VEGAN for a Week Day 3 Meals + Mexican Potato Casserole

Breakfast:
A cinnamon roll breakfast smoothie HERE with frozen bananas so it turned out to be more like a shake or frosty consistency.

Snack:
Toast with guacamole

Lunch:
Oven roasted potatoes with guacamole, then ketchup when I got tired of the guacamole.

Snacks:
Some grapes Calvin didn't finish.
Vegan cookies and almond milk. I just made my regular chocolate chip cookies with almond milk instead of eggs, all shortening instead of butter, and no chocolate chips. And yes, I totally had more than is pictured.

Dinner:
Mexican Casserole inspired by THIS, but here's what I actually put together:
3 large Russet potatoes sliced like french fries
1 can seasoned chili beans
1 cup salsa
2 tablespoons taco seasoning
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Totally should have boiled the potatoes awhile beforehand. Some were squishy, some were kind of hard. My husband still ate it though! Success! He did complain about the chunks of stuff in the salsa... so next time I'll have to puree it before adding it in.
Baked at 400 degrees for 25 min.

Snack:
Toast with peanut butter, cinnamon, and chia seeds.

This is the day I started to feel like I was starving and realized I needed to eat more.

Thanks for reading.
Love,
Alaina

VEGAN for a Week Day 2 Meals : Work Day

Day two, a work day. You can see there was less snacking because I was at work and didn't have many options for snacks.

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with peanut butter, almond milk, vanilla, cacoa nibs, chia seeds, maple syrup

Lunch:
Leftover fried veggie quinoa

Dinner:
Crescents with tomatoes

Snacks:
Crescents with jelly
Chips and salsa

Thanks for reading.
Love,
Alaina

VEGAN for a Week Day 1 Meals + My Favorite Easy Homemade Granola Recipe

Original post HERE.

Day one down.
Since it was Memorial Day we went to a family BBQ in the afternoon.

Now I did learn something from this first day having attended a family get-together where food was out. You're probably less likely to endlessly snack on random stuff if you know half of it isn't part of your diet. In that aspect, I can see how a diet like this would help you lose weight. It's harder to come by real, whole food snacks at an event like that, while all the processed stuff is readily available.

I ended up making my own dinner (not what I originally had planned) because my husband wasn't hungry after eating at the BBQ and I only had to feed myself.

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So this is what I ate:

Breakfast:
Oatmeal with coconut flakes (should have added them afterwards, they were squishy after microwaving, I like them crunchy), cacoa nibs, maple syrup, almond milk

Snacks:
2 kiwis & a can of roasted and seasoned chickpeas (recipe below)

Lunch:
Wrap with whole wheat tortilla, garlic hummus (store bought), spinach, tomatoes, roasted chickpeas

Snacks:
Went to a BBQ and had carrots, broccoli, watermelon, honeydew, vegan s'mores (made by my sister in law, I don't have the recipe)

Dinner:
Fried veggie quinoa

Snack:
Homemade granola with almond milk (recipe below)
I love me a sweet snack after dinner, that's my weakness! And it feels good to make that snack something healthier.
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Roasted & Seasoned Chickpeas
1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed. Then sandwich them in a clean dish towel and roll them around gently to get as much moisture off as possible.
Toss them in 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne.
Bake at 400 for 35 min. I ate it all in one sitting, you could split it into two snacks, but the chickpeas lose some crunchiness if you don't eat them immediately.

Yummiest Granola Ever :)
2 cups oats
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup cacoa nibs
1/8 cup coconut oil
1/8 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix wet and dry separately, then combine, bake at 300 for 25 min. Makes about 4 bowls of granola cereal.

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Alaina

Vegan For a Week Challenge : Meal Plan w/ non-vegan Husband

Over the last couple years I've gone through spurts wondering if I could go vegetarian or vegan. I've watched plenty of documentaries on Netflix that give me inspiration to eat better. I've definitely added more fruit and veggies and real food to my diet. But the one thing that's finally pushed me over the edge to really give it a go is Ellen Fisher. If you haven't watched her on YouTube, you should. Her editing style is beautiful. Her family is just too precious. She's vegan. And... why can't we all live in Hawaii?! Just asking...

I tried reducing our family's meat intake a couple times, but always found it so difficult with the world's pickiest eater of a husband! Seriously, he's pretty bad, especially about real food. He picks chunks of tomato out of spaghetti and just plain won't eat anything where he sees a single piece of onion, although he likes the flavor. As far as real food is concerned, the only stuff he eats are rice, beans, potatoes, and corn. And so I've incorporated those into some of our dishes for the week.

And I think that's my biggest hang up. I don't want to make two meals every night! And I know if I left him on his own, his eating habits would only worsen. He would have frozen pizza and pizza rolls and fast food for dinner if I refused to cook for him. So what am I supposed to do? Should I abandon him and only worry about me and Calvin (our two year old)? Or should I make meals big enough for us both, only for him to take one bite? Or should I just cook his regular old meals and make myself something else, doing twice the work? Seriously. Someone tell me what to do!

So this week, I've come up with the best compromise I could think of. I found recipes I thought were easy enough to make us both happy. I've included how I'll alter them for us both. I hope this gives you a little inspiration. And for real, if you're vegan or vegetarian cooking for a household that isn't, please help me out. How do you do it?
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Monday:
Mexican Potato Casserole (inspired by THIS)
salsa, beans, corn, small cubed potatoes, nutritional yeast, taco seasoning
cheese for Justin's half

Tuesday:
Crescent Rolls
crescent rolls (see other surprising vegan foods HERE) filled with
pepperoni and mozzarella for Justin
hummus and tomatoes for me

Wednesday:
leftover casserole
(maybe scoop it into tortillas to switch things up)

Thursday:
Bean & Corn Enchiladas
enchilada sauce, beans, corn, tortillas
cheese for Justin's
(I think I'll roughly squish up the beans so they don't go rolling out)

Friday:
Flatbread Pizzas
homemade vegan flatbread HERE
tomato sauce for both
pepperoni and mozzarella for Justin
veggies for me

Saturday/Sunday + All Lunches:
Salad - Italian dressing, spinach, tomatoes, etc.
Wraps - guacamole, hummus, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, mixed frozen veggies, etc.
Sandwiches on super seed bread
Veggie fried quinoa
And Justin's on his own (ha!), sometimes we just don't plan much for the weekends, so this isn't unusual.

Breakfast Options:
oatmeal - coconut flakes, cacoa nibs, maple syrup, peanut butter, berries, applesauce, etc.
toast - peanut butter, jelly, chia seeds, etc.
chia seed pudding with homemade granola
homemade granola with almond milk
Homemade Granola guide HERE

Snacks:
kiwi
grapes
seasoned, baked chickpeas
potato fries
smoothies
Cinnamon roll smoothie HERE
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Thanks for reading.
Love,
Alaina