Meatless Monday Meal Prep {August 2020}

I seem to be back on a trend of getting out nice little roundup posts highlighting some of the delicious meals I'm putting together in my kitchen. Mondays are always a nice day to share for a few reasons. For one I try to do most of my cooking at the beginning of the week, so it is fresh on my mind. For another, I like starting out the week with something positive, plus I know quite a few people who enjoy making Monday a meatless meal day!

I suppose I just can't help myself in sharing my gratuitous farmers market haul photos each week either. Look at all those colors! So much goodness abounds. This week I loaded up on some of the best fruit of the season. The berries are done for the year with the exception of the cherries I found, but pears, plums, figs and melons are sure to satisfy my sweet tooth. Check out my watermelon...

That thing weighs in at almost 14 pounds! Giant. I still haven't cut into it yet, but I have some plans for how to use the portion of it that we don't gobble all up fresh and raw. This is my first watermelon of the season. For whatever reason not many of my farmers seem to have grown them this year. Perhaps they are quite the pain to lug to the market. Of course on the savory end of things there are still plenty of eggplant, tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and shelled peas to keep my kitchen in a flurry of activity preparing it all!

One of the reasons why I love writing about seasonal produce is that it reminds me next year what to look forward to and my favorite meals for incorporating everything. With so many options for how to cook all of these fruits and veggies, it's easy to forget the recipes that were big hits, especially when the season seems so fleeting!

Well hopefully you'll find some of these dishes just as inviting and inspiring to create when your summer season hits! I have plenty of friends in the Southern Hemisphere now through blogging, so we'll be in the reverse position with our seasonal produce soon enough. ;)

Speaking of blogging friends around the world, a pal from Hive (@artemislives) had given me the idea to use cucumbers in a stir fry. I always tend to opt for raw preparations of cukes, but with such an abundant supply from our garden this year I was happy to have a suggestion for something a little bit different!

This bowl was a delicious medley of seasonal goodies--leeks, celery, eggplant, oyster mushrooms, butter beans, and of course cucumbers straight from the garden. I just used a basic sauce of liquid aminos, ginger, rice wine vinegar, and some hot sauce and served it over wild rice with microgreens on top. Easy and delicious! A basic stir fry is on the rotation frequently if you haven't noticed. You can mix together any combination of vegetables you have on hand with a basic sauce for a quick, healthy meal. They're not always this pretty, but I find them that much more enjoyable to eat and photograph when they are...

Up next was a simple grilled meal that the boyfriend stepped in to help cook. I do try to get him on grill duty as much as I can remember to in the summer months, especially after realizing that grilled okra might just be one of my favorite ways to eat it! Often I just get going in the kitchen and forget that we have that lovely appliance outside that keeps one less thing from heating up our sweltering kitchen. Not that it is any less sweltering outside, but why should I do all the sweating while cooking?

The veggies were pretty straightforward--just lightly seasoned grilled okra and shishito peppers. The veggie patty I made from cooked pinkeye peas and some of the last of the Candy Roaster Squash that I roasted up from the garden. I also made a soup from the squash, but I might just save that one for a post on its own. The rest of the patty was just some Cajun seasoning, a splash of liquid smoke and enough bread crumbs to hold it together. I have another pinkeye burger recipe here on the blog, but I have found using the fresh beans it is pretty easy to make a tasty patty that holds together fairly well. Nothing fancy on this one, but satisfying and enjoyable to eat!

This current week I was feeling a bit at a loss what I wanted to make with some of my market purchases, so I pulled out a few of my cookbooks and dusted them off to peruse for inspiration. As much as I enjoy just throwing together meals from my own imagination, there are some amazing chefs who have paved the way and put together some excellent templates to follow when you just want a good meal without having to think too much about it. Perhaps it is my scientific-leaning brain, but I do enjoy having precise measurements and exact steps to follow sometimes. Veganomicon was my very first vegan cookbook in my collection. I'm pretty sure I asked for it before I even became fully plant-based. I remember at first I didn't make much out of it because it was a little bit intimidating in the steps and amount of ingredients in some of the recipes.

After seven more years of cooking experience, looking back through I have bookmarked a number of recipes to try soon. This week it was the Spicy Peanut and Eggplant Soup that caught my eye to try. Thank goodness I pulled out the book to give it another look--this soup is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G Yes, I just typed that like a giddy little schoolgirl. Straight bomb this one. I'm actually starting to type faster knowing I have a bowl of these leftovers to eat for dinner tonight.

Shallots, eggplant, onion, tomatoes, green beans and more. The spices included cumin, coriander, turmeric and fresh ginger. Of course the big flavor and texture punch came from peanut butter in the broth. Why haven't I been doing more soups like this? I loooove peanut butter. It was more amazing in a soup than I even though possible. I served it over farro and lentils to make it a filling meal so I didn't eat the whole pot in one sitting. If everything else in the cookbook is this good I might just have to cook my way through it all. I made a few minor adjustments like using fresh tomatoes instead of canned (I mean, why not while they are in season?) and omitting the oil. The peanut butter added plenty of fat, so the peanut oil used for sauteeing the veggies might have been overkill in my opinion. The final bowl wasn't missing a thing as far as flavor or texture!

I've got a few more things on the "burner" for this week so perhaps I'll crank out another update soon. Seems like every day brings new highs and lows, but food always grounds me. My Saturday market visits continue to be the highlight of my week, though putting together all the haul into wholesome meals is right up there with the actual shopping. I'm also working on adding some more goals to my life plan to keep me focused on the things that matter and stay out of the rut that's so easy to fall back in at the moment.

I hope you all are staying well and finding joy in your weekly meal prep! Yes, it can be a bit of a chore, but hopefully you can find fun either in finding new local ingredients or trying new recipes. I highly recommend finding some cooks and bloggers that inspire you to keep you trying new things that help keep you in line with your health and fitness goals. As always, healthy is far from boring and bland!

Happy cooking!