I'm New To Plant-Based Eating; Here's What A Week Of Meals Looks Like For Me

Let me start off by saying I am single with no kids, I work remotely, and my schedule is super flexible. Most of the time, I cook or prepare one recipe at a time, and I only make enough for one serving.

It's not the biggest time-saving way to go about life, but I enjoy taking time away from the computer to chop, cook, and sit down to eat. 

Here are a few things I do tend to prep:

• Stir-fry veggies: I like to chop bell peppers and onions and refrigerate or freeze them.

• Beans: I buy dried beans and make a large Crock Pot of black beans, then freeze them in portions. It's easy to have them for when I want to make burritos, bowls, or black bean burgers. 

• Bananas: I mostly use bananas for smoothies. I buy them, and as soon as they start to ripen, I'll eat one or two fresh — then peel, slice, and freeze the rest. (I don't freeze them in the peel. I have reusable food storage bags for them.)

Spinach - Spinach either seems to come in bags that get used at once or giant containers that feed 10 people. I treat spinach like I do bananas, using some fresh and freezing the rest. I prefer buying fresh spinach over frozen because I think it tastes different. 

I made steel-cut oats cooked in oat milk and water so it would be creamy but not too thicc. I added cinnamon and nutmeg, and today I topped it with sliced strawberries and dates. My other favorite oatmeal flavor combo is banana and peanut butter. 

I made a big batch of brown rice in my rice cooker and stored most of it to use throughout the week.

The base of this bowl is beans and rice, topped with homemade salsa (tomatoes, onion, lime, garlic, cilantro, jalepeños, and lime juice), sliced avocado, and green onions. 

I squiggled on some Sriracha and devoured it while watching Schitt's Creek.   

I am very surprised to say that making this vegan breakfast hash has been one of my recent favorites. I make it several times a week. 

Recipe: Simple Southwest Tofu Scramble

I like to cook up this part first because the potatoes can take a while to get fully cooked and crispy the way I like. 

While this is cooking, I crumble the tofu and mix the seasoning for the tofu. 

A tip I learned for making these tofu "eggs" is to mix the dry spices together and then add a little water. Then pour that liquid on the tofu pieces and stir it around while cooking. It coats the tofu better than dry spices so you get that flavor it needs. 

Tofu needs to be pressed before making this, or you'll get the weird tofu-y consistency everyone hates. Apparently, there's a special device for doing this. 

I don't have a tofu press, so I wrap my tofu in a kitchen towel and then set a cast-iron skillet on top. I let it sit for an hour or so. It may not need that long, but I like it to be as dry as possible. 

Then break it into crumbles, coat in the seasoning mixture, and then add to the pan.

Salad with fruit. Kinda random but tasty. 

This was pretty similar to the rice rolls, but this went WAY better. I don't have a sushi mat or whatever else I'm supposed to have. (I be bootleggin' it over here.) 

The first time I made sushi, I put down a kitchen towel and used a giant Ziploc bag as my mat. To my surprise, it worked! So I've been making sushi this way and never bothered getting a mat. 

I filled the sushi with leftover veggies from the spring rolls, then dipped everything in coconut aminos and Sriracha for extra flavor. 

The box came with four packs of açaí and was about $10. I blended it with a couple of frozen bananas and some oat milk. Then, I topped it with fresh berries, dates, and sunflower seeds. 

For this, I diced onions, added the rest of the julienned carrots I still had, then added frozen mixed veggies. 

After that cooked and the veggies got softer, I added the rice and seasoned it.  

Then I topped it with fresh green onions, and as usual, the coconut aminos and Sriracha made an appearance for this meal as well. 

I got a burrito bowl with sofritas. Before this year, I had no idea Chipotle had a vegan protein, and now I get it a few times a month. 

Sofritas is Chipotle's braised tofu. It's got a good texture and a lot of flavor. It has a saucy base, so it will make your bowl a little soggy. 

My bowl had white cilantro rice, black beans, fajita veggies, sofritas, pico de gallo, salsa, and lettuce. And I got a side of chips and guac. 

You can make your own sofritas bowl with this recipe!

Recipe: Sofritas Burrito Bowl

The smoothie had banana, spinach, dates, and oat milk.