How to meal plan regularly even when you hate it

One of the biggest problems my eCourse students and readers have is meal planning.  It seems so daunting and too time consuming that it can paralyze people from even trying.  Many students feel like meal planning is the key to their success eating plant-based.

Although it's absolutely possible to eat a plant-based diet successfully without meal planning, knowing how to meal plan regularly, even if you don't like it, can be a very helpful skill to have. Here's  5  tips to meal plan quickly and regularly, even if you hate it.

1.  Have someone else meal plan for you.

The easiest way to meal plan when you hate doing it is to have someone else do it for you! There are a few services you can order from that will send you healthy, plant-based meal plans with recipes so all you have to do is show up at the grocery store (full disclosure - I've never tried these two vegan meal planning services before nor do I get any kickbacks for sharing this with you). 

• Forks Over Knives Planner 
• Meal Mentor by Happy Herbivore 

This is also one of the reasons my husband and I founded Trisha's Healthy Table in Columbia, SC -- to make eating plant-based dinners easier when you're not up for planning or grocery shopping.  Just order online and pick-up on the date you've scheduled and you're done!

Okay well what do you do when you actually have to meal plan but really don't like doing it?  

2.  Schedule 10 minutes a week to meal plan.

Schedule just 10 minutes a week in your planner (seriously! - schedule a time to plan!) to do this every week.  Once you start doing it continuously every week, it'll become a habit.  

You don't have to make a brand new meal plan every single week.  Keep it the same as the week before, or just switch out one or two meals for something new.   

3.  Choose simple and quick meals

I use to make meal plans for clients (years ago) that included a different breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and snack for every single day of the week.  Problem with that was, it was too overwhelming for people to try and make 32 different food items a week (they did get a lot of recipes though!).  

I don't recommend trying to cook gourmet meals, or spend 1.5 hours cooking every night, especially if you're busy.  Make eating a healthy, vegan diet as easy as possible on yourself.  Your meal plan should reflect this.

You can use the microwave, a rice cooker, boxed soups, an electric pressure cooker etc. to help make eating plant-based easier.   

Remember all of this when you meal plan.  Don't try and make more than 3 brand new dinners in a week.  Stick with planning and cooking what you already know and slowly add new recipes over time (if you want.  You don't have to!).   

The simpler you keep your meals, the simpler eating a healthy, plant-based diet (and meal planning) is going to be.  What's easier... preparing 100% whole wheat spaghetti with jarred marinara sauce with a side of pre-cut and pre-washed salad mix OR making veggie lasagna from scratch for dinner?  Bake a butternut squash and saute kale and garlic while the squash is in the oven and dinner is done.   You're more likely to eat healthier keeping your meals simply this way too.

4.  Just focus on planning dinner.

Breakfast is generally pretty easy to eat plant-based and lunches can be dinner left-overs.  You're biggest concern, and where you should focus the most energy meal planning, is dinner.  

To avoid being overwhelmed, just pick 3 to 5 dinners that you'd enjoy eating for dinner that week.  Then, rotate through them throughout the week.  This means you might eat pasta on Monday and Thursday.  Here's a few examples of quick dinners to choose from...

• Pasta (100% whole-grain), jarred marinara and a side salad
• Burrito bowl: a mix and match of rice, corn and or beans; salsa, tomatoes, romaine lettuce or spinach and avocado
• Cashew-alfredo linguini and broccoli
• Veggie burgers, oil-free potato fries and a salad
• Veggie pizza (we buy Trader Joe's whole-wheat crust)
• Bean and veggie soup

You can also make these same dinners a little different each week to make the planning easy but the taste a bit varied.  Use different types of pasta for pasta night; different veggies and grains for burrito bowls; seasonal veggies in the veggie burgers and different toppings for pizza.

5.  Store your meal plan on your phone or make copies

Take a photo of your list of dinners and the ingredients they include on your phone.  You can also store this info on an app, in your notes or in email.  Just make it accessible on your phone.  That way, when you're in the store but didn't actually make a meal plan for the week (or forgot it), you'll still know what to buy and make for dinner.

If you're a pen and paper type person, make copies of your dinner meal plan.  I recommend storing a few copies in your glove box, your purse, as well as your kitchen.  Just be sure they make it to the store with you!

Now it's time to hear from you!  Your voice matters and it's helpful for others (especially women!).  Answer today's Take Control Now Question by clicking 'comment' below...

Take Control Now Question

Do you meal plan? If so, what's your system?  Have a time-saving meal planning strategy that could help others?  

What you can learn from Trisha's Healthy Table new Nutrition Information Sheets

Today I’m going to explain how to read the Nutrition Information Sheet so you can better understand what you’re eating and how you can use these Information Sheets to help you make better eating decisions.

