The Lazy Vegan

Week Six: Roasted Veg and Pesto Wrap

In contrast to previous posts, this week’s requires a contents menu…

The Recipe
The Method
Storage
The Verdict
Final Notes

First up, an apology for my absence. Long story short, I ran out of antidepressants, couldn’t replace them, had a few weeks of brain fog limbo. But I’m back on my medication and back on my bullshit.

This is my own recipe this time, inspired by Tesco’s ‘Plant Chef’ Roasted Vegetable & Pesto Wrap. Because I love this wrap so much, but can’t afford to have it every day, I figured I should try and make something similar. So, while this recipe definitely will not be as good as the original, it’s still going to be vegan, relatively healthy, and cheaper to boot. Probably.

All in all my shopping came to about £16, and that’s including some toiletries and vegan Ben and Jerry’s (look, I can’t be healthy ALL the time). So, without further ado, here’s my recipe and method…

The Recipe

Allow 1 hour of cooking time for dilly-dallying. This should (hopefully) be 5 servings!

You will need:

A pack of tortilla wraps (at least 5 for 5 portions)
2 bell peppers – 1 red, 1 yellow
Baby plum tomatoes (1 pack of at least 20ish)
Shallots (do you still have some from the Broccoli Bowl? Perfect. Otherwise I only used like 3 in the end so get a small pack if poss)
Vegan mayo (Tesco list a ‘fava-bean alternative mayo’ but that shit wasn’t in little Tescos and I couldn’t be arsed to make it myself so I just got their ‘Mayo-Maize’ mayo alternative
Vegan pesto (small pot will do, I’m only using a tsp per wrap)
Spinach (can be baby or adult)
Parsley
Garlic Powder
Oregano
Olive Oil (or your oil of choice for roasting with)

Pretend I didn’t forget the spinach and the garlic here.

The Method

First up, you gotta roast the veg. Sure, you can go to the effort of roasting them properly, or you can half the bell peppers and about 23-25 plum tomatoes, sprinkle some oil over them – making sure they’re well-covered – and pop them under the grill at full temp for about 20 minutes, or until things start to smell a bit smoky.

While they’re ‘roasting’, you can either eat breakfast or, if you’re not preparing this an hour before you have to leave for work, you could chop 2 or 3 shallots as small as you want, ready to pop in the wrap.

Once the roast veg is looking soft and juicy, remove from grill, turn grill off (this is important), and allow to cool for a bit. While they’re cooling, get your tinfoil, pop a tortilla wrap on top, then spread about a tablespoon of “mayonnaise” in a line in the centre of the wrap. Next to it, spread a line of 1 teaspoon-full of pesto.

Wash your spinach and add about a handful of it on top of the condiments (a step I forgot the first attempt), then sprinkle some chopped shallots over that. Your peppers and tomatoes should be cool enough to touch by now, so chop the bell peppers into bitesize chunks and add as much as your heart desires to the wrap. There’s no need to chop the tomatoes further, so just pop a few of those in the wrap too.

Finally, your herbs. Sprinkle some parsley and oregano, and a pinch of garlic powder, over your wrap. Fold it (diagram below if you need help), wrap the wrap in tinfoil wrap, and you’re good to go.

Storage

According to a quick Google search, you can store your roasted bell peppers in an airtight container in the fridge for about 5 days – these will be fresher if stored in olive oil. Perfect. Sort that out, put the rest of the tomatoes in there for good measure, any leftover chopped shallots, and put the whole lot in the fridge ready for tomorrow’s wrap. Lovely.

As for the spinach, you can freeze this after washing it – you shouldn’t need to blanche it first (so there’s no need to look up what the fuck blanching is) – just get several sealable freezer bags, make sure your spinach is relatively dry by patting it with a paper towel/kitchen roll, and put a handful of spinach in each bag – a portion per bag.

If you’re worried about your tortilla wraps, the ones I have are suitable for freezing, they just need to have 2 hours’ defrost time. So you can probably whack those in the freezer too.

Then all you need to do is take out the next day’s portions from the freezer the night before, and allow them to defrost overnight. Probably in the fridge.

