Updated food post

Back in October I created a post about what my family eats.  We still eat a mostly vegan diet and have fallen into much more of a groove now.  I have a regular meal rotation now that we're more comfortable and I want to not only share this information, but document it for myself.

Breakfast:
We enjoy unsewwtened vanilla almond milk and almond coconut milk.  Our go-to cereals include Cascadian Farms cinnamon cereal (think of a less junky cinnamon toast crunch), Quaker oatmeal squares (my favorite!), and a couple other relatively "clean" cereals.

We also enjoy vegan pancakes and waffles.  I make double or triple batches and freeze them.  We also eat oatmeal and cream of wheat.  Rarely I will make hashbrowns and some sort of veggie scramble (egg free- mostly just veggies and potatoes, sometimes with extra firm tofu).  Also, english muffins or bagels are pretty regular.

Lunch:
We regularly have leftovers from the night before.  Easy and filling.  We also enjoy veggie sandwiches and nut butter sandwiches.  Sometimes peanut, sometimes almond, always single ingredient butters.  They just contain nuts.  Novel idea?  Not really.  The girls love peanut butter and honey on whole wheat, multi grain bread.  We still devour our Bountiful Baskets bread and have about 10 loaves int he freezer right now.

I try to serve at least 1 veggie or fruit eith lunch in addition to whatever else we eat.  A regular lunch for the girls would be peanut butter and honey with a side of nuts and carrots with a little ranch.  A snack in between lunch and dinner might be veggie straws, tortilla chips, a cheese stick, banana, pear, apple, orange, or homemade goodie.  We also love Triscuits or veggies with homemade (oil free!) hummus, chips and salsa, and veggie egg rolls.  I'm not perfect, that's for sure, and we do eat some processed snacks like Goldfish and the like.  I try to keep them to a minimum though.

Dinner:
Here is where I want to document the most.

This is my regular rotation:
Tamale Casserole
Lentil Shepherds Pie
Roasted Veggie Enchiladas
Fried Rice
Black Bean Spinach Enchiladas
Lentil Burritos
Navajo Tacos (i.e. a big pot of homemade beans - can do Navajo tacos, refried beans, taco salad, etc.)
Veggie Burgers
Veggie Lo Mein
Homemade Pizza
Quesadilla Pie
Tortilla Soup
Spaghetti
Pineapple Fried Rice
Baked crispy eggplant
Corn cakes (not the same as below) with black beans and corn

Easy substitutions if life gets too crazy:
Broccoli Pasta (I add a can of white beans)
Minestrone (my recipe)
Baked Potatoes with Sauteed Veggies
Loaded Quesadillas

Occasional substitutions that we enjoy in our regular rotation (some are seasonal):
Lynn's "Meatloaf"
Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
Crunchy Black Bean Tacos
Vegetarian Chili - made with Bulgar Wheat
Stuffed Acorn Squash
Corn Cakes with Avocado Tomato Salsa
Veggie Fajitas 
 
Sides we enjoy:
Sauteed or roasted veggies: Green beans, Butternut Squash, Broccoli and/or cauliflower, carrots
Wilted spinach
Homemade Sweet Potato Fries (Ted rocks these)
Fruit Salads - name a fruit, we love it
Brown Rice or occasionally wild rice cooked a variety of ways
Rarely we will make a green salad with lettuce and/or spinach.  For vegetarians, we eat very little salad.  It's healthy but not filling and we have to make it count.
Veggie Egg Rolls


Baked goods/Snacks we love (vegan unless otherwise noted):
Crack Crackers (NOT vegan but so good!)
Vegan Chocolate Cake - cannot emphasize how much we love this
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread - we use dairy free chocolate chips.  They're addictive.
Pumpkin Pie - made with silken tofu, this is the best pumpkin pie I've ever tasted.
Peanut Butter Cookies
Oatmeal Cookies
Chocolate Chow Mein Cookies

How we eat out:
We love Chipotle.  We can always eat there when we're away from home.
Japanese food (NOT Chinese food buffets) always have vegan options.  We always leave Japanese food restaurants STUFFED!
Pita Jungle is a favorite.  Ted can find a couple vegan options and I can order fish.  I love fish and eat it occasionally when we eat out.
Most Italian restaurants have vegan options.  You can always make requests if you don't see it on the menu.
When we are home we don't eat out.  Unless it's bean burritos loaded with avocado, tomato, lettuce, and rice, that is.  There is no where to eat out in our tiny town with our food preferences.  We cook virtually every meal unless we are away from  home where the options are greater.

What makes my life easier:
Since we prepare nearly all our meals, I have to be smart.  Like I said, I double or triple breakfast foods.  I also double or triple everything else I can.  I make huge batches of chili and freeze half of it. We can warm it up and eat it as is or have it as part of something else like loaded baked potatoes or if we're feeling naughty we eat Frito pie.  Also, we have to cook smart.  We bake our brown rice because rice can be tempermental.  It's easy to make rice and it never burns unless you don't take it out of the oven.

I work hard to incorporate whole grains and a good variety - like oat flour, bulgar wheat, and brown rice.  Adds extra nutrition and it's yummy.  I also sneak in as many extra veggies as I can.  Ted and I love onion but the girls don't.  The smaller we chop them, the easier it is to incorporate. 

Some people look at what we eat and think our kids must starve because these are not "kid friendly" foods.  On the contrary!  Our kids eat what we serve them.  We don't do "back up plan" foods unless it's something I KNOW they dislike.  Mer doesn't like veggie fajitas.  I take some of the sauteed veggies she does like and put them in a quesadilla.  She still gets the good veggie power but isn't forced into eating a ton of peppers and onions she doesn't enjoy.