5 Awesome Tips for Easy Weeknight Vegan Meals

I don’t know about you, but on weeknights, I’m always rushing around last minute to scramble to get a meal together for my family. For many non-vegans (and even some junk-food vegans) this may look like takeout from the closest Asian place, Chipotle or Burger King or maybe something zapped from the freezer, like chick’n sammies. I do my best to keep it as healthy as I can around here so I try to keep those options as last resorts. I have come to find a handful of useful tips and tricks to help me get this done. So without further ado here are a bunch of tips I find helpful for getting a kinda, sorta, healthy meal on the table last minute.

5 Tips for Last Minute Vegan Meals

Tip 1: Utilize/Repurpose Leftovers

Probably the most obvious and easiest go-to is to utilize any leftovers you have. Just mix and match what you’ve got, throw it in the microwave or in a pan and voila, dinner is served! We might end up with sesame ginger stirfry next to leftover taco bowl but guess what, we ate, victory!

The other thing you can do is turn leftovers into a new meal. Check your pantry, fridge, and freezer. Last nights dinner for us was one pot vegan leftovers enchiladas! I had some rice, black beans, vegan cheese shreds, tortillas and a can of enchilada sauce. I threw it all in a pan on the stove and heated it and mixed it thoroughly, just tear up the tortillas into bite size pieces as you throw them in. This turned out to be super tasty and you are welcome to fancy it up if you have some avocado, cashew sour cream, or cilantro on hand.

Tip 2: Pick Quick Cooking Ingredients

Choose some quick cooking ingredients! I admittedly keep some prepackaged food available that heats up super quick in the event of an ’emergency’ meal night. I like to keep some rice, quinoa, beans and chickpeas in the pantry and some fridge or freezer broccoli available. I also love to grab and stab a potato or sweet potato and toss them in the microwave. The air fryer or a pan on the stove can help you cook up some tofu or tempeh in less than 10 minutes. Just mix and match a grain, protein, and veg to create a meal – maybe brown rice and quinoa with broccoli and bbq tofu in less than 10 minutes. Or maybe a loaded sweet potato with some broccoli and smoky tempeh also within 10 minutes!

Tip 3: One Pot or Sheetpan Meals

One of my favorite tips is to do a one pot or sheetpan meal. I already gave an example above with the leftovers enchiladas and you could also do the brown rice and quinoa with broccoli and bbq tofu in a single pan as well. But the same goes for a sheetpan. Another tip to keep in mind as you do this – the smaller you cut something, the faster it cooks!

Last week I was really in a pinch, I hadn’t grocery shopped, we didn’t have much on hand and I was short on time. I grabbed a few things from the garden (purple and yellow potatoes, dill, tomatoes) and from my fridge and pantry (carrots, chickpeas) and put them all together on a sheetpan to roast. Just add some oil (or skip it if you’re oil free) and salt, pepper and spices (we like smoked paprika or garlic powder), mix them around on the pan and throw them in the oven until everything is cooked through. I mixed some hummus from the fridge with some water and we used that as a ‘dressing/sauce’ for the meal and served it over some rice that was already prepared. It was super tasty, low maintenance, not a lot of dishes, and hands off. Everyone in the family loved it including my 21 month old.

Tip 4: Meal Prep in Advance

One of the best things you can do is to meal prep in advance. I’m not talking a meal plan, I know some of us don’t have time or the understanding to put one together. I simply mean pick a protein, veg, and starch/grain (or 2) and cook them over the weekend so you have them to use when you’re in a pinch. Maybe you cook up some quinoa, cauliflower, sweet potatoes and chickpeas over the weekend. When you’re in a pinch, it might be just what you need! You could throw it all together and make a bowl or you could mix and match it with other leftovers in your fridge.

Tip 5: Subscribe to a Meal Service

We know our family doesn’t always have enough time to plan out a week of meals, grocery shop for the ingredients (or take inventory) and then cook a detailed meal. We decided almost a year ago to subscribe to a meal service that we could use to our benefit for part of the week. We did some research and chose Hungryroot as our service. Their service was reasonably priced and has the ability to select a very specific diet including vegan, which was important to us because of our lifestyle and my daughters allergies. We get 4-5 lunch/dinner options delivered every Tuesday which gives us just enough help with getting meals on the table throughout the week.

Conclusion

There are many things you can do to be prepared for a midweek meal from self preparation and good planning to help from others/services. Maybe try implementing one of these next week! You got this!

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Until next time!