I have been getting a few requests for vegan meal plans over the past year, so I am trying something new this week. And if you guys like it, this series will be a weekly thing here on the blog.
Vegan Meal Plan Sundays! If you guys love this idea, each week I will share a fresh new line-up of recipes that you can try, chosen from my very favorite blog recipes. You can use the collection as general inspiration, or follow along day-by-day, meal-by-meal. If you have leftovers from one meal, you can certainly keep eating them and sub them into the menu where you see fit.
The meal plans are going to be seasonal. Along with breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas, every week I will feature a few favorite desserts and snacks too. I am personally going to try to follow along here and there, so we can all feel like we are enjoying these meals together. But keep in mind, these menus are made for YOU to make them your own. Sub ingredients, change days around, only make one recipe from each day. No rules, just inspiration.
I will post the new meal plan each Sunday so that you can look it over, prep a bit and grocery shop for any ingredients you may need for the coming week. Day one of the menu starts Monday, so you can start the week off feeling healthy, and prepared! Take that take-out menus. We are coming for you! Er, NOT coming for you, actually...
download a one sheet menu for WEEK ONE here!.. (tip: print it in color if you can because it looks so pretty! I have one by my fridge right now!)
I would love if you tag me on social as your week goes by and you try a few recipes with me!.. Twitter: @lunchboxbunch and @findingvegan ---- Instagram: @KathyPatalsky ---- Facebook: /findingvegan and /lunchboxbunch
Vegan Meal Plan Sundays: Week 1 (July)
Monday
breakfast: Pumpkin Seed Citrus Green Smoothie --- A favorite nutrient-rich green smoothie, light, sweet, frosty flavor. Optional: Pair with nut butter toast and fresh fruit.
lunch: Summer Corn Fritters with avocado --- pair with a green juice or smoothie or a kombucha. I love these fritters so much! I always add hot sauce or salsa.
dinner: Peanut Soba Noodles with Broccoli and Tofu --- Delicious served warm or chilled - perfect for summer!
Tuesday
breakfast: Easy Acai Smoothie Bowl --- One of my faves! I make this at least once a week. Top with fresh fruit, granola, puffed rice, coconut or eat au natural.
lunch: Vegan Chickpea Salad Sandwich or do Toast Tuesday with Avocado Toast! --- The cool thing about toast is that there are so many options! Try avocado, hummus or even the smashed chickpea salad sandwich, openfaced as toast!
dinner: Santa Cruz Beach Burritos (or burrito bowls) --- OBSESSED with these. I think we ate them four nights in a row when I first posted this recipe.
Wednesday
breakfast: Gena's Bircher Muesli (thefullhelping's recipe) --- I love Gena's recipe as a summertime cereal!
lunch: Creamy Vegan Ranch Chickpea Peach Farm Salad --- You cannot go wrong with peaches, chickpeas and creamy vegan ranch flavor.
dinner: Favorite Loaded Baked Sweet Potatoes --- One of my favorite easy meals, a loaded sweet potato! If you want 'more' for your meal, you can pair with a side summer salad or hummus toast or even split a vegan frozen pizza with your fam! I love sweet potato mash and pizza.. seriously.
Thursday
breakfast: Green Dream Smoothie Bowl --- Dreamy green smoothie bowl, sweet banana flavor. Use your fave protein powder or snag some Philosophie Green Dream which is just my fave.
lunch: Candied Pecan + Avocado + Spinach Salad --- In love with these flavors. So simple and so good!
dinner: Summer Lentil Sloppy Joes --- Love! Feel like a kid again with this protein-rich, flavorful meal. Alternative cozy meal: vegan buffalo mac and cheese + tempeh.
