12 Practical Tips for Sticking to Your Plant-Based Meal Plan/ Meal Prep.
Meal prepping sounds like the easiest thing to do and stick to, but for some reason, the ability to stick to it alludes many of us. One would think that only stocking the fridge with certain things and promising one’s self to not order in would be enough to ensure success, but alas, it is not.
Here are my tips for people that are trying to stick to their plant-based meal plan in order to save money and eat well.
Rotate through different ethnic cuisines weekly in your meal prep will create a manageable amount of variety and reduce waste.
Create a greater sense of variety in your meal plans.
Utilize some routine in your plant-based meal prep so that you do not feel overwhelmed with the number of groceries you’ll need.
Use some high impact sauces can really help keep you excited about your meals and vegetables.
Keep your more complex main courses to less than 3 will help you avoid recipe fatigue.
Have some ready-made and ready to cook items helps ensure maximum flavor for your plant-based goodies all week long.
Use a variety of cooking methods to save time and create a sense of a wider variety.
Canned and frozen goods are incredible time savers for any plant-based meal prep.
Really great glass containers will help you feel organized and excited about storing your prepped veggies and food.
Useful kitchen tools will also help you feel inspired about cooking plant-based meal prep because you will be able to accurately execute your culinary vision!
Have fun on the days you meal prep! Drink coffee, have your favorite YouTubers on the counter, wear something cute, etc!
Plan for your weak days by having less healthy snacks ready to go that are still healthier than your favorite local vegan pizza joint!
How to stick to your plant-based meal prep in order to eat healthy and save money.
Rotating through different food nationalities with your meal prep will make your planned meals far more interesting and easy to prepare for!
When I first transitioned to a plantbased diet, the keyway I kept things interesting without feeling overwhelmed was by rotating through my favorite ethnic cuisines! You might be surprised by how vegan friendly some of the people’s most common favorite international cuisines are!
These are my top 5 plant-based friendly cuisines to rotate through:
Greek
Spices & Herbs: Oregano, Dill, Bay Leaves
Common Flavor Elements: Garlic, Lemon, Extra Virgin Cold-Pressed Olive Oil and Parsley
Thai
Spices & Herbs: turmeric, peppercorns, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, cloves, and galangal (or sub ginger)
Common Flavor Elements: Coconut milk, lime leaves, red Thai chilies, cilantro, lemongrass, sweet basil, vegan fish sauce, soy sauce/tamari
Indian
Spices & Herbs: Cardamom, Cloves, Chili, Cumin, Coriander, Ginger, Mustard Seeds, and Fenugreek.
Common Flavor Elements: Coconut milk, ginger, garlic, cilantro, tomato sauce/paste, and oils/ vegan butter
Japanese
Spices & Herbs: Sugar, Salt, Vinegar (different varieties), Soy, Miso Paste
Common Flavor Elements: Ginger, Garlic, Apple, Maple Syrup, Carrot, Ready Made Curry Paste, Sesame Oil
Mexican (Including Tex-Mex)
Spices & Herbs: Chili, Cumin, Smoked Paprika, Fajita Spices, Taco Seasoning, Oregano
Common Flavor Elements: Lime, Cilantro, Garlic, Diced White Onion, Jalapeno
I find this method highly practical because it helps speed along meal prep and makes it feel more manageable for the following reasons:
When you pick a cuisine, usually certain ingredients will follow over from one dish to the next, therefore making your grocery trip more cost-effective and quick.
All your spices, herbs, vegetable sides, starches, and proteins will work together, allowing you to get creative with a plethora of meal combinations for your dinners and lunches.
When all the recipes generally use similar spices and herbs, it feels like less effort. Compare this to 3 completely different recipes that utilize different spices, veggies, and herbs. For instance, let’s take Greek food. If I chop up a full bundle of dill, one red onion, and chop some parsley, I know that these can be utilized in more than one of my main dishes or sides.
This method also helps reduce the chances of leftover unused vegetables.
TOO many repetitive meals will make you bored with your meal plan.
