Archives for June 2019

You know how every family has their go-to meal for those busy weeknights? Well, meet ours! Lentils are in our weekly rotation for our kids meals because of their amazing health benefits– and this is an easy way to make that happen. You can make this delicious comfort meal, loaded with nutrients and antioxidants, in a minimal amount of time. Simple, quick and healthy–definitely up my alley as a busy mom to growing young kids. We filmed a video several months ago on how to make this simple dish, with the amazing Minimo Productions. It will see the light of day eventually, but I couldn’t wait to share our recipe!

Derived from a childhood favorite that’s typically made with mung beans, we make this with the base of french lentils, coconut milk, onions and garlic. I always joke that I “Americanized” this dish, since I ate the Filipino version of it growing up. And when I discovered that my children loved it too, I was able to replace our soccer/piano/fill-in-the-blank nights with with a dish that is even more nutrient dense than the typical quick go-to pasta.

If you want to make it even quicker, you can use frozen rice, which can be heated up in minutes. I always keep boxes of organic frozen rice that come in a 3-pack from Trader Joe’s on hand, for quick meals. They come in both brown and white rice options. I also use Trader Joe’s ready-to-eat steamed french lentils, which is something I also typically keep on hand in our fridge. Doing this ensures that we pack in those nutrients, even when our schedules are crazy. You can easily make the lentils yourself and it’s probaby a tiny bit cheaper–so if you do, adjust the spices to your preference. Hope you enjoy our family’s favorite weeknight meal!

I love to be tagged in stories and posts when you make any of our recipes or try anything that we’ve shared! Please tag us and we’ll reshare our faves too. 🙂 @plantbasedmomma

We were SO excited to visit the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland. The amazing details of this new land did not disappoint, especially with including a few plant-based options for us! We were lucky enough to have reservations from 2-6pm, which gave us the option to try both lunch and dinner.

Our family’s favorite was the Ithorian plant-based meatloaf, found at Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo. This is served with mashed potatoes (confirmed vegan with the chef), veggies and a delicious savory mushroom gravy. It’s made with Impossible “meat” and it was SO good. It is definitely a dish that we would really look forward to coming back and ordering. And it’s unbelievable how similar it looks to the real thing. You can only order this from the dinner menu, beginning at 4pm, but the good news is that you can use mobile ordering, so you don’t have to wait in line!

For lunch we had the Felucian Garden Spread, also found at Docking Bay 7. This dish consists of plant-based meatballs served on top of herbed (tasted like parsley) hummus and pita bread. Our kids didn’t love this dish, since both the meatballs and the hummus were the tiniest bit spicy, according to them. I would order it again and am so thankful for a vegan lunch option. This dish is available during lunch, until 4pm. There was also a deliciously refreshing tea that we loved, which was called Phattro. This was a mix of odwalla, lemonade and desert pear. The Taste of Takodana on the kids menu appeared to be vegan, but we didn’t order it. However, it looks like a great and healthy option.

Now onto the much anticipated Milk Stand. I have read SO many mixed reviews on the two different milks you can order, both of which are made from vegan milks. Our kids, like most reviews, preferred the blue milk, which has a berry flavor. However, my husband and I surprisingly preferred the green milk! It tasted like drinking a cup of flowers and reminded us of a rose drink from a local restaurant. It definitely had passion fruit and mint–and I love passion fruit, so that might play a part. And the mint wasn’t overwhelming at all. But I recommend at least trying both.

Another thing we seem to be in the minority is with the outpost mix of popcorn from Kat Saka’s Kettle. Our family actually liked the unique mix of flavors! You definitely have to eat one color at a time to appreciate the different tastes. But one color tasted like fruit loops and another tasted like Tajin with lime juice. We actually saw someone throw their full bag away, but we definitely appreciated the experience of it.

And lastly, a tip for parents! If you are like us and want to let your child choose a (“reasonably priced”) toy to commemorate this special experience… I highly suggest Toydarian Toymaker in Black Spire Outpost (the huge walk-through building as you enter from the Hungry Bear entrance). I was so impressed with the adorable and well-made wooden toys and high quality stuffed animals. We were happy to buy something from here, as memorabilia that our kids can possibly tell their own kids about the time this new land opened at Disney.

My boys dressed up as Storm Troopers and all of the characters gave them so much attention–which totally added to the experience. They rode Millennium Falcon twice, which made their day!

We had such an amazing day. Every single tiny detail is accounted for. Everything exceeded any expectations we had and it was even more awesome than we could have imagined. I definitely recommend taking a trip (just to experience the meatloaf dish alone!). If you don’t already have reservations, the land opens to the public on Monday, June 24.