The Lazy Vegetarian’s Guide to Meal Planning

The end of the year: time for celebration, reflection, and goal setting. This year, I have lots to celebrate and plenty of goals set for the coming year.

In order to give me time to accomplish these goals, I’ll need to save some time and set one more: meal planning and prep.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Being on maternity leave has been a big reminder as to how helpful meal prep is. I’m so lazy at the end of the day and I don’t have a Sunday a month to commit to prepping, so here’s what this has looked like for us.

The freezer is stocked with necessary items so if I do need anything from the grocery store, I can make the list as short and manageable as possible for hubs (or whoever else may be running the errand). Also, there’s still frozen pizza and macaroni ‘n’ cheese on our menu, but we try to keep it limited when there’s been some planning in advance.

Lazy vegetarian meal planning

Lazy meal planning can easily become very unhealthy, if you’re not careful. It can be full of sodium; have inadequate fiber and iron; be loaded with fattening cheese. However, the meals below are fairly healthy, as long as you’re filling up on the good stuff.

I always recommend that you make sure to eat lots of fruits and veggies throughout the day, drink lots of water, and make sure you keep other healthy foods in your diet, as well.

Stupid easy pot pie

Chop and sauté a small onion in an oven safe skillet, add a bag of frozen mixed veggies. Sauté for a few minutes, then add a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of milk and wait until they simmer. Top with a can of Grands biscuits. Bake at 375*F for 17-20 minutes.

Spaghetti/Alfredo

Yes, boxed noodles and jarred sauce. We almost always have mushrooms in the fridge, so we’ll toss those in. My simple, inexpensive meatless spaghetti sauce is an easy prep, too.

Baguettes

Served with pasta, soup, or to make into caprese sandwiches or hot panini (aka fancy grilled cheese).

If you need some ideas, see my post with 9 vegetarian versions of panini to try!

I’m starting to sound like a college student. Let’s grow it up a little:

Palak paneer

It may not look very appetizing, but but this Indian dish is delicious. I use this recipe which calls for frozen spinach and canned tomatoes (which also make it super inexpensive to make). It’s spicy, so our toddler won’t eat it, so we give her the rice with some avocado and naan instead. It looks similar, is healthy, and she really likes it.

Soup

I’m partial to creamy wild rice or bean soup like the one outlined in this post. It’s also easy to make and freeze a big pot of meatless chili.

Don’t think you have time to make soup from scratch? Check out these time-saving tips.

Seitan

This is super easy to make and much cheaper to make than to buy pre-made. It also freezes pretty well. (Historically, I’ve used a recipe by Bob’s Red Mill, but they seem to have eliminated it from their website.) You can likely find vital wheat gluten in the natural foods section or baking aisle of your grocery store.

I like seitan it in fajitas (simply chop an onion and a couple of peppers, sauté and sprinkle with seasoning) or as barbecue sandwiches.

Avocado rolls or –even easier — bowls

You may think rolling sushi is difficult, but you’d be wrong. If you can roll a burrito, you can make avocado rolls. Or even easier, throw it in a bowl. We put chopped peanuts and cream cheese in ours. Hubs like Sriracha; sometimes I’ll add cucumber. Serve with soy sauce and wasabi. If you’re feeling fancy, pick up some edamame in the frozen food section and boil that up to serve with.

Breakfast for dinner

We also occasionally rotate in breakfast foods for dinner (pancakes, waffles, eggs and hash browns).They’re a quick and easy crowd-pleaser.

Baked potatoes

Baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese are super easy. I especially love making them if I feel like running the oven on a cold winter day. Below they’re shown with roasted chickpeas (yum!). And any extra potatoes are good fried up the next night!

So that’s it. The above items comprise the majority of our (winter) diet. Like I said before, we still keep frozen pizza and mac ‘n’ cheese in the house for Saturday afternoons and extra lazy nights. But with a little foresight and a small chest freezer, meal planning is pretty simple.

What simple meals are on your menu? I’d love to know!

— Melissa, Funky Crunchy Mama