Plant-Based Eating, Wellness, and Sustainability this summer. An interview with Carleigh Bodrug the founder of Plant You.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Carleigh Bodrug, a name becoming synonymous with the plant-based lifestyle. Entrepreneur, advocate, cook, and influencer, Carleigh is wearing many hats, and wearing them all successfully. We love her message of progress over perfection. She believes that everyone making some effort towards eating less meat is a great thing to strive for. Contrary to the saturated social media influencer space, Carleigh has carved out a real community full of highly engaged people that she’s genuinely helping and building a real relationship with. If you were to follow her on social, along with almost a half-million other people, then you would continuously be delighted with super simple vegan recipes, whole-food plant-based info, and constant encouragement.

Check out the full interview below to learn about Carleigh’s summer food inspirations, plans for her brand and business, how she’s dealing with stress during a crazy year, and even score some yummy recipes along the way!

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your brand, Plant You!

Hey I’m Carleigh, and I’m the Founder of Plant You, a whole-food, plant-based online community, digital meal planner and food blog with a fan base of over 350,000 social media followers. I’m from a small town in Ontario, Canada, and absolutely love creating ridiculously easy whole-foods, plant-based, oil-free recipes and lifestyle tips for my followers to enjoy! 

What are some of your favorite summer ingredients and one way you like to use each?

Freshly picked raspberries - Perfect in overnight oats, or in a peanut butter and “jam” sandwich (just grind up the raspberries with a fork and you will have an amazing quick jam)!

Asparagus - A wonderful vegetable that I love serving grilled on the side of veggie burgers or tofu skewers

Watermelon - delicious blended up with strawberries and lime, and frozen to make popsicles, or just on it’s own! 

Share with our readers what has worked for you to keep your mental health strong during this pandemic.

It’s no question that these are challenging times for just about everyone. With a constant stream of what feels like bad news, it can quickly become overwhelming. 

Near the beginning of the pandemic, I set out some boundaries for myself when it comes to consuming media. I make sure to turn my phone off for the day at 8:30pm, and plug it in on the other side of the bedroom to avoid scrolling and getting overwhelmed before bed each night. This makes a measurable difference in my evenings and mornings. 

Another big game changer has been making sure I get in daily movement. Because many of us no longer have access to gyms, and might not be leaving the house as often, it is paramount that we get some form of daily exercise if possible. This could mean going for a walk or light jog, doing an online workout video or dance. For me, I was very lucky that we had built a small home gym before the pandemic hit so I have been able to maintain muscle training. Finally, my fiance and I have implemented a daily 10 minute meditation before bed using the Daily Calm app. This has helped keep us present, mindful and grounded during these unprecedented times.

What are vegan meals that scream summertime to you?

To me a meal that just screams “summer” is a delicious pasta salad! I could eat this everyday and it’s truly so versatile. My favorite is a balsamic pasta salad. Simply cook up some penne or macaroni, let it cool and add fresh basil, chopped cherry tomatoes and pickled artichokes along with a balsamic dressing. 

What are a few efforts that everybody, vegan or not, can take to improve their impact on the environment this summer?

If you’re anything like me, you love hitting your local farmers market during the summer. However, that’s not a reality right now for many due to the pandemic. I would encourage everyone to seek out how they can get fresh local produce (whether it’s a pick up or drop off station at a farm stand) to both support your local economy and reduce your environmental impact because your food doesn’t have to travel far. 

Another easy tip is saving your vegetable scraps in a reusable freezer bag and making vegetable broth with them! You can also compost, and save them to fertilize your soil. 

What sustainability trends in the food space have you been seeing that you're excited about? 

I’m very excited to see mainstream media coverage on the impact reducing your animal product consumption can have on the environment. 

According to scientists behind the most comprehensive analysis of animal agriculture’s impact on the planet to date, avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet. 

The study, which was published in the journal Science, showed that meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories to feed the world, yet use 83% of farmland. They also contribute to 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.

How can people start consuming less meat overall, and make plant-based eating more fun? 

The biggest tip I have for someone who is new to a plant-based diet is to strive for consistency not perfection. Eating plant-based meals 70-80% of the time at the start is more important than trying to overhaul your entire diet overnight, and quitting because it wasn’t sustainable. Here are some simple ways to ease yourself in:

• Start treating the meat on your plate as a side dish rather than the main portion of your meal. This will make it easier to start seeing how dishes can shine without meat, while also allowing flexibility if you are the only person in your family transitioning

• Look at your favorite cuisines and think about how you can swap out the animal products in the dish for plant-based alternatives. For example, replace the ground beef in your bolognese pasta sauce with lentils instead. This maintains familiarity in your diet, while also moving toward more plant-based meals. 

• Serve a large salad or soup before you eat your main meal of the day

• Rather than relying on processed vegan foods such as ‘vegan chicken fingers’ and ‘vegan cheeses’, try focusing on whole unrefined foods. This could mean getting creative in the kitchen and making your own cashew cheese or chickpea nuggets.

• Get on social media and search out plant-based recipes online! There is an abundance of plant-based food bloggers and tasty meal ideas on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. 

• If you want to get motivated to pursue a plant-based lifestyle, definitely watch the Netflix documentaries Game Changers, What The Health and Forks Over Knives. If you prefer to read, How Not To Die, The China Study and Eat To Live are all excellent.

• Explore online or meal kit options for plant-based food, such as my digital program, Plant Ahead, or weekly food boxes like Purple Carrot

Could you list out a few key ingredient substitution tricks for people looking to go Vegan. I.e. eggs in baking, etc. 

Dairy Milk for Almond, Cashew, Oat or Soy Milk 

Eggs for Scrambled Tofu, or a Flax or Chia Egg in Baking

Ground Beef for Ground walnuts and mushrooms in tacos or pasta sauce

Cheese for nutritional yeast, cashew cheese or store bought vegan cheese 

Sour cream for coconut yogurt in burritos or nachos

What does the future hold for Plant You? What is your ambition from an impact standpoint and what is your big goal as a business?

We have so many exciting things in the works for Plant You, but the ultimate goal comes back to helping people eat more plants. If I want to be really ambitious, I would love to help more than a million people eat less meat, and more plants within the next five years. Along with this goal, we will soon be releasing a meal planning web application, and I also have a whole-foods, plant-based cookbook in the works with Hachette Go!