Sunday meal prep: Lentil Shepherd’s Pie

This is not a recipe for the faint of heart or for those who like to let the slow cooker do all the work. It is labor intensive, so I hope you have like two hours to spare. You will chop, you will rinse, you will roast and boil and steam. You will use the oven, the range top, the microwave, and the blender/food processor. You will have to set multiple different timers for the cooking of the components of this meal. You’ll basically just RUIN YOUR KITCHEN. You will combine two epic recipes to come together to make this vegan, gluten-free shepherd’s pie.

Well, might as well move out.

I grew up in a suburban community with a ton of farms sprinkled throughout, but have never actually met a shepherd. I never actually had a traditional meat-and-potatoes shepherd’s pie. My mom was more of a Bisquick chicken pot pie lady. Mmm, chicken pot pie. My three favorite things.

I followed Radiant Rachel’s roasted garlic mashed cauliflower recipe and her vegan lentil shepherd’s pie recipe.

Admittedly, I just eliminated the coconut sugar. I don’t have coconut sugar, and I didn’t feel like going on the hunt for it. I went to five different stores looking for something as simple as tahini for this recipe. The good news is that I finally found it at Giant Eagle. The bad news is that I basically had to take out a loan to pay for it. (It was imported and cost $9.00.) And somehow, this came to 6 servings at only 140 calories each!

I also prepared these components for the salads I’ll eat this week. They’ll go with spinach, radicchio, and romaine lettuce. It doesn’t really comprise a full meal, so I’ll have some Greek yogurt and fruit on the side.

Snacks for the week are hardboiled eggs (~75 cal), dried edamame (140 cal, 12g protein in just 1/4 cup!), trail mix, and red grapes.

Anyway, here’s a picture from Cupid’s Undie Run yesterday. I raised just over $100 for the Children’s Tumor Foundation and I definitely want to run again next year!

Sunday meal prep: West African Peanut Stew

West Africa is a really big and really diverse place, so I don’t really like generalizing it so much for this recipe. But good luck finding out what part of what country it originated in. But it’s another slow cooker meal, so you can just throw all the ingredients in and let it cook while you watch the Puppy Bowl!

• 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 can ( 15 oz) black beans or kidney beans
• 1 onion, minced
• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 3 cups spinach, arugula, or kale
• 1/3 cup peanut butter, or 2 tbsp PB2
• 1 tsp powdered ginger, or 1 inch minced fresh ginger
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes

If you are using regular peanut butter, you will want to melt this with a little bit of the vegetable broth before adding it to the slow cooker. If you add it in its more solid form, it won’t melt into the stew for some reason and you’ll be finding chunks of it. Keep this in the slow cooker until the sweet potatoes are soft. There’s your healthy vegan lunch for the week! 6 servings at 260 calories and 15g protein per serving. (If you used PB2, it’s 180 cal, 12g protein – wow!) This freezes pretty well, too.

Another cooking tip: I’ve always had a hard time cutting onions. I’m particularly sensitive to them. So today, I remembered an old tip that you should chew gum while cutting onions so the fumes won’t get to you as much. I had some Altoids lying around so I used those. I didn’t feel a thing! Totally pain-free onion cutting.

Snacks this week are 1/2 cup of lowfat cottage cheese (90 cals, 12g protein), hardboiled eggs (80 cal each, 6g protein), oranges (62 cal each) and an assortment of trail mix, nuts, and edamame. I’m trying to make sure I get enough protein for when I start lifting seriously, and I’m doing this by making sure I have a good source of it at every meal. A little challenging for someone who doesn’t eat much be

Sorry, there’s no new smoothie recipe this week. I’m doing the pineapple green again because the shredded coconut in my fridge was calling my name.

Meal prep: Goddess Salads, Potato Leek Soup

If you’ve ever had creamy potato leek soup, you know it’s basically the nectar of the gods. That’s why I was surprised when my best friend, who is vegan, texted me “potato leek soup is life.” She said the version she made wasn’t cream-based and was very low cal. Despite the awkward measurements that the imperial system forces us to use (3/8 tsp of cayenne – I’ll figure it out), I decided to make the Vegetarian Potato-Leek Soup from AllRecipes. At 80 calories a serving, it’s perfect for winter. I kind of regret not adding some matchstick carrots, that would have been tight.

The soup is on!

But such a low cal soup wasn’t going to be filling or satisfying by itself, so I decided to use a bit of the goddess dressing I bought last week. My version of a mini green goddess salad is 250 calories and consists of:

• 6 grape tomatoes
• red onion
• 1/2 cup sliced avocado
• butter lettuce
• 1 tbsp feta cheese
• 1 tbsp goddess dressing
• 6 croutons

Want more protein? Add a hardboiled egg. Vegan? Easy, no cheese.

I love red onions on salad, but there is a trick to prepping them. They have a very nasty bite if you don’t take care of it beforehand. Some restaurants I’ve been to don’t even bother with it (looking at you, most Subways). I soaked these onion slices in ice water with a bit of vinegar. Then I drained that, salted them, and rinsed them. Perfect slightly sweet crunchy onions.

Snacks/sides this week are navel oranges (~60 cal) and a few different nut-based snacks. Salted almonds (170 cal), salted cashews (170 cal), and some goji berry trail mix (150 cal) I found for a steal at Marshall’s. Because who doesn’t shop for food at Marshall’s, right?

