Chopped in my kitchen

I don’t really plan out my meals before I prep for them. I know that probably seems silly to some, but I know the foods I enjoy and eat often, so I just prep those foods knowing that I will be able to incorporate them into some awesome meals and snacks during the week. That said, as it gets toward the end of the week, putting together a whole food, plant based, no oil meal for me can look like a round of Chopped. But I do enjoy a good episode of Chopped … on the tube and in my kitchen.

I showed you my fridge after meal prep on Monday. Yesterday (Saturday) there were some things I really needed to use up. I still had some mushrooms leftover from my Vegan Gyro, some roasted onions and peppers, some baked (actually steamed in the micro) whole red potatoes, some steamed broccoli, some plain brown rice, some assorted raw veggies, some hummus, a couple zucchini muffins and some brussel sprout and cranberry salad, which I had actually put together Friday night using the rest of the shaved brussel sprouts. I threw the hummus in the freezer in half cup servings. I had made it to go with the gyro and, at the time, I knew I was making too much for just me. Good thing it freezes well. The raw veggies I knew would be gone soon, as I primarily use them as vehicles to deliver tzatziki to my mouth. Which, by the way, was gone Thursday, so I made another batch. Love that stuff! (If you use the link for the recipe, omit the oil. It's not needed.)

I decided I’d use the potatoes, peppers and onions and mushrooms to make hash for breakfast. I was going to do it on the stove top, but then had the idea to use the oven … less hands-on time needed while I took care of a few chores. I cubed the potatoes and put them in a large bowl with the

Ready for the oven...

mushrooms and peppers and onions. Then, over the top of all, I sprinkled some garlic powder, chili powder, onion powder, paprika and 1 tablespoon of oat flour. I imagine any other flour would work as well, it’s just what I had handy. Then I tossed it all together to coat all the veggies and spread it out on a cookie sheet, on top of parchment paper. Twenty minutes @ 425 degrees, stirring once half way through, then 5 minutes under the broiler to get them a little more brown and another experiment was a success! It may be that they would have browned more on their own if I had let them go longer, but I was getting hungry.

Lunch time took care of the brussel sprout salad and zuchinni muffins, and for dinner, I made fried rice using, of course, the brown rice, the broccoli, some of the raw veggies and some tofu that have been marinating since last night. All in all … I think I did pretty darn good this week. {Patting myself on the back.} Here’s a look at some of the plant based dishes I enjoyed through the week thanks to my plant based prepping:

Vegan Gyro with tzatziki and hummus

Pizza with  FOK spinach/artichoke dip and roasted onions and peppers

Veggie soup, kale and apple salad, sweet potato toast with FOK spinach/artichoke dip.

Air fried broccoflower with thai peanut sauce
I used PB2 instead of peanut butter in this recipe.

Burrito bowl.

Pineapple dessert: zucchini muffin topped with fresh pineapple
and dressed with coconut cream sauce
(soymilk, coconut extract and a little guar gum to thicken)

Veggie soup, kale and apple salad,
sweet potato toast with FOK spinach/artichoke dip

Veggie soup and gyro

Brussel sprout salad and zucchini muffin

Oven hash, sweet potato toast and pineapple

"Fried" brown rice with tofu and veggies

Rice bowl with air fried tofu and veggies, steamed veggies
and brown rice, topped with thai peanut sauce

I'll  hit The 99 Cent Store today to see what they have in the way of produce, then maybe Sprouts or Trader Joe's and tomorrow (I now have Mondays off) … I’ll start the prep work all over again … and again … and again.