Are you doing Veganuary this year? If so this vegan meal plan is for you!
Check out our week 1 vegan meal plan from last week for some more inspiration.
There’s never been a better time to try Veganism. This Veganury meal plan is full of simple and delicious meals, is the perfect place to start! There are so many reasons to do it, now more than ever. The main three for us and many other people are health, the environment and animal suffering. If you’re still on the fence or contemplating trying Veganuary this month (it’s not too late!), here are a few facts that you might like to consider:
Environment:
- Animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of climate change. (www.animalaid.org)
- The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reports that the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than ALL transportation combined. (www.awellfedworld.org)
- If every family in the UK removed the meat from just one meal a week, it would have the same environmental impact as taking 16 million cars off the road. (www.vegansociety.com)
- It takes 1,000 litres of water to produce one beef burger, but just 167 litres to produce a tofu-based equivalent (www.animalaid.org)
- More than 70 per cent of all agricultural land in Britain is used to rear animals, yet they provide just a small fraction of our nutrient intake. The same amount of land could feed up to ten times as many people if used to grow crops for human consumption, rather than grazing animals or growing animal feed. (www.animalaid.org)
Animal Crulety:
- Over a billion farmed animals in Britain are killed each year in slaughterhouses (www.vegansociety.com)
- If the UK population was killed at the rate farmed animals are killed around the world, it would end in just 11 hours. Sources: [1], [2], [3] (www.vegansociety.com)
- 40 million day-old male chicks are killed in the UK by either being gassed or being thrown into a macerator – this practice occurs in all egg farming systems, including organic and free-range. Source (www.vegansociety.com)
- Male calves are of no use to the dairy industry and are less suitable for beef production. This means that every year around 95,000 male dairy calves are shot soon after birth and discarded as a by-product. Source (www.vegansociety.com)
Health:
- A 2019 study, totaling over 300,000 participants, by Harvard scientists discovered that eating a vegan diet can cut your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by almost a quarter (23%) Sources: [1], [2] (www.vegansociety.com)
- The World Health Organisation report in November 2015 ranked processed meat as a group 1 carcinogen (the same category as cigarettes, alcohol and asbestos). Eating just 50g per day (two rashers of bacon) increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18%. Source (www.vegansociety.com)
- We could feed twice as many humans with today’s global harvest (in 2019) if we did not feed farmed animals but rather consumed the yield ourselves. Source (www.vegansociety.com)
If you’re taking part in Veganuary, by now, you’re nearly halfway through! So congrats on that! If you haven’t heard about Veganuary before, its essentially a New Year’s resolution; a challenge to yourself to try veganism for the whole month of January. Veganuary is also a nonprofit organisation with a website that has lots of great articles and helpful pages all about starting as a vegan. To add to this, we’ve decided to give you a helping hand too.
That is why we’ve written this Veganuary meal plan to simplify it for you!
As much as it can be a really exciting thing to take part in, it comes with its challenges. We’re here to help you with a meal plan to guide you through the week, covering every meal of the day, Monday through to Sunday. We’ve even included some delicious suggestions of vegan meals for takeaway from popular chain restaurants like Pho and Pret, who’re offering extra special vegan menus for Veganuary. All the other recipes are mostly our own recipes, which are linked and can be found on this blog, except for a tasty smoothie recipe by So Vegan. At the end of this post, you’ll also find a handy shopping list with all the ingredients needed for the week.
This is the 2nd of 2 blog posts with a weekly Veganuary meal plan. You could follow the meals here to the letter and swap between weeks to keep a good variety, or you can get creative and use our plans as a spring-board for making your own. We’ve taken the time to try and plan out the week as balanced as possible and to not waste any ingredients. On our veganuary meal plans, you’ll find recipes with inspiration from around the globe, all of which we’re sure you’ll love.
VEGANUARY MEAL PLAN WEEK 2
Monday
Breakfast: Smoothie (So Vegan)
Lunch: Sweet potato rostis
Dinner: Spaghetti aglio e olio
A nutrient-packed smoothie is always a great way to start your day. You can squeeze all sorts of delicious fruits and veggies towards your 5-a-day before you’ve even started work. We’ve suggested this fab recipe by So Vegan for Monday morning’s breakfast. Lunch is our sweet potato rosti. They’re really easy to make and can be served with your favourite toppings. We like to have cherry tomatoes, avocado, dairy-free creme fraiche, lemon and chilli flakes on ours. Dinner is one of our all-time favourite recipes. Whoever we cook if for, they always love it! It’s a twist on the Italian classic spaghetti aglio e olio. It’s spaghetti with lots of garlic, oil, parsley and chilli, then we’ve added some crispy cannellini beans for protein, some capers, olives and a crazy delicious cashew parmesan. What better way to start the week!
