Easy way to cook pizza at home under 20 minutes (more…)

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I was not very active recently…not even somehow active. I didn’t feel to post anything and I didn’t have anything to post. I was not into cooking at all. 

This simple meal with beans is the only meal I cooked last week. I am sharing this recipe because it is not necessary to cook complicated meals with various ingredients. Sometimes you need to make something very basic to come back to normal life. For me, it’s cooking because when I do not cook at all it’s the indicator for me that I have the lowest level of energy and I want to regain it.

1. What is required:

• 1 can of beans
• 2 tomatoes
• a big heap of spinach
• favourite spices the more the better. I used garlic powder, cumin, herbal pepper, chilli powder, the mix of Indian spices I needed to use up)

2. Rinse your beans. Cut tomatoes into cubes. Sauté tomatoes in a big pot. This time I added all spices in one go because I could not care less. I was just satisfied that I made myself cook. 

I used up the Indian mixture, I don’t even remember what it was. Probably, coriander, cumin, clove… It can be omitted or replaced with what you have. I added 2 tsp garlic, 2 tsp chilli, 1 tsp cumin, and 2 tsp herbal pepper. Always adjust spices to your taste. If you don’t like fragrant food, don’t use cumin. Add less or omit chilli, if you are not a fan of hot spice food.

3. Cook tomatoes over medium heat with some water for 5-7 minutes. Add beans. Mix well to coat beans with spices. Cook for 15 minutes more.

4. Add spinach and mix well. Cook until spinach wilted. 

I served it with rice, tofu, and micro greens. Simple meal is what I needed. I feel I am coming back

Please take care…Life is not meaningless I guarantee

Hey Guys! Today I am going to share my approach for weekly meals. I do not cook everything I eat during a week (3x for each day). Last weekend I made 5 meals (some of them are just addition or side dishes to the main course) which helped to survive throughout the busy working week.

This post contains both recipes and my approach to the meal prep. I hope it will help you

First thing first, I am thinking of meals I want to cook. It should not take too much time and it should be versatile, i.e. I can eat different ways so it is not boring + it should not be very expensive. Ideally, the majority of ingredients are already in my fridge or cupboard. 

I prepared the list of meals with ingredients and marked with “+” what I already had. It is not necessary that I will follow blindly my initial plan. For example, I did not have strawberries for baked oats but I had frozen cherries. I marked it as “tbd” (to be decided). I like the + combo but eventually I decided not to buy strawberries and used what I’d already had. 

The third meal idea, the brown rice salad, was also changed. I had an open package of buckwheat groats which should be used up so I took this grain and made some changes for toppings.

As you see, my list is not the holy book which I follow precisely. I change it easily depending what I have. It’s my approach for almost all recipes. 

OK, now moving on to the recipes I will cook baked oats, marinated tofu, baked potatoes, buckwheat salad, red lentil curry.

I cooked it last Saturday. As it’s the weekend, I do not want to spend too much time in the kitchen. I am cooking several meals at once. I recommend to do the same.

1. Firstly, start heating the oven for baked oats - 190C or 370F. 

2. Before cooking, tofu should be marinated and red lentils should be soaked. For the tofu sauce, I am mixing 30 ml. soy sauce, 15 ml. maple syrup, 10 ml. sriracha. Cover the sliced tofu (120 g. tofu) with the sauce and leave it aside. Cover the red lentils (150 g.) with cold water. Now you can forget about tofu and lentils for 30 minutes and move on to the oats. If you have a wide container for the tofu like I do and the sauce spread out, set a timer/reminder to flip over the tofu slices in 15 minutes.

3. For baked oats:

• 200 g. oats
• 230 g. soy or any plant based milk (+4 tbsp of milk to pour it over the oats before the oven. it’s needed so your oats will not be so dry)
• 1 tsp cinnamon or more
• 30 g. chopped walnuts
• 1 banana
• any frozen berries (cherries in my case)
• for the date paste: 4 soft dates (I had medjool dates) + 3 tbsp hot water

Chop the dates and smash them with the fork. Add hot water.

Mix oats with cinnamon and walnuts in the baking dish. Pour the date paste and the milk. Stir well. Top it with the sliced banana and cherries. Pour several tablespoons of soy milk.

Bake it for around 50 minutes.

3. Time to prep the potatoes. You need three medium sized potatoes and the basic spices: salt, black pepper, paprika, cumin (if you have). Peel the potatoes and cut them into cubes. 

As the slicing board is already on the table, chop 1 yellow onion and mince 2-3 garlic cloves. This is for the curry. Multitasking is the key in meal prep

4. Cover the potatoes with spices. Place them and tofu on the baking tray and put them into the oven. It should take ~30 minutes, a bit earlier than the baked oats. Don’t forget to flip them over in 15 minutes and continue to bake.

5. For curry:

• 150 g. red lentils
• 1 yellow onion
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1 bay leave
• 1 can of crashed tomatoes 
• 70 g. frozen spinach (or fresh)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 vegetable cube
• 300 ml. water
• spices I used: curry, cumin, chilli, turmeric, and the mix of spices I bought in the local Indian store. Use what you have! I’d recommend to have curry, cumin, and turmeric as your staples for curry.

Sauté the onion and garlic in oil or water for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add your spices (2 tsp curry powder, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp chilli) and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Add a splash of water to deglaze the pan.

Add rinsed red lentils, canned tomatoes, bay leave, the vegetable cube and water. Let it cook for 30 minutes.

6. Meanwhile let’s make the buckwheat salad. You can use brown rice, quinoa or couscous instead. 

• 100 g. grains of your choice
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• any vegetables you have! I am highlighting this: any! Whatever you have on hand. I am using all leftovers in my fridge:
• 3 celery stalks
• some pickled red cabbage
• some dill

you can add cucumbers, bell peppers, microgreens, corn… the choice is yours

Cook the grain according to the package instruction. It took 12 minutes to cook buckwheat. I mix it with vegetables, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar.