Friday
breakfast: Your Choice Friday! 1) Almond Butter Toast with banana 2) Frozen Melon Matcha Shake 3) Peanut Butter Oatmeal 4) Peach Pie Oats 5) Indulge in a big pile of fresh summer fruit! (peaches, melon or berries) --- love them all! Cannot go wrong here. Happy Friyay!
lunch: Tomato Basil Grilled Cheese Sandwich (vegan of course) --- I mean, this flavor combo is insane. Tomato + basil + vegan cheese.
dinner: Fresh Avocado Pizza --- Friday pizza nights are the best! Serve with a side salad or fave roasted veggies.
Saturday
breakfast: Lemon Poppyseed Vanilla Frosted Donuts paired with a summer fruit salad and lattes --- In love with these summery donuts.
lunch: 9brunch options!) Curried "Eggy" Scramble Toasts or Avocado Toast Pinwheel Platter (great for sharing!) + Watermelon Frosties --- Who loves brunch just as much as me???
dinner: BBQ Tempeh Avocado Sandwiches --- BBQ Tempeh can do no wrong. So these stacked sandwiches are fun Saturday night fare.
Sunday
breakfast: Orange Pineapple Sunshine Smoothie paired with Strawberry sunrise Scones -- Cozy, sunny eats for a chill Sunday. Bake some berry scones and fill the whole house with happiness.
lunch: 7-Layer Santa Barbara Sandwich --- One of my fave lunch sandwiches! Picnic perfect too.
dinner: Sweet Potato Falafel with Chimichurri Sauce -- or do a Veggie Burger Sunday, choose from these recipes! --- You made it! Have a cozy Sunday supper everyone!
Desserts of the Week:
Cookies and Cream Vegan Ice Cream
Side Dish of the Week: Sweet Potato Hash
Snack of the Week: Roadtrip Bars
And as always, my daily matcha latte!..
Wellness Mantra of the Week: When stress hits, tell yourself My Happy Place is on the Other Side of This! I can power through. I am strong. I am enough. I am capable of this. Here I go, through this so I can get to my happy places on the other side!
Hope you love this vegan meal inspiration for the week ahead! I am excited to see how these meal plans turn out for you guys. I hope they are helpful. I will also be sharing some of the links and my experiences making these recipes, on my Instagram Stories!
Share your creations with me on social media so I can check them out and share a few!
Julie says
I LOVE this! Way to go, girl! Forget the grocery list and putting stuff in one place to print, no need to worry about that. I like that you've included so many pics and the way that you have things broken down really helps me mix and match to decide what I'd like to try. You know, there are quite a few other vegan blogs that have meal plans (which is great), but they charge for providing those plans each week. I'm thrilled that you are graciously doing this for us for FREE! I hope everyone understands that this is just a guide meant to be taken on an individual basis and personalized for each user. Just keep doing what you are doing - don't change a thing!
Kathy Patalsky says
Aw thank you Julie!!! I am literally working on week 2 right now and have been feeling so frustrated that people may not like the format or want the grocery list. But to be honest, when I look at meal plans I just never follow them ingredient to ingredient and love more flexible inspiration and ideas.. But I do also understand how some people WANT a strict "diet" but that's just not the message I like to spread. I want people to eat when they are hungry and change things up big time if needed. Anyways... thank you for the motivation💗💗💗💗
Laurel says
LOVED this! Will you e posting a week #2?
Kathy Patalsky says
Just did!! 🙂
Meghan says
I just came to your site to meal plan for next week and was absolutely thrilled to find this! Thank you!!
Kathy Patalsky says
Oh awesome! Hope this was inspiring.
Lindsay says
This is great! Thank you so much! I also love te pictures! Can't wait for the next week!
Michelle Wickline says
This would be WAY more helpful if you had a grocery list and all of the recipes in one place to print. I love the menu, but it would take too much time to gather these recipes and plan it all for the week. This would be perfect if you did that 🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
Thanks for the feedback Michelle. This is really meant to be more inspiration for what some vegan menus could look like. Not meant to be followed exactly day by day. Some ppl just ant some inspiration and like me, I have been doing 1-2 meals a day based on the menus, sometimes I tweak a lot too. This week was just a general guide. I'm so happy some people are still enjoying the ideas.
