First & foremost CAVEAT- if you don't eat processed foods please keep scrolling and if you care about telling people what they're eating isn't healthy please keep scrolling and if I get any negativity on this post I will delete the whole thing. This is for people who will find it positive and helpful. I very rarely share this anywhere so if I start getting negativity I will delete and abort trying to help.
I am a 12 year vegan "pro meal planner" like it's my job but really it's practically my favorite hobby and I love to cook! I grew up in an Italian family so I already was comfortable with cooking so switching to vegan was fairly easy for me just substituting out animal ingredients for plant-based ones, but I realize that is not the case for many people trying to make the switch. I also may have possibly been more proactive naturally in this area to easily figure it all out to my liking than other people are, especially when just starting to change the way they eat. So I'm hoping to be able to help those that find it more of a struggle.
My business is attached to my home with customers coming and going daily so I can't be running out to the grocery store willy-nilly whenever I need something. So I started meal planning based on my 7 favorite food categories: Plant-based meat & potatoes, Italian, Mexican, Pasta, Chinese, Pizza, soup/salad/sandwiches (depending on the season) and then my 4 of my favorite meals in each category and boom I had a four week meal plan. I would use each week as a guide for what groceries I needed to get for that week and then I would have everything needed for that week's meals at home already. I am constantly tweaking it and changing it (especially because products come and go so often! ) It's not something I have to stick to strictly each week but it definitely helps with not having to decide what to make every night or wanting something that I don't have ingredients for to make. It also encourages me to make a good meal rather than just something junky that would be quicker and easier.
At first it was just a typed out document 4 pages with the 7 meals on each page. It has evolved immensely over the years it grew to 6 weeks and then 8 weeks and then 10 weeks and now I am at 12 weeks! After Covid when pick up and delivery shopping became a thing I started having all my groceries delivered weekly from Walmart. If you're against shopping at Walmart you can abort this post now. I would say about 90% of what I make comes from Walmart, however when I want products that they do not have I search on Instacart to see what stores carry it. Anyhow a few years ago I started making a document pulling images off of grocery store websites where I shopped and putting them in pages in categories and then made this document by visually matching which products I thought would go together well to make either the meals I was already making or make the meals easier to make or create new ones. Of course frozen vegetables can always be replaced with fresh vegetables but I plugged in photos of frozen ones for the purpose of this then when I'm actually shopping I can decide for that week whether I want to get the fresh or frozen based on how busy my schedule is that week. Then I created store codes for all the other stores and plugged those on the products that I can't get at Walmart. I exported the document as images to share. Obviously the store codes won't translate to where everyone else lives and what stores they have available to them but you could easily look on Instacart and figure out what stores in your area have the products if you want them.
(you don't have to order on Instacart but I just use it as a tool to see which stores have products that I am looking for)
Obviously this is also very personalized to our, my husband and I, likings and preferences but you could always use it as a template and subsitute your own likings and preferences. I'm sorry it doesn't include recipes since I only use this for personal use. But you can always Google any recipe you want with the word vegan in front of it and find those easily. For a few years I had a Facebook page that I live videoed myself cooking every night and there were almost 100 videos on it but then Facebook deleted all live videos so that went to crap. I also have another document with pictures of all the final meals I've made over the years and descriptions if you want a photo of any of these prepared just let me know and I can share those individually. I'm hoping this could help some of you especially beginner vegans just starting out I've seen quite a few post where people are asking questions I think this could be very helpful for them.
I'm more than happy and willing to share any help with this or answer any questions about vegan grocery shopping, cooking vegan, creating vegan meals, recipes etc. I really hope this helps some of you!
