Sunday Meal Prep | Week of Jan 28
Sunday Meal Prep | Week of Jan 28
What I'm cooking + few other tidbits that you didn't ask for but might enjoy.
Welcome to my new weekly meal prep series, where I’ll be sharing my plan for the week in hopes of inspiring you with ideas for what to make and how to organize your weekly cooking and shopping. Every week you’ll get five dinner ideas and three(ish) lunches, along with a grocery list, prep tips, and maybe a few “meal prep-adjacent” things I’m into.
The dishes chosen are a mix of my own recipes and recipes from others, but the common thread is that they are nutritious, tasty and easy. From a nutrition perspective, these dishes are chosen to provide a wide variety of ingredients (without being overwhelming), so you can maximize your micronutrient intake (that’s the vitamins, minerals, etc.), while also offering a healthy balance of macronutrients (protein, fat and carbohydrates) for optimal blood sugar. My goal is always to educate, while making nutrition easier and more delicious.
My hope for this weekly is series is not only to help you put a healthy dinner on the table, but also encourage you to become a more confident and organized cook, and give ideas and inspiration for when you feel stuck in a cooking rut (we’ve all been there!). I don’t always cook off recipes (actually I rarely do), so there might be some thrown together dishes, but I promise to make it clear and you can always ask questions in the comment section—I want this to have a community feel and I’ll do my best to answer all your Qs!
Of course we all have our own unique preferences and nutrition needs, and some of us may have to accommodate those of other people in our household, so feel free to make this your own. If you need to, go ahead and omit or swap certain ingredients, change up the days you eat the meals or add in your favorite meals or takeout nights as needed. Basically, do what works best for you.
I plan on sending this every Sunday going forward, so if you choose to follow along and don’t have a copy of my cookbook, Foodwise, now is a good time to get one! I will be referencing recipes in there often.
Happy cooking!
xx Mia
* MENU: WEEK OF JANUARY 28 *
This week’s meals are fun, satisfying, colorful, and most importantly, nutritious and easy. From chicken tacos with pickled red onions to a protein-packed veggie stir fry, you’ll end the week feeling energized and well-fed. I’m sorry I don’t have gorgeous, instagram-worthy photos of each dish, but I am literally cooking this all with you, so I’ll include photos when I have them.
If you’re going grocery shopping today, here’s your list. I am going to try and figure out how improve the format of this, but I think you can copy and paste into your phone notes, then add any other items you might need. If your are a tech whizz and have a better idea, I’d love to hear it.
I’m also working on my pantry essentials list, because I know I’ll get a hundred questions about the type of olive oil or peanut butter I buy, but that’s coming next week. Promise! Ok, enough of that. Before we get into it: a few things that might be helpful in the prep process.
What I’m listening to:
How to Discover Your Own Taste, The Ezra Klein Show
If you need a good podcast to listen to while you meal prep, don’t miss this episode of The Ezra Klein Show about developing your own taste in a social media era. Personally, I really enjoyed this!
Cooking tool I wish I had:
Our Place Dream Cooker
I currently have a VitaClay slow cooker (on older version of this one, which to be fair, I like!), but this feels like such an upgrade. I love to use a slow cooker to make rice, soups, stews, and slowly cooked meats like the Sesame Ginger Pulled Pork, which is on the menu this week.
What to store your meal prep and leftovers in:
Glass Tupperware
I cannot over stress the importance of getting plastic out of our homes, and when it comes to food storage, glass and stainless steel are best. Of the two, I prefer glass because you can see what’s inside. These from Amazon do the trick, but I also love these Mepal ones (a little more $$ tho).
Alright, enough blabbering, let’s get cooking!
SUNDAY
Salmon with roasted vegetables, brown rice & pesto
Time: 1-2 hours (depending on how much extra prep you do)
Some weeks I have more time and desire to cook that others, but I like to have family dinner on Sundays and use that cooking time to prep some extra items for the week. I will generally make some variation on this protein-veg-grain-sauce formula every week, making sure that I make enough to have leftovers prepped for the week.
Okay, now let’s make dinner.
Start with the vegetables. I think of roasted vegetables like a choose your own adventure (here’s my recipe). Really anything works, from celery to mushrooms, red onion and Brussels sprouts. It’s a great way to get in some variety and when you make extra, you’ll have a medley of veg ready to go in the fridge for all your salads and bowls during the week. I love them cold with greens, leftover protein, a hard boiled egg, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Boom. Lunch in 2 minutes.
Make the sauce. Here is my favorite pesto recipe. I’ve been making this recipe for a solid decade. You can add some parmesan or pecorino cheese if you want, but it tastes just as good without. And if you want to switch up the nut, this tastes great with toasted walnuts (a great source of omega 3s too!).
Get the grains going. Brown rice can take a while, so make sure you get that started. Nothing worse than your rice lagging behind the rest of your meal.
