I recently polled the community to ask what you lovelies would like to see more of and you hands down said more help with meal prep. You asked for recipes that you could easily meal prep so I thought I would share this easy kid-approved freezer meal recipe. Try using reusable meal prep freezer bags so you can reuse them over and over again. This is beneficial financially and for the environment.
If you currently do not meal prep and plan I highly recommend it because when you have a plan and you are prepared you are more inclined to eat healthier. It also save you time and money and reduces food waste. If you are new to meal prep begin by making one extra freezer meal or meal on the stove top when you are cooking dinner. You are already in the kitchen anyway so why not double up so that you can have a night off one week when things get busy or you don’t feel like cooking.
This Lentil Sloppy Joe recipe is in my first cookbook and it’s one of the biggest crowd pleasers for kids. Lentils are an amazing source of plant-based protein but also contain nutrients and fibre. Even if you or your family are not currently plant-based why not try a meat less Monday? Globally if everyone worked to use products that were sustainable and ate less meat or animal proteins it would have an impact. That’s how our family started eating a mostly plant-based diet, we wanted to help the environment and we started with this baby step. After a few meatless Monday’s we fell in love with the new recipe ideas, textures and flavours. We were shocked at how well we felt too so we started to incorporate more and more meatless meals. This blog is not about making you go completely vegan or to try and fit you in a box, this site is all about inspiring you to eat healthy in a way that tastes fantastic and feels sustainable. It’s also about helping you learn to listen to your body.
If you would like to check out more recipe like this check out my cookbook for more healthy food inspiration: https://www.amazon.ca/Prep-Pam-Plant-Based-Foods-Taste/dp/1989304028
The Recipe
PrintLentil Sloppy Joes
Makes: 4-6 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
1 tablespoon avocado or grapeseed oil
½ white or yellow onion, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 (19 oz) can of tomato sauce (if you have a bigger can add 3 cans lentils)
2 cans lentils
1 teaspoon coconut sugar
1-2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1-2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
optional – 1 diced pepper, 2 cups spinach or other favourite veggies.
Directions
1. Place all ingredients into a large good quality freezer bag and freeze up to 2 months.
2. Cooking day – In large frying pan over medium to low heat add in all ingredients and simmer on low 20 minutes.
3. Option to serve on buns, in lettuce boats or top on salad. Recently we turned this into a bowl by adding 2 cups cooked rice.
Recipe Tip – You can switch this recipe by subbing lentils for lean ground turkey, chicken or beef if that serves you and your family better.
We love to use dinner time as a great time to educate your kids on nutrition, health or food. You can make it fun, a lot of times kids are taught to believe that healthy eating is gross when we know that’s not always the case. Sometimes we will play a game about naming a food group from our meal to see if we have all 4.
If you know someone who would love this free plant-based dinner recipe I would be so grateful if you would share it with them. If you try this recipe I would love to know what you think in the comments below, feel free to share any modifications you created.
Happy Meal Prep Sunday,
