2016 as last year is the year I hope more and more to become – and stay – vegan. In the last few years, I started my vegan research journey simply to find more healthy vegetable and legume recipes. The more I eat vegan, the better I feel, not to mention how much my awareness for animal welfare has heightened. I want to make veganism a true commitment to myself and to the other beings on our Earth.
I started out one day at a time, and here is how you can do it, too if you are struggling to go 100 percent vegan. For example, Meatless Monday is an easy commitment. So is occasionally eating vegan. The challenge is to stay a vegan day in and day out – every single meal – and do it the healthy vegan way – with an occasionally unhealthy vegan snack or meal.
A solution that works for me is to do menu planning, But, yes, there’s a but! I suck at creating a proper menu plan – you (and I) don’t want to cook three different meals and two snacks from scratch every day, not to mention the time it takes. We want a plan that is simple to follow, with leftovers for the next day and with a good combination of vitamins and minerals that make meals nutrition rich. And I want – and I bet you want, too – a plan that includes a shopping list.
Free vegan starter kit menu planners
In order to help me with this goal, I have found three free vegan planners that I have reviewed below. Let me know which one you like the best!
The good news is that there are several free menu planners on the Internet for us to use. I’ve done a search to kickstart this year for at good start at Vegan Menu Planning the healthy way. This is what I found, and more is being added.
1. 21-day Vegan Kit Menu from PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)
My all time favorite is the 21 Day Starter Menu. Not only do they have the menu kit with shopping lists, you can also sign up for a free account and make your own menus with your favorite foods.
When that’s done, not only a shopping list will be generated for you, but also the nutritional values in your meals are calculated. Doesn’t get much better than that. Get it here.
PCRM also has a kickstart program you can sign up for PMRC Kickstart (in English, Chinese and Spanish, there’s also Kickstart for India but in English)- they will send you daily emails with tips and recipes. And it starts the 1st of every month, so sign up Today!
2. “Eat This Much” is your personal meal planner and you will need to sign up for an account, which is free. When you set up your profile page you choose if you want to gain weight, maintain or lose weight, your gender, personal measure etc. you can even choose which price level your food budget is. Very cool – you also choose if you want metric or imperial measures! get it at EatThisMuch
3. PETA has a two week Vegan Meal Plan – it is a two-week sample menu. You can get it at PETA Meal Plan. Also, you can order a Vegan Starter Kit as well PETA Vegan Starter Kit
There you go, three free vegan meal planners for you to use.
Before I close I want to draw your attention to the good people at Veganuary, there’s no meal planning there but it’s so full of other fine vegan stuff that’s it well worth your time to check it out.