Ep. 186: Toni Okamoto - You CAN Save Time and Money While Still Being Plant-Based
PLANTSTRONG Podcast
Rip Esselstyn
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2023
⏱️ 84 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What is the most common myth about adopting a whole food plant-based diet? (Ok- besides that crazy fear of not getting enough protein)...The biggest misconception is that this way of eating is expensive, unattainable, and elitist even. This simply isn’t true. I mean, what’s more economical than potatoes, beans, and rice?!
Toni Okamoto (plantbasedonabudget.com) has been on a mission to bust this myth to smithereens since she launched her website in 2012 to prove that healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive.
She’s created meal plans that show how to eat plant-based if you only have $25 per week to spend, she started the Plant-Based on a Budget Facebook group and has written multiple books, including her latest, which drops on March 7th - Plant-Based on a Budget: Quick and Easy, featuring 100 fast and healthy meals.
There’s no pretentiousness here - just plant-powered fun as she walks through her story and digs into some of the tips and recipes in her new book that will stretch your dollar and leave you with quick, easy, mouth-watering meals.
Episode Highlights:
25:40 The Value of Meal Planning
29:00 Have a Well-Stocked Pantry and Freezer
31:40 Time-Saving Kitchen Tools
33:10 Smart Storage for Produce to Maximize Freshness
37:03 Recipe Highlights from Plant-Based on a Budget Quick and Easy
40:14 Make Ahead Breakfast Highlights
-Fluffy Freezer waffles
-Baked Oatmeal
-Overnight Oats
45:50 One-Pot Meal Highlights - Leave the dishes and messy kitchen behind with one-pot meals
-Alfredo pasta
-Curry lentil soup
-Turmeric, lentils, and split peas - Ethiopian-inspired flavors
52:05 30-Minute Meals Highlights - Spend under $30 a week and only 30 minutes of time
-Pesto pasta - Use raw sunflower seeds because they are cheaper than pine nuts
-Cauliflower fried rice
-Southwestern lettuce wraps
1:02:20 Sheet Pan Dishes and Casserole Highlights
-Sheet pan fajitas
-Chili cornbread casserole
-Vegetable and garbanzo beans foil packets
1:12:15 Mix and Match Bowls
-Always prepare a base of quinoa, brown rice, beans
-Frozen veggies, baked tofu
1:17:00 Make and Take Snacks
1:17:55 Desserts
About Toni Okamoto
TONI OKAMOTO is the founder of Plant-Based on a Budget, the popular website and meal plan that shows you how to save dough by eating veggies. She’s also author of the Plant-Based on a Budget cookbook, The Super Easy Vegan Slow Cooker Cookbook, and the co-host of The Plant-Powered People Podcast. Okamoto’s work has been profiled by NBC News, Parade Magazine, and she’s a regular presence on local and national morning shows across the country, where she teaches viewers how to break their meat habit without breaking their budget. She was also featured in the popular documentary What the Health. When she’s not cooking up a plant-based storm, she’s spending time with her husband in Sacramento, CA.
Episode Resources
Order Toni’s New Book, Plant-Based on a Budget Quick and Easy
Plant-Based on a Budget Website
Follow Toni on Instagram: @plantbasedonabudget
To stock up on the best-tasting, most convenient, 100% PLANTSTRONG foods, including our new granola and teas, check out all of our PLANTSTRONG products HERE.
Give us a like on the PLANTSTRONG Facebook Page and check out what being PLANSTRONG is all about. We always keep it stocked full of new content and updates, tips for healthy living, delicious recipes, and you can even catch me LIVE on there!
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Want to live your best PLANTSTRONG life? Join our exclusive PLANTSTRONG Community of friendly, plant-loving peeps! This is a goldmine of resources, recipes, and incredible support to feed your PLANTSTRONG life.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Six days of laughing and learning and living in ways that you never thought were possible. |
| 0:07.8 | If for one second you've ever considered joining a Plan Strong retreat, |
| 0:12.2 | now is your opportunity. |
| 0:14.5 | Join me and the whole Plan Strong crew April 16th, 21st, just outside |
| 0:21.8 | Astral North Carolina in the wondrous and magical Black Mountain. |
| 0:27.5 | We are taking morning hikes together, playing afternoon pickleball, yoga, endless, endless buffets of plant-based meals, |
| 0:37.9 | talks from some of the world leading experts on how to elevate and enhance your plant-based lifestyle. |
| 0:44.1 | And a little asterisk here. |
| 0:46.8 | Great news for healthcare professionals. |
| 0:49.2 | We have CMEs and CEUs available for physicians, physician assistants, nurses and nurse practitioners. |
| 0:57.8 | As part of the registration fee. |
| 0:59.6 | Simply visit planstrong.com and click on Black Mountain for all the details or send an email with any questions you have to events at planstrong.com. |
| 1:11.5 | I'll see you April 16th. |
| 1:15.5 | But I wanted to show that you can eat an abundance of plants and still stay within that budget. |
| 1:22.3 | And I was able to. I got my meal planned down to $20 shopping at Walmart. |
| 1:27.6 | And I was buying things like brown rice, whole dried beans, lots of different produce. |
| 1:36.8 | And it was three meals a day plus some snacks. |
| 1:41.4 | You're eating a lot of fruit for snacks. |
| 1:43.6 | And I showed how it could be done. |
| 1:47.5 | I'm Rep. Suston and welcome to the Plan Strong podcast. |
| 1:51.2 | The mission at planstrong is to further the advancement of all things within the plant-based movement. |
| 1:58.0 | We advocate for the scientifically proven benefits of plant-based living and envision a world that universally understands, promotes and prescribes plants as a solution to empowering your health, enhancing your performance, restoring the environment, and becoming better guardians to the animals we share this planet with. |
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