7. By that time, almost everything should be ready: oats, tofu, potatoes. red lentils will soak almost all liquid. Add the frozen spinach and cook until it’s defrosted in the curry.

The meal prep is done!

I always have some pickled or fresh vegetables, different types of jams and frozen fruits so I matched and mixed  what I cooked with the staples from the fridge and cupboard.

Meal idea #1. The curry can be served over rice or with naan. It was enough for 4 servings.

Meal idea #2. Tofu, baked potato and some vegetables on the side.

Meal idea #3. Tofu with the buckwheat salad

Meal idea #4. Baked oats with different toppings. One day I had it with flavoured yogurt, another day with vanilla pudding, third day with yogurt and cherry jam. I recommend to microwave it for 10-20 sec before serving if you eat it next day after cooking.

Reminder: Once again it’s not everything I ate during the last week. I always have nuts, dried and fresh fruits for snaked; I bought sandwiches twice in the bakery close to the office when I was hungry; once I was at my friend’s house so we ordered the food. However, this meal prep was really helpful. I can’t count how many times I patted my own head and gave a golden ⭐️ to myself that I spent time and made several meals on Saturday.

I hope it gave you some ideas and inspiration how you can approach your meal prep and actually proved it is not necessary expensive. I am not a fan to eat the same food for breakfast, lunch and dinner during the whole week so I do not cook tons of rice and the big bowl of stew which is enough for 5-10 main courses. I prefer to have some variety. Do not make your life boring  especially in terms of food

Let me know what kind of food are staples at your home and if you cook on weekend for the next week

Vegan Protein boost: tofu&beans

Who said vegan meals are lacking protein?

1. What is required:

• 1 block of tofu (~180 g.)
• 2 medium potatoes
• 1 medium carrot
• 1 medium or 2 small onions (yellow or red)
• 1 can of beans
• 70 g. spinach
• salt and black pepper to taste

2. Prep the ingredients: cut the tofu, potatoes, onions, and carrot.

3. Add all ingredients to a big frying pan and cook on medium heat for 15-20 minutes. Fry in oil (~1 tbsp) if you don’t have a non-stick pan.

4. Add rinsed beans and cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add spinach and let it wilt.

Serve it with your favourite dressing or sauce. I recommend dijon mustard and sriracha

Roasted sweet potato salad

1. What is required:

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 small red onion
• 75 g. mixed greens
• 15-17 cherry tomatoes
• dill
• juice of ½ lemon
• salt and black pepper to taste

2. Preheat the oven to 200C/400 F. Peel and cut sweet potatoes into slices. Add salt and pepper. Roast sweet potatoes for 20 minutes.

3. Slice the onion and cut cherry tomatoes into halves or quarters. Chop the dill. Mix all vegetables with the greens. Drizzle the lemon juice.

4. When sweet potatoes are ready, take them out of the oven and let them cool down.

5. Add sweet potatoes to vegetables and mix well. I like to have a big bowl of salad in the fridge. It will serve me at least ½ of the week. I do not add any dressing to the whole salad. Instead, I will add it to a smaller portion for dinner or lunch. If you follow me for a while, you know that my favourite is tahini dressing. Add some water for the desired consistency. If you don’t like the taste of tahini (why and how ), add just olive oil or vinegar dressing (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup, and mustard).

I vegetables. They are awesome but it’s essential to fuel your body with more nutritious food. Hence, I add beans, a beautiful source of plant based protein, to my ratatouille and cook it in one big frying pan instead of the oven. The oven > the pan but not when you try to save time.

It’s my way to cook it. Please don’t comment it’s not ratatouille. I added “kinda” in the title

1. What is required:

• 1 courgette*
• 1 aubergine*
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 can of rinsed red beans (or any beans tbh)
• juice of 1/3 lemon
• 1 small onion
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1 jar of tomato sauce
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar 
• dried oregano (optional)
• black pepper & salt to taste

* or 1 zucchini and 1 eggplant if you’re from the US 

2. The most difficult step of any meal : dice the onion and mince the garlic

3. Fry the onion and garlic cloves in a big frying pan for 3 minutes. Use around 1 tbsp oil if you don’t have a non stick frying pan.

4. Roughly chop all the remaining vegetables. Add them to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes.

5. Add beans, tomato sauce, spices, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar. Mix well. Cover and cook for 20-25 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

6. Admire the full pan of colourful meal.

Don’t stare at the pan for a long time. It’s better to eat the meal warm although I ate it cold directly from the fridge because I didn’t have time for heating and it was still good.

with leftovers because we love leftovers

Easy vegan meal with the bare minimum

1. What is required:

• 1 block of tofu (I had 180 g. smoked tofu but plain firm/medium tofu is fine)
• ½ small onion
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• 1 tbsp mirin (rice wine)
• 2 tsp rice vinegar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 ½ tbsp gochujang (Korean chili paste)
• 1 tsp chili powder (optional)

I added cooked vegetables which I had from the previous meal. 

2.  Chop the onion and mince the garlic. Add all ingredients except for the tofu in a big bowl and mix well. Try to soften the chili paste. Crumble your tofu into big chunks and add to the bowl.

3. Put it into the fridge and marinade it for at least 20 minutes. The longer the better.

4. Fry the marinated tofu in a frying pan. The secret is you should not stir it too frequently. Let tofu make its own magic ✨ It’s a pretty independent baby. Add it to the pan and let it fry for 3-5 minutes over medium heat. Fry it on another side for other 5 minutes. In the end, I added the cooked vegetables just to heat them up and let them absorb the juice from the tofu.