Weekly Spotlight: How to Successfully Meal Plan!

If you’re having a hard time meal prepping and planning, and you’re not sure what’s going wrong, check this out!

This guide can help you figure out ways to help you find a successful way to meal prep and give you some meals to try out! Meal prepping is usually done the weekend before a typical work week, Monday-Friday. Usually, all meals are prepped so little thought has to go into what to make that week for meals. There are different techniques and tips to follow to successfully meal plan, so feel free to do what works best for you, your eating habits, and your schedule.

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We also highly recommend downloading the Food Monster app — with over 15,000 delicious recipes it is the largest meatless, vegan, plant-based and allergy-friendly recipe resource to help you get healthy! And, don’t forget to check out our Weekly Meal Plan Archives!

Are you ready to have a week full of delicious vegan food that leaves you nourished and content? Let’s get started!

This week, we’re bringing you ways to successfully meal plan that are fully vegan and plant-based!

1. Find The Actual Time That You Have Time To Cook Or Prep Meals

Figuring out what day works best for you to prep your meals is key to having better success with meal prepping. When in the week do you have time to prepare your meals, and what meals do you want to have prepped?

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Usually, people prepare meal on Sunday for the week ahead so they have meals for lunches and dinner around their busy schedule. However, if you’re a person that has busy weekends, do you have time on Wednesday or Thursday to prep food for the weekend and through Monday?

Finding out what your schedule looks like and making sure you’re planning meals for your busier or more tiring days is a great way to make meal prepping work for you. You could even batch cook, for instance, and make a large batch of soup on Wednesday and freeze it to have for the next work week.

2. Simplify where you can

Have a few meals in your week where you don’t have to do much to put it together. This could be an overnight oats recipe, leftover pancakes to toss in the toaster, or even a salad with the dressing and toppings already prepped. If you’ve got a few meals that take almost no energy to prepare, you’ll most likely have more energy to put together a meal later in the day or week. For example, if making a large dinner for yourself or family is something you find joy in, try out prepping your breakfast and lunch so you’ll be more drawn to spending an extended amount of time in the kitchen that evening.

3. Make sure you’re prepping veggies when you can

Prepping veggies for the week can take a bit of practice because it depends on what veggies you want to enjoy that week. If you’re more a person that enjoys having salads ready, you can prep the sturdy greens such as romaine lettuce and kale in advance. However, hold off on putting the dressing on the salad.

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Instead, prep the sauce (or use your favorite store brought sauce) and keep it in a separate container until ready to serve. For veggies you’re wanting to toss into dish, such as veggies into tofu scramble or pasta, feel free to have those prepped and ready, as well. Use a labeling system that works best for you to keep what veggies go with what meal.

4. Figure Out What You’re Craving

As the week passes and you enjoy your meals, pay attention to the dinners you’re craving, too. You may want to head out to your favorite restaurant and eat out instead. Rather than do that, see how you can recreate those meals at home. For instance, if you’re wanting to go to your favorite taco place, maybe make tacos next week for dinner or lunch.

Here are some meals that you can make for your meal prep. These are meals where you can prep the base (rice and pasta-based meals or salads), and meals that come together in one pot for convenience! Check out these roundups for desserts and snacks to enjoy during the week, too!

Rice and pasta based meals

Source: Easy Garlic Spinach Pasta Sauce

These dishes are wonderful to prep in advance; you can make the pasta and then keep the sauce separate until you’re ready to serve. You can mix it up week after week and find your own favorite recipes to make!

One pot meals

Source: One Pot Curried Lentils

These are come together in one meal pot, saving you time and dishes! These recipes are great to prep ahead of time and then have to take for lunch or dinner.

Salads and veggie meals

Source: Kale, Quinoa, and Lentil Salad

If you’re wondering how to prep a salad for the week, make sure that you keep your dressing and greens separate. You can add your added vegetables to the salad too, but make sure the veggies you’re adding aren’t wet. If you’re going to make these particular salads, keep the warm toppings separate, too. Feel free to have your favorite veggies on the side, too, such as marinated tomatoes or kale chips.

Learn How to Cook Plant-Based Meals at Home

Reducing your meat intake and eating more plant-based foods is known to help with chronic inflammation, heart health, mental well-being, fitness goals, nutritional needs, allergies, good health other more! Unfortunately, dairy consumption also has been linked to many health problems, including acne, hormonal imbalance, cancer, prostate cancer, and has many side effects.

For those interested in eating more plant-based, we highly recommend purchasing one of our many plant-based cookbooks or downloading the Food Monster app which has thousands of delicious recipes making it the largest vegan recipe resource to help reduce your environmental footprint, save animals and get healthy! And, while you are at it, we encourage you to also learn about the environmental other health benefits of a plant based diet.

Here are some resources to get you started:

For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Lastly, being publicly funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating!

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source https://www.bisayanews.com/2022/02/14/weekly-spotlight-how-to-successfully-meal-plan/