"So... where do you get your protein from?"
It's a line I've heard one too many times in the past 4 years as a vegan and my answer is always: "from plants of course!"
I'm not going to go into the specifics of protein on a vegan diet I'll leave that up to the experts (you can read more here from Dr. Michael Gregor) but what I will say is as a vegan female 'lifter' I am THRIVING on a plants and never feel deprived or malnourished as long as I am eating well.
We all get busy, as a psychology/marketing student who works part time, runs a blog/instagram, works-out regularly and tries to keep some sort of social life - I get it. But that doesn't mean your health has to take a hit because you're busy. I've learnt the hard way that when I don't prioritise my health everything else in my life slowly crumbles too. So that's when I discovered my love for meal prepping; such a simple and efficient way to eat well, save time (and money) and not have to ever be in that situation where you're ripping open the cupboard, the fridge and then the fridge again to find nothing nutritious to eat so you end up eating a hundred different snacks and never quite feel satisfied.
I haven't found many high protein vegan meal prep recipes online so I thought I'd share my own creations here. If these are popular I'll put more up in the future as I experiment with different combos. I left it up to you to decide how much spices you use, I tend to have my food quite spicy so you be the judge!
This blog post accompanies my youtube video which you can watch here while following along to the recipes. Please note that the serving sizes are there as a guide so you know how many meals you can make with the ingredients, feel free to change your portions as required.
Breakfast: Protein Porridge
Serves: 3
Ingredients:
- 2.5 cups rolled oats
- 60g vegan protein powder (I use the chocolate Vegan Blend by Myprotein - use my code "SAMARA10" for a discount)
- 1 tbsp maca powder
- 3 large bananas
- 1.5 cups mixed frozen berries
- coconut water or almond mylk as required
Recipe:
1. In a food processor or high speed blender combine all dry ingredients (do not process for long, just until everything is combined).
2. Separate the dry mix into 3-4 containers and store until required.
3. To cook mix dry ingredients with 1 mashed banana, 0.5 cups mixed berries and almond mylk or coconut water. Cook until the porridge is creamy.
--> ON THE GO OPTION: add berries to the dry mix then at work/school add the banana, cover in water and microwave until oats are cooked.
Lunch: Spicy Asian Noodles
Serves: 3
Ingredients:
For the Sauce
- 10 tbsp nutritional yeast (NOOCH!)
- 10 tbsp tamari/soy sauce
- maple syrup (optional: to taste)
- Sriracha (optional: to taste)
- 1-2 cups water
- 450g firm tofu
- 1.5 cups spring onion
- 1 green chilli
- soy sauce
- chilli flakes
- paprika
- tumeric
- 1 large broccolli
- 1 large red capsicum
- 2 cups eggplant cubed
- 1 large carrot
- 150g hokkien noodles (I use Asia Specialty which is vegan)
Recipe:
1. Combine all sauce ingredients in a bowl then cube the tofu to desired size. Marinate the tofu in half the sauce in the fridge (for a few hours if you can). Keep the other half of the sauce for the vegetables.
2. Dice and cut all vegetables and spring onion to desired sizes.
3. In a wok fry the spring onion and green chilli in water/oil and add spices as desired, after 2 mins start adding the vegetables and frying them. Add some water to help the vegetables cook and keep an eye on the flame so nothing burns.
4. Once the vegetables have cooked for 5 mins add the marinated tofu and the other half of the sauce. Combine until everything is cooked for another 5 mins (optional - you can fry the tofu in a separate pan and then add it).
5. Add the hokkien noodles, mix through and serve hot or cold.
Dinner: Vegan Bolognese
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- 1 bottle of tomato based pasta sauce
- 1 small brown onion
- 400g funky fields mince (or any other vegan mince)
- 1 can of lentils
- 1 large tomato
- paprika
- chilli flakes
- 2 tbsp bbq sauce
- 2 tbsp Sriracha (optional)
- 60g bio cheese (optional)
Serve with
- rice
- spinach
Recipe:
1. Dice the onion and tomato. Then in a pot fry the onion with spices (I highly recommend smoked paprika for a more authentic bolognese taste)
2. Add funky fields mince and cook for 10 mins, mixing the spices in well. Add the bbq sauce and lentils and mix.
3. Add the fresh tomato and the entire bottle of pasta sauce. Mix well then add 1-2 cups of water and cook for another 5 mins (mixing well).
4. Store in airtight containers up to 4 days. Serve with brown rice and spinach.