Here’s 5 full days of vegan food for under $25. I break down the cost at the bottom. Aldi is cheap as fuck so go there. I created 2 menus because I’m insane. I can truly eat the same thing everyday with zero variety and be cool. But with meal prep my heart turns black if I have to eat the same thing 2 days in a row knowing that still have 3 more days (5 total) with no end in sight. Meal prep variety = compliance. Feel me?
ALL OF OUR VEGAN MEAL PREP POSTS HERE
Here’s 4 minute VIDEO of me whipping everything up!
Here’s is an even CHEAPER & EASIER vegan meal prep! Lower calories too!
Menu A for Mon, Wed, Fri
Menu B for Tue & Thur
Menu A:
Vegan Chocolate Oatmeal Hemp Smoothie
Vegan Chili + Sweet Potatoes
Pasta & Sauce with Veggies
Menu B:
Vegan Chocolate Oatmeal Hemp Smoothie
Vegan Lo Mein + Cabbage
Vegan Curry with Rice, Beans and Veggies
So for this meal prep I made 5 batches of the same smoothie because I love it and could easily drink it everyday FOR-EV-VERRRR. I made 3 batches Vegan Chili + Sweet Potatoes, Pasta with Veggies. I made 2 batches of Vegan Lo Mein, Vegan Curry with Rice, Beans and Veggies. Easy. I prepped all of this in 2 hours while filming. I bet you could do this in half the time if you stayed focused.
Need some conformation on the safest way to cook, store and reheat meal prep? Still Tasty is the website for you! Also I got these containers on ebay (cheaper than amazon!).
Do these things in this order (or imagine a better order)
- Have 5 steamer bags of frozen veggies in the freezer
- Prep smoothie bags then freeze them (recipe below)
- Cook 5 serving of grains (I did 225 grams quick cook brown rice with 2 cups of water)
- Cook 15 oz pasta (once cooked & drained coat in oil to keep from drying out, set aside)
- Cook 500 grams (.5 lb) of chopped sweet potatoes (38 minutes in the oven, 10 minutes in the Foreman!)
- Make curry sauce then set aside (recipe below)
- Rinse cans of beans (2 kidney bean + 1 chickpea can)
- Cook cabbage with lo mein sauce (recipe below)
- Divide cooked rice. Put 3/5th cooked rice in a large mixing bowl and leave the rest in the pot.
- Make Chili with 3/5th rice that’s in the large mixing bowl (recipe below).
- Divide pasta into 5 portions
Assemble prep containers
- Take 3 containers. Put sweet potatoes on one side of each container and chili on the other side.
- Take 3 containers. Put one portion of pasta in each container and add sides of pasta sauce to each container (either in a divider or on top of the pasta)
- Take 2 containers. Put 1 portion of pasta in each container. Divide the seasoned cabbage between the two containers. Poured cabbage on top of the pasta.
- Take 2 containers. Divide the remaining rice between the containers. Divide chickpeas between the containers. Divide curry sauce between the 2 containers.
- Done. Fridge or freeze your containers!
Smoothie: 10 bananas, 10 TB cocoa powder, 5 TB hemp seeds, 100 grams/1.25 cups oatmeal, carton sweetened almond milk, 5 freezer bags
519 calories, 12 grams fat, 88 grams carbs, 12 grams protein (per container)
- Put 2 chopped bananas per bag (240 grams)
- Each bag gets 20 grams (1/4 cup) oatmeal, 2 TB cocoa powder, 1 TB hemp seeds
- Freeze each bag
- Blend 1 bag with 1 – 1.5 cups of sweetened almond milk in the morning. ENJOY
Vegan Chili: 3 portions cooked rice, 2 cans rinsed kidney beans, 1 small can of tomato sauce, 1 can diced tomatoes, 2 TB chili powder, sprinkle of garlic powder, onion powder, salt and cumin powder (drizzle with oil, optional)
605 calories, 2 grams fat, 132 carbs, 27 grams protein (per container)
- Mix beans into bowl of rice
- Add diced tomatoes and tomato sauce
- Add spices (here’s a proper vegan chili recipe if you want)
- Mix everything together. Taste to ensure it’s salted enough.
