I'm New To Plant-Based Eating; Here's What A Week Of Meals Looks Like For Me
Hi! I’m Eboné, a freelance writer in Long Beach, California. Earlier this year, I decided to switch to a plant-based diet. For anyone who might be thinking about making a similar change (or for anyone just curious!), I wanted to walk through a recent week of plant-based meals — and how I go about planning for them.
Let me start off by saying I am single with no kids, I work remotely, and my schedule is super flexible. Most of the time, I cook or prepare one recipe at a time, and I only make enough for one serving.
It's not the biggest time-saving way to go about life, but I enjoy taking time away from the computer to chop, cook, and sit down to eat.
I don't have a car, so every time I order groceries, I get enough to last me at least two weeks. I usually have my groceries delivered via Amazon Prime — and it costs around $40 to $60 per week depending on what I'm replacing.
For my meals, I don't really prep every single component, but I do try to bulk-cook a few staples each week if possible.
Here are a few things I do tend to prep:
? Stir-fry veggies: I like to chop bell peppers and onions and refrigerate or freeze them.
? Beans: I buy dried beans and make a large Crock Pot of black beans, then freeze them in portions. It's easy to have them for when I want to make burritos, bowls, or black bean burgers.
? Bananas: I mostly use bananas for smoothies. I buy them, and as soon as they start to ripen, I'll eat one or two fresh — then peel, slice, and freeze the rest. (I don't freeze them in the peel. I have reusable food storage bags for them.)
Spinach - Spinach either seems to come in bags that get used at once or giant containers that feed 10 people. I treat spinach like I do bananas, using some fresh and freezing the rest. I prefer buying fresh spinach over frozen because I think it tastes different.
For creating a shopping list, I find that it really helps to have staple recipes to keep coming back to.
I might have a few new recipes in mind when I place my grocery order, but for the most part, I have a few staple items I can make easily. And I get creative by looking at what I have left and making something out of that. I try to waste as little food as possible.
My haul this week came up to $141. That's more than usual because I had to replenish pantry items and condiments, and there were a few other non-standard items in my cart. The produce will last around two weeks, and the rest of the items will last a month or more.
Here's what I got!
Veggies: Carrots, romaine hearts, mushrooms, bell peppers, frozen mixed vegetables, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, cilantro, green onions, parsley, garlic, jalape?os.
Fruit: Grapes, mangoes, cherries, dates, apples, blueberries, watermelon.
Pantry: Tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, black olives, capers, coconut aminos, Sriracha, brown rice, black beans, vegetable broth, nori, rice paper, spaghetti.
Etc.: Oat milk, extra firm tofu, refills of spices, olive oil, and seasonings
My avocado supply is free!
Avo isn't included in my grocery list but does show up in my meals. My mama has a tree, so I get all the free avo.
First thing in the morning, I have water and coffee or matcha. I don't get around to my first meal until 11 a.m. or noon most days.
Breakfast: I wanted to eat something quick and filling before heading out the door. Oatmeal it is!
I made steel-cut oats cooked in oat milk and water so it would be creamy but not too thicc. I added cinnamon and nutmeg, and today I topped it with sliced strawberries and dates. My other favorite oatmeal flavor combo is banana and peanut butter.
Lunch: I was feeling ambitious. I tried making spring rolls. NAILED IT! ?? (JK, it's a hot mess.)
The rice paper was not *as* easy to work with as I thought, but I could see how I'll get better over time.
In the rolls, I included carrots, red bell peppers, cucumber, spinach, tomato, and cilantro. It was fresh and light, and I helped it out with some coconut aminos — which is a gluten-free alternative to soy sauce.
YouTube helped me with my julienne skills.
Snack: After that, I had some of the most delicious mango I've ever experienced.
Dinner: A very colorful burrito bowl
I made a big batch of brown rice in my rice cooker and stored most of it to use throughout the week.
The base of this bowl is beans and rice, topped with homemade salsa (tomatoes, onion, lime, garlic, cilantro, jalepe?os, and lime juice), sliced avocado, and green onions.
I squiggled on some Sriracha and devoured it while watching Schitt's Creek.
Breakfast: Tofu Breakfast Hash
I am very surprised to say that making this vegan breakfast hash has been one of my recent favorites. I make it several times a week.
Recipe: Simple Southwest Tofu Scramble
I'll walk you through a bit of it — it's fairly easy once you get the hang of it. I start by chopping and cooking the potatoes, onions, garlic, peppers, jalepe?o, and seasoning.
I like to cook up this part first because the potatoes can take a while to get fully cooked and crispy the way I like.
While this is cooking, I crumble the tofu and mix the seasoning for the tofu.
A tip I learned for making these tofu "eggs" is to mix the dry spices together and then add a little water. Then pour that liquid on the tofu pieces and stir it around while cooking. It coats the tofu better than dry spices so you get that flavor it needs.
I'll press the tofu beforehand, then crumble it.
Tofu needs to be pressed before making this, or you'll get the weird tofu-y consistency everyone hates. Apparently, there's a special device for doing this.
I don't have a tofu press, so I wrap my tofu in a kitchen towel and then set a cast-iron skillet on top. I let it sit for an hour or so. It may not need that long, but I like it to be as dry as possible.
