5 Meals I Eat Every Week (Vegan)

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey everyone its Caitlin and welcome to another video in this video I'm going to be sharing five meals that I eat every single week with you guys so this is a little bit different than my standard recipe videos which are a little more formal if you will these are just meals I eat in my everyday life as a vegan if you didn't know which you probably do I am a full-time at recipe developer and food photographer I have my own recipe website so I'm always making new recipes for that but honestly at the end of the day sometimes I am so tired that I do not want to spend any extra time in the kitchen and the meals that I eat and cook for myself later in the evenings are usually pretty simple I mean obviously I eat all leftovers to my blog but that doesn't carry over every single day you know and now that I live with my boyfriend I have to cook for him too and combined we eat a lot of food so we cook a lot of food but we also don't like to spend too much money on our grocery bills we like to keep things pretty wholesome and stick to minimally processed foods but we still like foods that taste really really good so in this video I'm going to be sharing my five top meals I eat and honestly I do eat some variation of these meals every single week so if you're looking for some quick and easy fixes let's get right into it first up we are going to be making burrito bowls I love this recipe because it's really easy perfect for meal prep and really affordable so to start out we're going to be making a big batch of my instant pot chipotle lime black beans we're going to add some dry black beans store and simple along with some garlic and a chipotle peppers in adobo this is what they look like I do to excite like a kind of spicy we're also going to be adding some vegetable broth I like to use vegetable bullion which is a concentrated paste and then I just added water to that afterwards and once you stir it all together the paste dissolves into the water and you have your vegetable broth and it's a lot more cost-effective too so I would definitely recommend looking into that but we're going to cover our instant pot set that ceiling and cook it for about 20 to 25 minutes and then in the meantime we're also going to making some brown rice I personally prefer to make a big batch of this at the beginning the week and I used short grain brown rice and then it will last me through the week and I will use it in various meals as you will see here but I'm pretty sure you guys know how to cook rice just add water to it bring it to a boil cook on low for about 45 minutes and you're good to go so the final component for these bowls are some stir-fried veggies and this does vary slightly for me for week to week but I always like to start out with onions her burrito bowls i caramelized them in vegetable broth I've shown you guys how to do this before but basically you're going to add an onion to a nonstick pan with a splash of veggie broth and cook it down until all of the water starts to evaporate and then you're going to deglaze the pan by adding more vegetable broth and this helps the onion get more color and flavor and you can really really chart if you are patient enough but today I wasn't really feeling about patience so I just threw in my peppers too and so I'll take that down a bit for the peppers to get tender you can also a char the peppers using the same technique but once everything looks nice and golden we're also going to add in our sliced mushrooms some diced jalapeno fresh garlic and some stems of cilantro they have just as much flavor as the leaves so I like to chop those up and throw them in there as well as some spices I like to some cumin chili powder a little bit of cayenne pepper so then you're going to assault a this down until all of the veggies get nice and soft and tender and the juices from the mushroom release and add even more flavor to this dish you can really use any veggies you want this does vary slightly for me for week to week but I do generally use peppers onions and mushrooms you could use larger portobello mushrooms you can use whatever peppers on sale you can vary the spices little every week to keep things interesting but either way once that's done you're going to remove from the heat and we're ready to assemble our burrito bowls so obviously our rice has finished cooking we're just going to fluff that with a fork and put it in a bowl along with those veggies that we sauteed and our beans should be about done cooking now - so the final step for this is to add in some lime juice and to take out those to put like peppers from earlier or dice them up and then toss them back in and mix in with the beans if you want them to be less spicy you don't have to do this step but I like to do that for extra flavor so then after we have our beans we're also going to add some avocado cilantro and I like to add a drizzle of hot sauce and then I also like to top it with nutritional yeast which gives a nice cheesy flavor sort of like a queso to the dish that is pretty much it for our burrito bowl you don't have to use avocado every week good switch up the hot sauce you can do refried beans instead of black beans you can use a different type of rice or quinoa maybe make a cashew cream instead there are tons of ways to switch it up just a little every week to keep it interesting next up we're going to be making an easy veggie pasta this is actually my favorite meal to make after yoga because I get home pretty late and it's ready in like 15 to 20 minutes max so first things first you're going to boil some water and cook your favorite pasta I typically like to use chickpea pasta because it has a little bit more protein and I