The Verdict

Day One (Tuesday)

Yeah, okay, I missed a day. I also missed the spinach and the garlic powder when making the wrap this morning, and I could have packed it a bit more full. As for the taste, it doesn’t really compare to the professionally-made plant chef Tesco version, but it was still very tasty – though probably not as filling as it should be. I may have to make two wraps tomorrow and save half of one for Wednesday. We’ll have to see how far the ingredients I bought go – or maybe actually adding the spinach this time will make all the difference…

Day Two (Wednesday)

I remembered the spinach and the garlic this time, and the wrap was much better – still not completely filling, and having an extra half didn’t really leave me satisfied for the rest of the day. The ingredients I stored have retained most of their freshness and I have no concerns about leaving them in the fridge for at least another couple of days. I also froze my tortillas and spinach in the morning, ready to defrost one portion overnight in the evening. Hopefully everything will go just as well tomorrow!

Day Three (Thursday)

Both the spinach and the wrap defrosted well for this morning, and the wrap wasn’t soggy at all, which was promising! I’m not concerned about the amount of filling I have left, although a full five-day-week would likely require a few more tomatoes. Other than that, another tasty (but ultimately not filling wrap). I have had to forgo the fasting for the week in order to not go into starvation mode.

Day Four (Friday)

All pretty much the same as before – spinach and wrap defrosted nicely, ingredients are still quite fresh, and I have plenty of pepper and spinach left – plus a little left over for some wraps tomorrow!

The Final Verdict

A final summary of my experience with this meal prep would be:

Pros:

Easy to make, no cooking involved
Quite cheap and healthy ingredients
Easy to keep ingredients fresh and they don’t take up a lot of room in the freezer
Vegan (as always)

Cons:

Not very filling – unsuitable for those following an intermittent fasting schedule
Watch out for pesto leaks!

Got any suggestions for future meal prep recipes? Please do let me know in a comment!

I like recipes that a) require very minimal/simple cooking, b) use a small budget, and of course c) are vegan!

Week Three, Four, Five: Huel

A bout of illness for the first week meant that I was unable to take my anti-depressants for a few days. This affected my weekend, meant I was too ill to really think about prepping a week’s worth of food, and too drowsy to shop after I restarted my med schedule (or medule, if one is so inclined).

For the second and third week, I found myself out of antidepressants, had lost my repeat prescription and, even if I had found it, didn’t have the money for the medication.

Luckily, for situations like this, there’s Huel #notspon

Huel is a nutritionally-complete, vegan meal replacement that produces 0 food waste (unlike my last attempt at meal prepping, oopsie). I’ve been having deliveries of Huel for many months now, and have acquired quite a backlog of powder from going through phases of eating it and…not. Not for any fault of Huel, it’s the fact I have very little self-control when it comes to food and enjoy having solid food to munch. That said, whenever I do drink Huel, I find it a lot easier to stay away from unhealthy food, and find that I’m much less hungry in the evening.

So, as my mental health has made it difficult to prep meals these past weeks, I’ve been having my morning muesli, a portion of Huel for lunch, and nothing after 2pm until breakfast the next day, from Monday – Friday.

Day One: Monday

Or, at least, that was the plan at 11pm Sunday evening. Unfortunately, my Huel bottle still had some leftover banana mix in it from uh…. a few months back? and although I left it to soak for most of the morning while I prepared to go to work, I found I couldn’t face using it today and instead opted to leave it in soak all day.

The only slight issue I find with Huel is that on occasions like today, where my depression has meant that I neglect basic chores such as removing the dining… stuff from my room… for months; when one opens the lid of the Huel canteen to pop it in the washing up bowl, the smell is atrocious. Yes, this is to be expected after months of festering in my room, but I also find that the smell is quite pungent even after coming home from a full 8-hour day. The fumes are reminiscent of the smell of vomit, in the current case the smell of vomit after one has eaten far, far too many foam bananas. So, if you are planning to Huel it up, make sure you rinse that shit immediately after you’ve chugged that beautiful liquid down into your belly… and don’t think about what your insides must smell like after doing so…

(also, you can email me at georgia.e.goddard@gmail.com before the 31st of Jan for a little refer-a-friend link to possibly get some money off your order 😉 this is our little secret, don't tell anyone...)

Got any suggestions for future meal prep recipes? Please do let me know in a comment!

I like recipes that a) require very minimal/simple cooking, b) use a small budget, and of course c) are vegan!