One of the problems people find with sticking to plant-based meal prep could be feeling stuck in a rut.
They cook the same few meals for lunch and dinner every week until they are so bored they can’t stand it.
By having a manageable amount of variety in your meal plans, this can be avoided. This is why rotating through different international cuisines is so helpful!
Some Routine Is Important with Plant-Based Meal Prep!
I know this seems contradictory to what I just said, but hear me out! I’m all about switching up your dinner meal prep week by week and including different options for your meals. However, planning for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, every week… is a lot!
I make things easy for myself by generally saying that breakfasts are for oatmeal. Lunches are for salads. Snacks are fruits, nuts, smoothies, veggies, hummus, and yogurt. Dinners are for fun meal plans that are different each week!
This general method might work for you if you need some stress relief when it comes to meal prepping/ planning! Think about what might work for you as a no-brainer breakfast or lunch!
Don’t get me wrong, there are many kinds of oatmeal and salad variations one can make! It’s not like I eat the same salad and oatmeal every day.
INVEST IN SOME HIGH IMPACT SAUCES for your Plant-based meal prep!
You’ll have people telling you ready-made sauces are high in sugar and salt and all in all, not good for you. However, I feel that if they help you feel excited about your meals and vegetables, that is fine!
I think of it this way, what’s worse, you completely falling off the cruelty-free train because you don’t have the energy to whip up sauces from scratch every week? Or is it worse to add a little bit of extra sugar or salt now and then so that you keep munching on those delicious veggies?
For me, if it is a practical tool that gets you excited about eating more vegetables, I think it’s a good thing. Just make sure you always have more vegetables than you do the sauce!
With the right sauce, you can take a bland bowl of vegetables and rice and call it a meal!
These are my ride-or-die sauces:
Yeshi
Goes with any flavor, goes great with any ethnic food flavor profile. I’ve made Greek, Asian, and Southern-style bowls all with Yeshi sauce.
Sweet & Spicy Thai Chili
I can dip raw vegetables into this stuff all day! Or drizzle it over rice and vegetables and throw it in a wrap! Use it as a stir-fry seasoning. Dip fried tofu in it. So good!
Hoisin Sauce
YUM! Anytime I’m cooking Vietnamese inspired food, I pull out the hoisin. Even if I’m just cooking up some tofu, vegetables, and rice noodles. Vegan pho, it’s necessary.
Spicy Peanut Sauce
I usually make this peanut sauce from scratch. However, when I am feeling lazy, store-bought works amazingly. This sauce goes incredibly on vegetables and rice, rice noodle dishes, drenched on tofu, with rice lettuce wraps, etc.
Balance between simple vegetable sides and more complex (multi-ingredient) mains in order to save time with your plant-based meal prep.
I find that having a maximum of 2-3 more ‘complex’ dishes a week makes any meal prep day go by faster!
The key to making your plan ‘filling’ is by having enough fiber-filled, healthy, raw or steamed vegetables, a variety of beans or legumes, healthy fats, and healthy whole grains.
Here is an example plan using Greek Food again:
Orzo Pasta & White Bean Salad (complex main dish)
Falafels (complex main dish)
Fresh chopped cucumber
Fresh chopped tomato
Sliced red onion
Olives
Hummus
Tzatziki
Horta (steamed greens)
Roast Red Pepper
Pita (whole wheat)
Brown Rice (cooked)
Iceberg Lettuce and/or Mixed Greens
Oyster mushrooms rubbed with steak-spice
Shred red cabbage
Shred carrots and carrot sticks for snacking
Split Pea Dip (using yellow split peas)
Capers
See how the first 2 things in this list were the most complicated?
Those are the only 2 that follow specific multi-step formal recipes. The rest are very self-explanatory. Chop this, season this, boil this, steam this.
This simple list with only 2 more complex dishes can be used for an incredible amount of different meal combinations.
These are just 5 of the many combinations you can make from the list of Greek ingredients above:
A simple big bowl of White Bean & Orzo Pasta Salad.
