The Plant-Based Family: A guide to feeding your family that’s good for them and good for the planet, too!

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by Samantha Enos

Three years ago, my family of five decided to go vegan after watching a few documentaries on food. It was a challenge at first with three kids (ages 2 to 7 at the time) but now I’ve developed a list of some of my family’s favorite recipes. I want to share it with you as a starting point for those who want the best health for their families and our planet. Enjoy!

Super eggy tofu vegan scramble, LovingItVegan.com

Breakfast/baked goods

• Banana pancakes (thebigmansworld.com). Note: throw in a few pieces of previously cooked beets for a pink pancake
• Berry scuffins (dreenaburton.com)
• Banana bread/muffins (Plant-Powered Families cookbook)
• Cinnamon french toast (Plant-Powered Families cookbook)
• Almond granola (Plant-Powered Families cookbook)
• Super eggy vegan tofu scramble (lovingitvegan.com)
• Avocado toast (plant-based4health.com)
• Gluten-free (GF) yeasted breads (glutenfreebakingacademy.com).  Note: no recipes on this site, but for those that want GF breads, the course is very complete.

Snacks

New mama glo bars, OhSheGlows.com

• New mama glo bars (ohsheglows.com). Note: Although they were designed to be great for new moms, my kids love these, especially with chocolate chips.
• Caramel corn (dreenaburton.com)
• Chickpea nibbles (Plant-Powered Families cookbook).  Note: these are great, but for my kids there is an even better recipe in author, Dreena Burton’s, Plant-Powered Snacks ebook (scroll down on web page for ebooks)
• Polenta croutons (Plant-Powered Families cookbook)
• Vanilla chia pudding (simple-veganista.com). Note: I use ½ almond and ½ coconut milk. Kids love it! Top with berries.
• Seedy sourdough crackers (scratch-eats.com). Note: these use sourdough, which is a bit time-consuming, but simple to make.  Check out Fresh is Real for a starter recipe with brown rice flour for the GF version.

Main meals

Vegan fettucine alfredo, TheVegan8.com

• Chickpea/buckwheat nuggets(yumUniverse.com) with a side of ranch (thevegancorner.com). Note: these nuggets have a few steps, so a bit more advanced, but my kids love them!
• ( Zucchini fritters (dreenaburton.com)
• No-tuna salad sandwich (forksoverknives.com)
• Potato salad (Plant-Powered Families cookbook)
• 20-min Vegan alfredo or Best garlic alfredo (thevegan8.com). Both great!
• Minestrone soup (Forks over Knives cookbook)
• Lentils ragu (thevegancorner.com).  Note: use this under mashed potatoes for a shepherd’s pie or over pasta as two meal options. I double this recipe and freeze left-overs for another meal.
• Nutty burgers (dreenaburton.com)
• Supergreen pesto pasta (Pantry to Plate cookbook)
• Broccoli risotto (vegandad.blogspot.com)
• Creamy tomato barley risotto (ohsheglows.com).  Note: not GF, but easily modified to rice.

Sauces/dressings

• Tzatziki sauce (Plant-Powered Families cookbook)
• Ranch (thevegancorner.com)
• Lemon tahini dressing (cleanfooddirtygirl.com)
• Mozzarella (thevegancorner.com).  Note: made with tofu and tapioca, this one melts and is perfect for pizzas

Desserts

• 

  Crazy brownies with chocolate ganache, DreenaBurton.com

  Nanaimo bars (dreenaburton.com).  These are more time consuming, but the recipe can be doubled, cut into small squares and frozen for keeping.

• Orange chocolate pudding (dreenaburton.com).  Note: this recipe uses avocado, which sometimes can leave an aftertaste. The use of orange juice and zest removes this taste beautifully.
• Crazy brownies (dreenaburton.com) with chocolate ganache (Plant-Powered Families cookbook) or chocolate sweets frosting (see chocolate cake below)
• Chocolate sweet potato cake with chocolate sweets frosting (dreenaburton.com)
• Vanilla chocolate chip cookies (Plant Powered Families cookbook)
• Rice krispies (dreenaburton.com)
• Vanilla cake, paired with strawberry buttercream frosting (thevegan8.com).  Note: This frosting is one of the few I found that uses no oil / butter / shortening, and we love it.
• 1-bowl vegan GF vanilla cake (minimalistbaker.com)

Drinks

• Creamy horchata (Thug Kitchen cookbook)

Additional notes

Author Samantha and her family.

• Most, if not all, recipes above are GF or can easily be modified
• Plant-Powered Families book is written by Dreena Burton, so many recipes on the book are also available on her website dreenaburton.com.  Most of her recipes use no oil or refined sugars or flours.
• The website Fork and Beans has a great guide for GF flours
• Some of these recipes use aquafaba, which is nothing more that the chickpea cooking water (or the water in the can of chickpeas). I freeze it in ice cube trays whenever I have left-overs, so I always have them available to use.
• The book, Pantry to Plate, offers basic recipe structures and how to make variations.  Great for learning.

Resources

• Vegan food web resources used in this guide (in alphabetical order) include:

• • The Big Man’s World
  • Clean Food Dirty Girl
  • DreenaBurton.com (author of Plant-Powered Families)
  • Fresh is Real
  • Forks over Knives
  • Loving It Vegan
  • Minimalist Baker
  • Oh She Glows
  • Simple Veganista
  • The Vegan 8 (8 ingredient vegan recipes)
  • The Vegan Corner
  • Vegan Dad
  • YumUniverse

• Other good vegan food blogs include:

• • Ceara’s Kitchen
  • Lazy Cat Kitchen
  • Sweet Simple Vegan
  • Vegan Richa (Indian foods)