This page will be of special interest to you if you are new to whole-foods, plant-based eating. When I’m eating at home I don’t always use recipes, so I wanted to show you what I eat and how simple my meals are. Hopefully these photos of some of my past meals will give you a few good ideas. (Visit my Facebook page for even more photos of my everyday meals.)
You’ll see from the photos that you don’t need meat or fish to be the centerpiece of a meal. For me it’s usually potatoes, rice, soup, stew, or a big salad. You’ll also see that I tend to eat many of the same things over and over, like salads, corn on the cob, rice, steamed veggies, and potatoes.
Sometimes I have a few different dishes and other times just one. A meal can look any way you like as long as it’s comprised of plenty of nutrient-rich whole foods to fill you up. When you find a handful of dishes that you like, just rotate them and you’ll be set!
Above: I call this the “big pile of food,” which is simply a plate FULL of your favorite foods. In this case I had pinto beans, sweet potato, kale and zucchini, topped with tomatoes, lettuce, cilantro, and avocado. No dressings or sauces on this one, just really good quality food to start with. Yum!
Above: Spaghetti: brown rice twisty noodles topped with a sauce of tomato paste and sauce, mushrooms, onion, garlic, broccoli, kale, squash, and ground walnuts on top.
Above: Mashed potatoes and broccoli, with steamed yellow zucchini and kale, and a salad.
Above: Burrito made with black beans, cabbage, carrots, green onions and avocado, inside an Engine 2 Brown Rice Tortilla. Side of steamed cauliflower.
Abobe: Mashed potatoes (I just use the seasoned cooking water to mash mine), with sautéed vegetables on top (cabbage, red pepper, mushrooms).
Above: Steamed vegetables (green beans, green and yellow summer squash), green salad with chickpeas.
Above: I eat fruit every morning and often for my afternoon snack, around 3 or 4PM. For this one I added some chopped fresh mint, so good!
Above: I love potatoes, they are my favorite food. Mashed potatoes with some ground pistachios on top, with some steamed asparagus.
Above: A favorite snack: mango!
Above: Steamed broccoli with black rice and sesame seeds.
Above: Steamed vegetables over mashed potatoes, with carrot salad.
Above: Green salad with cut up veggie burger.
Above: Green salad with pinto beans and cut up and toasted corn tortilla, and steamed veggies with a side of macaroni salad.
Above: Another snack: Cara Cara oranges, kiwi, celery and banana.
Above: Steamed vegetables, with Tuno Salad over lettuce.
Above: A green salad topped with sautéed (pre-cooked) rice and mushrooms.
Above: Corn tortilla soft tacos with steamed corn on the cob.
Above: Mashed potatoes topped with sautéed vegetables using a little almond butter.
Above: Brown rice pasta topped with sautéed veggies and Navy beans.
Above: Baked acorn squash topped with steamed veggies and fresh cherry tomatoes.
Above: Green salad with avocado, and vegetables with a light sauce of sesame seeds and water blended with a little curry powder.
Above: Steamed veggies and rice with avocado.
Above: Mashed white potatoes and yams, with a green salad, including chickpeas and black beans.
Above: Mashed potatoes with veggies, corn on the cob and yellow beans.
Above: Mashed potatoes with fresh veggies; steamed veggies. I eat both of these plates full of food since it’s so low-calorie.
Above: Salad with chickpeas; Veggie Chili with Quinoa Cornbread.
Above: Soba noodles (buckwheat noodles) with vegetables; Veggie Burgers with avocado and mustard.
Above: Baked fries that have no oil and are lightly seasoned, with hummus, ketchup and mustard on the side; steamed veggies.
Above: Another snack shot. Pears.
Above: Spaghetti with green salad.
Above: Green salad with steamed kale, broccolini and yams.
Above: Homemade applesauce for a snack.
Above: Green salad with steamed veggies and Delicata squash.
Above: Vegetable and bean soup. No recipe, just used what I had on hand.
Above: Baked yams and Yukon gold potatoes with avocado spread.
Above: Corn tortilla taco with yams and brown rice.
Above: Baked potato with penne pasta, kale, onion and marinara.
Above: Baked potato with veggies and salsa; green salad with sliced almonds.
Above: Fruit salad; plums in pecan milk. This could be a breakfast or snack.
Above: Simple vegetable soup with whole-grain noodles.
Above: Mashed potatoes with salad (cilantro, salad, avocado, cabbage, greens).
Above: Mashed potatoes with Sautéed mushrooms and celery; steamed green beans.
Above: A good example of a very simple meal: steamed curly kale, mashed potatoes with tomatoes, steamed corn.
Above: Baked yams and sweet potato with black beans and avocado.
Above: When I bake potatoes, I bake a lot, including different kinds and maybe some beets too.
Above: When company comes I make Oatmeal-lemon Pancakes.
Above: A productive farmers market trip yields the makings for many meals for the upcoming week.
Happy cooking!
