Meal Prep
Rainbow Wild Rice Bowl with Green Tahini Drizzle
Brighten up your day with a bowl of rainbows! As the days grow shorter, we all need a little boost, from colorful, nourishing food. This Rainbow Wild Rice Bowl has all the eye-catching hues that make you want to dig in, along with the hearty, nutty wild rice on the bottom. A tangy, creamy tahini dressing tops it off, to complement all the sweet, earthy flavors in the bowl.
Cashew Rice Salad; Crunch for Lunch
Crunchy cashews, chewy whole grains and vegetables, bathed in a miso-ginger dressing; this is the kind of hippie comfort food that I love to prep for myself. Life is often uncertain, but when you have a tub of food that makes you feel good when you eat it, you can take on whatever comes.
Roasted Tomato Sauce, Make Pasta, Freeze the Rest
I didn’t have a huge harvest this week, but that’s the great thing about this method. 10 tomatoes, 60 tomatoes, it works either way. Just halve them, roast them, puree them. Use them today, in this easy pasta, or freeze the sauce for later. My small pile of tomatoes made about 3 cups of puree, and I used 1 cup for this pasta. The rest went into the freezer, for winter pasta feasts, soups, and other uses.
Moroccan Carrot and Tart Cherry Salad- Meal Prep Salad
Do you eat a salad with dinner? It’s a good habit to have, as long as it doesn’t get repetitive. If you’re getting bored with your usual green salad, try this easy carrot salad, with tangy tart cherries and a little Moroccan-inspired spice. It’s a make-ahead salad, that actually improves with a few hours in the refrigerator, making it a savvy meal-preppers dream. This is my go-to as a side for a Tagine, or to jazz up any meal.
Make Garlicky, Herby Beans for a Quick Side Dish
I love to eat beans for pure pleasure. Tender beans are bathed in rich olive oil, infused with piney, herbaceous rosemary and sweetly soft garlic. A hint of heat in the pepper flakes and a pop of lemony tartness rounds out the mouth-filling flavors. I promise that you will love it. If you want to make a meal of it, you can always toss it with some pasta, or spoon it onto a toasted Crostini.
Roasted Broccolini with Shallots: a Perfect Side
Broccolini, it’s broccoli, but better.There, I said it. Better. Broccoli is wonderful, but when you cross it with Gai Lan, it is even better. I hope broccoli won’t take it personally, but for the moment, I’m smitten with broccoli’s child. Roasted, of course.
My Favorite Tofu Saag “Paneer”
If you’ve ever had paneer, you may have noticed that the texture of it is pretty similar to tofu. It’s a fresh, non-melting cheese, made by adding and acid to milk so it will curdle, then draining the whey and pressing the cheese into a dense block. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s almost the same process used to make tofu.
EZ Blueberry Breakfast Bars
When you think about meal prep, do you think about soups and casseroles, or pots of cooked grains and beans? Well, all those can be part of your vegan meal prep plan. But don’t forget about fun! These breakfast bars cover your breakfast and snack needs, with the charm of juicy blueberries and crunchy pecans to keep your interest. Life’s too short to eat cold cereal, my friends.
Pumpkin Spice Overnight Oats-Comfort In a Bowl
ow often do you eat a good breakfast? Do you ever run out the door with nothing but a cup of coffee under your belt, or do you resort to boxed cereal very day? Treat yourself to a real breakfast. Once you make this easy prep and put it in the fridge, you are set with 4 breakfasts, all you need to do is scoop it into a bowl, or a tub to take with as you run out the door. The pumpkin spice flavor makes it feel like a dessert, but it is truly a nutritious breakfast.
Plant Based Smoky “Lox” and “Cream Cheese” Bagels!
The brilliance of carrot “lox” is that it uses the natural color of the carrot and a few simple ingredients to make a silky, smoky bagel topper that really does make you think of lox. The cashew cream cheese helps to support the allusion, giving you that combination of creamy, rich cheesiness under the lox-flavored carrots. It’s really a stunning combination. The capers, red onions and cucumbers also serve to reinforce the feeling that you are really eating a lox and cream cheese bagel at a deli, in the most delightful way.
Roasted Tomato Sauce over Pan-Toasted Gnocchi
Last week, I extolled the virtues of my fave way to put up tomatoes. I’m picking a big bowlful of tomatoes every few days at my house, and I have developed my own routine. Early in the morning, before it gets hot, I roast them, then freeze them. I’ve also posted my method for freezing basil, and it’s my most popular You Tube video to date! Once you have those two essential meal prep items, you have invaluable flavor, concentrated and ready to go. One really fast and easy meal that you can make with your prep is this Roasted Tomato Sauce over Pan-Toasted Gnocchi.
