- Find a grocery store that offers bulk foods. This doesn't mean getting the Costco sized container for everything, this means looking at the things that you use most, bringing your own container, and getting an appropriate amount that you will use before it goes bad. Some stores are currently restricting this for health concerns, but many still allow it.
- Bring our own reusable Glad/Ziploc/Store Brand plastic containers. You can mark the tare weight on them and you won't pay for the weight of the container.
- Some of the stores that offer bulk are: Whole Foods, many Kroger stores, Sprouts, and Fresh Market. Some also offer spices in bulk, so you can save another single use container or buy just enough for a few recipes.
- Buy some cloth produce bags to reduce plastic there. Wash your produce as soon as you get home to extend their life. We use a mix of vinegar, water, lemon juice, and salt in a spray container.
- Many meat departments will also allow you to bring your own container for meat to reduce the plastic bags
- Bring you own bag to places other than the grocery store. Any time you're buying something, from a clothing or department store to a restaurant for carryout, they usually welcome your reusable bag.
- I know that it is supposed to be healthier to get juice not from concentrate, but the frozen juice concentrates in the freezer section save plastic and shipping weight. We store our juice in gallon sized Ball jars or leftover large pickle jars.
Now on to the good stuff, some plant-based recipes for you! A lot of these are not exact, so feel free to experiment and find your own tasty twists! Most of my recipes are for 2 servings, then double or triple or quadruple for your crew!
Breakfast
Banana French Toast
Prep the day before
Ingredients
- Brown bananas (1 banana per 2 servings, store them in the freezer unpeeled when they turn brown)
- Plant-based milk (about 1/2 cup per 2 servings)
- Day old bread (4-6 slices per 2 servings)
- Cinnamon, nutmeg to taste
Steps
- In a casserole pan, layer out the bread
- Mash up the brown bananas by hand or in a blender
- Spread the banana mixture over the bread
- Refrigerate overnight
- Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. It gets crusty, but the banana mixture inside has a great texture.
Pancakes/Waffles
Prep about an hour before and let rise for best results
Ingredients
- The longer you rise, the more fluffy they get. Cook pancakes until they bubble then flip. Since there's no eggs, it will be a lighter brown than traditional pancakes.
Peanut Butter Granola
Takes about 30 minutes, from lmld.org
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup peanut butter (available in bulk with a peanut butter machine at many Kroger stores, bring your own jar!)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tbs oil (coconut, canola, etc.)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups Old-fashioned oats
Steps
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees
- In a small bowl, combine the first three ingredients and microwave for 30 seconds
- Stir salt and vanilla into bowl
- Spread oats onto a cookie sheet
- Pour peanut butter mixture over oats
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, stirring once in the middle
Biscuits
Makes 8 biscuits
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour (All-purpose works best, but any non-enriched or bleached flour works)
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 cup room temperature plant-based butter or margarine (Imperial, Blue Bonnet, and Smart Balance sticks are all plant-based and don't use plastic)
Steps
- Preheat oven to 425
- Combine first three dry ingredients in a bowl
- Add butter and pinch the butter into the flour mixture until fully combined in about 1/2" pieces
- Add milk 1/4 cup at a time until it makes a sticky mixture
- Flour the outside of the mixture and roll out into about 1" dough
- Cut biscuits with an upside down mug or other circular kitchen instrument
- Place on baking sheet (Letting them rest a bit will help in the rising) and cook for 10-12 minutes
Oat Milk
Super easy, cheap, and great when you run out of other milk!
Ingredients
- 4 cups of water
- 1 cup oats (available in bulk)
- 1/4 cup cashews (available in bulk)
Steps
- Blend 30 seconds
- Strain through a cheesecloth or nutmilk bag into a container (we use the large Ball glass jars)
- Keep the oat pulp (see the next recipe)
Leftover Oatmeal Muffins
From JoanieSimon.com
Ingredients
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup plant butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (you can usually get in bulk, but if not, you can combine regular sugar and molasses)
- 2 eggs or vegan equivalent (2 tbsp of flax meal soaked in 3 tbsp of water)
- 1/2 tsp Almond Extract
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Other add-ins to taste (chocolate chips, blueberries, raisins)
Steps
- Preheat oven to 325
- Combine first three ingredients and set aside
- Cream butter and sugar
- Add in eggs/equivalent, almond extract, and lemon juice
- Add oatmeal or oat pulp to mixture
- Add that mixture to the first three ingredients
- Spoon mixture onto a cookie sheet
- Bake 12-15 minutes
Bagels
Makes 8 bagels, from sophisticatedgourmet.com
Ingredients
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups warm water (not boiling)
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- Toppings of your choice
Steps
- In 1/2 cup of the warm water, pour in the sugar and yeast. Do not stir. Let sit for five minutes.
- Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl
- Make a well in the flour and pour in the yeast mixture
- Pour 1/3 cup of the remaining water into the well and mix. Add water to get to a bread dough consistency.
- On a floured countertop (or in a mixer), knead the dough for 10 minutes)
- Coat the dough ball with a small amount of oil. Cover with a damp towel.
