Dinner can be the hardest (and most fun) meal of the day when you're getting started on a vegan journey with the family. This is the time of day when the most food complaints come up and also when you have a little more time to experiment with new ingredients and recipes.

In this podcast episode, I give you 5 tips to make vegan dinner meal planning easier for you & the fam.

Listen here....

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5 Tips to Plan Vegan Dinners:

Think about what you're already eating for dinner and find a way to veganize some of these meals. I used the spaghetti example because it's a classic meal that is simple, filling and inexpensive. You can easily make a vegan version of spaghetti (using this recipe) and your family will likely not even notice. It's so important to make vegan life as familiar as possible to make the transition easier.

Ask for your family's input - See what they want to eat and make a vegan version of that dish. Get them involved in the process. I also mentioned lasagna during this portion of the show...here's the recipe

Commit to just a few minutes a day to gather vegan recipes - Use Pinterest (I really like this page for vegan recipes), vegan cookbooks from the library, findingvegan.com, or use Google to find recipes for whatever you have a taste for.

Keep a food journal - use Evernote (free software) or a spiral notebook to track recipes that your family enjoyed. Refer back to these recipes to make again when you get busy or when you don't feel inspired to try new recipes. Just make sure you write down where you got the recipe from and the title of the blog post.

Make enough for leftovers - I hated leftovers while growing up, but now that I'm older and wiser, I realize how helpful they are for saving time and money. Make meals that allow for plenty of leftovers like soup and red beans & rice. This will help you to only plan about 4-5 dinners a week instead of the standard 7.