Silvie+Maryl – Holistic Living, Plant-Based Diet, Recipes, Love & Relationship, Healthy LifestyleTips

To help you make the transition to a plant-based diet, we’ve decided to give you a sample menu with some simple and familiar ideas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As sandwiches, salads and pasta are common lunch and dinner options, we’ve provided those three as interchangeable meals for you to choose from. Enjoy!

• 1. The Ultimate Smoothie: This is the breakfast of champions. This nutrient-packed smoothie delivers all the fuel you need to get your brain started and body moving in the morning, and it is a simple juice to prepare (add, blend!) that will, on its own, hold you through the first part of the day. For variety, substitute the fruit (except the bananas – they’re always in season!) for whatever is locally available and makes sense flavor-wise.

• 2. The Real Meal Salad: A great lunch or dinner option, this complete salad goes way beyond lettuce to introduce you to what a salad was meant to be: a full meal. No side dishes here, the Real Meal Salad is the protagonist of the show, and it has the protein, and omega oils to prove it. Choose this when you want the benefits of something raw – uncooked vegetables keep their enzyme activity intact, which is essential for proper digestion – and easy to put together (chop and go!)

• 3. Quinoa Spaghetti with Heirloom Tomato Sauce: So you want to eat healthy but you’re craving pasta? No worries. This dish will fulfill all your pasta dreams (flavor, texture, mental association with comfort and coziness) without the detriments of traditional pasta (weight gain, acidity from white flour and general lack of nutrients). These noodles are made from quinoa, a grain embraced by health foodies and athletes alike for its position as the only grain to have a complete set of amino acids – a protein-rich food you can eat day or night. And the sauce, well…let’s just say finger-licking good is an understatement.

• 4. Faux Tuna Salad Tartine: America’s love of sandwiches meets France’s open-faced tartines in this no-fish “tuna” option. A high-protein option for those of you still believing the myth of protein lack on a vegan diet, this dish will satisfy your desire for an easy assemble yet somehow sophisticated dish. You get a good ratio of raw to cooked foods here (the bread is toasted, but it is just one slice per tartine, not two) as well as the seafood flavor from the hijiki, a plant-based sea source (algae) instead of a fish.

• 5. Lentils 101: Beans and legumes are a staple in the vegetarian diet (if you pair it up with a grain such as brown rice, you’ve got a complete protein right there) and the star of these is the lentil. Two reasons for that: Lentils are high in iron, which is an element that many people look to consume after they no longer get it from eating red meat. Second reason is a practical one: Lentils are pretty much the only guys in this food category that you can make in 20 minutes (most beans have to be soaked overnight before then cooking for a while.) Also, you can make like the Spaniards and Hindu and eat your lentils as a soup, or you can add less water and make a nice stew to be accompanied by rice and a salad. Perfectly nutritious and delicious either way.

There you have it. A breakfast option (with variations) and four lunch/dinner options to choose from, not too different from what you’re probably already used to eating (except much healthier, nutritious, and, in our opinion, tastier). None of these dishes require special equipment, expertise or much time to make.