- Hey, guys, and welcome back to my channel.
You absolutely loved my first meal prep video,
so today I am back with another,
and this time it's meal prep for spring.
I try to eat seasonally as much as possible,
and right now there is so much fresh produce
in the markets, including asparagus, and cucumbers,
and arugula, and spring onions, and blueberries.
If you watched my first meal prep video,
then you know that my approach is to prepare
ingredients over full meals for more flexibility
and nutrient variety throughout the week.
It's sort of like having a mini buffet bar in your fridge.
But at the same time, when you do whip up a meal,
you want it to be fast and easy and on your plate
or table in under five minutes.
So in today's video, I'll show you how to meal prep
11 ingredients, and give you a few ideas
of meals and recipes that you can make throughout the week.
But as always, feel free to adapt the quantities
or flavors to best suit your personal preference.
Alright, let's dive in, and I'll show you
what I've meal prepped this week.
You should always start your meal prep by writing down
what you'd like to make to be most efficient
with your time, but for this meal prep,
I've actually made something special for you.
I've created a PDF guide, so you don't have to worry
about taking any notes, and I'll tell you how
to download this at the end of the video.
Cashew milk is my favorite nut milk,
and it was actually one of the very first videos
I created on this channel.
It's super easy to make, but you do need
to soak your cashews overnight.
I've already gone ahead and done that,
so now I'll give them a good rinse and add them
to my Vitamix.
Then, I'll add four cups of water, a tablespoon
of maple syrup for a little natural sweetness,
a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a pinch of sea salt,
and then blend it all together.
The great thing about cashew milk is that you don't
have to strain it, and that means that we can use it
right away to make our second ingredient, which is
chia seed pudding.
Chia pudding is such an easy breakfast and can be
jazzed up with so many different flavors.
To make the chia pudding, all we have to do
is add half a cup of chia seeds to one of our glass locked
storage containers, and add two cups of our freshly made
cashew milk.
Give it a stir and set it aside, but we'll want
to give it one more stir in about 10 to 15 minutes,
once the seeds have started to gel and absorb
the liquid.
Then, we can pour our remaining cashew milk
into a glass jar, like my favorite Weck juice jar,
and stir that in the fridge for cereals or lattes
throughout the week.
For this week's starch or grain, I'm preparing wild rice,
and if you've never had wild rice before,
it's got this delicious nutty flavor and chewy texture
to it, which makes it perfect for salads.
So we'll rinse the rice, and add that to a pot with water
and set our timer.
The rice can take 40 to 50 minutes to cook,
but we'll check on it again after about 40 minutes.
Next, we'll cook up some asparagus and shrimp,
and since both will only take about two to three minutes,
we're going to cook them at the same time.
To prepare the asparagus, give it a good wash
and break off the woody stems.
Then, wash your shrimp as well and set it aside.
Fill a wide saute pan with water for the asparagus,
and fil a pot of water for the shrimp,
and then bring both of those to a boil.
Add the asparagus and shrimp, but do keep a close eye
on them so that you don't accidentally overcook them,
because again, they'll only take about two to three minutes.
So while they're cooking, create a quick ice water bath,
and set that to the side.
Once they're done, use tongs to remove the asparagus,
and a skimmer to remove the shrimp,
and let them fully cool in the ice water.
Then, drain them in a colander, transfer them
to your favorite storage containers,
and place them in the fridge.
(gentle music)
At this time, I'll give my chia pudding
one more quick stir to make sure there's no chia seeds
stuck to the bottom, then place this in the fridge as well.
With so many fresh blueberries in the store right now,
I wanted to take full advantage, so I'm preparing
a quick blueberry puree to add to my chia pudding.
I'll add a pint of fresh blueberries and a tablespoon
of honey or maple syrup to a pot,
and cook them on medium heat for about 10 minutes.
As the blueberries cook, they'll start to break down
and turn into more of a sauce or puree.
I'll also help this by using the back of my spoon
to smush and break up the blueberries as well.
Then, transfer the blueberry puree to a storage container
and place it in the fridge.
At this point, our wild rice should also be done,
so give that a stir and transfer it
to a storage container as well.
(gentle music)
One of the things you guys asked for after the first video
was more sauces and dressings, so today we'll whip up
an almond butter dipping sauce, and it will go perfectly
with one of the meals I have in mind.
Now, you could use peanut butter as well,
but since I had a fresh batch of homemade almond butter
in my fridge, that's what I'm using today.
So we'll add half a cup of almond butter,
five tablespoons of tamari or coconut aminos,
a table spoon of black strap molasses,
which is always a great flavor enhancer,
two teaspoon of toasted sesame oil,
and two teaspoons of white wine vinegar to a bowl.
To that, we'll add the juice of a fresh line
and a few tablespoons of water, just to thin it out.
Then whisk all of that together until it's nice and creamy,
and place it in the fridge.
(upbeat music)
For a simple yet vibrant and spring appropriate
salad dressing, we'll make a quick and easy
lemon vinaigrette.
Add one third cup of olive oil to a bowl,
along with one or two cloves of minced garlic
and the juice from two large lemons.
To that, we'll add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard,
a half a teaspoon of honey, and a pinch of salt and pepper,
then whisk it all together and pour it
into a storage container.
(upbeat music)
One of the example meals I'm going to show you here
in just a minute calls for julienned carrots and cucumbers,
so that's what I'm preparing next.
