A 7-day vegan meal plan based on this month’s local and seasonal produce in Texas. Some of the dishes in the meal plan are all-year round and available across all regions while some may be specific to what I see around in the market here.
The last meal plan I shared was in March. Life has been a bit of a roller coaster since last two months. I was in India for the better part of March and early April and then I was busy with packing up our home in Romania and moving to the USA. Last month was just about meeting all friends just one more time (over and over!) until it was the day to leave for the airport.
We arrived in Houston last week and slowly and steadily are finding our way home here. Like I shared in my last post, the kitchen is running and we have a mattress to sleep on. Rest all will fall in place in time. 🙂
Since the kitchen is now up, I was really excited to check out the fresh produce available. One is truly spoiled for choices here. Which makes it all the more essential to go with a meal plan because otherwise, I will bring home every vegetable that I see! 😀
7-Day Vegan Meal Plan — May 2019
This is a table with links to all recipes. I was really delighted to see fresh green beans, squashes, eggplants, and sweet potatoes in the market. And those are what I have incorporated in this week’s meal plan. I hope it will give you ideas to plan some (or all!) of your meals.
| BREAKFAST | LUNCH | DINNER | SNACKS for in-between meals through the day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONDAY | Pineapple and Ginger Smoothie + 1 fruit | Avocado and sweet potato toast | Sweet Potato & Peas stir-fry Fenugreek & Lentil curry Rice | Beetroot Chutney with Vegetable Sticks |
| TUESDAY | Masala Oats (Savory Oatmeal) | Lentil & rice (leftover from Monday dinner) | Green Beans Stir-fry Dill & Lentil Curry Whole Wheat Flat Bread (Plain Paratha) | Bread slices with nut butter or Beetroot Chutney |
| WEDNESDAY | Granola with Plant based milk and fresh fruits | Veg Sandwich | Chickpeas Curry, Rice and Raw Salad | Almond Cookies , fresh fruits, and nuts |
| THURSDAY | Bread with peanut butter & Mixed berry Smoothie | Chickpeas & Rice (leftovers from dinner) | Vegetable Quinoa Stir-fry | Roasted Makhana (Foxnuts) & Fresh Berries |
| FRIDAY | Banana Chocolate Oatmeal | Millet stir-fry | Stuffed Baby Eggplants, Bajra Roti, Cucumber & lime raita with soy yogurt | Date bars Fresh fruits |
| SATURDAY | BRUNCH Mango Shake Lentil Pancakes ( with green chutney) | Whole green lentil curry Brown Rice Roasted Vegetables | Date bars/ Almond Cookies Fresh fruits & nuts | |
| SUNDAY | BRUNCH Aloo Paratha with Vegan yogurt and pickles | Eat Out | Anything you wish! (Chips/ cookies/ date bars/ fruits/ nuts...) |
You can download the printable meal plan table with grocery list from here.
With the supermarkets and farmers markets full of fresh choices, a meal plan is really helpful in:
- choosing what groceries to buy and not buy more than what we can consume. Thus reducing wastage.
- saving time as we don’t go around aisles where we don’t need to be in!
What does the number on the vegetables in supermarket tell us?
More choices also mean that I need to be super careful to pick non-GMO, organic produce. I learned a little fact about how to identify these things with their labeling. Most vegetables in the supermarket come with PLU (Price Look Up) number. I usually wouldn’t have thought of giving any importance to it, but a friend told me the PLU number is an easy way to distinguish organic produce from non-organic. And then I did a little read up on the internet. Here’s a quick tip on decoding the PLU numbers of fruits and vegetables:
- A PLU number is a 4 digit code for fruits and vegetables that are assigned globally. So a banana would have a code of 4011 in all countries using the PLU system. The purpose seems mainly for large supermarkets to manage inventory control.
- An additional 5th digit -“9” is added as a prefix for organic produce. so 94011 is an organic banana.
- The prefix of “8” means the produce is GMO but since PLU system is a voluntary system most producers of GMO produce will not put any number. So if you are worried about the source of produce, stick with organic vegetables.
- Sometimes, veggies in farmers markets will not have a PLU number because farmers are directly selling from farm to the customers. As long as you trust the source, it is fine to buy produce with no PLU numbers.
CONNECT WITH ME
Do you plan your meals? Or do you want to start planning your meals? I would love to connect with you on discussing and bringing about healthier and sustainable changes in cooking and eating. I am hoping to continue sharing one weekly meal plan every month and if you need more help with meal planning, feel free to connect with me.
If you try this meal plan or give any of the recipes here a try, I would really love to know. Tag your picture with #weekendkitchen on Instagram or connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and/or Pinterest.
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