We use rice and beans as the basis of our Mega-Meat Recipe and many of our Healthy Dinner recipes. We suggest collecting six beans for the greatest variety. A four-gallon bucket is more than enough for the year if you plan to each variety of bean once a week because one cup of beans times 52 weeks is almost four gallons.
Suggested Beans: Black, Red, White, Pinto, Garbanzo and Lentils
Spice Packets
Oils, Vinegar and Spices
Transform bland foods into an exotic meal that is a delight to the senses. We have a spice packet for each theme that can be added to rice, beans, vegetables, sauces, meat or veggie meat.
Vegetables, Freeze Dried
Add them to your trail mix for a complete meal with all of the food groups. Add them to your dinner recipes for quick yet powerful nutrition. We use dried onion, garlic, bell peppers, sweet corn, garden peas, asparagus, tomato flakes and broccoli.
We want our menu to be as interesting as possible, as nutritious as possible, in the smallest amount of space for the least amount of money. We also wanted to use whole foods with a long shelf life to avoid the need for preservatives or other additives.
The choices in this cookbook meet specific objectives:
1) Familiar: all meals are well-loved favorites with ethnic influences
2) Healthy: all meals are made from whole food ingredients.
3) Fresh: we add fresh, organic vegetables and fruits to every meal.
4) Whole: we incorporate whole grains, nuts and seeds in every meal.
5) Convenient: spice mixes add flavor and nutrition to every meal.
6) Store well: all ingredients must store for long periods of time in the smallest space possible and the least weight with no preservatives..
7) Inexpensive: buying bulk foods is cheaper than buying processed prepared foods.
Food for Well-Being Vegetarian Meal Starters
Healthy Meals for the Week
We cook our meals for the week ahead with whole food ingredients such as rice and beans with herbs and spices. Using quart jars as pots we are able to cook the meals for the week at one time. This saves time and money while improving the nutritional value of your meals.
All meals in our plan are vegetarian except for the recommended fish once a week. We often top with cheese or sour cream but you wouldn’t have to if you want to have a vegan diet. We created the plan to be a flexible as possible.
Every day of the week is assigned an ethnic theme. The Dinner themes begin with the letters of the days of the week;
Monday Mediterranean: Greek, Italian Tuesday Tandoori: East Indian Cuisine Western Wednesday: American Thursday Thai: Asian Cuisine Friday Fusion: Latin Cuisine Saturday Southwest: Mexican Food Sunday Soul Food: African American
When you know what you will be serving each day, you can plan ahead healthy meals for the week, the month, even the year. To make dinner fast and efficient I mixed up a collection of dry mixes. I organized them in our Baker’s Rack with the recipe on the side of the container to make whipping up these hearty meals very easy. Even a child can do it.
All of the Healthy Meals for the Week center around whole foods that spring from the ground and these are the very foods that store for long periods of time as well; rice, beans, whole grains, nuts and seeds, herbs, spices and seasonings.
When you order Meal Starters you will be able to make all of the dinners the cookbook without having to go grocery shopping at all. All of the ingredients are already stocked in the kit.
I have cooked these meals so often that I can vary them very easily. I can teach my children and spouse to cook very these familiar meals because it repeats every week. The stress level is reduced for meal time as well as for planning, grocery shopping and meal preparation.
Build out from the Core
Our Meal Starters are more than enough to keep my family happy throughout the week without adding much else. If you have avid meat eaters in your home, you might try to bargain with them as I did with my own meat-eater. We came up with a workable plan for our family to have vegetarian meals on the weekdays and no diet restrictions on the weekends. We push any parties or celebrations to the weekend to keep this bargain going year after year. Another bargain might be that if they would be willing to eat these Meal Starters each day, you would add something they love and are familiar with such as packaged taquitos or egg rolls.
When you start every meal with Meal Starters it means that we have two whole foods for each meal that combine to make a complete plant protein. This way vegetarians and meat-eaters can eat the same meal together with the same dinner theme.
When we say that our Meal Starters are also gluten-free you know without doubt that they are because when you start with whole grains and beans purchased in bulk, add seasonings and simmer, you know that your meal is gluten-free, fat-free, lactose-free, low-sodium, sugar-free and absolutely no colors, MSG, preservatives or any other food additives that are causing so many diet-related illnesses. Can you get the same guarantee from the grocery store or any restaurant?
With deceptive labeling practices of the food industry we no longer fool ourselves into believing that reading the words on a package makes us conscious shoppers. The only way to know what you are putting on your dinner table is to take the course and make it yourself, or have meals delivered from MyWholeFoodsKitchen.com. They will cook it for you right in front of your eyes in your own kitchen if you ask them to.
