This Is This Week

This week, I expanded my meal prep. My partner, A., is on a healthier eating journey, and to help accommodate his goal, I wanted to have more ready-to-heat meals available in the fridge for him.

Given our house renovation and garden projects, A. is usually very busy in the mornings and early afternoons before he heads off to work second shift. I appreciate all his efforts around the house, and to help support those efforts, I think the least I can do is cook.

And I usually enjoy cooking anyway! 

So here’s what I made this week (and I am disappointed I didn’t take an initial picture of our filled refrigerator because it was a feat to get all the containers to fit!):

I started out by cooking two pounds of kidney beans in the Instant Pot and making a batch of brown rice. I actually did this part several days before.

I didn’t technically need all of these beans just yet, but if I was going to cook some, I figured I might as well cook extra and freeze them in containers for later!

I used those beans and rice in the mushroom bean burgers (that ended up being more like a sloppy joe mixture sans sauce because the recipe I used didn’t hold together well enough). 

A. and I eat a little bit differently (mostly because he can consume way more calories than I can!), but I tried to adapt each meal to work for both of us to minimize cooking.

His mushroom-bean burgers were served with hamburger buns and the potatoes as a side dish while I had mine with just the roasted potatoes.

He got ramen teriyaki with veggies and tofu while I just ate my veggies and tofu with a little soy sauce and chili crisp vinaigrette. 

And while A. had breakfast fried rice and blender oatmeal banana pancakes as breakfast options, I stuck to the blender pancakes (topped with just thawed frozen berries). I didn’t photograph the pancakes because they didn’t look nearly as good as they tasted, but I highly recommend! 

I took 1 cup of oats and 1 medium size banana and blended these with chocolate protein powder and enough water to create a pancake batter consistency for my pancakes. The finished product was filling, delicious, and naturally sweet!

I also sliced up three cucumbers and portioned those into jars. 

But wait, there’s more…

Of course, midweek I had to do a bit more cooking. My lovely friend gave me some sourdough starter this week, so I prepared a loaf of whole wheat sourdough early Wednesday morning and served that alongside a pesto pasta primavera. I cooked the pasta Wednesday morning while I waited for the bread’s first resting phase, and then sautéed veggies to add to it in the evening.

Wednesday night, I finished up the weekly meal prep by roasting more potatoes as wedges, portioning out some of the pasta for our remaining lunches or dinners for the week, and thawing out tofu so I could prepare quick and easy tofu “nuggets” for Thursday’s dinner. 

Friday night I knew I had a wake to attend, so I figured this night could be a freezer meal of premade pizzas, and Saturday was scheduled to be my youngest son’s birthday party. 

Thus, the end of the week required minimal extra thought.

My top tips for meal prep this week? 

1. Always start with an empty (or nearly empty) dishwasher and sink!

2. Find time where you can. This week, I had a busy Sunday (my usual meal prep day), so I substituted my Sunday morning walk/hike with Robyn and Joy for a meal prepping session instead.

3. Use the same basic ingredients when you need to make slightly different meals for those in your household. Leave a grain out or use the same sauces on two different proteins.

I hope you’ll find inspiration to prep food for yourself in the week to come. It is super refreshing to have a fridge full of food when the week gets crazy – expectedly or unexpectedly!