I have another week of vegan family meal inspiration for you, for the sake of this post I am pretending we ate it over 7 nights but in actual fact it was a bit more spaced out with some ‘fill-in’ quick meals in-between. There are days when I just can’t be bothered to cook from scratch and on those days we usually resort to pasta with pesto. It wouldn’t make a very inspirational post if I just showed you 3 nights of pasta pesto though 😉
It’s actually one of the reasons I don’t always meal plan, it’s much better financially but I can sometimes be a bit lazy at the end of the day and when I’m like that the thought of cooking just doesn’t appeal to me, tonight was actually one of those nights and instead of having the butterbean and fennel stew I had planned, we actually ended up having vegan sausage rolls with baked beans. I think it’s fine to do that sometimes though, it’s all about balance right?!
Monday: Puff pastry tart. The kids absolutely love this, we don’t have it very often because puff pastry isn’t the healthiest of things but having a roll in the fridge means that I can quickly knock this up when we get home late. I just spread pesto on it then add some peppers and vegan cheese then bake it for 15 mins. So quick and easy and it’s mega tasty too.
Tuesday: Aloo gobi with rice. I searched on Pinterest for a vegan aloo gobi recipe and found so many that I can’t remember which one I used but I would imagine they are pretty similar. I added some coconut soya yoghurt too to make it a creamy. I had to use sweet potatoes instead of normal ones (I’m intolerant) which is a shame as I love potatoes but it was still nice, some mango chutney would have made it better but I always throw ours away when I’m having a refined sugar clear out – then I always regret it at times like this!
Wednesday: So I know I just wrote I was intolerant to potatoes but having cut them out for 8 months I do keep attempting to eat them in the hope I can tolerate them but I end up with terrible headaches, brain fog and extreme tiredness as a result. Sometimes it is worth that though, and cooking crispy wedges for everyone else is when I get tempted. So on this occasion I ended up eating some and boy were they yummy. I think I appreciate them more now than I ever did when I was allowed to eat them. This meal was actually a bit random, it was basically ratatouille sprinkled with nutritional yeast and roast potatoes and parsnips, next time I will add some beans to the ratatouille to make it more of a complete meal. It was really good though.
Thursday: Olive and tomato pasta. For this I fry some garlic in oil then add lots of fresh tomatoes, herbs and olives. Leave it to simmer for a while then stir into pasta, it’s really tasty and so simple. I think I added peppers to this too actually. And it’s sprinkled in nutritional yeast, if you haven’t heard of nutritional yeast or ‘nooch’ then it’s a vegans best friend! It’s described as being ‘cheesy’ which completely grosses Matt out, not sure why as powdered yeast is nowhere near as gross as what actual cheese is but he’s funny about these things! I love it though, I sprinkle it on pasta, make cheese sauces with it, add it to gravy and stews.. it’s amazing!
Friday: Mexican wraps. I made some refried beans, roasted some chickpeas and sweet potato and fried some peppers with tinned tomatoes and spices then whacked it all in a wrap with some vegan cheese. Super tasty! The refried bean recipe was out of Keep it Vegan by Aine Carlin. I love the wraps by Crosta &Â Mollica, they are the only ones I can find in supermarkets that don’t have a super long list of ingredients you’ve never heard of.
Saturday: Pizza. I make the base without yeast so you don’t have to wait hours for it to rise, I use this recipe by Elephantastic Vegan. I actually prefer yeast free bases to so usually make these even if I do have time to wait for them to rise. If I’m in a rush then I just use passata for the sauce, if I have more time then I cook it down with oil and garlic. Then we top with the VioLife pizza cheese, peppers and I usually make pesto out of basil, oil and pine nuts. It looks like I just sprinkled the basil on afterwards this time though, which is good too.
Sunday: Burrito bowls. I used the recipe on the Oh She Glows app for this meal, I’ve made it a few times before and we really like it. The whole app is fab actually, everything I’ve made has been great. The chocolate muffins and enchiladas are favourites of mine. Matt hates coriander, which is super annoying as I LOVE it and would add it to everything. There are so many times I try and sneak it in to meals hoping he won’t notice but he always does so now I have to add it after.
So that is another week of plant-based family meal ideas. Hope you’ve enjoyed seeing what we eat, it’s one of my favourite things to know about other people 🙂
You can find week 1 here.
You can find some more vegan meal inspiration here…