But I’m running into a bit of a problem, as you can see. I live alone and rarely have anyone to share my bulk cooking with, and apparently I don’t have the foresight to reduce recipes. So I end up with a few frozen portions of various lunches from weeks past.

Here we have two portions of last week’s curry, white bean soup, chicken rice soup, and vegan chili. These are great to have around since it’s insta-meal… until I realize all my containers are in the freezer and I can’t properly meal prep. Oh well. Just a few at a time this week. We’ll regroup on Wednesday.

Don’t feel thrown off by this week’s smoothie. It’s less fruity than what I’m used to, but pumped with protein.

• 1 banana
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp peanut butter (I’d prefer no sugar added, but alas, all I have is regular)
• 1/2 scoop of chocolate whey protein
• 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup spinach

Remember that ad about Reese’s for breakfast? This  320 calorie smoothie is kind of a throwback to that. If you’re vegan or don’t have protein powder at home, you can increase add some seeds or oats and increase the amount of cocoa powder.

Sunday meal prep: curry

What’s this gonna turn into?

I’ve never made my own curry before, but I found a recipe via reddit and I will be sharing it here with my adaptations. This makes 8 servings at 300 calories each.

• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 15 oz firm tofu
• 30 oz canned diced tomatoes
• 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt
• 3 tbsp curry powder
• 1/2 tbsp turmeric
• 1 yellow onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 cup frozen green peas
• 4 cups fresh spinach
• 2 dry cups basmati brown rice

If you want this to be vegan, you can nix the yogurt and have it non-creamy, or replace the yogurt with coconut milk.

1. Prepare the tofu however you like it (I cut mine into cubes and baked it for 20 minutes at 350°. If you’ve never had tofu before, please educate yourself on the pressing process too.)
2. Saute the onion in the coconut oil with a sprinkle of salt until soft
3. Mix in the tumeric, garlic, curry powder, and tomatoes – simmer for at least an hour
4. Cook the rice per packaging directions
5. Add the spinach, bell pepper, peas, and tofu to the curry about ten minutes before removing from heat
6. Add yogurt immediately before removing from heat
7. Serve/portion out over rice

Note: It’s not recommended to make rice and keep it refrigerated for several days, as dangerous bacteria can breed in cooked rice. I only made four servings of rice and froze two of them in the same container as the curry, while refrigerating the other two servings.

Yum!

Snacks and sides for this week:

• 1/2 cup mango slices – 60 cal
• Honeycrisp apples – 90 cal
• 1/4 cup of cashews/almonds – 170 cal
• Veggie chips – 130 cal

Last but certainly not least, this week’s smoothie recipe: the tropical green.

• 1/2 cup canned pineapple
• 2 tbsp shredded sweetened coconut
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup nonfat yogurt
• 1/2 banana
• 1/2 cup fresh spinach
• 2 tsp chia seeds

Blend. 300 calories. Want it vegan? No yogurt, more banana and almond milk.

Sundays with Thora

I work Monday through Friday. Naturally, Sunday is my best day to prepare for the coming week.

The most important part of my Sunday is meal prep. Just an hour or two while I listen to a podcast, and I prepare five servings of lunch for the week. If I’m feeling crazy, I might prepare dinner too.

Here’s what the inside of my fridge looks like right now.

Five servings each of:

• Five baby carrots (20 cal), a bit of broccoli (~10 cal), and two tablespoons of hummus (60 cal) for my mid-morning snack
• Four small apples (~80 cal) and the odd orange out (~60 cal), for lunch at work
• A half cup of lowfat cottage cheese, to be eaten with lunch or as an afternoon snack

You can also see my drink of choice: sparkling water with lemon and lime flavoring. No artificial sweeteners, sodium, or calories. It’s a cool thing to have when regular water gets boring.

Here’s the main course for lunch that I hadn’t gotten around to portioning out yet (because it was still boiling) – chickpea quinoa pilaf!

This is a one-pot vegan recipe that is unbelievably flavorful,and packed with fiber and protein. I used this recipe from Vocal Vegan, who in turn got the recipe from Veganomicon.

I did make two modifications to the recipe. Firstly, I sauteed the onions in vegetable broth instead of olive oil. Many people don’t realize you don’t need to sauté anything in oil – water or broth works just fine. Sometimes you’re sacrificing a bit of taste, but I was about to fill this pot with broth anyway, so I figured it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Secondly, I threw a bunch of spinach in, because I had fresh spinach and spinach goes with almost everything and it’s a shame to let spinach go to waste. According to my LoseIt app (which allows you to log your own custom recipes!) this comes to 250 calories per serving. Plus the apple and cottage cheese, you’ve got a 410 calorie lunch. Bone apple tea.

I also portioned some frozen blueberries, whey protein, and spinach in a container. Throw it in a blender some frozen banana slices and unsweetened almond milk, and I’ve got a no-added-sugar delicious breakfast smoothie. Blenders are honestly an amazing investment. There are so many smoothie recipes out there that anyone can make in just five minutes or less. You don’t even have to have ripe bananas on hand at all times. I bought two bunches, waiting until they were just slightly overripe, and chopped them up to freeze. Smoothies: a quick nutritious breakfast that my lazy ass can drink on the way to work.