Yesterday I shared that I’m going to be taking the next 12 weeks to intentionally invest in my health, and a huge part of that is meal prep and planning. Every Sunday I plan out our weekly meal plan, get groceries and prep as much as I can beforehand! We eat a plant-based, whole foods diet, which basically means vegetables, fruits, sprouted grains, seeds, and nuts. We also avoid processed and refined foods as much as possible. As a result, my meal plan reflects that! I’m also trying to drink at least one raw juice each day! Wish me luck!

Here’s what we’re eating this week. Maybe some of it will inspire you!

Monday
Breakfast (B): Vega Smoothie – I start every weekday with a VegaOne Smoothie. They are packed with nutrients including: 20g of protein, 6 servings of greens, 50% of daily vitamins and minerals, 26% of fibre, omega-3’s, antioxidants and probiotics. My naturopath recommended it when I was first diagnosed and I can see huge impacts on how I feel when I take it (I’m not getting paid to say that). My favourite flavours are french vanilla or the natural flavour, especially if want to add fruit to your smoothie, but don’t want it too sweet, but you can also get flavours like vanilla chai, chocolate, mocha and coconut almond. It has a slightly powdery texture when it’s blended up, but I honestly don’t mind it at all! I usually blend mine with a cup of ice, half a banana, 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk and enough water to fill up my individual blending cups. If you don’t want to spend the money on a nutritional shake like VegaOne, a green smoothie is a great morning option!

Lunch (L): Salad with cooked buckwheat groats – If you follow me on instagram, you know buckwheat is my new found love! I’m obsessed! My salads usually consist of mixed greens, cucumber, celery, and whatever other veggies I feel inspires to throw in. I almost always add berries of some kind and/or apple or orange. I add 1/2 a cup of buckwheat and usually top it off with a mix of nuts and seeds.  My go-to dressing is Maple Tahini! I’ll usually make a couple days worth at a time.

Dinner (D): Coconut Curry “Noodle Bowl” – This recipe was inspired by this recipe, but we’ve made a few changes and use spaghetti squash instead of rice noodles. It’s AMAZING and packed with tons of veggies! 

Juice (J): Juice #3 – named after my favourite green juice from Glory Juice Co. in Vancouver. It’s got apple, lemon, kale, cucumber, celery and ginger. So good!

 

Tuesday
B: Vega Smoothie

L: Salad with cooked Quinoa – basically the same idea as Monday’s salad with buckwheat, but sub in quinoa. 

D: Broccoli Quinoa Burritos – It might sound a little odd at first, but these warm “cheesy” burritos will satisfy! You can find them on page 159 of Oh She Glows Cookbook.

J: Juice #14 – named after Clark’s favourite green juice from Glory Juice Co! It’s a lighter flavour with pear, cucumber, fennel, lettuce, spinach, lime and mint. Also, so good!

 

Wednesday
B: Vega Smoothie

L: Salad with buckwheat groats

D: Flex – Because Clark and I work on Wednesday evenings we usually aren’t home long enough to make dinner, also Clark doesn’t like to eat before he preaches, so on those weeks I would be eating solo anyway. On Wednesdays we usually have leftovers or something easy like a veggie sandwich or salad. 

J: Green #3, because it’s my fav. 

 

Thursday
B: Vega Smoothie

L: Salad with quinoa

D: Chickpeas & Lentil Slowcooker Chili – we love slowcooker meals, especially near the end of the week because by the time we get home from work, we’re often tired and feel less like cooking! This chili is delicious and packed with great nutrients from sweet potato, lentils, chickpeas, bell peppers, tomato, mushrooms, and onions! You won’t miss the meat! We’ve modified this recipe a little bit (add mushrooms and peppers and leave out garlic and raisins) and it makes a huge serving!

J: Beet – We’ve been making this juice for a while: beets, carrots, oranges, apple, ginger. 

 

Friday
B: Vega Smoothie

L: Salad with buckwheat

D: Leftovers – We always have leftovers, so whatever is is left, we’ll eat! This is also the beginning of More 16, a leadership conference we help lead at the college we work out, so we likely be on the go and will eat quickly or pack our dinner to heat up and eat at work!

J: Green #3

 

Weekend
We leave the weekends pretty flexible as we sometimes go out to eat with friends and there is often food left in the fridge that we want to finish up before the next week begins. We often get creative on weekends, experiment, or eat salads and sandwiches!

 

Cost: I know many people think healthy eating is way more expensive, but honestly, if you do the prep and make things yourself, it’s really quite affordable! Clark and I eat at home almost every single meal (with the exception of lunch for Clark) and our grocery bill for the two of us is rarely more than $100/week. This week it was $79.16 for everything but berries and bread, will definitely come in under $100. Now I will say, we do keep a stocked pantry with things like quinoa, buckwheat, nuts and seeds, and other normal pantry items (which we buy in bulk and replenish as we need them), but this cost is most of the groceries we need each week! Let’s say we spend $100/month (which we don’t) on pantry items; that’s still less than $125/week. 

This week’s grocery shop included: Pears (4), Apples (14), Bananas (10), Lemon (6), Lime (4), Broccoli (2), Celery (2), Kale (3), Spinach (2), Carrots (2 lb), Salad Mix, Beets (3), Cabbage, onions (3), avocado (3), sweet potato (2), spaghetti squash (1), cucumber (3), asparagus (1), fennel, mushrooms, zucchini, almond milk, coconut milk, chickpeas

What are you eating this week? I’d love to hear!