Today’s video shows you how to prepare a variety of vegan meals for the week!
So many meal prep videos show you how to prep meals for a week, but it means you have to eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the week. But I love variety and making different meals every day! So I wanted to make a vegan meal prep video showing you how to truly “prep” foods that can be used to mix and match meals throughout the week.
This way, you’ll still save a ton of time, but you aren’t forced to keep reheating leftovers until Friday. Here is a list of the foods I prepped on Sunday, and then a list of what you can make with them throughout the week. The list of meals is more extensive than what I showed in the video, but I wanted to show you how many options there are for combining all of these awesome prepared foods.
♡ PS: for more delicious and simple vegan recipes, check out my cookbook Liv B’s Vegan on a Budget!
Foods I prepped:
- chopped veggies for cooking
- raw veggies for snacking
- croutons
- pasta
- quinoa
- homemade pancake mix
- washed blueberries
- baked sweet & spicy tofu cubes
Note: I didn’t include quantities here. It’s fairly easy to estimate how much of everything you need personally, and I know it will vary based on the number of people you cook for, and how many days you want to prep for.
Here are the steps I followed to do this meal prep:
- Start off by preheating your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Press your tofu to remove the excess moisture, then chop it into cubes. Add it to a mixing bowl and drizzle on some soy sauce and maple syrup. I try to do equal parts of each. And then add some sriracha for spiciness. Toss it to combine then set it aside to marinate and the tofu will soak up all that good flavour.
- I used the end of a loaf of bread that was on the stale side to make croutons. Making croutons is super easy! Simply chop your bread into chunks, then put it in a mixing bowl and toss it with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper and parsely.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper and add the tofu to one side and croutons to the other. Bake in the oven for 8 minutes.
- Put a pot of water on high heat to boil for pasta. When it’s boiling you can add the pasta and cook it according to the package directions. In a separate pot I like to cook a grain like rice or quinoa. You could do any type of pasta or grain, and just check the box to see how much to use for the amount of servings you want.
- Chop up vegetables. I first chopped the vegetables I want to eat raw and store them in one container. Then, I chopped the vegetables I plan on cooking and store them in a separate container. This just makes it super simple to grab the right one while you are cooking.
- At this point the croutons will be done so you can take those out of the oven, store them in a container, stir the tofu and place it back in the oven for another 8 to 10 minutes. When the tofu is cooked and golden to your liking remove from the oven and place into the container.
- Drain the pasta and remove the finished quinoa from the heat, and allow it to cool slightly before putting it into containers.
- The last thing I prepped this week was a homemade pancake mix. I doubled my fluffy buttermilk pancakes recipe and mixed all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Make sure you mix it SUPER well and then put it in a container or jar. If you double the recipe, you should end up with about 2 cups of mix. Then, when making the pancakes, simply use 1 cup of mix in place of the dry ingredients in the recipe, then proceed with the recipe as directed.
Ideas of what to make with the prepped ingredients:
- pancakes with fresh fruit and maple syrup
- pasta with veggies, store-bought tomato sauce, coconut milk, hummus
- quinoa bowl with veggies, tofu, avocado, and your favourite sauce
- salad with croutons (I have a great caesar dressing in my cookbook)
- pasta salad with veggies, herbs, tofu cubes
- store-bought and reheated soup topped with croutons
- blueberry pancake bake (see this recipe for inspiration)
- quinoa salad with hummus, raw veggies and croutons
- veggies and tofu cubes dipped in dressing or hummus
Watch the video to see some meals I prepped – but don’t be afraid to get creative and experiment with your own combinations! You’ll be surprised at how much time you save daily when your grains are cooked, veggies are chopped, and you have easy access to meal-toppers like tofu cubes and croutons.
