On Sundays I do my vegan food prep. That means I spend a couple of hours busy in the kitchen preparing a couple of different meals for the week so that I have food prepared for lunches and dinners. It saves me so much time and is a real stress relief too! I always have a meal or food prepared so I don’t have to cook when I’m tired after a long day of work.
Back when I first started working, and hadn’t properly learned how to adult yet (lol, still don’t know how to adult), I would buy lunch every day at work. Then one day I sat down and added it all up to see how much money I was actually spending each week (and month) by buying lunches. Whoops! It was a lot more than I had imagined. Seeing how much money I could save by making my own lunch, I decided it was time to start preparing food to bring with me to work.
Tip: Check out my recipe for easy vegan lunch boxes
That habit has stuck since then. I’m not super ambitious about my food prep, I don’t want it to take all day, so I often make similar things and cook things that I can easily make big batches of that will last for several meals.
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What inspires me to food prep
Some might consider it boring and time consuming to do food prep, but the truth is, it actually saves you a lot of time (and money) in the end. Sure, if you food prep like me and only make a couple of different dishes it might get a little bit boring eating the same meal several days in a week, but if you prepare enough different foods, you can vary your meals and keep it interesting. Here’s what I like about food prepping:
- I eat proper meals. Without my nutritious meals prepared, I’m more likely to just grab a snack because I can’t be bothered to cook. Food prepping helps me make sure I’m eating nourishing meals and enough food to fuel my body.
- It saves me time. Instead of having to cook every evening when I get home from work, my meal is ready for me to eat when I get home. I get spend my evening relaxing or doing something else I enjoy instead – like writing for Banana Bloom, or watching a favourite series on Netflix.
- It saves me money. If I’ve got lunch and dinner prepared, I’m a lot less likely to spend money on buying my meals at restaurants every day. If you’re buying meals out several times a week, check your account balance – how much are you actually spending on buying lunch and dinner every week? I bet you it’s more than you realise. Food prep saves you a lot of money!
- I don’t have to venture far to get my meals. If I were to buy lunch for work every day, I’d have to find a place within reasonable distance that has food I like – not to mention that has good vegetarian options – and venture out to get it. Food prep allows me to have the food I want, and it’s right in the fridge at work waiting for me.
- Preparing food in advance gives me time to do something a little bit more complicated. I think we can all agree that we’re not about to stand in the kitchen for hours after we’ve worked a whole day. However, if the food is prepared on your day off, you’ve got more time to do a bigger batch of a recipe that’s a little more complicated. So go for it, try that Jamie Oliver recipe you’ve been eyeing!
Great foods for meal prepping
Here’s are some of the foods I commonly prepare, which can be combined in different ways to create a variety of meals for the week:
- Cooked quinoa, bulgur, rice, sweet potatoes and/or potatoes
- Tofu
- Chickpeas, lentils and other beans
- Red cabbage and carrot slaw
- Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots
- Hummus
- Soups
- Overnight oats
- Chia pudding
- Vegan lasagna
- Spring rolls
- Gluten Free Vegan Banana Bread
- Veggie Patties
A recent vegan food prep of mine included making spring rolls. I filled them with zucchini, carrots, radishes, tofu, avocado and cilantro. They turned out great and I just add some soya sauce when serving. I also made salads with spinach, potatoes, crispy tofu, tomatoes, cucumber and some of the left over radishes and zucchini. Salads like this are a staple food prep of mine because it’s so easy to throw together.
Do you food prep? What’s your go-to meal that you prepare?