don't add another protein source to this meal but you can use any other pasta variety but I really like and then while the pasta is cooking we're going to saute some veggies and then combine it all in another large pot so really this depends on whatever I have in my fridge based on the week my veggies will vary just a little bit but again as usual I start out with some vegetable broth and my favorite things to add to my pasta are olives in garlic so it's sort of like a Puttanesca pasta if you want a recipe for that I do have an instant pot one I will link it below but first I saute those olives in garlic with a vegetable broth and some Italian seasoning and red chili flakes just sort of rehydrate everything and really get those flavors going so it'll be prominent in my pasta then I like to add in some mushrooms and zucchini and today I was adding Swiss chard to my pasta so I added the stems of it also for the record this is her meat and my boyfriend so the portion size of the veggies is a little bit bigger but I basically just cook this down sometimes I'll add fresh thyme so I'm settled broccoli I'll add literally whatever I have in my fridge and then I add in my pasta sauce I like to use one from Whole Foods but again you can use whatever you like and then I just add that with the veggies and simmer it just a little bit to heat it up and then add about this time our pasta is magically done cooking so I drain it but I don't rinse it and then I add in any other leafy greens like spinach or chard they don't really need to cook very long so I just add it in with the hot pasta and then I mix everything together until the noodles get it coated in the sauce and we are good to go it is a really easy filling meal it's a great way to get in veggies it's hearty it has plant based protein it's pretty much perfect so that's really what I do for the evening I always do like to top it with some black pepper and then today I had some pine nuts in my fridge so I decided to top them with that but is totally optional you can do whatever you want I would also suggest hopping this with nutritional yeast that would definitely make it even more cheesy delicious or you could add in bacon cheese another easy versatile recipe that's ready in a very short amount of time up next I am making a very loosely coined Asian bowl I like to have some sort of Asian stir-fry or Asian thing every week today the weather was a little bit warmer so I decided to make my Asian slaw which I make by adding some rice vinegar tamari and lime juice into a bowl along with some toasted sesame seeds and some Thai basil and green onions and ginger and garlic so that is essentially the marinade for our crunchy veggies but I also do like to add some chili oil and sesame oil I want to making this for myself they're optional in the recipe which is on my blog I will link it below but once you have all of that you are going to whisk it together and like I said it was our marinade so now we're going to add a ton of crunchy veggies so I like to add some carrots some sliced cucumber and some crunchy cabbage and you're just going to mix this all together and let it sit this is great for meal prep too because the veggies will stay crunchy a few days in the fridge and it actually gets better over time so after you make that you can do whatever you want with it but I like to serve it with some crispy tofu this is my three ingredient crispy tofu you're going to need a block a firmer extra firm tofu and you are going to want to press it I have this super handy and convenient tofu press that I actually got with my juicer but you can also use a towel you can buy another tofu press online however you want to get rid of some of the extra liquid you do that but after you have removed all that extra moisture from the tofu we are going to slice it so I like to make it pretty uniform cubes and the first thing I do with my block of tofu is to cut it in half and then I take each of those halves and I again cut them in half and then I cut those halves and apps to make four even strips and then I flip it and then I cut that again into four even strips you have so nice uniform cubes and they all cook pretty evenly once you put them in the oven too so we're going to transfer our tofu into a bowl and then we're going to coat it in somewhat tamari I'm using low sodium tomorrow you could also use soy sauce or liquid aminos we're going to toss those in the tamari to sort of so it into the tofu cubes and coat them with this golden salty delicious goodness and then we're going to Koda and nutritional yeast about two tablespoons but the more the merrier it does get even more delicious if you add more you can also add in other seasonings that you like like garlic powder or black pepper or if you're doing this with a different style or recipe you can add another seasonings but I like two things pretty dang simple so now we're going to add our two Oh food to a baking sheet I like to line mine with a silicone mat I find that it makes it crispier but you can also use parchment paper if you're going to a pop out into the oven and cook it for a few minutes and then it take it out and flip your tofu cubes and as you can see the bottom part gets really nice and shiny and crispy and delicious you're gonna pop that in to the oven for a few more minutes and then it is ready to serve but just for the record I'm going to give you a fortuitous close-up shot of this tofu it does make a large amount of tofu you can also easily double this recipe if you're doing it for meal prep and it lasts well in the fridge I feel like to reheat it with my air fryer it gets even more crispy that way but this is a staple of my house and I make it at least once a week and that is pretty much it for our quote Asian