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The worst thing about cooking is deciding what to make. Brigitte Gemme, founder and Chief Meal Planner at Vegan Family Kitchen, guides you to plan and prep delicious and nutritious meals for yourself and your loved ones, using vegan whole foods plant-based ingredients... and lots of love.
Episodes
Wednesday Sep 21, 2022
Wednesday Sep 21, 2022
Do you hate cooking? You are not alone. My guest today, Gemma McFall, used to feel just like you, but then she found a way to leverage her strengths to improve her kitchen reality. Listen on to find out what she did.
Gemma McFall is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach and also a Vegan Meal Plan subscriber. Her work is to help women reduce stress and heal chronic pain so they can get back to enjoying life. After struggling for years with back pain herself and trying everything, she discovered that she had neuroplastic pain, which meant that her pain could be cured. As she healed, she decided to share her discovery with others. You will love learning about her experience feeding her family of four as expatriates in various countries, following her process healing from chronic pain, and finding out more about how you too can leverage your strengths to find more joy in cooking. Let's chat!
You can connect with Gemma via her web site: https://gemmamcfall.com
To see if the Vegan Meal Plans might be the right tool for you, check out my Planned & Plant-based 5-day healthy vegan meal plan: https://veganfamilykitchen.com/planned or download one of my free templates.
Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
Things I do every week for happier weeknight meals
Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
Wednesday Sep 14, 2022
Cooking really good food for myself and my loved ones isn't a sprint. It's an ultra-endurance event. It has to be attended at least 3 times per day (more like 6 when counting snacks for growing and/or active people). It's not like I can deal it once for the year or a few months and be satisfied. It's one of those cyclical things that repeats every day. And having some weekly routines for it also helps a great deal. Here are my top 5.
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Do you need a bit of help with meal planning? Download one of my free templates or subscribe to the Vegan Meal Plans. It's like a 1-year cooking course that is directly useful to your daily life! With access to the teacher by text message anytime, too.
If you are inspired to learn more about Flow in the Kitchen, consider pre-ordering my upcoming book.
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Babita Shresta thought she had landed on another planet when she first visited a grocery store in Minnesota. Coming from rural Nepal, where as a child she learned to cook fresh vegetables and simmer lentils alongside her grandfather, she had never seen packaged processed food. Pre-cooked tortillas and roti sold in plastic bags blew her mind. She could not have imagined that frozen meat would one day become part of her diet, yet it did. As a busy college student, she was too busy to think it all through. After some time, she realized that those convenience foods were neither good for her health nor for the planet, and she committed to sharing her deep love of traditional plant-based Nepalese cooking with the world.
Join me in listening to Babita tell the story of her food upbringing and of how travel transformed her perspective, leading her to become a advocate for the kind of food that's loving our bodies and the planet.
I encourage you to order her book Plant-based Himalaya: Vegan Recipes from Nepal from your local bookstore.
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Would you benefit from a bit of guidance and structure to adopt or sustain a healthy plant-based lifestyle? Download my free 5-day Planned & Plant-based meal plan or be in touch with me anytime at hello@veganfamilykitchen.com.
Friday May 20, 2022
Soy and cancer: should we worry? Here’s what the recent literature says.
Friday May 20, 2022
Friday May 20, 2022
This question has been settled scientifically for a number of years but it still keeps on coming up, so I thought I would review the recent scientific evidence about the link (or rather, the lack of link) between soy and cancer risk for your convenience. Spoiler: soy certainly does not cause cancer and in fact may be preventive.
You will find the reference and links to the publications discussed herein on my web site here.
I make sure to include tofu or some other soy food once per week in my Vegan Meal Plans. If you'd like to experience the peace of mind of not having to decide what's for dinner for a week (yet knowing that you're going to cook and eat simple yet delicious and nutritious meals), you are welcome to get my plant-based meal planning starter kit here: Planned & Plant-based.
Thanks for listening and keep on cooking!
Thursday May 19, 2022
Thursday May 19, 2022
Can fertility improve with a plant-based diet? Research certainly seems to be on the side of a reduction in meat intake having a positive effect, while health plant-based diets focused on whole foods have the potential to improve many of the factors that influence fertility. To talk about it, I invited Dr. Jenny Lee on the podcast.
Dr. Jenny Lee is a board-certified physician in both Internal Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine, in addition to serving as a wellness coach. Through her work as a physician, she has seen many people developing and suffering from chronic disease caused by lifestyle. This is why she was drawn to lifestyle medicine where the focus is on nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, and relationships to prevent or reverse chronic disease. She also loves coaching, as it is more of a partnership between two people, where she works together with her clients toward their goals. Her passion is helping women with fertility issues. Through her own fertility struggles years ago, she learned the importance of lifestyle and diet. Against the odds, she became pregnant naturally twice with her miracle babies, who are now 3 and 1 year old.