- Done. Fridge or freeze these. Thaw frozen meals the night before. Microwave thawed meals 2-4 minutes. ENJOY
Vegan Curry Sauce Recipe (served with 1 portion of rice, 1/2 can chickpeas & full bag of frozen veggies) (for less calories either buy “lite” watered down coconut cans or buy the tiny cans even though it will make less sauce)
1 can coconut milk, 1 small can tomato sauce, .5 TB turmeric, 1 TB coriander powder, dash of cumin and salt to taste (or you could follow this thai curry recipe which is even easier)
- Add everything to a pot
- Heat everything up and whisk it all together
- Done. Add this sauce to your rice and beans. Fridge or freeze these. Thaw frozen meals the night before. Microwave thawed meals 2-4 minutes. Then steam a bag of frozen veggies to throw on top. ENJOY
900 calories, 43 grams fat, 102 grams carbs, 21 grams protein (per container which includes rice, beans and veggies)
Vegan Lo Mein Cabbage + Sauce
250 grams of cabbage (or 2 serving sizes of choice), ginger (grated fresh or powdered dry), onion & garlic powder, salt, soy sauce, 1 TB sesame seed oil, 1 TB agave, 1 TB corn starch, 1/2 cup water (or buy a bottle some some awesome Asian sauce) * add a touch of sriracha while cooking everything!
- Put 1 TB sesame oil in pan
- Add chopped cabbage and a sprinkle of salt
- Cook cabbage til it starts to soften
- Add 1 TB agave, 1 TB grated ginger or 1 ts powdered ginger, sprinkle of onion & garlic powder, 1 TB corn starch, 1 – 2 TB soy sauce and water in with the cabbage. Turn heat up. Corn starch should quickly thicken into a sauce. Turn heat off. Thin it out with a little water if needed or thicken it more with heat & corn starch if need.
- Add on top of pasta. The more sauce the better! Add another splash of soy sauce.
- Fridge or freeze these. Thaw frozen meals the night before. Microwave thawed meals 2-4 minutes. ENJOY
Here’s an EPIC spicy kung pao sauce recipe & another lo mein sauce recipe in case you need more flavor options
473 calories, 11 grams fat, 82 grams carbs, 12 grams protein (per container)
Pasta & Veggies
This basically is 3 oz of pasta cooked with pasta sauce. With a whole bag of no-prep frozen veggies. Fridge or freeze these. Thaw frozen meals the night before. Microwave thawed meals 2-4 minutes. Then steam a bag of frozen veggies in the microwave to throw on top. ENJOY
540 calories, 8 grams fat (from pasta being lightly coated in oil), 92 carbs, 16 grams protein (per container including pasta, sauce and veggies)
Here’s a video of me making this shit
~TOTAL COST $22.29~
Here’s a breakdown of the ingredients and their prices:
10 bananas ($2.50)
5 servings of rice, 225 gram (83 cents)
2 cans of kidney beans ($1.58)
1 can chickpeas (79 cents)
2 small cans tomato sauce (50 cents)
1 can diced tomatoes (79 cents)
15 oz spaghetti (67 cents)
sweetened almond milk ($1.99)
3 steamer bags frozen broccoli ($3.57)
2 steamer bags frozen medley ($1.98)
1 lb sweet potato, 500 gram (23 cents!)
1 can coconut milk ($1.99)
.5 lb cabbage, 250 grams (25 cents)
ginger (50 cents, guess)
1.25 cups oatmeal, 100 grams (13 cents)
5 TB hemp seeds, 50 grams ($1.04)
10 TB cocoa powder (58 cents)
pasta sauce ($1)
1 TB agave (28 cents)
spices & salt (50 cents?)
oil (30 cents?)
1 TB corn starch (5 cents?)
soy sauce (25 cents?)
Rich Bitch Cooking 
I wish we had Aldi’s and Trader Joe’s in Canada — so cheap, and all of that looks delish!
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Thank you for taking the time to write all that out. Do you like to weigh things because of accuracy? A different reason? I just bought a big Foreman at the thrift store and I’m excited, lol.
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You’re welcome! I only weigh things because I’m counting my calories. If I had a lot of weight to loose then I wouldn’t need to be so accurate but since my calorie deficit is tiny it’s the easiest way to not have to under eat or unknowingly overeat.
Serving sizes on packages show both a portion amount in volume (say a 1/4 cup of rice or a slice of bread) as well as grams (70 grams for a slice of bread). Weighing for grams is a million times more accurate than using their “1 slice of bread” serving size. The label could say 1 slice of bread is 70 grams for 100 calories but then you weigh the slice and it’s 100 grams. Those kinds of discrepancy add up!
Here’s a boring video that compares oatmeal volume vs grams. I totally nerd out to stuff like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpHykP6e_Uk
Unless you’re plateauing with weight loss, have health reasons or aesthetic goals then you don’t need a food scale. Well, there’s one exception to that. If you never want to have to wash a measuring spoon or measuring cup then get a food scale!
Dude, I’m pumped about your potential george foreman grilling experience. My fingers are crossed for you!!! I foresee it being epic!
