QUICK AND EASY MILLET MEALS. WEEKLY MEAL PLAN IDEAS #1.

If you have been following my content for a while, you know that I´m all about healthy lifestyle for graceful aging, that is based on 3 pillars - MOVE, NOURISH and REST.

Nutrition is one of my favorite topics, maybe because my digestion was complicated since I can remember and I had to figure out ways to enjoy a big variety of healthy foods that will keep me healthy and would be easily digestible.

I often get questions like: So you don´t eat meat? Are you vegetarian or vegan? Do you eat fish? So, what do you eat then??

Let me tell you something. I don´t like labels, and I eat mainly plant based. I still use organic eggs in my baking, but that is the only animal product I occasionally eat. I was avoiding gluten since the last 5 years, but I´m gently introducing rye sourdough again, which has some gluten and it feels good in my belly. I don´t do dairy, any processed food (not even organic) and keep the sugar at minimum.

When I explain this to my friends and clients, the following question is always: So what do you eat then?

I get it. It is difficult to imagine food without all the common stuff - cheese, ham, bacon, white bread… 🤷🏼‍♀️ But hey, there is so much variety in my cooking and everyone who tried my food loved it and felt great after.

But here´s the trick. Most of the food we have access to is not healthy and nutritious, so we need to change the way we prepare our food and the way we do grocery shopping. There need to be some strategies put in place, so that it is not time consuming and overwhelming.

It took me years to do it and I´ve decided to share it with you, because I´m on a mission to spread health and help you thrive in these strange times of  virus...💪🏼

That is why I´m bringing these series - WEEKLY MEAL PLAN IDEAS.

Welcome to week #1 my friend!

My weekly meal prep starts on weekends - Saturday night - soaking some stuff to be ready for Sunday cooking.

A good habit I developed is to get all the fresh veg on a local market every Friday or Saturday morning, and I also make sure all my pantry basics are ready. There is nothing worse than realizing that an important ingredient is missing.

I have a universal pantry basics list copied in my phone notes and every time I have a moment to stop in a grocery shop, I just follow the list. It is always easier to remember what´s missing when you cook it yourself.

I try to make my weekly meal prep very strategic. It means I have always some useful multi-purpose basics ready especially for busy days, so I can reduce the time spent in my kitchen significantly without grabbing some processed crap.

Because here is the thing… if you really commit to healthy eating, forget about processed food and eating out most of the days… it won´t work.🙅🏼‍♀️

Let´s dive straight in!

SATURDAY EVENING:

✅ soak 300g chickpeas overnight

SUNDAY MEAL PREP: (this will take about 2 hours and will reduce your cooking time during the following week to 20min or less)

✅ cook chickpeas with 1 tsp of salt - you´ll use 200g for hummus and store the rest for later

✅ make Cilantro Hummus

✅ heat the oven to 200°C, put a few big unpeeled beetroots on a tray with baking paper and roast for about 45min or until soft inside.

✅ in the meantime prepare Berry Brownies ready to bake when the beetroots are done

✅ cook a big batch of millet - 2 cups in 4 cups of water with 1 tsp salt

✅ prepare a Universal Salad Dressing to store in the fridge

✅ prepare Vegan Basil Pesto to store in the fridge

GREAT JOB!!👏🏼

Now that you´re ready for the week, here is what you can do with it:

MEALS:

🍋 Millet Patties 

🍋 Beetroot Salad - cut 2 roasted beetroots into chunks, add a handful of chickpeas, 2 handfuls of spinach, 1 cucumber, handful of pitted black olives, sprinkle with feta cheese (I use vegan option) and top with Universal Salad Dressing.

🍋 Gluten free pasta with Vegan Basil Pesto

🍋 Millet Salad

🍋 Green salad with Vegan Basil Pesto - goes really well with green leaves, cucumber and black olives 👌🏼

SNACKS:

🍋 Cilantro Hummus with veg, organic nachos or some sourdough bread

🍋 Berry Brownies

IDEAS:

I like to sprinkle my Vegan Basil Pesto on tomato salad, quick homemade pizza (try to get some organic and gluten free base), salads, risottos or on top of my avocado toast. Yum!

Ok, I don´t want to overwhelm you in the first week, so this is it for now..

Try them, get inspired, get creative and let me know in the comments how did it go, if you enjoyed it and what would you like to see more of.

Let´s spread health, not virus...