Plant Based Meals

A few months ago I started eating more plant based. By no means am I a vegetarian or vegan. 90% of the dinners, 50% of my lunches, and 10% of my breakfasts at our house include meat. In fact I write this blog post as I eat a bowl of carrots, celery, and tuna fish.  But the last 3 months I have gone more plant based with my diet. The reason I started doing this is because the older I've gotten the more grossed out with the texture of meat. I also started cutting out dairy when I was nursing Leo and I liked the way I felt. Although I still eat cheese I have really gotten into all the cheese alternatives. 

Buffalo Cauliflower Salad  

Jay is so not on board with this type of eating so I have had to make him chicken for all these recipes. But for this one I roasted the cauliflower and used that as my meat substitute. I even added the cauliflower on Jay's and he loved the taste but still wanted the chicken. 

Ingredients

• 1/3 large cauliflower , cut into medium florets
• mixed  greens 
• avocado
• cucumber 
• carrots
• tomatoes
• cilantro
• blue cheese (you can find some good vegan blue cheese or use regular) 
• Ranch (look in the vegan section if you want to keep your vegan)
• Buffalo Sauce

Instructions 

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
2. Cut the cauliflower into medium sized florets. Wash and set aside to drain out the water.
3. Place cauliflower on a baking sheet (lightly drizzle with olive oil) and place  in the oven and bake for 15-18 minutes until crispy and slightly golden brown on the outside.
4. In the meantime, cut your veggies for the salad.
5. Once the cauliflower is roasted, remove from the heat and toss a few at a time to completely coat in the sauce and place it back onto the baking sheet.
6. Place the cauliflower back in the oven for about 5 minutes. Once done, remove from oven.
7. Let cool for a few minutes then add it to the top of the salad. 
8. Top it with some ranch dressing. 

---

Jerk Tofu Bowl 

For this recipe there was no getting Jay to eat this. It has everything he hates, beans, avocado, kale, and tofu. I will say I'm not the biggest tofu girl but when I make it in the frying pan with a lot of sauce it really does taste good. 

Ingredients 

• 3 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 can black beans
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 carrot
• 1 bell pepper 
• 1 tomato
• Italian leaf kale 
• 1 block firm tofu
• 1 can pineapple 
• Jerk Sauce (I use some from the store) 

Instructions

1. Cook the brown rice as directed on the box
2. After rice is cooked stir kale  into warm rice to wilt
3. Drain and press tofu with paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible. Cut tofu into small cubes.
4. Toss tofu in Jerk Sauce.
5. In a frying pan toss the tofu into the pan and fry on medium till the tofu is done to the consistency you like. I like mine more crispy on the outside. 
6. In another pan I throw in my carrots and bell peppers with some olive oil and let them cook a little, then at the end I add in the black beans to warm them up. 
7. Cut avocado, pineapple, and tomatoes.
8. Combine rice/greens, cooked tofu, black beans and veggies, avocado, tomato and pineapple. 
9. Top with more jerk cause and enjoy.

I have really enjoyed hearing  more about my plant based eating. I have had fun time trying different nut cheeses as well as trying vegan salad dressings etc. For  breakfast I am less plant based but I have almost gone completely meat free. We love our eggs and fruit in this household! And you  can't go wrong with avocado toast with a fried egg.... breakfast is probably my favorite!! 

Let me know if you have any good meat free recipes that I could possibly get my husband to eat let me know. It is really hard since he won't eat any beans so that makes this a little harder. But I am hoping I can find a meat free dinner he will eat other than margarita pizzas. 

Cheers,
​Jess