Affordable Vegan Meal Plans (some good examples)
Sometimes life is better in the flow. But some people prefer to know what to buy and cook, and it avoids food waste. Use with an eco meal planner.
Plant-Based Meal Prep is a beautifully designed book of over 60 recipes for breakfasts, mains, snacks and designs, with tags for allergies and get-started guides to walk you through the basics.
The easy meal plans take the guesswork of what to make, and there is nutritional info throughout.
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).
For tinned foods, fully remove lids (put inside) or pop ring-pulls back over holes (and pinch top opening closed) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
Recipes include:
- Creamy pasta with broccoli
- Lentil and black bean nachos
- Buffalo Sauce
- Satay sauce
- Mustard balsamic dressing
The book also feature Prep Day Duos, where you make two meals each day, to serve later in the week:
- Rice and beans (and red curry with lentils and potatoes)
- White bean burgers with sweet potatoes (and Mexican quinoa)
- Creamy tofu and rice (with tofu satay)
More simple meal plans
The Veg Space is a super recipe blog by a trained chef, who also offers a free four-week meal plan, complete with printable shopping list. Just print it off (at the library if you don’t have a printer) and enjoy a whole month of budget-friendly family meals. Recipes (all on her blog) include:
- Creamy wild mushroom one-pot gnocchi
- Tuscan bean stew
- Vegan sausage casserole with beans
- Vegan cottage pie with colcannon
- Creamy courgette curry
- Vegan stew with ale & pearl barley
- Black bean & jalapeno burger
- Vegan toad-in-the-hole
- Chipotle black bean chilli
- Speedy spicy chilli bean burritos
- Chickpea & butternut curry
- Vegan moussaka
Home-Cooked Roots offers several vegan meal plans based on number of people and budget, with full cost savings. Full of Plants offers a good e-book, packed with easy recipes and shopping lists.
Veggies Don’t Bite offers a super-simple 7-day meal plan with all the recipes on one blog post, so you can just print and cook and eat. No need to sign up to newsletters or visit different pages to find the simple meal ideas.
Ethical Nutrition offers free plant-based meal plans devised by a qualified nutritionist, to help various conditions. There is also a practitioner referral program for doctors, nutritionists and dietitians.
Subscription plant-based meal plans
Rainbow Plant Life offers meal plans, from one of the world’s most popular food bloggers. Rather than simple boring meals or greasy take-outs, these meal plans are designed around the same base ingredients so you have no waste, and with seasonal weekly menus, grocery lists and one-day-a-week mini preps, to save time during the week.
The plan includes easy swaps for allergies and short-cut emergency meal ideas, when life goes awry and you can’t stick to the meal plan, for whatever reason.
The plans work for all-size households and cost less than the cost of a latte per week. So if you order takeout once a week, this pays for itself in no time.
Meal Mentor has a free trial, then sign up for an affordable plant-based meal plan with shopping list. Created by a best-selling cookbook author, she has stripped everything down to make it simple for anyone.
These meals are extra healthy with all nutrient information and you can just enter your portions (one to four people) and it generates a shopping list that you can print and pop in your bag for the store.
You can also swap out recipes for others in the app, or customise to suit personal preferences or dietary needs (many meals can be made soy, gluten and nut-free). And a portion from each membership donation goes to elephant rescue!
Easy Vegan Meal Plan offers a good online plan by Sam Turnbull, one of the world’s best-selling cookbook authors, who always specialises in affordable simple meals that anyone can make.
Eco-friendly meal planner (and shopping list)
This meal planner and shopping list, is ideal if you like a list to take the grocery, especially if you run a busy household. And need to keep to a budget.
Know what you’re going to buy and make for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and find a shopping list with six sections:
- Fruits and veggies
- Bakery
- Chilled and frozen
- Canned and cupboard
- Health, beauty and cleaning
- Other
The 2 planner pads have cardboard backing, and are printed with vegetable inks.
Everything at Good Tuesday is printed on recycled paper, sent in plastic-free packaging, made in the UK and beautifully designed.
Choosing recycled paper is better than FSC-certified paper, as that still requires fast-growing trees with pesticides (instead these products ‘close the loop’ and use up unwanted waste that would otherwise end up at landfill, emitting methane gas).
About Good Tuesday Recycled Office Goods
Good Tuesday is a lovely brand of recycled paper goods, founded by a woman who lives in Cornwall, but was raised in the Caribbean (hence all the bright colours!)
Everything is made in the UK, sent in plastic-free packaging.
After creating one pretty calendar and placing it on Etsy, it sold seven overnight, and the brand was born! Today it offers everything from wall planners to diaries, calendars to to-do lists. You are sure to find something you adore, to help you keep organised and inspired!
The business is based within a community of small businesses, not far from the Cornish coast. The old barn houses Good Tuesday, along with a sourdough bread bakery, coffee roaster, vegan cafe and wine expert, so the staff are well looked after!
