Meal Prep Made Easy

My lunch and dinner each day is a combination of steamed veggies with a legume. To keep meal preparation easy I have all my veggies ready to go in individual containers in the kitchen refrigerator.

I store additional veggies in the refrigerator in the garage and as I empty a pot of veggies I simply grab more from the garage, cut up and refill the pot and put in the kitchen refrigerator. This prevents me from having to cut up tons of veggies all at one time.

A little floral interlude, I couldn't resist this potted tulip when I went grocery shopping on Saturday, it is a cheerful reminder that soon it will be spring.

In my pantry I keep a good supply of Old Fashioned Oats, some veggie broth, an extra container of almond milk, and a lot of canned tomatoes. I keep a variety of canned beans on hand, gabanzo, pinto, and black beans being my favorites. 

I store lentils, quinoa, wild rice, and brown rice in re-purposed peanut butter jars, they make wonderful storage containers. And, I keep a selection of favorite herbal teas in store, ginger, hibiscus, green tea, passion flower, and red raspberry zinger being my go to favorites.

Nutritional yeast is a meal time staple, it adds excellent flavor, and is a good source of B12. I buy it in bulk at the 3 Rivers Food CoOp.

I like to snack on raw veggies and always have a supply of celery and carrots ready to go, I add half a cucumber and a fresh bell pepper, it is such a refreshing, filling snack.

I like to steam my veggies, I keep this large pan on the stove, the steamer basket holds all my veggies and it takes about ten minutes to cook everything. I put the longer to cook veg in first, like brussel sprouts, rutabaga, turnip, parsnip, sweet potato, top with kale or collard greens and purple cabbage, then add sliced mushrooms, and broccoli, cauliflower, spinach. This works really well.

 I cook up a batch of lentils a couple times a week in my rice cooker, I eat a half a cup with a half cup of canned tomatoes at each meal.  I heat the lentils and tomatoes in the microwave while my veg steam, then add a couple heaping tablespoons of nutritional yeast. Once the veg are done I dump them on top and enjoy my amazing bowl of vegan goodness, or as my mom calls it, my bowl of weeds!

These are the veggies I prepared for lunch today, I love the vibrancy of the colors. I about finished off the broccoli, so grabbed another head from the garage and cut it up to replenish my stock.

Now off to eat lunch and enjoy a refreshing mug of ginger tea after.

Enjoy your day,

Bean