Did you have a set plan?

[Tiger Oak]

So, I'm awful - I need routine, for everything. And I need to make very clear plans. I'm currently trying to create a day-by-day plan for about 21-30 days, meal-by-meal to get myself back into the vegan habit and be able to create shopping lists quicker and more easily and without spending money on 1. unneccesary things, 2. things that will go off and can't be frozen and 3. things I won't eat
I have this idea of creating a file or a notebook(even better, as I much prefer off-screen notes/recipes and focus better on them) and literally writing out the dates of the next 30 days and writing a meal plan for every day. So, for example, on day 1 I would write what I will eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper, with the dish names and what ingredients go into it(plus amounts, so that I know if I have to buy one or two packs of an ingredient for example). Plus notes of snacks I can eat if needed(I struggle a bit with the shakes although not diabetic - most likely non-diabetic hypoglycemia and could be related to my endometriosis - so I have to eat regularly throughout the day).
If I have a clear plan to follow, I know I can do this much quicker and better.

So, I was wondering if anyone else did something like this when going vegan? Or perhaps something similar? How did it work for you? If you haven't done this, what do you think of such an idea?

 

[PTree15]

I think routine can be helpful. I usually plan meals for the week, mostly dinner and lunch, and sometimes breakfast. I try to pick a couple of recipes a week that will work for both dinner and lunch. I love smaller portions of dinner for lunch. I kind of wing it when it comes to figuring out the amount of ingredients and whatnot, but I make sure I check to see what I have on hand before making a list.

 

[Lou]

I have so many suggestions and recommendations. I'm afraid I might over whelm you.
So I think I'm just going to present you with the headlines and highlights. If you see something in here you like just pick it and research further - or ask me.

Not reinventing the meal.
So many people before you have done 21 day meal plans.
Dr Fuhrman in his book Eating to Live has a 21 day meal plan. I think it's skewed to weight loss. The idea is that once you have done it once you are set up for life. Dr. Gregar has a 7-day meal plan in his book, How Not to Die. PCRM has a free online course called Kickstart. It's 21 days of meal plans and other instructional info. Collen Patrick Goudroux in her book the Vegan Challenge has a 30 day plan . Including meal plans, shopping lists, tips and tricks. Spark People is a weight loss community. But they have vegan stuff too. And they try. to make their stuff fun to do.

I've done all of these at one time or another. They are all good. And I've taken away good stuff from each one.

I think Forks Over knives has one too.
plus there are other things online. Just google "vegan meal plans. " You will get a lot of subscription based stuff you'll need to ignore.

Oh. and almost every book about going vegan usually has at least a sample of meal plans.

Tools and apps.
My favorite is CopyMeThat. It's primarily a recipe organizer but it also has components for meal planning and shopping lists.
It's all online (and free). but you could do the online stuff and then just copy it to your notebook.

There are also a bunch of other apps that help with meal planning. EatThisMuch is pretty good.

 

[Emma JC]

I think it is a great idea and I only do half of it, in that, I eat the same things on the same days for my breakfast/lunch (we eat 2 meals a day) - I will change it up if I have to go out however I find it helps to stay focused.

Mon/Wed/Fri - noodley soup, tons of veggies and soy curls
Tues/Thurs - rolled oat/soy curl crumb porridge (sometimes swapped with cereal or w/w pita banana PB&J)
Sat - steel cut oats/split red lentils, berries, banana etc with pb toast
Sun - breakfast beans on toast sometimes with Just Egg patty or sausauge, grapefruit or orange sliced with banana

Dinners we rotate amoungst quite a few different ones and I just replace whatever we use up - lots of pasta, rice, potatoes as a base and then beans, mock meat, etc to go with. We love chkn burgers, and chkn tenders, and other veggies burgers.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I would try it to start with but at some point you might not need it any more - good luck!

 

[ewomack]

Planning is definitely one way to approach this and it seems worth a try. Different things work for different people, of course, and it sounds like you have some personal situations that require additional attention. Given that, @Tiger Oak, your thoughts make a lot of sense. I never did any planning of any kind, apart from planning to no longer purchase meat products at grocery stores or to order meat items at restaurants. That was about it, incomplete as that sounds as I type it. It seems to have (mostly, with some exceptions) worked for me up to this time. We did go through a phase where we cooked recipes every week, but we fell from that, unfortunately, and need to get back to more self-preparation. So, after mostly "winging it" for years, I can see a need for more overtly conscious planning going forward. Without planning, there is a larger risk of making unnecessary purchases, and that has happened to me, though not to an egregious extent. Some happy medium exists somewhere for everyone. What you described as your plan seems to make a lot of sense for your situation. Give it a try and tweak things as you go along and learn more.

 

[Lou]

Failure to plan is planning to fail.
- Ben Franklin

 

[g0rph]

Failure to plan is planning to fail.
- Ben Franklin

Whilst it's a nice piece of advice and a nice soundbite, I am doubtful it really concerns meals

I basically make sure we are well stocked with stuff, then around an hour before I am due to make food (which is essentially every evening meal), I think "I wonder what we'll have today?"

So yep, zero planning for me when it comes to meals.

One tip I can give... ChatGPT is an awesome recipe suggestion machine...

 

[Lou]

For as long as I can remember I have had a predisposition for planning.
trying to live on a small budget made it sort of a necessity to plan in order to stretch the dollar. And then becoming vegan made planning sort of a necessity.
Back before I was vegan it was pretty easy to feed myself. I could always stop at KFC on the way home.
Now I keep a pretty well stocked pantry, and keep what I call "emergency meals" in the freezer.
before going grocery shopping I sit down and write out a meal plan for the week, look up the recipes, and make my grocery list.
Then look in the frig and see what I have, find a recipe for that, and see what else I need at the store to make it.

even before that, during the week I write down on last week's plan, what other ideas I come up with.

Not sure if being retired has helped or hurt this process.
For instance, I might be cooking dinner and discover I don't have an ingredient, so I just walk to the store and get it.
or like yesterday my morning plan got postponed so I had a couple of extra hours, som I make a big batch of lentil stew in the InstantPot.
So maybe I'm less reliant on good planning then ever before