My Meal Prep for the Week of 10/31

Hello! It is what I have promised you for a long time. This is my meal prep for the week! Before I dive in (and unlike my other blog posts, we’re diving right in), I want to give you some quick background on this week’s meal prep:

• This meal prep consisted of only things in my fridge that I already had on hand and needed to use. I hope to do grocery haul + meal prep content in the future to help you plan your week!
• Since I cook a lot for this blog and my social accounts, I did not choose to prepare full “meals.” Everything in this meal prep is designed to mix-and-match and be very versatile. Think of this meal prep as just the items that I don’t want to have to cook every time I want to add them to a salad or a bowl, etc.
• In the same vein of versatility, everything I prepared is super basic in flavor. This is because I don’t want to have a batch of honey soy roasted salmon if I’ll need to pair it with pesto pasta later in the week. Strong flavors add to the work during meal prep and limit your options, so that’s why this round is so simple! I definitely plan on mixing it up in the future though!
• And lastly, I prepare mostly proteins. I find that these are the easiest to prepare to add to meals, and I get most of my versatility through salads, bowls and vegetables throughout the week. So this one is heavy on the protein, but let me know if you prefer otherwise for future weeks!

***NOTE: I am pescatarian so this is a pescatarian meal plan. Comment below if you would like vegan or vegetarian meal plans in the future, I’d be happy to mix it up!

Grocery List + Ingredients You Need

I LOVE A GROCERY LIST. But unfortunately this week’s prep was a baby-prep, so the list is small. Here’s everything I used this week, plus some swap suggestions.

VEGETABLES & FRUIT

• 1 bag kale
• 1 lb carrots – swaps for this include brussel sprouts, cabbage, parsnips
• 2 large bananas

PROTEINS

• 1 1/2 lb salmon
• 1 pack extra firm tofu
• 6 large eggs

PANTRY & EXTRAS

• Salt & Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Oats
• Vegan protein powder or PBFit
• Chia Seeds
• Cacao powder
• Almond Milk
• All the ingredients for this salad dressing

My Meal Prep Timeline

I have designed this meal prep to fit into about 1 hour of your time, since it is a mini-prep! Here is how I like to space mine out, assuming I’m starting at 5pm:

• 5pm – Preheat the oven to 425F. Drain your tofu, put two paper towels on top of it and top with a plate and a few heavy books to press out the moisture.
• 5:10pm – Bring a pan to medium high heat and pan fry the tofu. After about 7 minutes, set them on paper towels to drain.
• 5:20pm – The oven should be ready, begin roasting the salmon.
• 5:25pm – Remove the skillet from your stove top and put a pot of water on to boil.
• 5:30pm – Boil the jammy eggs
• 5:35 – Remove the salmon from the oven
• 5:36 – Remove the jammy eggs from the water, place in cold water.
• 5:40 – Begin chopping vegetables and making salad dressing
• 5:50 – Prepare the overnight oats
• 5:55 – Transfer all ingredients to their individual containers!

It is a *tight* timeline but definitely doable if you are prepped and ready! Just put on a good podcast and time will fly by.

I’ve included the specifics on how to make each item in the post below. As well as the containers I use.

How to make the carrots & kale

To make the carrots and kale, I loosely followed this recipe.

I made the salad dressing in that recipe, roughly chopped my kale and shredded my carrots, and dressed them liberally with the dressing before storing them.

Why do I dress my salads early in the week?

Well, for certain vegetables, such as kale, cabbage, carrots, brussel sprouts etc. They begin to taste better when their fibrous strains are broken down. A fatty dressing like this one helps simultaneously break down the harsh fibers, while integrating the flavor.

So when you eat them within four days, dressings like this just get better with age!

How to pan fry the tofu

• About 10-15 minutes before cooking, press out the moisture in your tofu by placing the block on a plate, covering it with two paper towels, another plate and then a few heavy items. Let it sit.
• Bring a large nonstick or cast iron skillet to medium high heat. Add in a generous glug of your preferred neutral oil. I like avocado oil or olive oil for this (and if you use a high quality olive oil, no, it doesn’t become toxic 😉
• Cut your tofu into slices or cubes
• Let the oil heat up to around 350 degrees. If you can’t measure this, do a tester with one piece of tofu. Add it to the pan, and if it gives a slight hiss of a sizzle when it hits, the pan is ready.
• Add half of your tofu slices to the pan, enough to be efficient, but not too many, or else you’ll crowd the pan and drop the frying temperature.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, then flip. You will know the tofu is ready when it slightly “seizes” up and and becomes tighter. If it’s difficult and too soft to flip, it’s not ready.
• When the tofu is done, place the pieces on a paper towel and lightly press out to drain the oil.

Roasting the salmon

I like a quick roast to keep the salmon buttery on the inside, but give it a nice crust and flavor.

I preheat my oven to 425F and place my salmon skin-side-down on a foil-lined baking sheet. I coat mine generously in salt and pepper, but you can also add whatever spices you prefer.

Roast for 13-14 minutes for the perfect medium salmon. Roast a bit longer if you prefer it more well done.

Making jammy eggs

This is by FAR my biggest question on Instagram, and probably my easiest recipe! Here’s how I make my jammy eggs:

• Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.
• Add six to eight eggs gently into the water. Let them boil for 6 minutes. Make sure the water never falls below a soft boil.
• While the eggs are boiling, prepare a large bowl of ice water and place it next to the stove.
• When six minutes are up, immediately transfer the eggs to the ice water using a slotted spoon.
• Let them rest in the ice water for a few minutes before transferring to the fridge to store.
• Store them in their shells, and peel as you need them!

Overnight oats

When I have ripe bananas, that usually means overnight oats.

Here are the two recipes I used in my video, plus a few more for you to choose from! And the best part of overnight oats is that if you don’t have a few ingredients, it’s nbd. You can mix and match as you like!

The Oats I made This Week:

Other ONO Recipes

What I use to store my meal prepped items

I use these two items:

Rubbermaid Storage Containers

EcoEvo Glass Food Jar

*Please note I get a small commission when you shop through these links

Suggested items you can add to this meal prep

So, I know I know, a lot of you do not make food for a living and need a bit *more* to add to your prep. Here are some additional suggestions you can add to make life a bit easier, and meals a bit quicker to assemble.

• A large pot of white rice – you can just put it in the rice cooker and forget it. So simple, so versatile.
• Farro – the best grain for winter. I recommend also making this dressing to pair with it if you are feeling ambitious!
• Roasted potatoes – you are sensing the theme here. I highly recommend you get some carbs in your meal prep system.
• Roasted harvest vegetables – get a batch of seasonal vegetables, toss them in olive oil, thyme and rosemary and roast at 425F until they are golden! Perfect to have on hand.
• And as always – I always suggest having some bread on hand. Toast is the best serving vehicle. Bonus points if you have avocado or ricotta 😉

Examples of how I used my meal prep this week

Now it’s only been a few days, but here are some ways I’ve already used my meal prep:

• Tossed my jammy eggs on Monday’s avocado toast (IG followers already know!)
• Dinner was the carrot salad + salmon and white rice.
• Had the kale salad as a side for a grilled cheese sandwich I was making.
• Used the overnight oats as dessert. I have no shame.

And that’s the beauty of my meal prep. It’s designed to fit our needs in the moment, not our preconceived ideas of what we will need throughout the week.

It’s all about being easy, simple and flexible. And I really hope you enjoyed these ideas. If you want to see more, please let me know in the comments! I’d love to get more organized and make more of these for you all!