At Trisha's Healthy Table and personally, as a Nutritionist, my number one priority is helping you eat more fruits, veggies and whole-grains (in a way that tastes great and is filling too).  

Why?  Because Americans are deficient in these foods.  

Americans are in a whole-plant food deficiency (not a protein deficiency!).   In order for us to enjoy eating fruits, veggies and whole-grains all day, everyday, and get the health benefits that comes with them, the food has to taste freakin’ awesome.

That's why my husband and I, Chef Erik Hoffman, started Trisha's Healthy Table and our prepared, plant-based dinners to-go service -- we want to help people love the taste of healthy vegan meals so you can enjoy the health benefits that goes along with them.

Over the last few months, our team with the help of an awesome student at the University of South Carolina, have invested a huge amount of time figuring out the nutrition information for all of our dinners.

Even if you'll never eat any of Trisha's Healthy Table dinners to-go, you can still learn from the "whys" behind the nutrition information we give with all our dinners.

Our Nutrition Information Sheets share more than just the calories, protein and carbs most of the meal kit delivery services, like Blue Apron, do.  We want you to learn even more from our Nutrition Information Sheets so you can make better food and healthy decisions on your own.

Here's everything Trisha's Healthy Table includes in our Nutrition Information Sheets for our dinners...

• Servings of veggies, whole-grains and fruit 
• Fiber (g) 
• Minerals (mg): calcium, iron, zinc, potassium and sodium
• Macronutrients (g): carbohydrates, fat and protein
• Non-essential fats (g): Cholesterol, trans fat and saturated fat
• Calories

Why do we include the servings of fruits, veggies and whole-grains with our vegan dinners to-go?

In South Carolina, 91% of us don’t meet the fruit and vegetable intake recommendations (1).  When it comes to the entire country, not one state in the entire USA meets the daily fruit and veggie recommendations (2).  

How about whole-grains?

Unfortunately, American’s whole-grain consumption has remained stagnant from 2001-2010.  Less than one-third of all Americans meets the whole-grain recommendations (3).  

Because we’re awfully deficient in fruits, veggies and whole-grains, it makes complete sense that we’re nowhere close to meeting the fiber recommendations either (fiber is only found in whole, plant foods).  All age groups in the U.S. ate less than 50% of the recommended amount of fiber from 2001-2010 (3).

Now that we know how much fruits, veggies and whole-grains Americans are eating (or really, aren’t eating), we need to know how much we should be eating.  

How many servings of fruits, veggies and whole-grains should you be eating everyday?

According to the USDA, women ages 19-50 years old should eat 2 ½ cups of veggies and women 51+ years should eat at least 2 cups of veggies a day.  Women ages 31 and over should eat at least 1.5 cups of fruit a day. 

This is one reason why Trisha’s Healthy Table shares the number of servings of fruits, veggies and whole-grains in our dinners (and it's why we only cook with whole, plant foods!).

For example, in our Roasted Sweet Potato Bowl, the entire bowl is veggies (including filling veggies like sweet potatoes and chickpeas) with a seed-based dressing to top.

So, in just one serving of this THT dinner, you’re getting 4.25 servings of veggies.  That’s more veggies in one dinner than most Americans eat in one day!  Check it out....

Roasted Sweet Potato Bowl

Another reason we focus on servings of certain foods (and why we include an ingredient list), is because food is SO much more than calories.  In fact, I really didn't want to even include calories on our Nutrition Information because I teach people to eat, lose-weight and improve health without counting calories and without portion restriction.  

That's why the calories are listed on the bottom of our Nutrition Information Sheets -- if you're eating whole food, plant-based and in the correct ratios, you don't need to worry about calories.  My fear of someone focusing solely on calories is that you could still be eating disease- and weight-promoting foods even if it's lower in calories. 

Bottom line, the ingredients of what you're eating are more important than just the calories.

However, we've structured our Nutrition Information Sheets in a way that you can see what part of the dinner is driving the fat or calorie content up.  For example, our Roasted Sweet Potato Bowl contains a sweet potato and veggie mixture, seasoned chickpeas and a maple-tahini sauce to top.  We've divided the Nutrition Information up for each part of the meal AND the total.  Take a look...

You can see that the tahini sauce (a high-fat food) is what drove up the fat content of the meal, driving up the calorie-content.  If you really needed to watch your fat (if you had advanced heart disease or type II diabetes for example), you could leave the tahini sauce off.

I also want you to learn that calcium and other vitamins and minerals come from plants too!  Actually, that's where the cow's get their calcium from :)

If there was broccoli in this bowl, there'd be even more calcium in it! 

Take Control Now Question

What do you wish was listed on Trisha's Healthy Table Nutrition Info Sheets OR nutrition labels on food packages?  What is most challenging about nutrition labels for you?

Answer by scrolling down and clicking 'comment' below.

