Ionic ng-click navigate to state removes menu on left - html

Question

I have the following menu template
The below <ion-side-menus> lives in template/menu/menu.html
<ion-side-menus>
<ion-side-menu-content>
<ion-nav-bar class="bar-stable nav-title-slide-ios7">
<ion-nav-buttons side="left">
<button class="button button-icon button-clear ion-navicon" menu-toggle="left">
</button>
</ion-nav-buttons>
</ion-nav-bar>
<ion-nav-view name="menuContent" animation="slide-left-right"></ion-nav-view>
</ion-side-menu-content>
<ion-side-menu enable-menu-with-back-views="true" side="left">
<ion-header-bar class="bar-assertive">
<h1 class="title">Menu</h1>
</ion-header-bar>
<ion-content>
<div ui-view="leftMenuContent"></div>
</ion-content>
</ion-side-menu>
</ion-side-menus>
When navigating from a html file using the following technique
<ion-view view-title="Nutrition">
<ion-content class="padding">
<button class="button button-full button-calm" ng-click="viewPlans()">Plans
</button>
</ion-content>
</ion-view>
home.controller('NutritionController', function ($state) {
$scope.viewPlans = function () {
$state.go('app.home.nutrition.plan');
};
});
The <ion-side-menus> gets completely removed and replaced with the content that was loaded from the state i.e just one screen without menus on the left.
Navigating from a html file using the following technique
<ion-view view-title="Nutrition">
<ion-content class="padding">
<a ui-sref="app.home.nutrition.plan" class="button button-full button-calm" menu-close>Plans</a>
</ion-content>
</ion-view>
The menu on the left stays there only closes and the content gets loaded into the content part of the menu.
Below is my routes:
.state('app', {
url: '',
abstract: true,
templateUrl: 'template/menu/menu.html',
controller: 'MainCtrl as mainCtrl'
})
.state('app.home', {
url: '/home',
views: {
'menuContent#app': {
templateUrl: 'template/home.html',
controller: "HomeController as homeCtrl"
},
'leftMenuContent#app': {
templateUrl: 'template/menu/left/main.html',
controller: "HomeController as homeCtrl"
}
}
})
.state('app.home.nutrition', {
url: '/nutrition',
views: {
'menuContent#app': {
templateUrl: 'template/nutrition.html',
controller: "NutritionController as nutritionCtrl"
},
'leftMenuContent#app': {
templateUrl: 'template/menu/left/nutritionMenu.html'
}
}
})
.state('app.home.nutrition.plan', {
url: '/plan',
views: {
'menuContent#app': {
templateUrl: 'template/plan/plan.html',
controller: "PlanController as planCtrl"
},
'leftMenuContent#app': {
templateUrl: 'template/menu/left/planMenu.html'
}
}
});
Is there a way that I can keep the menu on the left when doing a ng-click?