Falafels with brown rice, hummus, and Greek salad on the side.
A large salad with cucumber, mixed greens, olives tomatoes, red onion, shredded carrot, shredded cabbage, and cooked oyster mushroom steak pieces on top, tzatziki, and balsamic dressing.
A power bowl with rice, Horta, roast peppers, olives, fresh red onion, falafels, hummus, and pita on the side.
A vegan gyro with a lot of steak flavored oyster mushroom, tzatziki, lettuce, red onion, and tomato, wrapped in a whole wheat pita.
The list goes on, but you get the idea. There is no need to make a crazy amount of complicated recipes for your meal prep. If you are starting out, or having trouble sticking to a plan, keep to 2 tasty multi-ingredient recipes.
COMBINE MADE AHEAD-COMPONENTS AND READY-TO-COOK INGREDIENTS in your plant-based meal prep.
This point is mainly about the fact that some things are just way tastier when they are cooked fresh.
Sometimes by the end of a workweek, certain foods taste terrible, have lost their texture, and are just unappealing.
Looking at the list above, I consider falafels and orzo pasta salad easy ‘made-ahead’ meals that will last pretty well all week long.
However, I suggest marinating the oyster mushroom so that it is ready-to-cook because I do not think pre-cooked oyster mushroom will taste good or have the right consistency by the end of the week. A huge reason I love oyster mushrooms is that done right, they mimic meat’s flavor and texture! You lose out on both these things if you make this ahead.
By mixing your meal prep with made ahead meals and ready to cook ingredients, it will feel far tastier throughout the week!
Bonus Tip: I like to cook my meat replacements fresh each night! Again, to maximize taste and mouthfeel. It is simple since I don’t have to cook anything else!
CHOOSE A VARIETY OF COOKING METHODS TO INCREASE EFFICIENCY during your plant-based meal prep sessions.
This is my project management side talking. How do we increase efficiency to get to our results?
B.S.B.S. —> Boil, Saute, Bake, Steam!
Boil some noodles, sauté some veggies, bake some potatoes, and steam your cruciferous vegetables. BOOM! You can do all this at once. It also helps create variety.
You won’t feel like you’re eating just a ton of steamed vegetables, or baked vegetables, or fried vegetables. This way, you create a greater sense of variety while hugely cutting down on your cooking time!
This means you can cook at least 4 things at once, maybe 5 depending on your oven situation.
Canned goods are an essential time saving part of plant-based meal prep.
Take advantage of the fact that so much of our protein is ready to go! You can simply open a can, rinse the legumes or beans, and be set! It’s crazy!
Some of my very common canned goodies are as follows (from favorite to least favorite):
Fava Beans (You will love these things!! Very Middle Eastern)
Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce (Vegan English breakfast ya’ll!)
Re-fried Beans (Mandatory for Mexican food meal prep)
Black Beans (throw these bad boys in absolutely anything! Salads, wraps, stir-fries, etc.)
Tom Yum Soup from Arroy-D (It’s vegan despite the picture with prawns in it)
Chickpeas
Lentils
The main legume I buy that is not canned is split-peas. I find split-peas easy to cook since peas don’t require being soaked. I use split-peas for Greek Split Pea Salad. I just boil them until they turn to mush!
Frozen veggies are key time savers in your plant-based meal prep Sunday!
I’ve been leaning into the whole frozen vegetable thing. Only recently, thanks to the corona-virus, did I open my mind to using frozen vegetables. Mainly because I wanted food that I wasn’t so scared to eat!
The main vegetables I like to pick up frozen are as follows:
Peas
Corn
Kale
Spinach
Edamame
Squash of any kind (because oh my gosh they are not worth the time it takes to cut yourself!! And so messy. Forget it!)
I buy my peas and corn separately because I love adding frozen peas to creamy plates of pasta for added nutrition and protein.
For corn, I find the frozen corn is far more affordable than buying a new can every time I want to include corn in some kind of Mexican inspired dish or as a baked sweet potato topping.