bowls I'm going to use some of my leftover rice add in the slaw add in the crispy tofu and we're good to go when the weather's cold our sometimes those with more asian-inspired stir-fry but this is what I am currently loving at the moment so then a next up we're going to be basic and have some avocado toast but I like to load mine up so I'm going to show you how I do that first I'm going to show you how to make pickled red onions because these have become a staple in my diet and they're so easy to make and I think that you all should make them so first up you're going to need a red onion which is very cheap and easy and accessible and affordable grocery stores you're just going to chop the ends off and if you want to you can use a mandolin to thinly slice the onion but honestly I prefer my strips to be a little bit thick and I cut pretty evenly because I have a lot of knife experience so I just cut my onion by hand you can do it in half rings or quarter rings I like half rings because I like to my strips to be a little bit longer but after you've cut your onion up you're going to shove it into a glass mason jar about a quart sized mason jar you can also use another glass Tupperware if you want but I find that a jar works the best and then we're going to make our pickling liquid with some black peppercorns some salt and some sugar I have a list for substitutes on the block if you don't want to use sugar you really don't need too much so I just use cane sugar but you're going to bring this to a boil with some vinegar and water over a saucepan and then once it comes to a boil you are going to pour that over your onions and the hot water and vinegar is going to pickle the onions or quick pickled onions if you will you're just gonna push them down a little bit with a spatula and I've set it aside let it cool to room temperature and something magical happens well it's science but you know we can pretend it's magic too but the red onions turn is really pretty pink color from the skin of the onions and these things are so delicious they're crunchy salty slightly sweet super tangy perfect to put on avocado toast or in salads and they're really cheap to make so I always try to have a jar in my fridge so now back to my avocado toast that may be basic but maybe it's not so basic but I am obsessed with this Trader Joe's sriracha baked tofu I put this on my avocado toast most days because I like to get some plant-based protein in all my meals and I really like the ingredients I could probably make this myself but I'm kind of lazy and I just haven't figured it out yet but I take half of this tofu it's actually in two smaller blocks I'm gonna take half of block of tofu and I chop it up into tiny little squares and then I air fry it for 10 minutes at 360 degrees Fahrenheit and it gets nice and crispy and in the meantime I prep the rest of my avocado toast so I typically use half of an avocado and I dice it up and I don't like to get bowls dirty so I just mash it with a fork inside the avocado half and in terms of bulking up the avocado I keep things pretty basic and I just like to add some salt and black pepper to it sometimes I'll add some nutritional yeast too but I wasn't feeling too crazy today and I wanted to have this in a quick jiffy so after you've amassed your avocado you are going to put it on some bread I am using some gluten-free bread but again you can use any gluten-free or non gluten-free bread that you want so I just spread the avocado out across the bread then I top it with my air fried tofu then we put those pickled red onions on if I'm being honest sometimes I had way more than this but I still want to do guys to be able to see the avocado toast underneath and I top it with black pepper and we are good to go this is a very easy quick like 10 minute lunch for me I have it maybe more often than I would like to admit but it's super satisfying me always hits the spot and for the record I usually end up with a few extra air fried tofu cubes that don't make it on a piccata sauce and I just like to eat them plain last but not least my final meal is a gigantic salad because I love greens and I think everybody should so to start out I usually like to roast some veggies up in this video I am doing beets and potatoes sweet potatoes to be exact so to risk my beads I just simply take the top off and then cut my beets into quarters or 6 depending how thick they are and then I wrap them in tinfoil and I do try to wrap them so the open part goes to the top so they don't use all of your baking tray and then I just place them on a baking tray and you bake them at around 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour super easy peasy and then for our sweet potatoes again I like to keep things pretty simple and just celebrate the flavors of the potatoes themselves so I like to cut my sweet potatoes into about half inch thick rounds if they're super thick some people cut those rounds in half as well and then I just placed these on a baking tray again aligned with a silicone mat I really do think this helps to caramelize so sweet potatoes and make them taste even more crispy and delicious so I just spread all those out over the mat and then I pop those in the oven at the same temperature about 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 35 or so minutes and then with my salad I always like to have some protein so I still today I'm going through making my smoky tempeh I have shown you guys have to make this before tempeh is a form of soybeans that are whole soybeans and actually is probiotics in it so to make our smoky tempeh we're going to line on the bottom of a nonstick pan and then we're going to pour our marinade over it which is a base of a cup of vegetable broth along with some maple syrup and