- Let rise for one hour
- Punch down the flour and then let it rise 10 more minutes
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces (easiest to make it round and cut like a pie)
- Form the pieces into balls
- Press your finger into the middle of the ball and stretch to form a bagel!
- Place on a baking sheet and let rest another 10 minutes
- Preheat oven to 425
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil
- Place the bagels int he boiling water for 1 minute each side (flip with a slotted spoon)
- Top bagels as you take them out of the water
- Bake for 20 minutes
Entrees
Veggie Burger
Makes about 8 patties. You can usually get bulk buns without plastic bags in bakeries, or find a recipe to make your own! When I find a consistently good one, I'll post it. You can go with canned for most of these ingredients and freeze or reuse the remainder for other recipes.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cooked lentils
- 1/2 cup black beans
- 1/2 cup chickpeas/garbanzo beans
- 1/4 cup oats
- 1-2 slices of beets with juice
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast (available in bulk at most stores)
- Tapioca starch or flour (available in bulk at most stores)
- Mushrooms (lightly cooked or canned)
- Salt, pepper, chili flakes to taste
Steps
- Combine all ingredients in a blender
- Blend for 1-2 minutes. You'll want it combined
- Mix will be slightly wet. Pour about 1/2 cup into thin patties onto wax or parchment paper on a wire rack or baking sheet.
- Place in freezer to set. It won't take very long to set, probably about 30 minutes.
- Store in a container in the freezer until just ready to cook
- Cook on high for about 3-4 minutes per side. Keeping them thin and cooking fast will ensure they don't fall apart.
Mac and Cheez/Nacho Cheez
Ingredients
- 1 medium potato
- 1 carrot
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (available in bulk)
- Salt to taste
Steps
- Boil the potato and carrot together until it falls apart when touched with a fork
- Blend the ingredients
- Add to pasta, top with bread crumbs, add a little plant-based milk and broil for traditional mac and cheez. This cheez also works well to pour over chips for nachos.
- Chip bags are unfortunately almost always plastic. We make corn tortillas using Masa flour (recipe on bag) then cut them into quarters and bake.
Mozzarella
(soft, best used for lasagna, enchiladas, etc, from itdoesnttastelikechicken.com)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1 cup water
- 4 tbsp tapioca starch/tapioca flour (available in bulk at many stores)
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional, can be overpowering so you can also use white)
Steps
- Soften the cashews by boiling in the water for about 10 minutes
- Transfer to a blender or food processor (If a lot of the water evaporated during boiling, add some) and add all of the other ingredients
- Blend for about 30 seconds. It will be watery
- Transfer back to your boiling pan and heat on low for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and magically it will solidify and become stretchy! The longer you cook, the more solid it will get
Chickpea Nuggets
Makes about 24 nuggets, from forksoverknives.com
Ingredients
- 2 15-ounce cans of chickpeas/garbanzos (can also use dry and soak and cook) drained and rinsed
- 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
- 1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast (available in bulk at most stores)
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- Salt, pepper and other spices to taste
Steps
- Preheat oven to 425
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper (will take two)
- In a blender or food processor, combine all of the ingredients except the bread crumbs. For best results, be sure that beans are not wet (the liquid is called aquafaba and you can use it to make vegan mayo by blending it with oil)
- Scoop a spoonful of mixture into a bowl with bread crumbs and roll. Alternatively, you can line the baking sheet with bread crumbs and then sprinkle more bread crumbs over the nuggets
- Bake for 20 minutes, flip, then bake for another 20 minutes
Flour Tortillas
Makes 8 large tortillas or 12 medium tortillas
Ingredients
- 3 cups of flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup solid oil (Coconut oil or shortening are what I primarily use)
- Tap hot water
Steps
- Combine the first three ingredients
- Pinch the oil into the flour. Should end up with a grainy texture
- Add hot water a little at a time. It will melt the oil. Unless your mix is not coming together at all, keep it to 1 cup of water.
- Divide mixture into 1 inch balls
- Cover with a damp towel and let rest for about 10 minutes while you get a griddle or cast iron pan hot
- Roll out balls into tortillas on a floured surface to your preferred size. Use a plate or other round utensil to cut the tortillas into circles
- Place on the griddle/pan for about 1-2 minutes per side
- Store in the fridge. When reheating, apply a little water and microwave for 30 seconds.
Other ideas:
- Make your own bread. So trendy right now. With all of the recipes out there, don't want to limit you! We got a Cuisinart Dutch Oven for Christmas and there's lots of recipes for rustic bread.
- The New York Times Pita Bread Recipe (they don't like to share and I don't want to get in trouble). Pita is very hard to find not in plastic.
- Pie crust, egg roll wrappers, and samosa wrappers all have very similar recipes of flour, water, and oil/butter. Try different vegetable fillings. For a vegetable pot pie, cook vegetables until soft then use broth or water and flour to make a gravy.
- A plant-based BBQ sandwich can be made with grated sweet potatoes. Just put them in a pan to soften then add your favorite BBQ sauce and put it on a bun.