MEAL PREP for SPRING | healthy recipes + PDF guide

- Hello guys, welcome back to my channel. You loved my first

meal

prep

video, so today I'm back with another one, and this time it's about

meal

prep

ping for

spring

. I try to eat as seasonally as possible and there is a lot of fresh produce in the markets right now, including asparagus, cucumbers, arugula, chives and blueberries. If you watched my first meal prep video, you know my approach is to prepare ingredients into complete meals for more flexibility and variety of nutrients throughout the week. It's like having a mini buffet in the refrigerator. But at the same time, when you prepare a meal, you want it to be quick and easy and on your plate or table in less than five minutes.

So in today's video, I'm going to show you how to make meals with 11 ingredients and give you some ideas for meals and

recipes

you can make throughout the week. But as always, feel free to adapt the quantities or flavors to your personal preferences. Alright, let's dive in and I'll show you the meal I made this week. You should always start your meal prep by writing down what you would like to prepare to be more efficient with your time, but for this meal prep, I've actually prepared something special for you. I've created a PDF

guide

, so you don't have to worry about taking notes, and I'll tell you how to download it at the end of the video.

Cashew milk is my favorite nut milk and was actually one of the first videos I created on this channel. It is very easy to make, but you must soak the cashews overnight. I already did that, so now I'm going to rinse them well and add them to my Vitamix. Next, 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 nice thing about cashew milk is that you don't need to strain it, and that means we can use it right away to make our second ingredient, which is chia seed pudding.

Chia pudding is a very easy breakfast and can be enhanced with so many different flavors. To make chia pudding, all we have to do is add half a cup of chia seeds to one of our lockable glass containers and add two cups of our freshly made cashew milk. Stir and set aside, but we want to stir it more in about 10 to 15 minutes, once the seeds have started to gel and absorb the liquid. Then we can pour the rest of the cashew milk into a glass jar, like my favorite Weck juice jar, and stir it in the refrigerator to make cereal or lattes throughout the week.

For this week's starch or grain, I'm making wild rice, and if you've never had wild rice before, it has that delicious nutty flavor and chewy texture, making it perfect for salads. So we'll rinse the rice, add it to a pot of water, and set our timer. The rice may take 40 to 50 minutes to cook, but we will check again after about 40 minutes. Next, we will cook some asparagus and shrimp, and since both will only take between two and three minutes, we will cook them at the same time. To prepare the asparagus, wash it well and remove the woody stems.

Then, also wash the shrimp and set them aside. Fill a wide skillet with water for the asparagus, fill a pot with water for the shrimp, and then bring both to a boil. Add the asparagus and shrimp, but keep a close eye on them so you don't accidentally overcook them, because again, they will only take two to three minutes. So while they are cooking, create a quick ice water bath and set them aside. Once they are ready, use tongs to remove the asparagus and a slotted spoon to remove the shrimp, and let them cool completely in the ice water.

Then, drain them in a colander, transfer them to your favorite storage containers, and place them in the refrigerator. (soft music) At this point, I'm going to quickly stir my chia pudding to make sure there aren't any chia seeds stuck to the bottom and then place it in the refrigerator as well. With so many fresh blueberries in the store right now, I wanted to make the most of them, so I'm making 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 over medium heat for about 10 minutes.

As the cranberries cook, they will begin to break down and turn into a sauce or puree. I'll also help with this by using the back of my spoon to mash and break up the cranberries. Next, transfer the cranberry puree to a storage container and place in the refrigerator. At this point, our wild rice should also be ready, so give it a stir and transfer it to a storage container as well. (soft music) One of the things they asked for after the first video was more sauces and dressings, so today we're making an almond butter sauce that will go perfectly with one of the meals I have in mind.

Now, you can also use peanut butter, but since I had a fresh batch of homemade almond butter in my refrigerator, that's what I'm using today. So we'll add half a cup of almond butter, five tablespoons of tamari or coconut aminos, one tablespoon of blackstrap molasses, which is always a great flavor enhancer, two teaspoons of toasted sesame oil, and two teaspoons of white wine vinegar. to a bowl. To that we will add the juice of a fresh line and a few tablespoons of water, just to dilute it. Then beat all that until it is very creamy and place it in the refrigerator. (upbeat music) For a simple but vibrant salad dressing appropriate for

spring

, we'll make a quick and easy lemon vinaigrette.

