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: maintain my blog, maintain my patience with my two year old (and try to become a better parent in the process), successfully breastfeed for the rest of the year, and find time to make our own baby food for our son as I did our daughter.

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

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Being on maternity leave has been a big reminder as to how helpful meal prep is. But seriously, 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.

The crazy lazy meals:
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 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, too. Serve with…

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

I’m starting to sound like a college student, aren’t I? 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. 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. (I use the basic seitan recipe by Bob’s Red Mill and you can probably 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, saute and sprinkle with seasoning) or as barbecue sandwiches. Also, if you make your own using the recipe above, the remaining broth is great for vegetarian French onion soup (butter, caramelized onions, broth — it doesn’t get much easier!).

Avocado rolls: You may think rolling sushi is difficult, but you’d be wrong. If you can roll a burrito, you can make avocado rolls. 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).

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!

— Funky Crunchy Mama