Author: Nicole Osinga, RD, MAN, BASc

f you’re struggling with meal prepping, let me show you how seamless it can be. This meal prep only uses 15 main ingredients (plus a few spices) to make four different recipes – let me show you how I did this.

The key is to use versatile proteins, starches and vegetables and to use recipes that use these overlapping ingredients. This way you’re never bored of your meals, you don’t have a long grocery list and you can get the meal prep done quickly and cheaply!

The first step is prepping the staples. For this meal prep, that means cooking rice in the rice cooker, making pickled onions, chopping the lettuce and tomatoes and making the BBQ tofu. From there, you are simply arranging these ingredients together in different ways for the different dishes.

For the taco bowls, I combined the wild rice, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles onions and tofu. I added guac for dressing.

For the meal prep BBQ tofu & wild rice bowl, you just need wild rice, BBQ shredded tofu, pickled onions and coleslaw. For the meal prep BBQ tofu tacos, you need the wraps, BBQ tofu, pickled onions, tomato and lettuce. Top with guacamole.

For the overnight oats, grab oats, chia seeds, protein powder, cocoa powder, banana and almond butter.  

I may ruffle some feathers by saying this but plant protein is actually superior to animal protein in a few ways.
First, it’s also a fibre source which so many of us are actually deficient in, second, it’s packed with health-promoting plant chemicals including antioxidants and phytonutrients while being lower in saturated fat and third (I could keep going on) – it’s cheaper!

So, whether you are a plant-based eater or simply want to eat some more plants, it’s time to incorporate more of these plant proteins into your daily eating habits.

My top plant proteins are:

• Bean Pasta – 85 g – 17 G protein & 8 g fibre
• Edamame – 1 cup – 19 G protein & 8 g fibre
• Peas – 1 cup – 9 G protein & 7 g fibre
• Tofu – 8 oz – 24 g G protein & 1 g fibre 
• Tempeh – 8 oz – 46 G protein & 8 g fibre
• Lentils – 1 cup – 18 G protein & 1  g fibre
• Black Beans – 1 cup – 14 G protein &  18 g fibre
• Chickpeas – 1 cup – 12 G protein & 11 g fibre
• Hemp hearts – 1/4 cup  – 13 G protein & 2 g fibre
• Chia Seeds – 1/4 cup – 7 G protein & 14 g fibre
• TVP – 1/4 cup – 12 G protein & 3 g fibre
• Soy milk 1 cup – 9 G protein & 1 g fibre
  

One underrated vegetable I’m looking to eat more of is parsnips. They are closely related to carrots but have a distinct, slightly sweeter and earthier flavour. They’re also packed with nutrients! They’re high in fibre, rich in potassium and contain folate and vitamin C.

How do we prepare parsnips? Well they’re super versatile – roast with oil, mash them with potatoes or air fry as fries. In todays post I’m showing you how I’ve incorporated them into 6 different bowls – with different flavour profiles! 

For the parsnips, I’m picking up parsnips from Gwillimdale Farms. I always trust Gwillimdale Farm products as their family-run farms nourish families across Canada with their quality and fresh produce.

Which bowl are you trying first?

I’m willing to bet that you aren’t protein deficient but you probably are lacking FIBRE! It’s estimated that ~90% of people don’t get enough fibre in a day. Not getting enough fibre can increase our changes of colorectal cancer, heart disease, diabetes and more.

So – let’s change that! I put together my top recommended fibre-rich foods in the post and ideas for how to use them. Save this post to reference later!

My top high fibre foods:

• 3 Tbsp Chia Seeds = 10 g Fibre
• 1/2 Cup Black Beans (cooked) = 7.5 g Fibre
• 1/2 Cup Edamame = 5 g Fibre
• 1/2 Cup Oats (cooked) = 4 g Fibre
• 1/2 Cup Quinoa (cooked) = 6 g Fibre
• 1/2 Cup Barley (cooked) = 7 g Fibre
• 1 Medium Sweet Potato = 4 g Fibre
• 1 Cup Cooked Broccoli = 5 g Fibre
• 1 Avocado = 12 g Fibre
• 1 Banana = 3 g FIbre
• 1 Pear = 5.5 g Fibre
• 1 Cup Berries = 8 g Fibre

High Protein & Fibre Spring Overnight Oats

It’s finally spring so I’m celebrating with 6 new spring overnight oat flavours. All of these can be made ahead of time and are fibre and protein packed – really a perfect breakfast! #NielsenMasseyPartner #AD

The star of the show for these spring overnight oat recipes is Nelsen-Masseys Vanilla Bean Paste, which provides rich and robust vanilla flavour with less sugar than typical sweeteners like honey and sugar. It has the consistency of honey and is enriched with real vanilla bean flecks that you can see.It’s now at Costco with a new flip-top lid allowing for more precise measurements and less mess! This vanilla paste elevates recipes with just one teaspoon and it’s not just for baking – drizzle on yogurt, oatmeal, coffee or smoothies.

Which flavour are you trying first?
-Strawberry rhubarb
-Blueberry lemon oats
-Raspberry pistachio oats
-Matcha oats
-Lemon poppyseed oats
-Carrot cake oats

What if I promised you a savings of hundreds of dollars, calories and minutes stress savings if you invest one hour of meal prepping in this dump and bake meal prep?

This is not a tall tail – meal prepping legitimately saves me a lot of money as I’m not eating out often, tons of calories as eating meals out may be double the amount of calories vs an at home meal, a significant time savings as meal are already ready and a stress savings as you know what you’re eating this week!

This meal prep couldn’t be easier – simply dump all of these ingredients in oven save glass meal prep containers and bake in the oven. Which one are you trying first?

Pizza Beans
Buffalo Cauliflower Chickpea Casserole
Stuffed Pepper Casserole