The BEST Way to Freeze Your Tomatoes for Winter
This is the month, when all the heirloom tomatoes that I’ve been nursing along suddenly ripen. This has been a tough year, with no rain and high heat, so it’s been a labor of love, if daily watering can be called love. My reward is a weekly haul of mixed tomato varieties, packed with intoxicating tomato flavors. Now it’s time to freeze roasted tomatoes!
Smoked Tomatoes on the Grill, to Freeze for When The Cold Winds Blow!
When the tomato harvest is coming hard and fast, do what I do-make Smoked Tomatoes on the Grill and freeze them for later. You’ll be so glad you did!
Chickpea and Pecan Pesto Calzones
Everybody loves calzones! These plant based calzones are packed with nutty chickpeas and pecan pesto, and wrapped in whole grain dough. Engineered to be as easy as possible, this recipe gives you a no-knead pizza dough as well as the simple calzones, made with canned chickpeas. Super tasty vegan Italian food!
Meal Prep for Carrot Bars and Moroccan Salad
Meal Prep is The Key!
In today’s blog and video, I’m featuring one easy meal prep item: shredded carrots. I love using my food processor to make my life easier, and this is a prime example. Just shred carrots and you’ll have them ready to go, to toss in salads, or to make these two easy recipes.
Save Time, Shred Your Salad
When it’s cold outside, a bowl of leafy greens may not be what you are craving. May I suggest something heartier? My food processor makes it easy to turn some wintry cabbage and root veggies into a crunchy, riotously colorful salad that keeps for a week in the refrigerator. You can get all the benefits of eating raw veggies with your meals, and take a break from the same old mixed greens.
The Best Hi-Pro Breakfast-Tofu Chickpea Scramble
Who needs eggs, when you can have a delicious, high protein plant based breakfast? Drizzled with Sriracha-tahini sauce? So simple you’ll make it all the time.
Go Nuts for Nutty Dukkah and Gomasio
Once you have these made, just store them in a jar in the refrigerator. They keep for a couple of months, if they last that long. Whether you sprinkle dukkah on a salad, or a bowl of hummus, you’ll be so glad you have it. Gomasio makes its way onto everything from a bowl of quinoa to a toasted bagel at my house. I know it will make your life more delicious, too!
“Green Up” Your Hummus Routine
We all love hummus. Like so many global foods, hummus has become as American as tacos and pizza. We love it so much that we can’t resist tweaking it here and there. Kind of like meeting someone great, and saying “I love you! Now change!” We just can’t resist.
Pumpkin Spice Madness!
Pumpkin Spice, sans sugar, is a fragrant addition to this chili! https://youtu.be/igrSs8itVrA Watch Me Make Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Pumpkin Spice Chili! Are You Crazy For Pumpkin Spice? We seem to fall into two camps. There is a growing number of people who look...
Crank the Oven, Roast Beets for a Sheet Pan Meal
When the temperatures drop, I no longer have to plan menus around keeping the kitchen cool. It’s time to start roasting my meals, and filling my kitchen with the scents of caramelizing vegetables and herbs. As you’ll see in my video, it’s also time to harvest the beets I was growing in my garden, and put them into a delicious meal.
Asian Pickles at Home by Pat Tanumihardja
Asian Pickles at Home is a treasure trove of tangy, wildly flavorful pickles from every part of Asia. Don’t be intimidated, most of the pickles in the book are quick and easy, and you can work your way up to full on fermentation. In fact, you might never get there, and still be getting lots of great pickles out of this book.
Try Creamy Chinese-Style Corn with Tofu over Black Rice
And once you’ve had corn on the cob three nights in the week, you might want to branch out and try making something a little different. That’s when I like to make this quick and easy Chinese-inspired dish. It’s a brilliant idea, really. If you are thinking about canned creamed corn, banish that from your mind. When you puree fresh corn, season it with lots of fresh ginger, garlic, and chilis, it has much more pizzazz.
The BEST Way to Save Fresh Basil
Freezing basil the best way to save it. I’ve tried drying it, and it always seems like a waste of good basil. I’ve developed this method, which is simple, and avoids some of the pitfalls that can befall other methods.
Watch Me Make Cashew Aquafaba Aioli
In this video, you’ll see just how easy it is to take an ingredient you used to throw away and make it into a creamy , delectable condiment. You won’t feel bad about slathering it on bread or vegetables, when you make it yourself from clean, plant-based ingredients.
Make Your Own Pantry Veggie Burgers
So you’re stuck in the house, with a can of beans? Make these tasty Pantry Chickpea-Caper Burgers with Avocado Tzatziki and be well.
Whole Wheat-Chia Buns in the Slow Cooker
Start slow cooker baking to make delicious whole wheat buns with chia in about an hour and forty five minutes, for fresh, warm bread to go with your meal.