Are you planning to start vegetarian weekly meal prep? If so, then that’s a good decision.
Eating a vegetarian diet can be a great way to eat more healthy foods and nutrients. You might consider becoming vegetarian, but you need to know that by doing so, you won’t be able to get all of the nutrients you need.
That’s why it’s necessary to start your vegetarian family weekly meal plan with all the crucial nutrients your body needs. Here are some good suggestions on how to get these into your diet.
Adding Calcium to Your Vegetarian Weekly Meal Prep
If you’ve chosen to give up lactose-based foods like milk and cheese, you’ll need to find another way to get calcium in your diet.
Calcium is vital for strong bones and teeth. A few excellent choices for increasing your calcium intake are:
- Dark, leafy greens
- Seaweed
- Almonds
- Broccoli
- Bok choy
- Tempeh
- Tahini
Vitamin B-12
When you are working on your meatless meal prep and planning as a vegetarian, you should focus on the balance of your nutrients. Vitamin B-12 is found mostly in meat products.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t have the option! You can do vegan high protein meal prep by including foods like cereal, soy, and dairy products. Remember that B-12 is one of the essential nutrients you need, so make sure you plan it for your meals.
Protein
Good news! You can create a budget vegetarian meal plan with a wide variety of protein sources.
Make sure that you include vegetarian weekly meal prep foods that contain protein, as it remains a significant way to build every cell in your body. You can get more protein into your meal plans by including:
- Tofu
- Fermented soy products
- Quinoa
- Seaweed
- Lentils and legumes
- Beans
- Nuts and nut butter
- Hemp and chia seeds
- Amaranth
Iron
Iron deficiency is one of the issues that vegetarians have. With enough knowledge and a balanced vegetarian weekly meal prep, you can incorporate iron into your system.
Iron is available from plant sources, but it remains harder for the body to absorb. Iron keeps your red blood and muscle cells healthy and remains a necessary part of a healthy diet.
If you don’t eat meat, you can plan some meals with the following sources of iron:
- Chickpeas
- Dark, leafy greens
- Tempeh
- Quinoa
- Fortified cereals and grains
- Beans
- Seeds and nuts
Tips for Meatless Meal Prep:
- If you love split pea soup, vegetarian chili, or Indian dhal, your protein needs are both complete and enjoyable. How awesome is that?
- If you consume vitamin C-based foods such as oranges and tomatoes with these foods, your absorption of iron greatly increases. You enjoy your fruits and you get a boost of immunity.
- Tofu remains an excellent substitute for meat. You can find so many recipes for tofu. It’s versatile because it takes on the flavor of the other ingredients around it and works well in a wide variety of traditional dishes as a meat substitute.
Takeaway
Learning how to meal prep vegetables is not so hard. You just have to know what you need and where to get it.
A vegetarian meal plan and grocery list may be confusing at first, but as you create your guide through this journey, you’ll learn to enjoy the process.