week's plan and made a grocery list. It includes quantities when appropriate, so you can compare it to what you may already have on hand.

Daily Menu Items

I begin each day with a tall glass of lemon water and I wait for at least 15-minutes before I eat or drink anything else. (Mix juice from ½ lemon with 12-ounces of water.)

I take the following supplements every day:

• B12
• D3
• Algae-derived DHA & EPA
• Zinc

My article Plant-Based Diet Problems & Solutions explains why I take these supplements. You should discuss your needs with your doctor.

I also drink water and herbal tea throughout the day. I usually enjoy a cup of Lemon Balm tea after breakfast, a cup of Ginger Turmeric tea after lunch and a cup of Chamomile or Dandelion Root tea in the evening.

Dessert

I have a gigantic sweet tooth. To avoid feeling deprived, once a week I make a healthier version of a traditional dessert. I time it so I can enjoy the treat over the weekend.

This week I'm making:

• Gluten-free Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

They will go great with my evening tea.

Week 1 Day 1 Menu

Breakfast

• Buckwheat Porridge

You can follow the recipe above, or you can do what I usually do. I cook buckwheat groats in the Instant Pot® (1 cup groats and 3 cups water.) Then I add rice milk, spices, fruit and nuts to each serving. This allows me to mix things up.

A favorite combo includes:

• cinnamon
• frozen wild blueberries (microwaved 50-seconds, stirring after 30-seconds to thaw)
• raisins
• dates
• hemp seeds

I store the leftover porridge in the fridge and warm up individual servings with a bit of rice milk in the microwave (1.5-minutes.)

Lunch

• Black Bean Wrap
• Carrot sticks

Snack

• Apple slices

Dinner

• Slow Cooker Lentil Soup with Sweet Potatoes

You can bake the sweet potatoes as the recipe indicates - or you can dice them and add them to the slow cooker with the other ingredients.

Week 1 Day 2 Menu

Breakfast

• Quick Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal

You can follow the recipe above or simplify things a bit. I often microwave ½ cup of gluten-free old-fashioned rolled oats with ½ cup of water and ½ cup of rice milk. Then I add the spices, fruits, and nuts.

A favorite combo includes:

• pumpkin spice
• frozen dark sweet cherries (microwaved for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds to thaw)
• raisins
• dates
• pumpkin seeds

Lunch

• Leftover lentil soup

Snack

• Dried mango slices

Dinner

• Curried Veggie Patties
• Steamed Broccoli with Lemon
• Oven-Baked Mixed Potato Fries

Week 1 Day 3 Menu

Breakfast

• Buckwheat porridge
• Suggested toppings:
  • cinnamon
  • wild blueberries
  • raisins
  • dates
  • ground flax seeds

Lunch

• Ginger Butternut Carrot Soup
• Cucumber Sandwich with Turmeric White Bean Spread

I will likely make the soup in the morning or the night before.

Snack

• Orange slices

Dinner

• Easy Homemade Veggie Pizza

Week 1 Day 4 Menu

Breakfast

• Oatmeal
• Suggested toppings:
  • pumpkin spice
  • dark sweet cherries
  • raisins
  • dates
  • pumpkin seeds

Lunch

• Leftover Ginger Butternut Carrot Soup
• Cucumber Sandwich with Turmeric White Bean Spread

Snack

• Grapes

Dinner

• Instant Pot® Spinach Dal over Brown Rice

Week 1 Day 5 Menu

Breakfast

• Buckwheat porridge
• Suggested toppings:
  • cinnamon
  • wild blueberries
  • raisins
  • dates
  • hemp seeds

Lunch

• Leftover spinach dal over brown rice

Snack

• Apple slices

Dinner

• Big Salad

Week 1 Day 6 Menu

Breakfast

• Oatmeal
• Suggested toppings:
  • pumpkin spice
  • dark sweet cherries
  • raisins
  • dates
  • pumpkin seeds

Lunch

• Big Salad

Snack

• Dried mango slices

Dinner

• Slow Cooker 3 Bean Chili

Week 1 Day 7 Menu

Breakfast

• Buckwheat porridge
• Suggested Toppings:
  • cinnamon
  • wild blueberries
  • raisins
  • dates
  • ground flax seeds

Lunch

• Leftover Chili

Snack

• Grapes or Orange slices

Dinner

• Loaded Portobello Sandwich

I will likely swap the bread for a gluten-free wrap and double up on the greens.

Plant-Based Meal Plan Week 1 Review

Here's a quick overview of this week's menus:

Here's how things went for me: The selection of fresh baby greens was lacking when I did my shopping. The store was also out of vegetable broth. So, I modified the Slow Cooker Lentil Soup recipe.

I used 5 cups of water in the place of the broth and bumped up the salt to ½ teaspoon and the pepper to ¼ tsp. And I added 2 cups of frozen chopped collard greens to the pot instead of stirring in fresh baby spinach at the end. For the sake of convenience, I also added chopped sweet potatoes to the slow cooker instead of baking then. The substitutions worked well. I might repeat this approach!

There was a fair amount of leftover soup, dal, and chili. Instead of freezing the leftovers I opted to eat them in place of the big salads and portobello sandwich. I don't mind eating the same thing a few days in a row. But if you prefer more variety, you can always freeze leftovers for when you are pressed for time.

I encourage you to share how the week went for you in the comment area below.

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