The lunches and mains I'm meal prepping this week...
We've made it to February! I've seen everyone talk about how long January was and I feel like it's gone quite quickly as I've been busy every day.
I'm still painting the hallway. Yes, still. Each coat of paint takes 4 days as it's over 3 floors and I'm the only one painting, so it takes foreverrrr. I am soldiering on and only have 3 days of painting walls ahead of me... before I start on woodwork. Needless to day, the meals will be quick to prep this week!
Anyway, backstory to these posts: Following on from my story question on Instagram, I'm going to start documenting what I'm cooking or meal prepping every week as you all said you wanted to see it! I do typically share my meals on stories, but I thought this might be a nice way to share a meal plan of sorts if any of you wanted to follow along or just wanted some inspiration for your own meal planning.
Worth noting -
I mostly eat pescatarian and vegetarian/vegan with a very limited amount of dairy (my skin hates it) and more of an emphasis on quality protein. I love variety and nutritious food, but still enjoy baking and have something sweet every day (and not just a square of dark chocolate because that's boring). I am cooking for myself and my partner only and tend to do 1 shop per week, typically meal planning on a Sunday and getting a delivery on a Monday, so I'm going to try and post this on a Sunday if I can.
Anything under 30 minutes I class as quick. Anything 30-40mins is reasonable!
Lunch
The plans for lunch (around 6 days worth, 12 portions) are things I can batch cook and shove together pretty easily. I tend to box everything up separately (so if I roasted sweet potato and chickpeas, I would keep them in separate boxes) so I can dish out what I fancy on the day and pop the bowl in the microwave.
Chickpea Shawarma Bowl - oven (with another recipe) - 2 days (quick)
I just want to crunch some lettuce and eat some tzatziki. That's all I want.
Roasted Sweet Potato and Chickpea Bowl - oven - 2 days (reasonable, but low effort)
The chipotle tahini dressing spoke to me on this one.
Chopped Thai Chickpea Salad with Curry Peanut Dressing - no cook - 2 days (quick)
This sounds delicious and I'll probably pair it with prawns or tofu.
Main Meal
All of the recipes are relatively low effort this week. 3 recipes include rice, so it may be worth batch cooking some rice ahead of time!
Smokey Bean Fish Stew - pan - 1 day (quick)
I didn't end up making this last week because I got pizza instead, but I'm just going to make it this week instead.
Salmon Taco Bowls - oven and pan - 1 day (quick)
It looks like a lot of ingredients, but I'm probably going to cheat and just buy some taco seasoning.
Pesto Pasta Salad - pan - 2 days (quick)
I'm also going to cheat on this recipe and buy the pesto from Tesco (their 'Finest' one is the best out of the supermarket pesto's in my opinion). However, I am going to take inspiration from the recipe and include tomatoes and a rocket salad and probably prawns.
Stick Miso Tofu - pan - 1 day (quick)
I've made this before and it's delicious and quick!
Chilli Crisp Noodles - pan - 1 day (quick)
Another very easy recipe. I'll use the protein noodles from Tesco and add tofu too.
If I was baking something this week....
Raspberry Nutella brownies! I have major cravings for these so I may actually make them. I use the following recipe:
185g dark chocolate (around 70% cocoa will be fine)
185g unsalted butter (room temp)
85g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
3 eggs (room temp)
275g caster sugar
8-10tbsp Nutella - you can add more or less
8-10tbsp Raspberry jam - your preference on how much you want to add
Method
Step one | Preheat oven to 180degrees/gas mark 4.
Step two | Melt together the butter and chocolate, I did mine in 30 second bursts in the microwave. Once melted, move to one side and allow to cool.
Step three | In another bowl, crack the eggs and add the sugar and whisk until it looks mousse-like. It should take a few minutes, but it’ll double in volume. Add this to the (now cool) chocolate/butter and combine together.
Step four | Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and gently fold it in. Make sure it’s all incorporated, it should make a thick batter.
Step five | Pour half of the mixture into a baking tray, add some splodges or Nutella and jam, then cover with the rest of the batter. Repeat the splodges of Nutella and Jam. Bake for 20minutes then remove and allow to cool.
Enjoy! If you cooked any of these meals, please tag me on Instagram!
