Weekend Meal Prep for Weekday Meals- Links included for Some of the Vegan Meals

Having a general idea what I am going to make throughout the week is good.  If I actually take the time to prepared some of the meals ahead of time that is even better.  Most of the time I concentrate on making my lunch and snacks for the week ahead on Saturday and Sunday so that during the week I save as much time as possible in the morning and the night before work. 

Typically I make a salad mix, energy balls/bars, hummus/bean dip, sometimes a soup, and sometimes chia pudding or overnight oats. This week I have decided to make:

lemony white bean dip 

ginger date nut balls

black bean and quinoa salad with lime cumin dressing (a favorite of mine)

vanilla chia pudding that I will add fruit when I eat in for breakfast or snack

In the morning I  make my smoothies for either breakfast or after workout snack. If the smoothie is for breakfast I add along with my typically 3:1 vegetable to fruit ratio, nuts/seeds/coconut to make it more calorically dense.  An example of this would be: 3 cup of leafy greens, 1 cup of frozen or fresh fruit, 1 tbsp of nut butter or 2 tbsp of nuts/seeds/coconut, 1.5 cups of liquid (mostly nut/soy milk, some coconut water or water to thin out), and 1/2 scoop of plant based protein powder-- I am loving the taste and price of MRM Veggie Protein Powder right now.  I buy mine from Vitacost and that is where that link will take you if you are interested in trying out their product. If the smoothie is post workout, the 3:1 vegetable to fruit ratio remains the same, but then I do not add nut/seeds/coconut, and will use coconut water and water as a base with 1/2 scoop of the MRM veggie protein powder. 

As of this Saturday evening I have a general idea of what the Lewis clan is planning for dinner this week, I do believe we will make bean, rice, veggie enchiladas that should last two days and Thai coconut curry tofu sweet potato broccoli dish that should also last two or three days. The Thai curry dish is something that Lee usually makes and the enchiladas that I make is inspired by Healthy Girl's Kitchen: Kitchen Sink Enchilada Casserole.  We have those two meals about twice a month.  

My last two links I will post tonight are a workout and the the link to my 

Vegan Meal Planning page on Pinterest, which is where I keep all my recipe inspiration located. 

Here is the workout I did two rounds of while I meal prepping and typing this post up :)

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/273312271111272270/

Preparing Meals in Advance: Snack and Lunch Edition. Links to the foods that I made this past week

Back when I was commuting to school and gone from my house for 5-7 hours, 5 days a week, preparing my meals in advance always worked in my favor. Now that I am a stay-at-home parent, preparing meals in advance, although a little chaotic on the day(s) of preparation is wonderful for the next 3-6 days when food is just a few minutes away from being done and most important eaten.

This past week, I was heavily inspired by the Angela's OhSheGlows blog and made many of her recipes.  They all turned out so well as usual!

I made the following meals/snacks from the OhSheGlows blog:

PB banana bars

7 vegetable cheez soup

Chia bread

I did not take any picture of the food I made, so definitely click on the links to check out her amazing recipes!!

I also made this meal which were inspired from both Susan V's Fatfreevegan blog and Gina's Choosing Raw blog:

Chickpea salad (like a chicken/tuna salad) which I wrapped in raw collard leaves (this is the tutorial on how to use raw collard leaves as wraps.

Finally I made 3 salads in a jar which I was inspired by Kathy's Health Happy Life vegan food blog. My salads were very simple: orgainc romaine lettuce, purple cabbage shredded, edamama, homemade miso orange tahini dressing, and quinoa.

This week coming up I will make recipes from the blogs: Peas and Thank You and Heathy Happy Life and My Vegan Cookbook.

I hope that this blog post has introduced you to some of my favorite vegan food blogs and will also inspire you make some delicious vegan food!

Two Oat Bar Recipes

This past Sunday I invited one of my former neighbors over to do a little baking. She is very interested in making vegan foods and I love making vegan foods so we decided that we would make a strawberry oat bar from Angela Lidden's ohsheglows vegan food blog and a blueberry oat bar from Susan K's fatfreevegan food blog. I regularly make recipes or am inspired by recipes created by these amazing chefs. They may not think themselves chefs but I am pretty the fact that they earn a living creating recipes and cooking food qualifies them as chefs.

My neighbor friend made the strawberry bars and I the blueberry. Although each recipe was similar (oats, fruit, sugar) the difference really made each bars appropriate for a meal or dessert. For example the blueberry bar used applesauce instead of oil, maple syrup and oatmeal; while the strawberry bar used earth balance, chia seed "egg", brown sugar, and wheat flour. These differences truly made the strawberry bar the decadent and almost dessert bar. In comparison the blueberry bar was more suited for breakfast because the sugar content was lower as was the fat content. Depending on your lifestyle it may behoove you to have a higher fat breakfast especially if you are a very active individual.

blueberry oat bar

blueberry oat bar

strawberry oat bar