Plant-Centered Meal Planning

First, let me preface by saying I am not a chef. I am a psychologist and busy mom who doesn’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen. When I moved away from planning our meals around animal protein (steak night, burger night, fish night), I tried to come up with a template for our weekly menus that would be easy, flexible, and microbiome friendly.

Our meals for the week typically look something like this:

• 2-3 Buddha bowl nights

• 1 taco night

• 1 noodle night (usually a cold noodle salad or a pasta dish)

• 1 hearty salad night (to which my husband might add a steak)

• 1-2 free-form nights - falafels, veggie burgers, rice paper rolls, soup, stir-fry, or a new recipe.

Now that I have this basic template, I can just decide which varieties of bowls, tacos, and noodles we’ll have each week depending on what I need to use up, what's in-season, and what sounds good.

To do this, I start by picking a starch, a protein (if you are easing into plant-centered eating, feel free to use animal protein), and a nutrient-rich, plant-based sauce. I try to vary these throughout the week to keep things interesting and to up our plant diversity.

Now that I have the backbone of my dinners, I will add as much produce as I can to each dish. Typically, at least half of each meal is fresh veggies. This lowers the caloric density, increases the nutrient density, and makes our gut bugs do a happy dance.

It’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s not hard once you get the hang of it.

Starch, protein, a ton of veg, a great sauce, and top with flavor and nutrition boosters. Easy peasy!

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