Week Two: Sweet & Spicy Broccoli Bowl

As always, here is the recipe for those who don’t like the filler in recipes: Recipe on Mealime. One of the more beautiful people in my life recommended this to me, perhaps with more faith in my culinary abilities than I deserve. She also recommended a spicy saucy side but that seemed Too Much so I decided against it. This optional side is the Spicy Quick Pickled Radishes, within which you can replace the honey with maple syrup if that is your desire. I mean, honey’s not technically vegan, but like, does producing it help bees? Does it help preserve their waning population? My heart says yes but my brain says [citation needed]. As a further note, said beautiful and super cool person keeps bees and they are well-loved and well-cared-for. Buy local.

PLEASE NOTE this recipe says it will take 30 minutes. This is a bold-faced lie and I will not stand for it. Please learn from my mistakes and don’t assume you can get up an hour early before work on Monday morning and make this in an hour tops. Unless you are some sort of neurotypical kitchen deity.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE this recipe provides measurements for a serving of 4. We need a serving of 5, obviously. Also measurements are in cups because obviously everyone knows what cups are???? Just kidding what the fuck is a cup. The following are the portions I used for a serving of 6 because why would I spend energy working out 5 servings? Madness, honestly.

300g basmati rice
3 crowns of broccoli (crowns as in, you know, the bushels of broccoli that are wrapped in plastic for god knows why come on Tesco sort it out)
500g (more or less) cashew nuts (roasted, unsalted; or whatever you can find in the supermarket)
3 cloves of garlic (the segments are cloves. i can never remember that)
a packet of scallions – i took this as an americanism for shallots? so we bought shallots. and i just used one.
black pepper
3 tbsp chilli garlic sauce (or, in my case, sweet chilli sauce and garlic powder)
pure maple syrup
3 tbsp rice vinegar (we found rice wine vinegar, i assume this is the same thing)
salt
sesame seeds
toasted sesame oil (we just got sesame oil?? probably doesn’t matter)

Some notes on the recipe

As mentioned before, the recipe says it takes 30 minutes. While, yes, the actual cooking takes about half an hour, this doesn’t account for pulling together the pure strength to get out of bed, getting everything together, making a quick breakfast, chopping broccoli while shovelling muesli into your maw, cooking and chopping and what have you, cleaning up, quietly sobbing, and washing up. I got up an hour early to attempt this, taking the “30 minutes! uwu” as gospel but allowing an extra half an hour for my usual dilly-dallying, googling what the fuck a cup is again, and general lack of cooking smarts. 90 minutes later, I was maniacally washing up, weeping internally, and wishing I hadn’t let my brain keep me in bed all evening once again.
My rice burned because I a) didn’t put enough water in maybe and 2) should have used a bigger pot. Always use a bigger pot.
I asked my poor ever-suffering mother to shop for the ingredients for me while I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself. She had a bad time, I had a bad time by proxy, and shopping was, all in all, a bad experience. So, if there’s anyone you particularly dislike or anyone who has irritated you recently, ask them to do the shopping for you.
The sauce doesn’t seem like enough. If you like your food more moist than, say, a camel’s arse, then make extra sauce.

The Verdict

Day One: Monday

So, I hear you ask, was all that kerfuffle worth it? Well, dear reader, I can with honesty and authenticity tell you that yes, it was worth it. Sure, it could do with a bit more sauce on the greens, and I skipped the dusting of sesame seeds so perhaps I’m missing out on that extra cronch, but the sauce is lovely and the cashews add a great texture. The portion didn’t seem all that generous, but I found myself reaching my food capacity towards the end (in a good way, not an oh-god-if-i-finish-this-some-of-it-may-come-straight-back kind of way). Although in appearances it looks like the kind of meal that springs to mind for non-vegans: plain rice, a bunch of veg, some nuts – its taste isn’t bland and I find myself looking forward to tomorrow’s helping.

Day Two: Tuesday

I accidentally left this in the microwave overnight so I had hoped that hadn’t affected anything. I mean, it smelled alright, looked alright, and when I ate it at lunch, tasted alright. So I assume it’s alright. Still love the taste, still think it could do with a bit more sauce. I did also find I was hungrier in the afternoon than I was during Week One’s Mujaddara, so perhaps more cashews should be used, or kept aside as a mid-afternoon snack.

