Family Meal Planning Tips

5 tips I use to make meal planning easier:

1) To save money and time, keep breakfast as simple as possible. Mornings are already crazy enough, so use this time to make delicious and healthy meals that take less than 10 minutes. You can serve oatmeal, grits, tempeh bacon with fresh fruit, smoothies, and much more.

2) Take a main food and plan a few meals around that ingredient- Google the ingredient with the tag “vegan recipes” and many options will be available to plan your meal around that item. Black beans are a great example of a main food to plan meals around.  One night you can make black bean burritos, and the next spicy black beans and rice. Save money by picking up dried beans opposed to the canned option. You can make your beans on the weekends and serve later in the week.

3) Put a spin on favorites and make enough for leftovers-Spaghetti is one of those meals that is very easy to change up.  You can literally serve spaghetti every week with a new spin.  One week try adding in sautéed mushrooms and the next lentil balls.

 

Day#3 Feeling Better #juicefeast

I'm sitting at my desk drinking cilantro, pear,  red bell pepper and mustard greens and watching Marie Forleo talk to Mastin Kipp about living and finding your purpose.

I feel pretty good right now, but last night I ate a little food. Not a meal or anything, but I did feel better afterwards.  I just wanted to chew something.

I woke up this morning determined to finish this feast.  As much as I want to eat, I want to detox even more.  I refuse to give up.

I've decided that when this feast is over, I will eat mostly raw vegan for the rest of the month. Lots of HUGE fresh salads, smoothies, fresh juice, raw nuts and seeds.  I figure if I can survive on liquids for 5 days, eating unlimited fruits and vegetables should be a lot less difficult.

We're heading out in a bit to replenish our veggie stash. We're getting lots of kale, celery, cilantro, lemon and cucumbers. Eric is still going strong with fresh juice and water!

I hope you're having a great day.

Are Yankee Candles Vegan?

I love scented candles and usually have about 3 burning at the same time. :-)

The other day, while getting toiletries at Target, I came across a clearance endcap with 22 oz. Yankee candles for $10 each.  I rarely buy Yankee because of their outrageous $25 (or more) price tag, so I was happy to get such a great deal.

yankeecandlesdec2012.jpg

Veganism extends further than food, and these days I'm working on being more conscious in supporting companies that offer vegan-friendly products. I'm not perfect by any means (and don't strive for that) but I do make an effort.

Anyhoo, I googled to see if Yankee uses wax derived from any animal sources.

Back in April, Happy Hippie Vegan Freak contacted Yankee and here's what they told her:

"Our candles are not animal tested.  And do not contain any animal or insect ingredients.  They are made with a food grade paraffin wax.  I hope this information is helpful."

Great news! So yes, Yankee candles are vegan. :-)

By the way, I snagged some seasonal soy candles for $5 each (on clearance) that same day.  

soycandlesdec2012.jpg

Peta has a list of other companies that offer vegan candles.

What's your favorite vegan brand of candles?

Check Me Out On Frugivore Magazine

 

Several months ago, Frugivore Magazine contacted me to be featured in their Black Vegan/Vegetarian series.

Yes!

Check out my interview...where I discuss why I became a vegan, plant-based eating for kids, and how minimalism and veganism are connected. 

 

Frugivore is an awesome source of recipes, weight loss information, and other lifestyle posts. 

1,000 Youtube Subscribers!

Woohoo!!

I try not to get caught up in the numbers so much but damn this feels good!

In January of this year, I wrote down that I wanted 1,000 subscribers by the end of 2012. 

At the time, I had 49 subscribers and 873 video views.

Usually I crash and burn with goal planning because I don't make them realistic or measurable. I spend a lot of time building big dreams in my mind but very little time working on specific steps to make them happen.

This time around, instead of being too ambitious without a plan, I worked on those steps. I have to say, at the time,  I still didn't feel too encouraged. I started off with such low numbers, a terrible camera, and an iffy video format.

I stuck it out anyway and reached my goal 3 months earlier than expected!

This milestone has inspired me to set up some new Youtube goals for 2013:

*Upload 1 video per week-being consistent in this Youtube game is key!

*Respond to at least 95% of the comments- I plan to spend a great deal of time in the comments and encourage my viewers to respond to others as well. I will never pretend to know everything and want to build a fun community of plant-based eating. :-)

*Have FUN-try not to get offended by the rude, racist and ridiculous comments.  Delete them and move on. Majority of the comments are informative, supportive and sweet. I will focus my time on those!

*End 2013 with 5,000 subscribers-5,000! I just got nervous typing such a big number. Yikes!

 

 

I'm looking forward to doing a few collaborations with my Youtube friends, showing more delicious and affordable plant-based meals, and just having a good time building a community with those interested in eating a little more compassionately.

 

 

Thanks so much for all of your support! I really enjoy making videos and hope to bring so much more to the channel in 2013.

If you haven't already, subscribe below for plant-based cooking videos, vlogs, and reviews.  

Tell a friend!


 

Have a suggestion or a video request? Feel free to let me know in the comments. :-)