Introducing meal prep mondays

When it comes to eating healthy, a little preparation and planning go a long way to set yourself up for success. When you plan ahead and make a few meals at a time, it makes it easier to reach for something quick and healthy to heat up when you’re in a rush, rather than relying on highly processed or convenience foods. Each week I’ll share my plant-based meal prep recipes with folks so you can cook alongside me without having to think about it.

I started doing meal prep on Sundays a few years ago and pretty quickly gave it up as I felt like I wasted most of my Sunday in the kitchen prepping for the week ahead. I already suffer from the Sunday scaries, so it was a double whammy to spend my final day of weekend freedom in front of the stove, while also dreading the week ahead. I recently switched to meal prepping on Mondays and it feels so good to have my Sundays back! I am fortunate that I only commute to the office Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so I have the flexibility to start my meal prep right after work Mondays. We usually have leftovers from the weekend to get us through Monday before making meals for the remainder of the week.

Each week I’ll share the recipes I’m making with you all, along with nutrition tips and cooking advice I’ve learned along the way (things like timing when cooking multiple recipes at once, or other plant-based tips I’ve learned). For anyone who doesn’t know where to start with plant-based eating, I hope this will help take some of the mystery out of plant-based cooking and help you see how delicious it can be.

This week I’m making these Mini Chickpea Flour Frittatas, Roasted Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Bowls, and Chickpea Noodle Soup.

I started off cooking the chickpeas for the soup in my instant pot, then will cook black beans once those are done. I switched to buying mostly dry beans as they are cheaper and don’t have any other ingredients like canned beans do. Here’s a recipe for instant pot chickpeas, and one for black beans. While that was cooking, I made the chickpea frittatas and used Swiss chard from my garden instead of kale. This is a forgiving recipe so use veggies you prefer if you don’t like something listed. The black beans will be paired with the muffins for extra protein and fiber (7g protein and 8g fiber in 1/2 cup of black beans!).

While the muffins are cooking, soak the cashews in hot water for the bowls. Then prep the remaining bowl ingredients and you can put them in the oven when the muffins are done. This is a great fall recipe and I love the colors in the veggies - sweet potatoes are a great source of fiber and the orange color helps prevent you from free radical damage, which can trigger inflammation. A serving of cauliflower gives you over 1/2 of your daily Vitamin C requirements and also contains antioxidants, further helping prevent inflammation. Quinoa is the only grain that is considered a “complete protein”, meaning it contains all 9 essential amino acids. You really can’t go wrong with this comforting dish! Finally, cook the quinoa and make the cashew sauce.

The cashew cream sauce calls for nutritional yeast. If you’re new to plant-based cooking and haven’t experienced nutritional yeast, or nooch, as it’s affectionately known, you can pick it up at your local grocery store. In just 2 teaspoons, there are 3 grams of protein and well over the daily value of Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B6, and Vitamin B12. Sprinkle it in soups, stir fries, or my favorite - on top of popcorn!

When the muffins are done, let them cool for a few minutes before removing them from the muffin tin and place on a cooling rack to cool completely. I find the bottoms get soggy otherwise, and nobody likes a soggy bottom.

Finally, I prepped the veggies for the chickpea noodle soup and got that going. I like to add a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast to this soup to give it a cheesy flavor.

As the soup cooks, you can put the muffins + black beans and bowl ingredients into food storage containers and start cleanup. This process usually takes a couple of hours on Monday but then we are set on meals and leftovers for at least a few days.

Nutrition highlights

• Breakfast: 2 frittatas + 1/2 cup black beans = 13g fiber and 16g protein

• Lunch: 1 bowl = 15g fiber and 22g protein

• Dinner: 1 bowl = 10g fiber and 11g protein

If you try any of these recipes let me know what you think!