tamari then we're also going to add some liquid smoke so smoked paprika and last but not least some black pepper I added that later but I forgot to add it in this clip but you're just going to whisk all that together and then it pour it over your tempeh and tempeh gets more flavor if you seen it first and then sort of saute it so I sort of just combined this process into one by adding extra liquid to the marinade and first we sort of steam or simmer the tempeh in this and it allows it to puff up and absorb more the flavors of the marinade and you're just going to keep cooking the tempeh down and flipping it occasionally as the marinade evaporates and as you can see the tempeh is becoming darker in color as the liquid lowers in the pan and you're just going to put the temporary in two to three minutes or so and then once it starts to get to about at this point when the marinades start to stay a little bit more sticky you're going to flip it more rapidly and this helps to caramelize all the sides and really get that nice thick and juicy coating on all of our tempeh strips so that we are looking for so they'll look a little bit something like this once they're finished be nice and bubbly and crispy and the golden brown and at this point they're pretty much ready to serve so once our sweet potatoes are done they will look a little bit dry on top but I should see from the bottoms they get nice and crispy and golden brown and I like to eat these warm but I also like to make a big batch to last me for a week and I also really enjoy eating them cold they get almost like gooey air and texture and they're really really yummy and then I wanted to show you guys what I do with my beets after they finish roasting I carefully remove the tin foil wrapper as you can see they are pretty hot so I do let them a slightly cool before I slice them and I did say I did not peel my beets so at this point if you want to once the beets are soft enough you can actually just peel the skin off using your fingers it's pretty easy honestly I scrubbed my beets really well and personally I just feel like it's too much of a hassle to peel my beets so I don't mind it and I just keep the skin on and I just chop my beets in it to little cubes and that is pretty much it for the beets when you roast them they get this really nice sweet natural flavor so you really don't need to add too much else to them so now we're going to make our salad so I like to make a giant salad base of some sort of leafy green recently I've really been enjoying kale but it kales a lot more delicious if you massage it with your hands first and then I always add some sort of dressing this is a sesame miso dressing that I posted on my blog recently I will link it below but it does vary week to week sometimes I'll just do tahini and lemon juice and times will do mash caught out in sauerkraut or I'll do another dressing recipe I have a ton on my blog so whatever I have in my fridge that's typically what I use to dress myself but it's usually a creamy and acidic dressing so after you coat and massage your kale in there I like to add in some fresh herbs today it was parsley and then I add in some sweet potatoes and some beets and I also like to add in some more crunchy veggies too so I like to add the roasted elements as well as the cooked and crunchy elements so here I'm adding a new Civic you cumber I also like to add in shredded carrots this is kind of like my veggie pasta where it really just depends what I have in my fridge and I will mix all this together to make a salad and then with herbs too sometimes a lot basil sometimes all ideal either way I put it into a bowl sometimes I just eat it straight out of the mixing bowl because I need more space and then I top it with my tempeh and that is it an easy peasy filling a meal full of protein healthy fats and lots of veggies obviously my meals will vary a little bit based on the season in the time of year like what produce is the cheapest that will definitely influence the meals that I am cooking and also just whatever leftovers I have with me bill one week I'll have leftover kale and they have a break up leftover spinach but generally speaking those five meals are pretty much basics and staples in my life I make them all the time I never get sick of them and I think when you slightly vary your produce and your spices your ingredients every time they still stay nice and interesting so I would be curious to know what some of your staple meals as a vegan are in the comments below so if you want to let me know maybe just say your top one or your favorite one or if we have any in common let me know we can see which one of mine is the most popular with you guys I don't know if anyone else's my avocado toast combination but you guys should start doing that because it's really really delicious if you liked this video and want to see more videos like this please give this video a thumbs up and if you're new to my channel like what you see here you can hit that little subscribe button right down there I post one to two new videos every single week I hope you guys are having an awesome day and continue to have one whatever time date is for you and I look forward to seeing you in the next video bye [Music]

Channel: Caitlin Shoemaker

Views: 4,018,275

Keywords: budget friendly, what i eat in a day, what i eat in a day vegan healthy, vegan, healthy, easy vegan, what i eat, vegan recipes, plant based, frommybowl, from my bowl, caitlin shoemaker, whole food plant based, easy vegan meals, what i eat in a week vegan, vegan weeknight meals, quick vegan meals, what i eat in a week vegan healthy, vegan dinner ideas, healthy vegan dinners, easy vegan dinners

Id: XHfiWYcYpJk

Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2019