Weekly Meal Prep: Seitan, Rice, Broccoli, Mushrooms, and Tahini!

Meal prep is a great way to have all of your food ready for the week, enabling you to make healthy choices, and save money while you’re at it! Not only does it keep you on track with your fitness goals, but it saves a lot of time. Imagine coming home after a long day of work, your meal already planned and ready to assemble in mere minutes. Does it sound too good to be true? Don’t worry, that’s why we’re here to send you Weekly Meal Prep inspo every week to get you in the kitchen!

We’ll give you a set of ingredients to work with every week and include seasonal recommendations, when possible. The primary goal with our weekly meal prep guide below is to help you focus your meals predominately around a new set of ingredients or theme every week. We’ll give you a plethora of creative ways to prep these ingredients to create healthy, quick, easy and tasty recipes, so you’ll never be bored.

This week, we’re focusing on some filling, hearty and nutritious ingredients: seitan, rice, broccoli, mushrooms and tahini!

1. Let’s Get Prepping!

This week’s ingredients not only are great to prep because they go well in so many dishes, but also because they go great together. They are staples that you can keep in your fridge for the week and create practically endless combinations with. But before we get to that, we have the most important step of your weekly meal prep: the actual prep!

Seitan is low in carbs and fat but high in protein, and is a very popular protein source for vegans as an alternative to things like tofu and tempeh, which are not good options for those with soy allergies (or those who simply don’t like soy)! You can buy packaged seitan in grocery stores, but its also simple and easy to make your own, which will also ensure that you know what is in it. You can also customize the seasonings and cooking method to get your own personalized flavor and texture that works best for your dishes! You can learn How to Make Perfect Seitan very easily, and soon it may be part of your weekly meal prep routine! Seitan can then be used in an incredible amount of dishes – since it can take on a lot of flavors depending on how you cook it, use it basically anywhere you want some extra protein or a replacement for meat. A favorite of ours is Seitan Parmesan!

Rice is a great source of fiber, vitamins and minerals, and is a staple in diets all around the world. Additionally, it’s an easy thing to make for the week! Just cook up a big batch (remember dry rice yields a lot more cooked rice) at the beginning of the week by cooking it in boiling water or in a rice cooker! You can choose if you want brown or white rice, jasmine, basmati, wild, or more, and if you want to add any seasonings to it. Then just keep it in the fridge for a quick add to lots of dishes (ideas listed below)!

Broccoli and mushrooms are both chock full of vitamins and minerals that are important to get in your diet. Plus, they’re a tasty way to make sure you’re getting enough veggies! For both of these foods, they’re easy enough to store, as long as you don’t make a common mistake: washing them before storing. This will add excess moisture, which can make them get moldy or slimy. Instead, keep them loosely wrapped and not in an airtight container so that they have some airflow and less condensation, and have nice fresh veggies on hand to toss into your meals! Note that these veggies won’t stay fresh as long as some others, so consider which recipes you’re using them in when meal planning your week!

Tahini is known to be good for your heart and bone health, as well as being a good source of protein. While it’s high in fat, most of the fat found in tahini is mono- and poly-unsaturated fats rather than saturated fats, and still has many health benefits when enjoyed in moderation. Recipe-wise, it is very versatile, and strengthens many flavors in a dish. You can buy tahini at the store, or make Homemade Tahini yourself, a simple process! You can add additional flavors and ingredients to it to customize and better suit specific recipes, like this Golden Turmeric Tahini Dressing. You can use it as a tasty and easy way to bring out the flavors in simple dishes, like in this Easy Vegetable Roast with Tahini Dressing. No matter how you make it, keep a jar on hand for a convenient sauce or dip all week long.

2. Putting it All Together!

Now you have all your ingredients prepped! But how do you combine them into a plethora of different meals to keep you full and satisfied all week long? We can show you!

For a warm and comforting dinner that uses mushrooms, tahini, and rice, try out this Mushroom, Tahini and Miso Risotto. The addition of tahini and miso complement the umami taste of mushrooms and create a plate with different tones of flavors and extremely creamy textures, and it’s less time consuming than a lot of other risotto recipes, so you can whip up a batch and even take leftovers for lunch.

When you’re busy, it’s easy to want to just get takeout for dinner, but that can drain your wallet and be a bit more unhealthy than you may want. However, if you prep your ingredients beforehand, you can have your own homemade version of takeout in no time, like with this 10-Minute Seitan ‘Beef’ and Broccoli or Broccoli and Portobello ‘Beef’, depending on if you want mushrooms or seitan as the star of the dish. Both of these can also be served over your prepped rice, depending on how hungry you are!

You can even make an appetizer or side, like with Rosemary Wild Rice Stuffed Mushrooms, which will be a breeze with pre-cooked rice. Similarly, you can make a ton of different varieties of bowls and rice-based salads by just topping your rice with different ingredients and dressings (like tahini-based ones!), which are also great to put in a container at night for a grab-and-go lunch the next day. Try a Brown Rice Salad with Italian Tahini, this Forbidden Black Rice and Tahini Buddha Bowl, or a Roasted Veggie and BBQ Jackfruit Macro Bowl, in which you can switch out the jackfruit for BBQ seitan!

A great meal prep idea is always bakes and casseroles, as they’re made in big batches and always provide leftovers for the week. If that sounds good to you, check out this Easy Cheesy Broccoli and Brown Rice Bake or Broccoli Mushroom Rotini Casserole.

Hopefully with all of these ideas, you’re all set for your weekly meal prep this week! If you still need ideas or want to try other ingredients, check out our Meal Prep Archives for a variety of ingredients and awesome ways to utilize them for delicious and nutritious meals. For more meal inspiration, check out our Food Monster App. With over 10,000 recipes right in the palm of your hand, you’ll always have something delicious and new to try. It’s available for both Android and iPhone, and can also be found on Instagram and Facebook. Full of allergy-friendly recipes, subscribers gain access to new recipes every day. Check it out!

Lead Image Source: Forbidden Black Rice and Tahini Buddha Bowl