References

1. DHEC, 2011.  South Carolina Obesity Burden Report, CDC.  Accessed online, May 2016 at:  https://www.scdhec.gov/Health/docs/Obesity%20Burden%20Report%202011.pdf

2. CDC Indicator report, 2013.  Accessed online May 2016 at: http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/downloads/national-action-guide2013.pdf

3. McGill, CR., Fulgoni, VL. and Devareddy, L. 2015. Ten-Year Trends in Fiber and Whole Grain Intakes and Food Sources for the United States Population: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2001–2010. Nutrients, Feb; 7(2): 1119–1130.

4. USDA fruit and vegetable recommendations.  Accessed online, May 2016 at http://www.choosemyplate.gov/fruit

Smoothies: Three Things to Watch Out For

Smoothies can be a great way to eat more fruits and veggies but I don't recommend drinking them with reckless abandon.  And here's three reasons why...

1.  Smoothies aren't a panacea for good health (for two reasons).

Smoothies can be a great addition to a healthy, plant-based or vegan diet, but they can also trick you.  Here's two different ways...

One - when you blend up your food, the blender is actually doing some of the pre-digesting of the food for you.  This makes it easier to consume more calories without feeling as full.  

For example, if you were to drink a smoothie made of 2 bananas, 1 cup of frozen cherries, a half cup of almond milk, 5 dates and 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder (that's an awesome smoothie that I love by the way), you could fit all of that food into just one glass.

(There's a little left-over.  This is a small mason jar.  This is would all fit into a pint glass).

Same amount of food as the smoothie on the left but you actually have more food to eat when it's whole.

If you were to eat 2 bananas, 1 cup of cherries, 5 dates and a half cup of almond milk whole (not blended), you're going to feel more bulk in your stomach.  This will make you feel fuller.  

When you physically munch of food (versus sipping it through a straw), your insides are going to have to burn more calories to actually digest the food as well.  

Eating the whole fruit is more likely to fill you up than eating it blended.  however, it's the same amount of calories.

Two - if you ate the standard American diet and did nothing but drank a smoothie everyday, yes that's better than not, but it's unlikely you'll experience any tangible health benefits from it.

You're more likely to fit into those old clothes you love in the back of your closet by eating whole, plant-based meals 80% of the week and not drinking smoothies.

However, if drinking healthy, vegan smoothies is going to help you eat healthier throughout the rest of the day, then that's freakin' awesome.  Drink 'em up!  Just avoid these types of smoothies...

1.  Avoid smoothies with dairy products

Dairy is associated with asthma, allergies (1), type I diabetes (2), multiple sclerosis (3), acne (4) and it doesn't promote weight loss (5).  If the reason you're drinking a smoothie is for health, ditch the dairy.  

Use plant-milk or silken tofu for a healthy plant-based or vegan smoothie instead.  Silken tofu (not firm or regular tofu) is soft and creamy like yogurt and takes on the flavor of whatever you mix it with.  

2.  Avoid smoothies with added sugar.  Here's where you'll find them...

There's a good chance there may be added sugar in a smoothie when you buy it at a smoothie chain... fast food smoothies so to speak.  

I was in the Philadelphia airport a few weeks ago and stopped at smoothie and frozen yogurt place in the food court.  Sugar was listed as an ingredient in a lot of the smoothies.  So, I ordered one that didn't include sugar (who needs sugar if you're eating blended up pineapple and mango?).  

It just so happened that I watched the person make the smoothie (for no particular reason) and, she added sugar.  Argh!  So I kindly pointed out the listed ingredients and she made me a new one.   

It's common for "smoothie restaurants" to use added sugar.  Stick with sweeter fruits for a naturally sweet taste instead.

If you're making smoothies at home and won't it on the sweeter side, add dates (pick or cut them into pieces) or date paste.  Dates are incredibly sweet and they're packed with nutrition.

Take Control Now

Are you a smoothie drinker?  Why or why not?  If you have a great smoothie recipe, please share it by clicking 'comment' below.

References

1. Sackesen, C. et al., 2011. Cow's milk allergy as a global challenge. Curr Opin Allergy Clin immunol. Jun;11(3):243-8

2. Gerstein, H., 1994. Cow's milk exposure and type I diabetes mellitus. A critical overview of the clinical literature. Diabetes Care, Jan;17(1):13-9.

3. Malosse, D. 1992. Correlation between milk and dairy product consumption and multiple sclerosis prevalence: a worldwide study. Neuroepidemiology, 11(4-6):304-12.

4. Melnik, B. 2009. Milk consumption: aggravating factor of acne and promoter of chronic diseases of Western societies. J Dtsch Dermatol Ges. Apr;7(4):364-70

5. Lanou AJ and Barnard ND, 2008. Dairy and weight loss hypothesis: an evaluation of the clinical trials. Nutr Rev. May;66 (5): 272-9.