Then break it into crumbles, coat in the seasoning mixture, and then add to the pan.
Lunch: The hash filled me up, so I wasn't super hungry by lunch. A salad does the trick.
Salad with fruit. Kinda random but tasty.
Dinner: Sushi with brown rice and leftover julienned veggies.
This was pretty similar to the rice rolls, but this went WAY better. I don't have a sushi mat or whatever else I'm supposed to have. (I be bootleggin' it over here.)
The first time I made sushi, I put down a kitchen towel and used a giant Ziploc bag as my mat. To my surprise, it worked! So I've been making sushi this way and never bothered getting a mat.
I filled the sushi with leftover veggies from the spring rolls, then dipped everything in coconut aminos and Sriracha for extra flavor.
Breakfast: On Wednesday, I woke up with a craving for an a?ai bowl. I didn't want to pay a million bucks for one, so I went to the store and got the frozen a?ai pouches.
The box came with four packs of a?aí and was about $10. I blended it with a couple of frozen bananas and some oat milk. Then, I topped it with fresh berries, dates, and sunflower seeds.
Lunch: I used the brown rice I made earlier in the week to make fried rice. SUPER EASY and QUICK.
For this, I diced onions, added the rest of the julienned carrots I still had, then added frozen mixed veggies.
After that cooked and the veggies got softer, I added the rice and seasoned it.
Then I topped it with fresh green onions, and as usual, the coconut aminos and Sriracha made an appearance for this meal as well.
By dinner, I was in a soup mood so I made what I guess I'd consider a brothy, Thai-inspired soup.
I added green onions, mushrooms, carrots, and garlic to a pot of vegetable broth with rice vinegar, coconut aminos, and other seasonings. Once the veggies got softer, I added rice noodles.
This has been one of my favorite go-to dinners. So easy, tasty, and filling.
I used what I had on hand, but here's a good-looking similar recipe to try by Choosing Chia.
Recipe: Northern-Style Thai Coconut Soup
Breakfast: I had the tofu breakfast scramble again. I really love it!
Lunch: I spent the day out and about hanging with my mom and running errands (aka, shopping). By 4 p.m., we were starving and went to Chipotle.
I got a burrito bowl with sofritas. Before this year, I had no idea Chipotle had a vegan protein, and now I get it a few times a month.
Sofritas is Chipotle's braised tofu. It's got a good texture and a lot of flavor. It has a saucy base, so it will make your bowl a little soggy.
My bowl had white cilantro rice, black beans, fajita veggies, sofritas, pico de gallo, salsa, and lettuce. And I got a side of chips and guac.
You can make your own sofritas bowl with this recipe!
Recipe: Sofritas Burrito Bowl
Dinner: I wasn't all that hungry, but I stir-fried some veggies and air-fried potatoes. I picked at it, but packed it up for another day.
Breakfast: I wanted a?ai again, but a whole bowl seemed like a lot of work. So I just made it a smoothie.
Lunch: Basic salad with crispy spicy tofu strips that I tossed in the air fryer.
A few weeks ago, I came across a honey Sriracha tofu meal on a menu. That flavor combo is right up my alley, so ever since then, I wanted to try my hand at it.
I made a marinade of coconut aminos, Sriracha, brown sugar, and herbs de Provence. I thinly sliced the tofu (don't forget to press it first!), and then coated it in the marinade and baked, then flipped it, basted again, and baked till it was crispy. It was good! So proud of me.
I threw together a salad with some veggies that needed to be used.
Here's another recipe you can try. Just nix the honey to make it vegan if you need to.
Recipe: Honey Sriracha Tofu
Dinner: I went out to dinner at Yardhouse Friday night. (Heyyyyy, date nights are back!)
Yardhouse had more options than I thought they would! I wanted something filling, but I didn't want a vegan burger.
I got the guacamole and their Gardein wings from the appetizers list. With those and a couple of drinks, I was good and full!
Breakfast: I had some work to do this morning, so I made a green smoothie and got to it.
The smoothie had banana, spinach, dates, and oat milk.
Lunch: Leftovers. The veggies and potatoes I didn't eat on Thursday came in handy for a quick meal.
For dinner, all I wanted was PASTAAAA! The cat wasn't convinced, but he was curious.
I made a recipe I saw on Cookie and Kate. I'm a fan of capers and olives, so this was a great recipe for me! I usually add more red chile flakes for extra spice, and I didn't have zucchini this time, so I left that part out.
Recipe: Vegan Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
Breakfast: Oatmeal again for breakfast, and then I was out for the day.
Lunch: When I got home, I attempted a sesame tofu with broccoli. Not my best work aesthetically, but it did taste good!
I attempted to make the tofu crispy by coating it in cornstarch, but it didn't quite work out for me this time. Maybe because I used a cast-iron skillet instead of nonstick.
My finished product wasn't IG-worthy, but the flavor was good. I'll just have to figure out where I went wrong. I'll give this version of the recipe a try next time!
Recipe: Tofu and Broccoli
Dinner: Delivery from Veggie Grill
I hung out with the bestie for an afternoon of lounging and wasn't in the mood to cook.
When we got back inside, I ordered a VG Classic Burger and fries and a chocolate parfait from Veggie Grill through UberEats.
It's delicious every time. Even my "Ew, I don't do vegan" friends love the food there.