Cathleen Woods - Vegan Meal Plans for Spring and Summer

Vegan Meal Plans for Springand Summer

By Cathleen Woods

Copyright 2011-2012 Cathleen Woods

Smashwords Edition

Welcome!

Whether you are brand new to the veganlifestyle, settling into it, or a veteran, it can be hard to figureout how to design a meal plan that is nutritious, filling, andstill absolutely delicious. Sometimes I find myself in the kitchenwith three or four cookbooks open to put together one meal. Notonly does that take up too much space, but it gets confusing andit's hard to do every night of the week.

Enter my month's worth of meal plans!

These vegan dinner plans are perfect for busyfamilies on the go who simply don't have time to design a healthyvegan meal plan on their own. Each meal is designed for a family offour, but can easily be halved, doubled, tripled, or quadrupled forsmaller or larger families. Often you can make a double or triplebatch of something and divide it into containers for lunches ordinners later in the week.

I've always heard that if you can master 10meals, you can successfully intertwine them amongst each other tocreate dinners anytime you want. My hope is that after using thismeal plan, you will have a good idea of how to create and balance avegan meal by yourself.

This booklet include meal plans, recipes,pictures, weekly grocery lists, and nutritional information foreach meal. I want this to be a good indication of what real veganseat. Nothing is super fancy or difficult to make, and everythingcan be made by even the busiest people, within an hour. There are afew ingredients that would be foreign to a new vegan, and I try toexplain those in depth to make it easy to understand, as well asprovide ideas on where to find those ingredients.

You can make these recipes in any order youchoose. Each week I've designed them to use similar ingredientsthroughout the week to minimize the food you need to buyweekly.

In the pursuit of making these menus easy andaccessible, each week I have one really quick (under 20 minutes ofpreparation and cooking combined) meal for that crazy night whenyou have no time to do anything. Feel free to move that meal aroundto the day of the week that gives you the most trouble!

These recipes focus on the abundance ofspring vegetables that are available to most of us in the NorthernHemisphere from around April-August, depending on where you live.In the pursuit of living sustainably, I try to eat mostly what's inseason and what grows in my local area. You'll notice a lot ofstrawberries, spring greens, and others because I snag them in thefew weeks they are available and make everything I can think ofduring that time.

Note: This is not a specifically gluten-freeor soy-free menu booklet. You can easy make any of these recipesgluten-free and soy-free. The booklet is not dominated by any onebean or grain, so there isn't much soy. Also keep in mind that thenutritional data I provide isn't an exact science and it depends onthe brands you use in your household. If you are looking to loseweight, for most of the recipes you can simply use less olive oilfor cooking, fewer nuts, and cut back on fattier fruits likeavocados and coconuts. For the rest of the vegetables, wholegrains, and beans, go nuts!

I hope you enjoy!

This week's meal plan will help your bodytransition from the cold, winter months to the warmer spring. Forthose days when it's still a bit nippy outside, we the comfort ofsplit pea soup and vegetable pot pies. On the warmer days, not muchis better than a grilled portobello sandwich or a nice light bulgursalad.

If it's warm enough outside to barbecue,there's nothing quite like grilled portobello mushrooms. You canalso make these inside if it's still too chilly outside.

Portobello sandwiches often make it ontotypical restaurant menus, but sometimes something gets lost in thevegan translation, resulting in a tasteless mushroom on dry bread.These are delicious, and the longer you have to devote tomarination, the better. If you're busy, you can throw all theingredients in a plastic bag and store it in the fridge overnightand then grill them quickly for dinner.

8 big portobello mushroom caps

1/2 c. balsamic vinegar

1/4 c. tamari soy sauce

1 c. water

1 tsp. dried rosemary

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. oregano

2 cloves garlic, grated

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 Tbsp. olive oil for sauteing

1 c. watercress or spring greens

4 whole grain hamburger buns

4 servings vegenaise or other condiment,optional

Mix vinegar, tamari, water, rosemary, thyme,oregano, garlic, and pepper together and place the mushrooms in acontainer that allows the marinade to cover the mushrooms. I liketo throw everything in a large Ziploc bag and shake it aroundperiodically. Marinate for 30 minutes to overnight.

Heat olive oil in pan and cook mushrooms for3-5 minutes on one side, then turn and cook for 3-5 minutes longer.Add the remaining marinade to pan and cover, cooking for 5-7minutes longer and then flip for another 5-7 minutes. Yourmushrooms will be fork tender and juicy with the absorbedmarinade.

Serve with hamburger buns slathered with yourfavorite condiments and piled high with greens. You will want touse two big mushrooms per person.

Per serving: 256 calories, 6g fat, 51calories from fat, 14g protein, 39g carbohydrates, 7g dietaryfiber, 0mg cholesterol, 1291 mg sodium, 33.5mcg vitamin K, 1.1mgriboflavin, 12mg niacin, 428mg phosphorous, 2.2mg manganese,54.5mcg selenium, 1mg copper, 5.1mg iron

You are going to flip when you try thesesweet potatoes. The flavor of the sauce is so fantastic. I highlyencourage you to use fresh lime juice as it has much better flavorthan the bottled equivalent.

3 large sweet potatoes

4 Tbsp. olive oil, divided

1 garlic clove, minced

1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

Pinch of sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line a cookiesheet with aluminum foil.

I like to leave the skins on my sweetpotatoes, but you can peel them if you like. Quarter them and takeout any hard bumps. Place them in a bowl and toss with half theolive oil, then put on the cookie sheet.

Bake the sweet potatoes for about 30 minutes,until a fork easily slides into them, but not until they fallapart. Let them cool for 15 minutes.

Toss the baked sweet potatoes with theremaining ingredients and serve warm.

*Note: In the picture, I used white sweetpotatoes. Normally they look dark orange after being baked.