Plant-Based on a Budget Meal Prep

Thank you to Sprouts for sponsoring this article.

Hello, friends!

Today, I’m taking you alongside me in the kitchen to meal prep delicious and affordable meals for the week. I know that it can feel overwhelming to start planning, so let me do the work for you. 🙂

I went shopping at Sprouts, which is my favorite grocery store! If you’ve been there, then you already know that they have fresh produce at affordable prices, lots of bulk staples and spices, and they’re a really plant-based forward company. And if you haven’t been there, get on it — stat! It’s my one-stop-shop, for sure!

For my meal prepping this week, I’ll be making breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus snacks, and I’ll be using recipes from the Plant-Based on a Budget Cookbook. Since my book focuses on bulk staples and fresh produce, it seemed perfect to pair it with my Sprouts grocery shopping trip. There will be 5+ servings of all the dishes we’re making today to stretch over the workweek. Feel free to add more fruits and veggies to your meal or throughout your day, plus remember to take your b-12 (which you can also get at Sprouts)!

Here’s what you’ll need to buy:

Produce:

• 3 bananas
• 1 bag of frozen berries
• 1 container of cherry tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 2 red or yellow onions
• 1 lemon
• 1 green or red bell pepper1 clove of garlic

Bulk items:

• 5 cups of rolled oats
• 4 cups of nuts or seeds
• 2 cups of quinoa
• ½ cup of raisins

Other:

• 1 container of plant-based milk
• 1 carton of vegetable broth
• 1 jar of kalamata or green olives
• 1 small container of peanut butter
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of pinto beans
• 1 can of kidney beans

We’ll be making Overnight Oats for breakfast, Peanut Butter Raisin Balls for our snacks, Quinoa Salad for lunch, and Chili for dinner.

Overnight Oats

In my home, we live off Overnight Oats. They’re so crazy simple to put together! I like to prepare up to five days’ worth at a time. I use my weekend to prep a few for the upcoming week, and it makes those busy weekday mornings that much easier to bear.
Ingredients for 5 servings:

• 4 cups of rolled oats
• 2 ½ cups of frozen berries
• ¾ cup of nuts or seeds
• 5 cups of plant-based milk
• 2 ½ bananas, sliced

Directions:

1. Add ¾ cup of oats to five mason jars (or whichever airtight storage containers you’s like), then top each container with ½ cup of berries, about 2 tablespoons of nuts or seeds, and add one cup of milk.
2. Cover with a lid or aluminum foil, shake (if it has a lid), and refrigerate overnight.
3. Each morning, mix and enjoy chilled. (No cooking or heating is necessary—the oats soften overnight.)
4. Garnish each morning with ½ of a banana (sliced) to sweeten.

This is how mine looks before I add milk:

Peanut Butter Balls

Apart from being capital-D delicious, it’s also a recipe with only three ingredients. That’s my favorite kind! Once you’re done prepping these, toss them into an airtight container or plastic bag and store them in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. They’re great to keep on hand whenever you need a snack. This makes 12.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• ½ cup creamy peanut butter
• ½ cup raisins

Directions:

1. Add all the ingredients to a large bowl. Using your hands, mix together thoroughly.
2. Roll the mixture into small balls with your hands, making each about the size of a tablespoon. Place the balls on a baking sheet. Put the baking sheet into the freezer for 30 minutes.
3. Remove from the freezer and eat immediately, or store in an airtight container or plastic bag in your refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Alternatively, to save time, you can add the dough to a 1-quart baking dish, freeze it, and cut them into squares.

Quinoa Salad

Once you make the quinoa for this recipe, the possibilities for spicing it up are endless. You can add in any kind of olives, chopped spinach or kale, garlic, finely chopped steamed carrots, and more.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups quinoa
• 4 cups of vegetable broth (3 if using a pressure cooker for quinoa)
• 1 cup chopped tomato
• 1 cup diced cucumber
• 1 cup diced red, white, or yellow onion
• 1 cup chopped green or kalamata olives
• ¼ cup lemon juice

Directions:

1. Add the quinoa and vegetable broth to a medium pot with a lid. Over high heat, bring to a boil.
2. Cover with the lid and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and fluff with a fork.
4. Cool the quinoa completely and transfer to a large bowl. Add the tomato, cucumber, onion, olives, and lemon juice. Mix well.

Alternatively, to save time, you can cook the quinoa in a pressure cooker. Use 3 cups of broth instead of 4, cook with high pressure for four minutes, and do a quick release.

This is what mine looks like:

4-Bean Chili

This is really filling and packed with protein! You can change it up every day you serve it by adding different garnishes. One day you can add cilantro, another you can do vegan cheese or sour cream, you can add hot sauce, etc.! Go wild! It also pairs well with this cornbread.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (you can use water, if you prefer)
• 1 cup diced yellow onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 green or red bell pepper, diced
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with their juices
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (15-ounce) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Directions:

1. In a large pot over medium-high heat, heat the oil.
2. Add the onion, garlic, and bell pepper and sauté. until the veggies are tender and the onion is translucent.
3. Add the zucchini, tomatoes, beans, chickpeas, cumin, chili powder, tomato paste, water, and salt. Mix together.
4. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Serve and top with optional toppings.

Alternatively, to save time, you can cook this in a pressure cooker for 5 minutes with high pressure and a quick release.

Here’s what mike looks like:

Hope you found this to be helpful! Remember to check out a Sprouts near you!