Getting Started – Simple Recipes

Here are some very simple recipes for busy people who don’t have much time for food preparation:

Breakfast: Porridge with Chia & blueberries.

1 cup cooked steel-cut oats (organic)

2 Tbsp Chia seeds (organic, ground)

½ cup Blueberries (frozen or fresh, pesticide-free)

2 Tbsp ground flax seed (they don’t work unless they are ground)

1. Cook steel-cut oats according to manufacturers instructions (the ones we use take ~ 20 minutes).  We cook them in bulk & store them in the fridge.
2. Add blueberries – warm to an acceptable temperature if necessary
3. Add ground flax seed & ground chia (after warming).  These are potent anti-cancer agents which also regulate your blood pressure (see here) and are a great source of fiber & omega 3’s.
4. Optionally, one can also easily add some nuts, raisins, spices (eg cinnamon, cardamom, cloves) etc.

We came up with a lovely variation on this recipe for summer: The evening before we add boiling water to quick cooking steel cut oats (we use organic ones from Bob’s Red Mill), let cool to room temperature & put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning we add thawed frozen blueberries & the other ingredients (ground flax, ground chia) – it’s delicious & cool !

I analysed the nutritional content of my breakfast using the above recipe on MyFitnessPal and found that I get 625 calories, with 101 g of carbs, 11 grams of fat, 27 grams of protein, 3 mg sodium, and 8 grams of sugar.  I would strongly suggest avoiding all non-organic breakfast cereals because of the issue of contamination with glyphosate – see here.

If you don’t like oats, an alternative is the Mayo Clinic Green Smoothie – I would suggest adding 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed to it and using organic strawberries if possible.

Lunch: Mixed Green Salad with nuts

1 cup pre-cut green salad mix (I suggest using a mix that includes kale or spinach which most supermarkets now sell)

¼ cup nuts (I suggest almonds + walnuts)

⅓ – ½ cup Cooked beans or chick peas 

1. On the weekend you can put a portion of salad mix into containers to take to work for several days of the week.
2. In the morning measure out the nuts & adds them to the salad
3. Take a healthy salad dressing in a small separate container
4. When ready to eat, mix salad & dressing

I started a ‘Healthy Eaters Anonymous’ group at my workplace and asked members to tell me of easy, tasty plant-based recipes they had used – here are their favorites.

Here is a 9 minute video on easy vegan lunches:

And here is a 12 min video on easy vegan dinners:

If you’d like some more help, this video has three starter meals.

See here for some more of my favorite recipes.