Four Easy Vegan Meals I Made This Week

Quick, satisfying, and minimal ingredient recipes I make between the fancy IG ones..

While I love creating recipes for social media and my blog, thinking of all the different components, textures, and flavours, the reality is between those meals I eat pretty simply.

There are a few staple ingredients I always purchase, usually in bulk, that I can use for these in between meals that make meal time so much faster and easier. These items are:

1. Frozen vegetable mixes. I have two current favourites that I buy at Costco: Pura Vida Primavera, and Tattooed Chef Sheet Pan Vegetables. I like the combination of vegetables, the fact that they're pre-washed and chopped, and that they're both pre-seasoned.

2. Legume pasta, of any kind, but specifically whatever brand Costco has because they're the most cost effective. Legume pasta is the perfect easy meal because it packs enough protein per serving for a meal, has tons of fibre, and all you need is a sauce to complete the meal. Easy, peasy.

3. Tofu & bread. I've said it before and I'll say it a hundred times more, pan fried tofu on toast is the easiest, macro friendly meal. Bonus points for a side of vegetables, pickles, and a sprinkle of microgreens.

Those 4 recipes pictured above are using these 4 ingredients, and they're meals I ate on the fly this week. Simple, delicious, macro friendly, packed with protein and fibre.

Meal one: Fried rice. I had leftover rice in the fridge so I added some cubed tofu to a pan with avocado oil, pan fried until golden, added in frozen vegetables, and the rice. Paired it with my favourite new Costco snack obsession, these vegan spring rolls (this link shows old branding and macros) that are made with really decent ingredients, only 50 calories per roll and have 3g of protein!

Meal two: Sliced tofu sandwich. While I do like the taste of tofurky deli slices, I've been wanting to make some at home. On this day I tried the simplest version of that. I sliced tofu really thin, then boiled it in vegetable broth for 20 minutes. Cooled it down completely, then just salt and peppered it. Layered it in between sprouted grain bread, mustard, hummus, and pickles.

Meal three: Lentil pasta with quick vegan parm. When it comes to cooking lentil pasta I find it stays crunchy for a very long time, well beyond the suggested cooking time, so my new way to cook it is all in one pot with the sauce and additional water. You basically add your servings of pasta, your servings of tomato sauce, then water to cover the pasta. Cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn't stick to the pan. It's done once the noodles are plump and juicy, and the sauce is thick around the noodles. For the quick parm, just add to a blender: 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, 2 tbsp walnuts (or cashews), a pinch or two of garlic powder and onion powder, and a big pinch of salt. Pulse until the nuts are crumbly. Serve spoonfuls over pasta!

Meal four: I know I've been showing tofu toast almost every newsletter, but today I'm showing you how to make it work for you and your partner with different protein needs. For Armin's I did three slices of bread and 2/3 of the brick of tofu, and for mine, I did 2 slices bread and 1/3 of the tofu brick. His was 48g of protein, and mine was 26g protein (bread and hummus included).

I hope this shows you just how simple eating a well balanced, high protein vegan diet is. And better yet how affordable it can be when you're buying the right ingredients in bulk.

Here's to a healthy, happy, and easy week ahead when it comes to fuelling yourself!

Evann

p.s. if you’re looking for those more curated recipes, I’m going to be uploading those here on weekly basis too, so subscribe and get ready to eat!