Ellavate your Meal Prep

It’s school season!! I know most people dread school, but it’s life so we need to try to enjoy it. Find the little things within each day that make you happy. Maybe it’s that you get to see your friends or you can get into a schedule or that you can do a school sport. Something that excites me is meal prepping! I love to Ellavate healthy recipes and plan out all my meals so I can feel organized. In this post I will share what meals/ recipes I am making this week.

I only have school three days this week, so I mainly focused on meals for those three days.

Tuesday:

I wanted to buy groceries and plan out a dinner for the night before school. I had to take into consideration a few variables. For one, my dad is going to be playing tennis and eating out with his friends so I won’t need as many ingredients and I won’t be able to have him grill anything. Therefore, I planned to make a Mediterranean baked fish. It will be quick, easy, and light. I’m not sure what I will pair with the fish, but a few ideas are: baked or air fryed asparagus, salad of any kind (could do it with just tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, carrots, herbs or fennel, orange, lettuce, herbs or anything you desire), a starch of your choice (pasta, potato, rice), hearts of palm pasta, etc.

This recipe is super flexible so you can make it to your liking. I am not providing many measurements as it will differ depending on how many people and preference.

Ingredients:

• White fish of your choice

• Salt/pepper

• Olive oil

• White wine

• Cherry tomatoes, halved

• Olives pitted and halved, plus the olive juice

• Minced red onion

• Garlic cloves, minced

• Thyme

• Dried Oregano

• Parsley

• Shallots, halved

Mediterranean baked fish recipe:

1. Heat oven to 425°F.

2. Pat the fish dry and season with salt, pepper, oregano, and thyme. Then brush a baking dish with olive oil and add the fish.

3. In a mixing bowl combine tomatoes, olives+juice, white wine, onions, garlic, more spices, parsley, and a touch more salt/pepper. Add enough olive oil to combine. Pour over the fish.

4. Add the halved shallots to the pan near the fish.

5. Bake until flaky and the fish is done, the vegetables should be tender.

6. Sprinkle with parsley and enjoy!

Wednesday: First Day of School!!

Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal with plums and plum cherries

For breakfast before school I need to make sure it is craveable, yet easy to prepare in the morning. I decided to make a batch of delicious baked oatmeal so that all I have to do in the morning is heat it up and add nut butter. I would highly recommend using plums and plum cherries as your fruit because it made the most delicious baked oatmeal I have ever tasted!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups rolled oats

• Between 1/4 and 1/2 cup palm sugar (can use brown sugar)

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 2 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 2 tbsp flax (or 2 eggs)

• 2 cups milk or plant-based milk

• 1.5 tsp vanilla

• 4 tbsp butter or coconut/avocado oil

• Fruit of your choice

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a large baking dish.

2. Cut your fruit into 1/2-inch chunks and add them to the bottom of the dish.

3. In a bowl combine all ingredients. If you are using egg then break the eggs up in a separate dish and pour them into the main bowl.

4. Add the oat mixture over the fruit and ensure that fruit and oats are evenly spread throughout.

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

6. Eat as is or allow it to cool, cover it, put it in the fridge, and heat it up when you are ready to eat.

Lunch: Veggie, tempeh bowls with tahini miso dressing

Ingredients:

• Cauliflower

• Broccoli

• Mushrooms

• Large carrots cut into matchsticks, or baby carrots

• Butternut squash

• Olive/avocado oil

• Tempeh, or protein of your choice

• Tahini

• Miso

• Lemon

• Water

• Salt

Recipe:

1. Wash and cut the cauliflower, broccoli, mushrooms, and carrots. Add them to a steamer filled with water and steam veggies until desired.

2. Will the veggies are steaming, toss the butternut squash in oil and salt and add to the air fryer or oven. In the air fryer I baked at 350°F for around 10 minutes and then air fryed at 390°F for 10+ more minutes. It is not an exact science and it depends on how you like your squash so just keep an eye out.

3. Once the squash is done, brush your tempeh with oil and sprinkle salt to the top. Add it to the air fryer on bake for a few minutes, then air fry it for a few more minutes. It will take 10-15 minutes. (It will not have much flavor because we are making the tahini miso dressing).

4. Add around 1/4 cup tahini and 2 heaping tbsp miso. Add a few tsp of water and lemon juice. Taste and modify.

5. Assemble: add the veggies, squash, and tempeh into a container. In a dressing container add your tahini miso dressing.

Dinner: Lentil Meatballs with Aji Verde sauce from Feasting at Home

I prepped this dinner on Monday so I wouldn’t have to worry about it in the week.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup precooked lentils

• 1 tsp fennel seed

• ½ cup frozen quinoa

• 1 tsp salt

• Garlic, minced

• ⅓ Cup chopped cilantro

• 6 oz firm tofu, pressed down

• 1 Tablespoon olive oil

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. In a food processor combine half of the lentils, fennel seed, and quinoa until a coarse texture. Then in a bowl add the rest of the lentils, salt, garlic, and cilantro.

3. In the food processor add the tofu and oil until it forms a smooth paste. Add this to the lentil mixture.

4. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and roll the mixture into balls (think about what size you want to eat). Add to the oven for 20-25 minutes.

5. Take out and enjoy or add to a container and heat up when desired.

Aji Verde Sauce:

Ingredients:

• ½ mayo or sour cream or 1/3 cup cashews and 1/3 cup water

• ½–1 jalapeño

• 1 garlic clove

• 1 cup chopped cilantro

• ¼–1/2 teaspoon salt

• a squeeze of lime juice

Recipe:

1. Add all ingredients to blender or food processor.

2. Serve with lentil meatballs.

Sides:

Serve with any green vegetable with texture

Thursday:

To keep it simple I will be having the same breakfast and lunch.

Dinner: Cashew tofu stir fry

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cashews

• 1 lb extra firm tofu (I’m trying with chickpea tofu that I found at Whole Foods)

• 4 tbsp cornflour

• 3 garlic cloves

• 3 spring onions/scallions

• 1 red bell pepper

• Carrots, cut

• 1 Broccoli, cut

Sauce:

• 3 tbsp soy sauce

• 2.5 tbsp hoisin sauce

• 1 tbsp shaoxing wine

• 1 tsp vegan fish sauce

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 1.5 tsp maple syrup

• 1 tbsp cornflour

• 1 tbsp water

• ginger

Recipe:

1. Drain the tofu thoroughly.

2. Mix all sauce ingredients together to make the sauce.

3. Cook the tofu in a pan with oil.

4. Sauté the vegetables

5. Add the cashews, stir-fry sauce and cooked tofu to the sauté pan and cook for 1-2 more minutes.

6. Serve with rice, right rice, shirataki noodles, etc.

Friday:

Same breakfast and I plan to a friends for dinner to mix it up and make life fun. So, only one super easy recipe left. I didn’t want to have the same lunch three days in a row because I knew I would get tired of it so I changed it up.

Lunch: Mediterranean quinoa bowls

Ingredients:

• Frozen quinoa

• Arugula

• Cherry tomatoes

• Cucumber

• Herbs

• Arugula

• Pickled Shallots (in a small mason jar combine white vinegar with water, sugar, and salt. Add the shallots.)

• Beets

• Artichokes

• Chickpeas

Recipe:

1. Heat up the quinoa, chop the veggies, and assemble in a container.

Allow yourself to find creativity through cooking. Don’t worry if it doesn’t work out or taste good, it happens to all of us. Have fun with it, experiment with different flavors.