Tuesday
Breakfast: Banana pancakes
Lunch: On the go: pret, m&s, itsu, subway, greggs, leon
Dinner: Mexican Burrito Bowl
For Tuesday’s breakfast vegan banana pancakes are on the menu. These only have 5 ingredients in, and can be whipped up in about 10 minutes. We suggest trying one of the many vegan lunch options available on the high st. Lots of places have brought out new products for Veganuary like M&S, Pret, Subway, Costa and more! A colourful Mexican burrito bowl is for dinner. This dish is bursting with fresh Mexican flavours and always hits the spot!
Wednesday
Breakfast: Muesli, fruit and yoghurt
Lunch: Mexican Burrito Bowl (leftovers)
Dinner: Super greens pesto pasta
We thought we’d bring things back to basics with Wednesday’s breakfast, showing that it’s still possible to have a simple bowl of cereal as a vegan. We like muesli or granola with dairy-free yoghurt and seasonal fruit. However, you could always opt for a bowl shreddies with some plant milk. Oat or almond is our fave! Lunch is already made for you, as we have leftovers from last nights Mexican burrito bowl. Dinner is a super greens pesto pasta, packed with peas, broccoli, asparagus, rocket and spinach. It’s a truly comforting meal that’s also packed with loads of nutritious vegetables.
Thursday
Breakfast: Avocado on toast
Lunch: Lunch on the go: pret, m&s, itsu, subway, greggs, leon
Dinner: Gochujang tofu noodle bowl
The thing about a lot of these meals is that you’ve probably had lots of them before! A lot of vegan food isn’t any different, they’re all the same ingredients you cook with on the regular. An example of this is the iconic avo on toast! You can jazz it up with lime, chilli, coriander and salt and serve on some tasty sourdough bread. Simple but oh so tasty! For lunch, why not try another of the high street’s vegan offerings. There are so many out there to try! A gochujang tofu noodle bowl is for dinner. We absolutely love tofu, but many non-vegans say they don’t, and the reason being the soft texture. This recipe has super crispy tofu pieces in it, using firm tofu and cornflour to create this. We’ve managed to convince even the most dubious tofu eater that it can be delicious when cooked right!
Friday
Breakfast: Vegan breakfast quesadillas
Lunch: Warming maple roasted winter veg salad
Dinner: Shop bought pizzas
We hope you like Mexican food as much as us, because on the menu for today’s breakfast is a jam-packed vegan breakfast quesadilla. This dish is more Mexican inspired than being properly authentic. However, it does have all those Mexican flavours we love like lime, coriander, chilli, avocado and black beans. For lunch, it’s a warming maple roasted winter veg salad. It’s served warm, so perfect for these colder days, but still fresh and full of flavour. Friday night is pizza night! Why not try one of the many shop-bought vegan pizzas available and have it at home with garlic bread and a side salad. We love Tesco’s Wicked kitchen sourdough margarita pizza, M&S’s vegan pizza and the White Rabbit vegan pizzas, which can be found in most major supermarkets.
Saturday
Brunch: Vegan full English fry-up
Dinner: Takeout from Pho
The classic full English breakfast can so easily be veganised nowadays. Swap put the sausages for Sainsbury’s Cumberland shroomdogs, the eggs for scrambled tofu and all the vegetable element can stay the same. Thank god for the hash brown! It’s a great way to start your weekend. Saturday evening is takeout evening. As we’re currently in lockdown, unfortunately, we can’t go to any restaurants to enjoy their Veganuary menus. However, lots of restaurants are offering Veganuary menus online. One of our favourites is Pho. If you have one on Deliveroo or Uber Eats near you, we’d suggest trying a few things from them for dinner.
Sunday
Brunch: Grilled cheese and sauerkraut toastie
Dinner: Warming maple roasted winter veg salad (leftovers)
Is there anything more comforting than a grilled cheese? We don’t think so! It makes for the most delicious Sunday breakfast. We’ve added in some red cabbage sauerkraut for some extra colour and flavour. Dinner is leftovers from the warming maple roasted winter veg salad, meaning you have less time for cooking and more time for yourself!
Your Vegan Meal Plan Shopping List
It’s a long list, however, we’re sure you probably have lots of these things in your fridge and cupboards already!
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