Easy Plant Based Recipes

After my reconstruction surgery, I decided to do a two week trial of eating plant based. I had seen documentaries and articles about the benefits of plant based diets, and I wanted to give it a try! I wanted to cut out cancer causing foods–most of those foods are meat related (processed meat, red meat, charred meat, farmed salmon). So I did a little research and saw the pros of eating fruits, vegetables, and beans. Side note: when I say “plant based”, I don’t mean vegan–I still ate dairy products and eggs. I thought it would be hard to cut out meat, but it turns out it wasn’t too bad! Did I slip up a few times? Of course! But luckily I found some recipes that I really liked and helped me stick to it. I plan on continuing this diet, because I feel a lot better and healthier. Also, I saved money–when I would go grocery shopping, I always spent less then $40 and the food would last me a week or more. Below are some of my favorite recipes. Some of these recipes are vegan, and the ones that aren’t can easily be adapted. Let it be noted that these are super easy meals that take less than 30 minutes, because I’m not the biggest fan of cooking. Enjoy!

Breakfast:

Toasted english muffin with peanut butter and raisins

English muffin with fried egg, cheese, tomato, spinach, salt, and pepper

Toast with peanut butter and banana

Tortilla with scrambled eggs, tomato, mixed greens, mayo, salt and pepper

Lunch/Dinner:

Egg salad sandwich with a side of vegetables

Egg salad recipe: I didn’t follow it verbatim–you can tweak it however you would like.

Buddha Bowl: chick peas, quinoa, mixed greens, guacamole, and red pepper dressing

Buddha Bowl Recipe: This recipe was definitely way out of my comfort zone. It was my first time eating quinoa. It called for avocado, but I didn’t have one so I used guacamole instead.

Mixed vegetables with brown rice

For this I just sautéed onions, potatoes, squash, zucchini, and red pepper in a pan over medium heat until the vegetables were tender. I seasoned it with turmeric, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper. I added a little teriyaki sauce to my rice to give it some extra flavor.