Now, how to cook the salmon. My favorite way to cook salmon right now is in a cast iron pan (I have this one, but also really like this one and don’t know why I don’t have it). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and heat a cast iron pan over medium-high. Cover with a light coating of olive oil then add the salmon (skin side down if there’s skin) and allow to cook for about 5 minutes. If you do have skin on there, it will get crispy and delicious. Next, transfer to the oven for another 20ish minutes. I use a cake tester (like this one) to test for doneness. It should slide into the thickest part of the fish without resistance, and when you take it out it should be warm throughout. You can test on the soft area between your thumb and pointer finger or above your lip.
Extra credit. If you’re in the mood to cook a little more, here are some additional things might want to prep for the week.
Hard boiled eggs. Great for a snack or to add to salad/grain bowl for lunch.
Frittata (p. 100 in Foodwise). I love a frittata for breakfast or lunch with a side of greens and a piece of toast (or just cold straight from the fridge—let’s be real).
Pickled red onions. These will make an appearance at dinner tomorrow and are nice to have in the fridge to zhuzh up lunch.
Banana bread 2.0. Try my recipe from Foodwise on p. 201. Recently, I’ve been doubling the recipe (except for the baking soda) and skipping the dates (this means you can just mash the banana with a fork instead of using the food processor). I often will have this as an afternoon snack with some nut butter. My son loves it for breakfast too. There is NO sugar in here asides from the natural sweetness of the banana.
MONDAY
Lunch
Kimchi Salmon Bowl
Time: 2-5 minutes
Toss some mixed greens, sliced cucumber, and leftover brown rice with a little olive oil, a dash of tamari and rice wine vinegar, then top with leftover salmon, sliced avocado, a forkful of kimchi and gomasio seasoning (a nutritious fav!).
Dinner
DIY Chicken Tacos
Time: 30 minutes
At my house, taco night is more like a buffet. I lay all the different toppings out and we each pick what we want. This is a great way for kids to have some autonomy over what they eat and get excited about putting together their plate. Sometimes I will make this with ground meat and Siete taco seasoning, but this week I’m using store-bought rotisserie chicken that can be repurposed for lunch throughout the week.
Taco toppings:
- Shredded rotisserie chicken
- Refried beans: These are often full of crazy ingredients, but Eden Foods and Siete make good ones — if you can’t find them, just get black beans.
- Sautéed bell peppers and onion: Thinly slice and sauté in olive oil. Season with salt and lime.
- Thinly sliced romaine lettuce
- Pico de gallo or salsa: you could make this (here’s a recipe) or just buy it—I do!
- Avocado: Sure you could make guacamole, but you also could just slice up some avocado.
- Pickled red onions: Maybe you made these on Sunday? If not, they take 5 minutes or you can leave out if it’s not your thing.
- Cheese: I’m not really a cheese on my tacos girl, but you do you.
- Tortillas: I love Siete (this chickpea flour ones are the best IMO) and Coyotas tortillas, but you could also get some organic corn tortillas or whatever you like.
TUESDAY
Lunch
Chicken Pesto Salad
Time: 5-10 minutes
Leftover rotisserie chicken, roasted vegetables, mixed greens and pesto come together to make a vibrant and delicious throw-together lunch.
You could also make this into a grain bowl with your leftover brown rice. Heat it all up in a pan with a little olive oil or just enjoy it cold. And if your pesto feels too thick, loosen it up by whisking in some extra olive oil and lemon juice until it reaches your perfect salad dressing consistency.
Dinner
Veggie Noodle Stir Fry
Time: 30 minutes
I cannot get enough of this recipe. It’s quick, delicious, and packed with plant-based protein and veggies. The secret is edamame pasta, which packs 24 grams of protein and only 6 net carbs per serving. Pretty darn good, if you ask me!
WEDNESDAY
Lunch
Frittata with Mixed Greens and Toast or Leftover Veggie Noodle Stir Fry
Time: 2-5 minutes
If you prepped a frittata, you can have this for lunch with a side of simple dressed greens (I’m talking olive oil, lemon and sea salt) and a piece of toast (I love Ezekiel, and Young Kobras or Base Culture for a GF option). The veggie noodle stir fry is just as good cold as it is hot, so this is easy if you’re packing lunch on-the-go or don’t have time to prep anything.
Dinner
West African Peanut Soup (p. 188 in Foodwise)
Time: 30 minutes
If you’re like me and you crave warming soup this time of year, my West-African peanut soup (using your rotisserie chicken and prepped brown rice) from Foodwise will be a hit.
THURSDAY
Lunch
Leftover West African Peanut Soup, Frittata or Chicken Fridge-Dump Salad
Time: 10 minutes
To me, the measure of a good week is if the fridge is starting to look pretty empty by Thursday. This is a good day to have leftovers or create a little fridge dump salad with your rotisserie chicken (it’s good for 5 days, which means today is the end of it), rice, roasted veggies and anything else you might have on hand.
Dinner
Sesame Ginger Pulled Pork
Time: 4-6 hours (in the slow cooker, but after it’s cooked it takes about 30 minutes or less to throw together)
You’re going to want to throw the pork in the slow cooker in the morning (or sometime earlier in the week), but you’ll be glad you did! Once your pork is made you can repurpose this recipe a few different ways and freeze any leftover pork for another week. I offer three different meal ideas with it in the link with the recipe, but the options are pretty limitless.