Kale and Spinach are versatile ingredients in any pasta dish. With the kale, it’s also super handy to have an extra leafy green to throw in a random veggie stir fry or tofu scramble. These frozen greens are just always so convenient to have on hand.
Having enough glass containers that are microwave and oven safe is a huge factor for successful plant-based meal prep.
I felt far more excited about getting serious in my plant-based meal prep when I finally got rid of my disgusting old mismatched plastic containers and bought a beautiful, glass, microwave safe, and dishwasher safe set!
One key thing I’ve noticed is that you need more large bowls than you think you’ll need! I recommend having around 4-5 large-sized larger glass containers if you are meal prepping for 2 or more adults.
On top of that, to keep things fun and exciting, you need a lot of small-sized containers to keep your homemade sauces, garnishes, herbs, and pre-chopped vegetables in.
I bought 2 large glassware sets and still find I needed more.
I found buying a bunch of large Pyrex glass-ware containers with a good mix of smaller Pyrex containers to be the best possible combination!
You have to ensure your glass containers are microwave safe, it adds to the price, but you will thank yourself later. I bought some containers that weren’t explicitly microwave safe without thinking about it, and they completely exploded in the microwave. Don’t make my mistakes!
Having beautiful dishes that neatly organize your meal prepped food makes a huge difference.
The right kitchen tools/utensils can make plant-based meal prep way more fun and inspiring!
I am only going to recommend what I use on a weekly/ daily basis.
I am very picky about my food. I want my food to look and feel a certain way. There is something about knowing your meal prep will turn out the exact way you want it to because you have the right tools available to you.
These are the tools I use all the time that have helped me feel excited about meal prep and therefore eat more veggies.
Ginger Grater - Literally amazing for ginger.
Julienne Mandolin and regular slice mandolin with different thickness settings - This bad boy is a salad lifesaver.
Garlic Press (for mincing) - So much easier than chopping garlic.
A Masher - You think you don’t need one until you get one. Trust me.
Mesh Strainer - I use this all the time, even just to help rinse out veggies, etc. So handy.
Keep your plant-based meal prep days entertaining with your favorite YouTube homies.
When I meal prep, here is my sacred routine that I love, oh so much.
I dress kind of cute, put on some lipstick, and brush my hair. It makes me feel like I’m super together and with it! Here I am slaying the day with my meal prep.
I have an iced oat milk latte on hand! One has to keep energized throughout meal prep day.
I plug my laptop in and put it on the counter. Then it is time for a serious Youtube session!
My absolute number 1 lady to listen to while meal prepping is SHALLON LESTER! I just love her. She makes the time go by so fast.
If it’s not Shallon Lester, it is the incredible TRISHA PAYTAS! Whether she is crying on her kitchen floor, eating in her car, or doing her makeup, it is always entertaining. I don’t know what it is, but I can’t get enough! <3
Buy some ready-made plant-based treats for when the fast-food cravings hit!
There will be days when all you want is a greasy vegan pizza from (fill in the blank). It will leave you gouged in your budget and feeling like you failed yourself the next day. On top of that, you might even feel gross and tired.
I highly suggest having some frozen treats that are vegan and still slightly healthier than your favorite take out options!
For this reason, I usually have some kind of fake meat protein in my freezer, some low-salt sweet potato fries, vegan gluten-free ready to bake pizza, or some ready to go vegan macaroni and cheese.
Despite our best meal prep efforts, it is normal to have days where you need some junk. I rather have healthier, cheaper options in my freezer compared to ordering expensive, less healthy options.
Some more slightly healthy junk food alternatives for when the cravings hit are:
Flavored vegan yogurt
Gourmet nachos with fresh salsa
Whole wheat pita bread and hummus
Sourdough with vegan butter
Popcorn with nutritional yeast and/or vegan Parmesan
Nacho chips and vegan 7 layered dip
Chocolate Hummus!
Sometimes you just need something with carbs, salty or sweet to take the edge off!