In this episode she shares:
- her professional and personal journey as an independent perfectionist who learned to accept help,
- how she transitioned her diet to plant-based, removed toxic products from her routines, and improved her life and health,
- her struggles with fertility treatments and how she hit "pause" on that stressful process,
- her passion for supporting women through their own fertility journeys,
- what she recommends her clients do first when they want to improve their lifestyle and fertility.
You can connect with her on her web site and on Instagram.
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If you like the idea of eating more plants (and fewer animal products), but feel overwhelmed by the options or just tired of deciding what's for dinner, I can help. Try out my one-week free sample Vegan Meal Plan and see how much peace of mind can arise from knowing you're organized to eat tasty, healthy plant-based dinners: https://veganfamilykitchen.com/planned-plant-based/. Keep on cooking!
Monday May 16, 2022
Iron for vegans: my views as a meal planner, woman, and mother
Monday May 16, 2022
Monday May 16, 2022
Iron is a common concern of well-meaning friends and relatives, upon learning that a loved one is going vegan or committing to eating more plants (and fewer animals). Since most people still think of meat as the source of the most abundant and easiest to absorb iron, isn’t forgoing animal products putting you at risk for iron deficiency? Unfortunately, many medical professionals contribute to spreading this outdated belief, despite ample scientific evidence to the contrary.
As someone who decides what’s for dinner for other people, I see it as my responsibility to stay informed on the topic of iron for vegans, and share my views and sources of information. Spoiler alert: it’s not a big deal for most people, which doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be paying attention to this critical mineral when planning our meals.
To access the resources discussed in this podcast episode, visit the full blog post: https://veganfamilykitchen.com/iron-for-vegans/
To experience the Vegan Meal Plans for one week, try going Planned & Plant-based: https://veganfamilykitchen.com/planned-plant-based/
Friday Apr 22, 2022
Friday Apr 22, 2022
Earth Day is a timely moment to reflect on how we are connected to our natural environment and to all the other beings who share this planet with us. I am humbled to be joined by Reverend Ian White Maher, a Unitarian Universalist minister and also the founder of The Seekers’ Table, an online contemplative community. Ian is also vegan, a lifestyle change he sees as deeply embedded in a process of spiritual transformation.
Connect with Ian and read his "Spirituality as if People Mattered" guide at The Seekers' Table.
Looking to make it easier to eat more plant-based dinners? Download your 5-dinner meal plan, including convenient prep steps to take on the weekend to make weeknights less stressful: Planned & Plant-based.
Monday Apr 11, 2022
Monday Apr 11, 2022
How do you get into shape after having kids without spending hours in the gym? Amy Kakebeeke is the queen of squeezing short yet effective workouts in-between the many commitments of her busy life as a working mom. Get ready to be inspired to hop off the couch and start moving!
In the podcast, we:
- talk about Amy's work with busy women who want to lose weight and get in shape without spending hours at the gym
- tell Amy's journey to veganism _and_ fitness, coming from a meat & couch potato lifestyle
- tease out Amy's best tips to get in the best shape of your life.
You can connect with Amy on Instagram at https://instagram.com/plantstrong_ak
Need to get organized to eat better plant-based meals? Download your free 5-day dinner strategy: Planned & Plant-based from the Vegan Family Kitchen: https://veganfamilykitchen.com/planned-plant-based/
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
My son had plain pasta for dinner and I am ok with that
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
Wednesday Apr 06, 2022
If you also deal with picky eaters, you know how frustrating, discouraging, and worrisome it can be. I hope this story about my children's food journeys will make you feel less alone and more hopeful.
If you're interested in my Feed picky eaters with love workshop, check out the details here: https://veganfamilykitchen.com/register/feed-picky-eaters-with-love-workshop/.
Download your 5-day dinner plan that includes prep steps to make weeknights less stressful: Planned and Plant-based.
Learn more about the Vegan Meal Plans.
Thursday Mar 31, 2022
Why you need to join a plant-based cooking club
Thursday Mar 31, 2022
Thursday Mar 31, 2022
There aren't many aspects of your life that won't be improved by joining a plant-based cooking club. It's a great way to ensure that you show up in the kitchen on weekends to do your batch cooking for the week. When Wednesday night comes and you open the fridge, you'll find the building blocks of dinner ready to assemble to create a fresh-tasting, delicious, healthy vegan meal. It's the perfect companion for the Vegan Meal Plans and that's why a lifetime subscription of the plans is bundled up with the cooking club membership. Learn more here: https://veganfamilykitchen.com/register/batch-cooking-club/
Keep on cooking!