I would love to plan a more thorough meal plan but this was really just a test to see if my readers are into the idea before pouring a lot of extended time into a detailed meal plan and shopping list combo.
Michelle Wickline says
They definitely are inspirational, and I want to try every one of them! 🙂 I appreciate the guide too. I hope more people are into it, as I'd love to see a thorough meal plan. I'm already a devoted fan of your blog and I just discovered it two days ago. 🙂 I'll definitely be checking back in often! Thank you for sharing with us. I just started a plant based diet FB group, and have links to your site there to help inspire others to eat tasty, healthy foods.
Michelle Wickline says
Wait- just ready the comment below..you have cookbooks? I'm going to have to check that out!
Kathy Rogers says
OMG...this is great! Thanks so much for creating this, Kathy! Even armed with your cookbooks, VegNews issues and other cookbooks, it's so nice to go to one source instead of flipping pages to search for recipes.
Sunflowermarey says
I am so glad you posted this - Sunday meal prep time is always something I dread and this now gives me something to look forward to! Let's admit it - time inevitably goes by faster on weekends because before you know it, we're planning for yet another long, busy week ahead and we resort to "tried, tested and true" to save some time - but it makes for similar(ly boring) lunches during the week... so this will serve as inspiration to change it up! THANK YOU!
Robin P says
I love this! I want to try everything! Thank you!
Heather McClees says
Love this idea--so easy to mix and match! 😊💗 I also think this is a great reminder for all of us to eat more seasonably, which is always a plus IMO. 😊💗
Kathy Patalsky says
Thank you so much Heather! Yes pulling together seasonal faves is my fave part of this.
John Hartil says
Super idea! I am always needing fresh ideas.
Kathy Patalsky says
Thanks John, I hope you can get inspired by this roundup!
ska4me says
Thank you very much, especially when so many other sites are charging for this service.
Kathy Patalsky says
Yes indeed! I want my readers to have plenty of reasons to return here, say hello, follow along and of course as many resources as possible to create vegan meals throughout their busy week. i definitely thought about doing a fee-based model, but I really love having my brands and blog sponsors pay me, and not my readers! There are so many monetization models for blogs, and since I do this as my career I definitely need to have a steady income, but really, I prefer brands to pay me, so that I can provide as many resources, tools and recipes as possible - in as many places online as possible - for you guys!
I hope to get even more detailed in the future, with shopping lists and more... but this is a test run week...
Hope that makes sense! But basically, yes, thank you so much for noticing that!!
ska4me says
As a former commercial blogger myself, it definitely does, Kathy. All I can say is thank you, and that I wish more people thought they way you did!
Elsa Olson says
This is fabulous!! Thank you so very much for taking the time to put this together and for sharing. This is so helpful!! I will definitely be putting your plan into action 🙂
Kathy Patalsky says
Thank you Elsa! I am so happy you find it helpful!
Amarys Marie says
<3
Amy says
Thank you so much Kathy! I've been following your blog for years and appreciate your recipes and life philosophy. This is an excellent idea and lovely gift to your readers. I love your recipes...everything is delicious and looks amazing. Have a wonderful week.
innerspacegirl says
Two things:
1. Meal Plans: GREAT!
2. Color of the type on the menu: TOO PALE!!!
(Maybe it's my monitor but I can barely read it!)
Christie says
Thank you so much for putting this together and sharing it- I'm trying to incorporate more vegan meals and this is a fantastic help!
Kathy Patalsky says
I'm so happy to hear t is helpful to you Christie!
Liz S. says
Okay, seriously? There isn't one part of the meal plan that I don't deem AMAZING - perhaps I'm being overly dramatic, but too bad, haha. Love all the meal plan pairings & the wellness mantra! Love this new series already.
Kathy Patalsky says
Thank you so much Liz! I'm so glad you like it! Thank you for the feedback.