Weekly Meal Plan: Plant-based Recipes for Beginners That Don’t Know Quite Where to Begin

What is plant-based? What does vegan mean? Where does one start going plant-based and how? Sometimes changing to a plant-based diet seems impossible or too hard. Sometimes it seems like you need all these crazy, weird things to make it work.

Vegans avoid eating animal products and by-products. This includes meat, cheese, eggs, and fish. Vegans also avoid animal by-products in their lifestyle, as well, including leather, fur, silk, and wool. Plant-based has a bigger focus on diet. This means focusing your diet to include a variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and healthy fats. This also may include avoiding highly processed foods and oils.

If you’ve never thought of eating more whole foods, going plant-based or vegan, this is the meal plan for you. If you’re looking for a realistic way to follow this meal plan through the week to include leftovers, and you’re cooking for one, pick a few of these meals (a few breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners, and two desserts) to make this week. You’ll probably have enough for leftovers. If not, feel free to make as much as you want and eat it throughout the week! For couples and families, feel free to make a double batch to last through the week.

It’s best to have some of your favorite non-dairy milk such as almond milk, soy milk, or oat milk on hand. A few things to note: there are a few of these recipes that include things you may not be familiar with or have on hand. This includes cashews, nutritional yeast, flax seeds, and coconut milk. Look through these recipes to figure out which ones you want to start with, and buy what you need to.

If you’re looking for more recipes and information, check out our Recipe Roundups, our guides to eating out, and our Whole Foods recipes!

We also highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App  — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest meatless, vegan, plant-based, and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help you get healthy! And, don’t forget to check out our Weekly Meal Plan Archives!

Are you ready to have a week full of delicious vegan food that leaves you nourished and content? Let’s get started!

This week, we’re bringing you simple, beginner meals to enjoy for your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert! And, they are fully vegan and plant-based!

Monday

Source: Hummus and Tomato Bruschetta

If you’re looking to change up your avocado toast game, put it on sweet potato and eat it like toast! These are super simple to make in the morning and super delicious. If you’re on the go, make it into dippers! The best thing about a plant-based lifestyle is that you can be as creative as you want! For the bruschetta, you can make your own hummus, or buy your own. For dessert, this nice cream comes together with almost no effort: all you need are frozen bananas and your favorite mix-ins.

Tuesday

Source: Crispy Tofu Tacos and Chopped Salsa Salad

If you’ve wondered how easy it is to make vegan waffles, this recipe for Coconut Waffles will wow you. Not only is it easy, but it’s super simple to put together! Try out making tofu tacos for dinner. For this recipe, firm tofu works the best! For dessert, these cheerio bars are so easy to make! If you don’t have any agave on hand, a liquid sweetener that you have, such as maple syrup, should work well.

Wednesday

Source: Easy Peanut Butter Banana Oats Smoothie

What’s better than starting your day with a smoothie? This easy smoothie has peanut butter, banana, and oats to keep you full through the entire morning. For lunch, this one-pot pasta is a simple recipe that tastes as good as it looks. With these burritos for dinner, you can try your hand at making cashew cheese, if you’d like. If you’re looking for an alternative sauce to dip them in, try salsa!

Thursday

Source: Easy Bean Burritos

This is another take on avocado toast! Try topping it with some white beans for an added dose of protein. For lunch, these easy bean burritos are simple to make with even simpler ingredients. These veggies burgers are also easy to make and have easy ingredients, as well! These burgers are made from sweet potatoes and beans, and the spices to add are ones that people have on hand. If you don’t have a food processor, you can mash them by hand, perfect if you have little ones that want to help out in the kitchen.

Friday

Source: Easy 20 Minute Garlic Pasta

Happy Friday! Feel free to have leftovers today, if you’ve got a lot of finish up this week. If not, try your hand at making these delicious pancakes! End the day with these super easy frozen yogurt treat! What a great way to start the weekend.

Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home!

Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental wellbeing, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, gut health, and more! Dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, prostate cancer and has many side effects.

For those of you interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend downloading the Food Monster App — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest plant-based recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Here are some great resources to get you started:

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