Just peel and slice two carrots in half,
then cut each half into slices, and stack a few
of the slices to create thin julienne cuts.
We'll do the same thing with the cucumber,
and it's totally up to you if you want to keep or discard
the julienne cuts that contain the seeds.
To store both of these items, we'll add
a damp paper towel to the bottom of the storage container
and add the veggies on top.
Because we're not storing these in water,
as we did in the last meal prep video,
they won't last quite as long, but they'll definitely last
for the first two or three days, which is when
I plan to eat them.
Last on our list is slicing up some red cabbage,
so just slice up as much as you think you'll need,
then cut it in half, break it apart with your fingers,
and place it in a storage container.
You could also use a spiralizer, as I've showed you
in my spiralizer beginner's guide video,
to make really easy work of this as well.
Alright, so now that you have these 11 ingredients prepped,
let me give you a few ideas of what you could make
in just a few minutes by combining them with ingredients
from your fridge or pantry.
For breakfast, make an easy chia pudding
with a few dollops of blueberry puree and almond butter.
It tastes exactly like a PB&J sandwich,
except we've turned ours into breakfast,
and we'll top it with fresh berries and a sprinkle
of chopped pistachios for a little burst of color.
For a morning drink, it's easy to whip up
a matcha latte with our homemade cashew milk.
Just add a teaspoon of matcha to a cup,
along with collagen or any other adaptogens
you might want to add, and a smidge of boiling water.
Then whisk it together until it's frothy.
At this point, I do 50/50 of water and cashew milk,
but you could add all cashew milk as well.
So heat up the cashew milk, and use an electric frother
to froth it up, then pour it into your cup
for a delicious matcha latte.
(upbeat music)
For lunch or an afternoon snack, it's easy to whip up
Vietnamese spring rolls with our prepared ingredients.
Just slice a few shrimp in half and set those aside.
Then, we'll take some rice paper wrappers,
and I've linked this brand below,
and submerge them in a bowl or dish of warm water.
They only need a few seconds to soak,
as they'll continue to soften up
while you're adding ingredients.
So add a layer of baby spinach or lettuce,
some of our julienned carrots and cucumbers,
a few slices of red cabbage, one or two asparagus,
and some mung bean sprouts, and then roll it up.
Now I find that it's easiest to roll away from you,
as you can continue to tuck it and roll at the same time,
and you do want them as tight as possible.
When you're about two third of the way rolled up,
lay down three or four shrimp halves,
and then continue rolling.
For this version, I'm not tucking the ends
of the rice paper wrapper in, as it's kind of fun
to see the veggies poke out the sides,
but if you'd like them more fully contained,
you can do so.
I also like them extra long, as that means
I get a few extra dips in the almond butter dipping sauce,
which is always a good thing.
So let me show you this one more time.
(upbeat music)
Next, we'll make a super easy and delicious
wild rice and arugula salad.
The full recipe for this salad is on my website,
but I'm just eyeballing a single portion here.
So add some baby arugula to a bowl,
along with a few spoonfuls of wild rice.
To that, we'll quickly dice up a cucumber,
and if you're wondering why I prepped
the julienned cucumber but not this,
it's because I knew I'd eat the julienned cucumber
within the first few days, and to be honest,
dicing is much easier and faster to do on the fly.
Then, we'll slice up a spring onion and add that
to the bowl, along with a few fresh mint leaves
that we've chopped up.
Add a small handful of dried cranberries or raisins,
a sprinkle of sliced almonds, a little salt and pepper,
and a drizzle of your homemade lemon vinaigrette.
Toss it all together, and enjoy this light and healthy,
yet filling and hearty salad.
(upbeat music)
For another spring appropriate salad,
we'll make a shrimp, asparagus, and avocado salad,
and this one also comes together easy.
Just slice a few asparagus and add them to a bowl
along with baby spinach and a few shrimp.
Slice up a spring onion, some fresh parsley,
and half an avocado, and add that to the bowl.
Then, season with salt and pepper, drizzle
with your lemon vinaigrette, and gently toss it
altogether for a salad that looks and tastes amazing.
(upbeat music)
It should come as no surprise to you that we'll finish
off today with a macro bowl, because macro bowls
are always my fridge clean out salads
at the end of the week.
Add spinach or arugula to a bowl along with wild rice
and shrimp.
Slice up a few asparagus and half an avocado,
and place those on top of your bed of greens,
then dice up some of your red cabbage,
and you can also add carrots and cucumber
if you have any of those left, and a small handful
of sprouts.
For a little extra crunch, add some white and black
sesame seeds, then drizzle with either your lemon
vinaigrette or your almond butter dipping sauce,
as both are great on this.
And there you have it, an easy shrimp macro bowl.
(upbeat music)
Now, as I promised at the beginning, I've created
a PDF guide of this spring meal prep for you.
It should hopefully make your life a little bit easier
in the kitchen, because not only does it have
all of the cook times listed and storage reminders,
but it also links to the full recipe
on downshiftology.com if one exists.
And because you guys loved my first meal prep video
so much, I went ahead and created one of these PDF guides
for that meal prep video as well.
You can find the link to download both guides
in the description box below, and if you haven't yet
watched my first meal prep video, you can do that
right here, and watch my video on my favorite
meal prep storage containers.
If you liked this video and would like to see a summer
meal prep video, make sure to give this video a thumbs up,
hit that subscribe button, and let me know
in the comments below.
Alright, that's it from me this week.
I will see you guys again in the next video.