How to Cut Cauliflower & Five Ways to Eat It

No more steamed cauliflower for you baby! (although I do love steamed cauliflower as part of a salad tossed with an amazing dressing -- if there's great dressing, I can eat loads of cauliflower then!). 

There's so many unique, easy and interesting ways to eat cauliflower now that you don't have to settle for steamed cauliflower.  The up-tick in cauliflower recipes, is in part, due to the unjustified gluten-free craze (Capannolo, et al. 2015).  

Despite the misinformation the gluten-free craze has caused, at least there's more creative ways to eat cauliflower because of it.    

Before I introduce five unique, easy (and plant-based) ways to make cauliflower, Chef Erik of Trisha's Healthy Table (my husband - I'm a lucky woman!) is here to show you an easy way to cut cauliflower.

Before Erik taught me how to cut cauliflower, I was clueless.  I never had uniform cuts and I'd always cut through the "leaves" of the cauliflower tree instead of cutting them, like this...

Once you know an easy way to cut cauliflower, it's time to put your skills to good use with fun and easy cauliflower recipes, like these...

 

Five Unique, Easy (and Plant-Based) Ways to Eat Cauliflower

1.  Cauliflower Rice

Cauliflower rice is SO easy to make.  Simply grate cauliflower with a cheese grater or pulse in a food processor until you get 'rice like' pieces and then microwave with your favorite spices.  We serve cauliflower rice with our Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas at Trisha's Healthy Table.  If you're going to eat cauliflower rice instead of a whole-grain rice, be sure to include Foundational Filling Foods (like sweet potatoes and black beans) with your cauliflower rice, in order to stay full. 

Here's a cauliflower rice recipe from Minimalist Baker you can use.

2.  Cauliflower Wings

I made these this weekend for the first time and they were awesome!  I used chickpea flour as part of the breading mixture (I tried whole wheat too but that didn't turn out as well) and Trader Joe's General Tso's sauce as the wing sauce.  

We dipped the final product in cashew-based ranch (mix ranch dressing spices into cashew sour cream) and ate them with a veggie vegan pizza we made using Trader Joe's pre-made, whole wheat pizza dough.  It was an awesome dinner and the wings tasted great the next day too.

Check out this cauliflower wing recipe to make them yourself.

3.  Cauliflower Alfredo Sauce

We're serving 100% whole-grain pasta with cauliflower Alfredo and broccoli at Trisha's Healthy Table this week.  A lot of mock Alfredo sauces use cashews and are calorie dense and high in fat.  

Cauliflower Alfredo sauce however, is a low-fat and less calorie-dense version that's especially great for anyone trying to eat more veggies, eat vegan, or trying any who is looking to achieve accelerated weight-loss with a plant-based diet.

Try this Cauli-Powder "Alfredo" from Oh She Glows.com  We LOVE her recipes!  (Psst - I'd omit the 1/2 TB of oil from the recipe.  Save yourself an 60 extra calories).

4.  Cheesy Cauliflower Sauce

I LOVE pouring this sauce on my oil-free potato and oil-free sweet potato fries.  With ketchup of course!  I can eat a huge plate of these, watch some University of South Carolina women's basketball and munch out on what tastes like greasy bar food, but is even better!

Use this Cheesy Cauliflower Sauce from fatfreevegan.com  We love this blog too!

5.  Cauliflower Pizza Crust

I haven't made this yet, so if you do, please comment below and let me know how it goes!  Again, I'd be sure to add Foundational Filling Foods to this pizza to make it a complete, and filling meal.

This cauliflower pizza crust recipe is oil-free and vegan and has a 5 star rating (hence why I picked it for you!).

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If you're interested in learning how to healthy and more plant-based (including fun ways of cooking!), be sure to sign-up for email updates about my next "Plant-Based Nutrition and Cooking eCourse for Weight-Loss and Improved Health."  It'll be here just in time for summer!  If you want to be one of the first know about it (there's perks to that!) be sure to sign-up here.

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Take Control Now

Which of these cauliflower recipes will be the first you try?  Have another cauliflower recipe to share?  Please post it by clicking 'comment' below.

New study: weight-loss and plant-based, vegan diets

Can people really lose their belly jiggles without focusing on exercise, while eating until they're satisfied and full and without counting calories?

The answer is yes, and here's another new study, showing just that, using a whole-foods, plant-based and vegan diet (well they didn't analyze "belly jiggles" per say, but they did measure BMI, weight and waist circumference).

Watch the video below to learn about the results of the "Broad Study: A randomized controlled trial using a whole food plant-based diet in the community for obesity, ischemic heart disease or diabetes." 

Take Control Now Question

What's one new thing you learned from this video?  Any additional insights to add?

Comment by clicking 'comment' below.