This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure and privacy policy.
With Halloween just around the corner, I feel like I can use all of the healthy, ready-to-grab meals I can get right now. With the weather cooling down, salads are starting to sound less appealing to me, so I thought I’d prep something ahead of time for lunches that would be easy to warm up this week. (Like this Mediterranean Pizza below!)
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here yet, but I’ve been pretty actively avoiding dairy lately. I don’t think it makes me feel my best (as I noted after my elimination diet), and I think I’m more creative in the kitchen when I don’t lean on cheese for flavor. (If you saw my recent recipe for creamy pasta salad on Instagram, or tried my Instant Vegan Latte, I think you’ll agree!)
This dairy-free thing is something I’m experimenting with, but I’m also not crazy-strict about it, either. I’ve probably had cheese twice in the last month when dining out with friends or family, and it’s been totally worth it to me in those cases. The salad I had with my friend Kathryne last week had feta on top, and it was AMAZING! I totally want to recreate that soon, and I’ll probably keep the feta as a topping in that case, because it added a really nice contrast of flavors.
This week’s meal plan is totally dairy-free, but keep in mind that you can always add a sprinkling of cheese if that makes you LOVE what you’re eating. I think it’s far more important to love what you eat, so that it’s easy to stick with healthy homemade meals on a regular basis. Consistency is much more important than striving for whatever your idea is of a “perfect” diet, so choose what makes YOU happy and content with eating your veggies.
Here’s my dinner plan for the week:
- Monday: Mediterranean Pizzas (using the quinoa pizza crust from No Excuses Detox)
- Tuesday: Vegan Sweet Potato Nachos
- Wednesday: Lentil, Kale & Quinoa Stew
- Thursday: Leftover stew (you could add chicken, or stuff it into a baked sweet potato to change this up a bit!)
- Friday: Chicken Tikka Masala from The Fresh & Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook (Lisa from 100 Days of Real Food shared my recipe here.)
- Saturday: Take-Out (I never cook on Saturday night)
- Sunday: Instant Pot Salmon & Broccoli (I use the soy-ginger sauce from my cookbook to top this, but you could top it with anything else you like!)
Join me for Meal Prep LIVE!
This week is going to be a little different because I’m doing an event in Kansas City with Rainy Day Books and Your Wellness Connection to celebrate The Fresh & Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook on Monday, October 22nd, at 7pm. If you’re in the area, click here to reserve your free spot and come hang out with me!
Due to this event, I’m moving my LIVE meal prep demonstration to Sunday night instead. I hope you’ll be able to join me on Facebook or Instagram on October 21st at 8:30pm CST. (9:30pm EST / 6:30pm PST) I’ll be showing you how to make my Overnight Quinoa Pizza Crust from No Excuses Detox, so if you have the book be sure to gather your ingredients and cook it with me! I’ll be making a double-batch so I can have an easy pizza crust in the freezer when I need a fast meal. I’ll also be making some Mediterranean Pizza toppings while we wait for the crust to cook.
Remember, you can catch replays on my live cooking demos on my YouTube channel. Click the red Subscribe button and the little bell icon next to it, and YouTube will send you an email to let you know when I post a new video!
What I eat for Breakfast & Lunch:
I keep my meal plan pretty flexible when it comes to other meals of the day, because I never know what I’ll be in the mood for. We usually stick to smoothies in the morning (Austin is obsessed with my Coffee Smoothie still), but we’ll also do sweet potato toast, steel cut oats, or my gluten-free & vegan toaster waffles, from No Excuses Detox, if we want something warmer.
For lunch, I usually have leftovers from the night before or throw something together quickly using whatever I have in the fridge. Salads and veggie scrambles are both easy, but this week I plan on heating up some of my make-ahead Mediterranean Pizza for a warm and comforting lunch.
—
Reader Feedback: What are YOU planning to eat this week? As always, let me know if you have any recipe requests– especially if something you love needs a dairy-free makeover!
