#vegan on a budget

Totchos!! Super easy late night food. Just bake some tots then top with whatever beans you’ve got and some pico

Thai red curry with bell peppers and fried tofu

Baked beans, turnip greens, and vegan twice baked potatoes

Gnocchi with vegan creamy mushroom sauce

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