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You make me laugh. I am also hoping for epic. I adore your videos. My nine year old loves them too. Peace the fuck out. 💜
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❤
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Hi,
Probably a silly question. When it states per container for the calorie intake is that per BATCH made or per individual meal? 900 calories just seems a rather large intake for one meal( Vegan curry).
Thanks 🙂
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It is for one container which is a lot. It’s a rare day for me to eat 900 calories in a single meal but I figured some people couldn’t care less about calories. This would be good for a wicked workout day.
If this curry meal prep were to 100% reflect how I would eat then I would likely divide the curry sauce between more containers AND either cut out the rice or beans (or cut each of those in half).
I gave the curry meal preps to my husband.
Side note: there are two alternative coconut can options. #1 you can buy the reduced fat ones. That will save you a ton of calories and taste great but less thick & creamy. #2 buy one of those tiny cans of coconut milk. You’ll overall make less sauce but the calories won’t be so killer.
I hope that helps. Let me know if I can brain storm any other alternatives for you.
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Watching that video was absolutely mesmerizing. Pinterest sent me here!
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Legit!!
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Where did you get these containers ? They seem so perfect for meal prep ! As a student, I could really use those 🙂
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I bought them on ebay. The ebay ones seemed cheaper than amazon. There are different sizes and different amounts. I bought a 10 pack I think. College, dude good for you! ❤
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I have to say, I become so overwhelmed by meal prepping, I don’t know why; however, your video made me feel like I could do it. I am definitely going to do this, thanks!!
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Dude did you check out the new meal prep recipe/video I posted? It’s even easier! I highly recommend the new one! I try to underwhelm every recipe ever or I’ll just avoid the kitchen. ha ha ha. For real.
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I tried these recipes (all but the cabbage – not a cabbage fan) and they’re pretty darn good:) Keep it up. Love the video walking you through it and the quick meal-prep. It took me about the same time with a very small kitchen and about 2-3 pots/pans.
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That’s awesome! If you haven’t checked out our newest meal prep (rice, veggies & seitan) I would highly recommend it. Plus it’s even easier! https://richbitchcooking.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/cheap-vegan-meal-prep-5-full-days/
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Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for!
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ha ha ha. Thanks so great! ❤
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Me and my husband are doing this and it’s Bomb! I’m drinking the smoothie right now and I’m just blown away!!! The curry, brought me to tears lol I used to love Chicken Tikka Masala and this has saved my life! Lol Thank you for the share!!
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Dude THANK YOU! that totally makes my day! ha ha ha curry is a life saver ❤
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How many calories do you have in an average day then? 900 is a lot for one meal! That’s like 2.5-3 meals worth for me.
This is an amazing resources though! Thanks.
Do you have any for a low cal week?
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Yeah, I kind of went a little crazy with the calories on the curry for the sake of showcasing variety.
You can totally use reduced fat canned coconut milk or even just use one of those tiny cans of coconut milk. That would change the taste and the volume but would still be curry! Yeah, even just a light drizzle of curry sauce instead of veggies swimming in it would be good.
If I’m having a sedentary day my calories are about 1475 a day. And it would be unreasonable for me to lower them a tiny bit.
I know what the perfect meal prep would be in regards to the largest volume for the least amount of calories while still having protein.
Rice, TONS of zucchini, seitan & a drizzle of oil on the zucchini. Then use a fair amount of teriyaki (or any) sauce for the seitan when eating.
It would essentially be this recipe but with only zucchini & bell peppers for the veggies and a lot less oil. https://richbitchcooking.wordpress.com/2017/03/10/cheap-vegan-meal-prep-5-full-days/
Lastly you could totally take anything from our “10 vegan snacks under 250 calories” and make it the centerpiece for a meal prep. Maybe add a massive salad or smoothie to it. https://richbitchcooking.wordpress.com/2017/04/17/10-vegan-snacks-under-250-calories/
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Hello! I made everything for this week’s meal prep. So far so good I’ve tried the smoothie and it’s amazing and so the chili. I’m not sure what happened with my curry though. 5 tablespoons of turmeric seemed a lot but I did it anyway, and it’s a super thick almost grainy texture. I couldn’t eat much because the turmeric taste was so intense. What do you think could have gone wrong?
Also not to sound like a smart ass but 1400 calories a day seems dangerously low even for weight loss. I have been calorie counting for 3 years and also get my clients to do it as well and wouldn’t ever recommend any of my clients to eat less than 1800. Just a side note.
Anywho thanks heaps for the way this post is presented. It made prep so so easy.
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The recipe says .5 TB (1/2 TB) not 5 TBs.
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