Sticking to a plant based diet doesn’t require siginificant discipline, planning or focus if you know how to make meals and purchase groceries properly. In today’s episode we review how we do it. 

We have been eating this way for over 10 years and really have the hang of it. Listen now to hear how we make it happen day in and day out. 

Consuming a plant-based diet does not have to be difficult. Our family has been doing it for over 10 years and we are really in the groove. Today on the show we decided to share some of our tools for making eating more plants as easy as possible.

Our method is simple – We have a framework set up where we don’t even need to think about adding more plants to our meals because the main feature of our meals is the plants.

On the show we break down our meals into four categories. These include grains and starches, vegetables and fruits, plant based proteins and fats.

1) Grains and starches – Our favourite greens and starches include rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and oats.

2) Vegetables – we consume many different types of vegetables but our favourites include zucchini, celery, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, peas and green beans. Leafy greens are a part of most dinners in our house. For fruits really we really like apples and blueberries. But we often have bananas, mangos, kiwi’s, oranges and other fruits available for snacks for anyone who needs them.

3) Plant Based Proteins – Our favourite plant-based protein options include edamame, tofu, black beans, kidney beans, lentils, chickpeas, hemp seeds and quinoa. We try to have at least one of these in each meal. Sometimes we resort to pumpkin seed protein powder when we really feel like we need extra protein.

4) Fats – the most common fats we consume are nuts and seeds, oils and avocados. Our favourite oils are coconut oil and olive oil.

For meals we think of these four categories as the four corners of the plate. We start with the vegetables making sure that they are abundant and varied. Then we add the grains and starches. Since we have two young ones these are often the feature of the meal for them. Finally we add in our protein and fat. We keep it very simple and we have a series of sauces and spices that we really love.

Amy & David