Add a third cup of olive oil to a bowl, along with one or two cloves of minced garlic and the juice of two large lemons. To that, we'll add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, half a teaspoon of honey, and a pinch of salt and pepper, then we'll whisk it all together and pour it into a storage container. (upbeat music) One of the example meals I'll show you here in just a minute calls for julienned carrots and cucumbers, so that's what I'll make next. Simply peel and cut two carrots in half, then slice each half and stack some of the slices to create thin julienne cuts.

We will do the same with the cucumber, and you decide if you want to keep or discard the julienne cuts that contain the seeds. To store both items, we will add a damp paper towel to the bottom of the storage container and add the vegetables on top. Because we won't be storing them in water, like we did in the last meal prep video, they won't last as long, but they will definitely last the first two or three days, which is when I plan to eat. them. Last on our list is to chop up some red cabbage, so chop up as much as you think you'll need, then cut it in half, tear it up with your fingers, and place it in a storage container.

You can also use a spiralizer, as I showed you in my spiralizer beginner's

guide

video, to make this really easy too. Alright, now that you have these 11 ingredients prepared, let me give you some ideas of what you could make in just a few minutes by combining them with ingredients from your refrigerator or pantry. For breakfast, make easy chia pudding with a few tablespoons of mashed blueberries and almond butter. It tastes exactly like a PB&J sandwich, except we've turned ours into a breakfast sandwich and topped it with fresh berries and a sprinkle of chopped pistachios for a pop of color.

For a morning drink, it's easy to make a matcha latte with our homemade cashew milk. Simply add a teaspoon of matcha to a cup, along with collagen or any other adaptogens you want to add, and a dash of boiling water. Then beat it until foamy. At this point, I do 50/50 water and cashew milk, but you can also add all the cashew milk. So heat the cashew milk and use an electric frother to froth it, then pour it into your cup for a delicious matcha latte. (upbeat music) For lunch or snack, it's easy to make Vietnamese spring rolls with our prepared ingredients.

Simply cut some shrimp in half and set aside. Next, we will take some rice paper wrappers, which I have linked this brand below, and immerse them in a bowl or plate with warm water. They only need a few seconds to soak as they will continue to soften as you add the 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 it's easier to get away from you, as you can continue to tuck it in and roll it in at the same time, and you want them as tight as possible.

When it is rolled about two-thirds of the way, place three or four shrimp halves and then continue rolling. For this version, I'm not going to tuck in the ends of the rice paper wrapper, as it's fun to see the vegetables poking out from the sides, but if you want them to be more contained, you can do that. I also like them longer as that means I get some extra sauces in the almond butter sauce, which is always nice. 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 looking at a portion here. So add some baby arugula to a bowl, along with a few tablespoons of wild rice. For that, we're going to quickly dice a cucumber, and if you're wondering why I made the julienne cucumber but not this, it's because I knew I would eat the julienne cucumber in the first few days and to be honest, dicing is a lot. easier and faster to do on the go. Then, we will cut a chive into slices and add it to the bowl, along with some fresh mint leaves that we have chopped.

Add a small handful of dried cranberries or raisins, a pinch of slivered 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 hearty and hearty salad. (upbeat music) For another spring-appropriate salad, we'll make a shrimp, asparagus, and avocado salad, and this one is easy to make too. Simply chop up some asparagus and add it to a bowl along with baby spinach and some shrimp. Chop a spring onion, some fresh parsley and half an avocado and add them to the bowl. Then, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with the lemon vinaigrette, and toss gently for a salad that looks and tastes amazing. (upbeat music) It shouldn't surprise you that we end today with a macro bowl, because macro bowls are always my salads to clean out the refrigerator at the end of the week.

Add spinach or arugula to a bowl along with wild rice and shrimp. Chop up some asparagus and half an avocado and place them on top of your bed of greens, then dice up some red cabbage and you can also add carrots and cucumber if you have some of those left, and a small handful. of shoots. For extra crunch, add some black and white sesame seeds, then drizzle with your lemon vinaigrette or your almond butter sauce, as both are great for 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 to this spring meal prep for you.

Hopefully, it should make your life a little easier in the kitchen, because not only does it have all the cooking times listed and storage reminders, but it also includes a link to the full recipe on downshiftology.com, if it exists. And since you guys loved my first meal prep video, 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 watched my first meal prep video yet, you can do so 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, be sure to like this video, hit the subscribe button, and let me know in the comments below. Alright, that's all from me this week. I'll see you again in the next video.