The first thing that popped into my head when I decided to commit to transferring to a plant based diet, and the most common question I get from people who are considering doing the same is “Where do I start?”
The day I watched What the Health I texted Andrew while he was at work, and told him I needed to tell him something when he came home for his lunch break. That’s a good way to strike fear in the hearts of the ones you love, so I might suggest not leading with that.
It was the day after Father’s Day. The day before we had the whole family over to celebrate the men we love most with a good old fashioned cookout. Andrew and I sat down that Monday afternoon to discuss changing our lifestyle and eating habits over reheated cheeseburgers.
I was a little surprised about how open Andrew was to hearing all the information I shared with him. He wanted to watch the documentary and do some research himself to be sure he understood, but without much convincing from my end decided we should go all in. As we swallowed our last bites of animal protein and rinsed the crumbs from our plates, “Where do we start?” quickly translated into, “Well now what the heck are we supposed to eat?”
Finding recipes you love is the first step in normalizing a plant based lifestyle. You might find that you face several hurdles when navigating what to eat at different places and in different situations. Building a strong home base and day to day food routine is important to establish from the start.
Below are a few of my go-to resources I’ve found for recipes of all kinds.
Cookbooks
The Engine 2 Diet
Recipes to Try: Raise-the-Roof Sweet Potato-Vegetable Lasagna, Nachos, Rip’s Sweet Potato Bowl
Recipes to Try: African Wraps, Shepherd’s Pie, Southwestern Chili Mac, Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oh She Glows Every Day
Recipes to Try: Pear Vanilla Mint Smoothie, Black Bean Rancheros, The Big Tabbouleh Bowl
Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck
Recipes to Try: Baked Okra and Potato Hash, Smoked Almond and Chickpea Salad Sammies, Cauliflower Cream Pasta with Fresh Herbs
Plant Powered Families
Recipes to Try: Savory Chickpea “Omelets,” Hummus Tortilla Pizzas, Artichoke Sunflower Burgers
Follow my plant based Pinterest board for all of my recipe pins. Below are a few of my favorites.
Vegan Grilled Avocado Stuffed with Chickpeas
Meal Plan Subscriptions
This format is still pretty new to me, however my sister-in-law recently shared with me one of her super mom secrets for feeding her family of five.
eMeals is a recipe subscription service that sends you meal plans and recipes every week with corresponding grocery lists. I am sure there are similar services that take the legwork out of coming up with new weekly menus, and serve up fresh ideas to your inbox regularly.
I love this one in particular because they have a wide variety of meal plans that cater to several different dietary needs or preferences. Meal plan types include Vegan, Gluten Free, Kid Friendly, Budget Friendly and Quick and Healthy. Every recipe I’ve tried from the Vegan Meal Plan has been delicious so far, and I definitely recommend this service to anyone in need of recipe ideas regardless of your diet!
Hopefully you found this post to be packed with resources, but good recipes are something we can never have enough us. What are YOUR favorite, cookbooks, online recipes, or dinner hacks?
TLKline 