One of the questions that often comes up around the possibility of switching to plant-based eating is around how to actually, practically, change out meal plans that we regularly eat at home, or what to eat at restaurants and buy at the grocery store. This is not a comprehensive list, but here are a few simple, easy changes to get you started.
- Dairy and Related Products
- Yogurt, milk and cheese: Countless dairy-free (DF) options are available. Check your local stores, and find your favourite. Buy at the store, or make your own, depending on your available time, and preferences.
- Homemade milk/gravy can be made easily at home. There are lots of recipes online – a quick search will help you find your favourites. Here is a bit of an outline.
- Milk: 1 cups almonds plus 4 cups water. Blend and add sweeteners/flavour as desired. Strain if you wish. If your sweetener needs blending (eg dates) add it at the beginning. If not (eg agave) add it whenever you want. A bit of vanilla (to taste) is lovely!
- Creamy Gravy: 1 cup cashews and one cup water. Blend together and you have a base for making sauces etc. Add flavours (eg garlic, onions, herbs and spices, nutritional yeast etc) as desired. Put on pasta, rice, potatoes or just about anything else!
Sandwich toppings:
Do you ever mix egg/chicken/tuna or anything else with mayo and put it in a sandwich for a quick lunch? Here’s your substitute:
Chickpea salad: Take a tin or two (or a jar or two of home-canned) chickpeas. Drain and partly mash. Add egg-free mayo and flavour as desired. (Dried garlic, onion, celery, a bit of relish, dill etc are all great!). Mix together and put in your sandwich, with a salad or veggies/hummus on the side. Quick and easy!
Main courses/Sides:
Potato salad: Does your traditional recipe for potato salad have hard-boiled eggs in it? (Ours did). Take out the eggs, and throw in some chickpeas, in addition to switching to egg-free mayo. The flavour and texture work really well, and it adds some protein. Especially good in summer with a veggie burger! 🙂
Traditional meat and potatoes: Want to do something like traditional meat/sausage with potatoes (mashed or roasted). Keep the meal the same, but switch to Beyond Meat or a similar option. It’s a simple switch and the rest of the meal stays basically the same.
Scrambled Eggs/ omelette: Instead of scrambling eggs with some veggies, cube some extra-firm tofu and fry that up with some peppers or other veggies instead. Melt some DF cheese on top, if you would like. Great with toast on the side!
More Resources and info here:
The Protein Puzzle: Picking up the Pieces – Center for Nutrition Studies
Plant-Based Food Tips: Healthy Recipe Substitutions Link
Sheet Pan Dinners 101
How Carbs Became a Dietary Supervillain (And why we actually need carbs, and a lot less protein than you might think. :))
If you eliminate carbohydrates from your diet and put your body into a state of ketosis, whereby it’s forced to burn fat to make ketones for energy, it can lead to short-term weight loss. But keeping your body in a state of ketosis is neither sustainable nor healthful, and it does not fulfill the long-term promise of effective weight loss. Indeed, observational population studies show that high-protein, high-fat diets are associated not only with more health problems but also obesity.
When looking at long-term and sustained weight loss without mandated exercise or calorie restriction, the most effective eating pattern has been shown to be a whole-food, plant-based diet (low in fat and high in unprocessed carbohydrates).
Link
Why You Should Say No to the Keto Diet: Link
The ketogenic diet has swept the country up with the hope of a miracle diet, but, in the end, it may only bring us down with disappointment. Let food be thy medicine, but not if you need actual medicine to support thy food.
Link
