Getting Your Head Around Food/Veg Prep

Everything’s starting back up and sometimes it can get chaotic. Let’s start with a big of a plan for how we’re going to use our vegetables a week at a time, which will help with: physical health, reduced stress, household clutter.

For me, it comes down to preparing the BASICS so you have essentially a palate of foods to work with that won’t take as long as working from scratch. This way, you can still make what you feel like each day as opposed to eating the same thing over and over. 

So let’s get started! What are things you can prepare ahead of time to make use of your veggies and farm fresh products throughout the week?

1. Soup/stew/chili to heat up- maybe even adding some fresh veggies to it- any day of the week.
2. A big salad that you can add to or just eat cold. In the colder, it’s recommended to not consume as much raw vegetables as it can be difficult on your digestion, so try some cooked veggies in there, and maybe even use a grain as the base such as quinoa or couscous!
3. A yummy homemade sauce/dressing that you can add to anything throughout the week. This might be a pasta/pizza sauce or something sweeter like a peanut sauce.
4. Roasted veggies so you can skip the 45 minute wait time on a busy night. Just heat them up as they are, or add them to a stir fry, stew or even a salad!
5. Hard boiled eggs. Great as a snack on the go, or add to your salad later on.
6. Zucchini/squash/pumpkin bread or muffins. You can even make these way ahead of time and freeze them.
7. Cooked beans. These can be seasoned and added to a meal or made into hummus if you need to switch things up.
8. Blanched kale. A lot of people find kale more digestible/palatable when it is cooked. Save a little time by blanching it ahead of time, then season or add it to another dish.
9. Clean & chop raw veggies. These can be eaten as-is for snacks, or cooked at the last minute if you want something a bit more fresh!

With inspiration from Half Your Plate, Rainbow Plant Life and Love & Lemons, and Mom To Mom Nutrition

https://www.halfyourplate.ca/blog/easy-family-friendly-meal-prep-for-vegetables-all-week/

https://www.loveandlemons.com/healthy-meal-prep-ideas/

https://momtomomnutrition.com/food-and-recipes/12-weeks-produce-prep/