Another week, another meal prep.

Last week, I got the news that I will be officially, 100% furloughed, which isn’t great but unfortunately, not that surprising when you work in travel. When countries are literally banning you from visiting, it makes it a little difficult to maintain your job planning international trips. Please wear a mask so we can get this virus under control and I can get back to work and we can all get back to traveling the world.

Even though I’m furloughed, I’m doing my best to keep some semblance of a routine in place. This is my first week so I’m working to lay the foundation for good habits, such as meal prepping. Just because I’m home more, doesn’t mean I want to be spending that time cooking and cleaning, especially when we have a few hot days coming! I’d much rather get it all that done in one day!

This week’s menu includes:

Breakfast: Um, how many times can I make this? The answer- a lot! I’ve been using my new Planet Protein. I also swapped the unsweetened cocoa powder with cacao powder (it was what my co-op had in bulk) and using homemade cashew milk instead of store bought almond. All good swaps and they didn’t impact the flavor negatively.

Lunch: Miso Chickpea Balls, Farro and Asparagus. This recipe comes from Workweek Lunch , though, unfortunately, the recipe is no longer available. I love the work that Talia does over at WWL and if you are struggling with how to begin meal prepping or need some inspiration, I highly recommend joining her program. I checked out a few of the recipes that she released a few weeks back that were the top recipes of the year. Everything I have tried has been great, especially the Snickerdoodle Waffles and these Miso Chickpea Balls. As many beans as I eat, I never thought to prepare them like this and they came out really nice. I really like the miso glaze with the farro and the asparagus. The original recipe called for rice and green beans but I’m not a big rice fan and I couldn’t find green beans without plastic. The farro and asparagus were great substitutes.

Dinner: This recipe came 100% out of the necessity to eat a protein that wasn’t chickpea. I’ve had a big jar of dried pinto beans for months and just haven’t done anything with them. When in doubt, make veggie burgers! These green chile pinto burgers may not photograph well but they have good flavor. The recipe serves them with pretzel buns and cheese sauce. To keep these dairy free, I’ll serve them with salsa on homemade sourdough bread, instead.

Snacks: One of my Plastic Free July Goals was to find an alternative to cartons of almond milk. So I gave homemade nut milks a whirl. I started with cashew since that’s what was in my pantry. It didn’t come out too bad but I was left with quite a bit of pulp which I needed to find a home for to prevent waste. Enter the Cashew Pulp Cookies. These were…strange. I liked that they didn’t have too much sweetener. The texture was similar to a dense, chewy bread rather then a cookie. The cookie also didn’t have much flavor, which isn’t surprising based off the ingredient list. If you make these, I would be sure to use a high quality chocolate and maybe chop it up for better distribution throughout the cookie. Also, maybe a little vanilla? If you have a good recipe for nut pulp, please share!

I also made these Jessica Eats Real Food No-Bake Brownie Bites. I’ve featured these before but they are a great snack options when it’s too hot to turn the stove on. I used homemade almond butter this time, raw cacao powder and almond flour. They came out awesome! I used coconut flour last time because that’s what I had but the almond flour is a MUCH better consistency. Coconut flour makes them a bit too dry. Also, flaked salt is not necessary but it definitely elevates it!

What are you making this week?