A series of unfortunate events…

…meant that I was ill for the remainder of the week – I believe unrelated to the food I cooked! But perhaps something to be aware of. It certainly didn’t feel like food poisoning, and may be my body struggling to get used to this new diet so soon after stuffing my face at Christmas. But I digress. On to Week Three.

Got any suggestions for future meal prep recipes? Please do let me know in a comment!

I like recipes that a) require very minimal/simple cooking, b) use a small budget, and of course c) are vegan!

Week One: Mujaddara

Link to Recipe & Short Introduction

For those who’d like to get straight to the recipe, you can find it here:
Budget Bytes’ Mujaddara

A couple of swap-out notes: somehow, my local Tesco had run out of lentils (thanks Veganuary), so I used chickpeas instead. Spice-wise, Tesco were also lacking allspice (ta), and when shopping I was convinced I already had ground cloves at home but, upon going to cook this (what prep), I was aghast to discover that I had, in fact, been an idiot. So I swapped out the cloves and allspice for 1.5 teaspoons of cumin and 1.5 teaspoons of ground coriander and it still tasted Quite Good.

The Verdict

Day One (Monday)

I had intended to prep everything on the Sunday afternoon, but it turned out my brain would much rather imprison me in bed. So, Monday was prep day. So, between helping the mechanic with my bike, rushing to Halfords to get an emergency part, helping to feed the animals, and other stressful situations that I won’t go into here, I prepped a big ole rice dish.

Onions: easy, but painful. I only used three (brown) onions (are they the same as yellow onions? I couldn’t be bothered to find out), my eyes only watered a lot, and the onions didn’t burn. The amount of rice seemed… pitiful, and I had wondered if I had stumbled upon a recipe for ants, but once cooked the rice was proportionately adequate or whatever.

I fumbled for a tupperware box whatsit, chucked the finished thing in once it had cooled, and hungrily awaited lunchtime the next day.

Day Two (Tuesday)

In the morning, I grabbed a tub that previously held some Chinese takeaway rice (now washed), eyeballed what was probably a day’s portion? and then chucked them together and rushed to work.

Lunchtime finally came around, and the grub was good. Maybe the rice was a bit crunchy in places? But that kind of made the texture better. Sure, my lunch didn’t look all too gourmet, but it tasted good, fam. I did find I was hungry later on in the afternoon, but that’s probably a combination of a) post-Christmas belly stretch and b) my eyeballing skills being sub-par. Anyway, 10/10 mouth taste.

Day Three (Wednesday)

After allowing myself a little more for today’s portion (trial and error innit), today’s lunch was a lot more filling. I think it’s worth noting here that I do follow an intermittent fasting schedule, and have recently swapped from fasting in the morning to fasting after 2pm. So I think it’s worth taking my hunger levels with a pinch of salt while I readjust my eating schedule! Nevertheless, the Mujaddara tasted even better today, I think my scoop must have included more onion this time.

Day Four (Thursday)

I might have been a little stingy with my portions for the previous days, but I think it would be a stretch to make this batch last 5 days with enough nutrition to keep me going. As it is, today’s portion was even more generous, and the remainder looks like a nice, hefty portion to finish the week on. So far, I don’t feel like I’m lacking nutrition (although it’s probably much too early to make that assessment) and I feel less hungry in the afternoon than I had previously. Things are looking good for this recipe.

Day Five (Friday)

Okay, I’m late in writing this, so I will do my best to remember my final thoughts. First of all, I’m a liar and the batch was plenty enough for 5 days. As it happened, I had a good couple of days’ worth of food left, since I missed Monday’s portion, so Friday’s portion was chonky as heck. Still wasn’t bored of it by that point, and it still seemed good even after a week in the fridge! Gotta love vegan food.

The final verdict

This dish was simple to buy for, simple to cook, and simply delicious. The portion sizes were plenty for a 5-day week of work, and after some adjusting to my new food regime, I found the portions kept me full enough to keep to my intermittent fasting schedule (fasting from 2pm until breakfast).

The cons? None really spring immediately to mind. The cooking time was quite hefty, but it wasn’t the kind of cooking where you’re rushing back and forth between prep and cooking. You can just sort of chill while the onions cook, and everything else is quick and simple. I know this may be peaking early but I would definitely give this recipe a solid 10/10.

Got any suggestions for future meal prep recipes? Please do let me know in a comment!

I like recipes that a) require very minimal/simple cooking, b) use a small budget, and of course c) are vegan!