It’s unfortunate, but it’s true: cooking up a whole foods plant-based diet does take more time and effort than if we were content with processed foods. Of course, we could make do with rice, beans, and greens every night… but let’s just say that my husband wouldn’t have chosen to go 100% plant-based if that’s what I was putting on the table. It’s possible to cook a different dinner from scratch most days of the week, but it can take up to an hour – not good when everyone’s “hangry.” To avoid the temptation of ordering pricey take-away dishes or use processed food out of a box, and cut back on dinner-time stress, there’s one solution: weekend batch cooking. If you think that might be right for you, too, then it’s time to hop on my plant-based meal prep challenge.
What’s a plant-based meal prep challenge?
Twice a year, I run the Planned and Plant-based vegan meal prep challenge. What does that mean? It means that we all make a concerted effort to plan our meals ahead of time, get all the required groceries, and cook up the building blocks on the weekend, so dinner can be ready in a jiffy. We are a few hundreds of people doing it together, so it adds some accountability. That’s precious for those who have fallen off the weekend prep bandwagon (or never managed to hop on) and need a bit of extra motivation.
Here’s what participants get:
- A plant-based meal plan covering five different dinners. The recipes are some of my customers’ favorites from the Vegan Family Meal Plans. Everything is vegan and plant-based, and it’s easy to make substitutions if needed.
- A shopping list (featuring produce available year-round and common pantry ingredients).
- Weekend batch cooking steps you need to take to prepare the big building blocks of the following week’s meals;
- Day-by-day instructions to finish assembling the dinner;
- A medal. Just kidding. You get a week of delicious and nutritious plant-based dinners, without all the stress.
Everything is neatly packaged in a PDF document you can print and post in your kitchen so you can refer to it quickly whenever you need it. You can add your email address here and see for yourself – it’s completely free.
(When you sign up for the challenge, you’ll also get a few messages from me to keep you on track. If you decide a plant-based meal prep challenge is not for you after all, you can simply unsubscribe.)
What happens next?
My personal preference is to do this:
- Review the plan and my calendar Friday night (about 15 minute);
- Shop Saturday (about an hour);
- Meal prep Sunday (about two hours, especially if I stay focused).
Obviously, you should adjust the days to make this work for you. Or do it all on a single day, so it’s over with.
If you sign up for the challenge, you get to join me in the Facebook group as I discuss the plan and prep ahead of time, and cook along with me, too – a great experience for beginners in particular.
Ready to hop on?
Nothing terrible can happen, really. So join the plant-based meal prep challenge and enjoy better dinners next week.
