5 Healthy, Affordable Vegan Meals for Low-Energy Days – VegNews
Sometimes, you don’t have the energy to cook anything that involves breaking out your knife and cutting board, and that’s okay. A lot of factors can interfere with what you cook and eat, from a busy schedule to chronic pain to mental health and everything in between. Sure, ready-made meals and fast food are an option for most people, depending on where you live, but maybe neither of those aligns with your health goals or your bank account. And, another problem might arise when you search for easy, healthy, budget-friendly vegan meals.
It often goes like this: you come across a purportedly simple vegan recipe on a blog, but then the first step asks you to chop an onion or dice up vegetables for mirepoix. Cue the record scratch sound in your head. As far as we’re concerned, having to cut any ingredient is where a “simple” recipe stops being “simple” and becomes inconvenient. Thankfully, you’re not out of luck if you want vegan meals that don’t involve any chopping.
How to make healthy, affordable vegan meals for low-energy days
Just because a recipe is low-effort doesn’t mean that it needs to be bland. So, we asked Rhyan Geiger, an RDN and owner of Phoenix Vegan Dietitian, for simple, healthy, delicious vegan meal ideas that also happen to be budget-friendly. Her top tips? “Pasta dishes are a go-to for affordable and easy vegan recipes. There’s nothing wrong with pasta. And, a loaf of bread can go a long way,” she says.
Vegan food may have a reputation for being expensive, but many plant-based ingredients are among the cheapest options available. Geiger recommends stocking your pantry with staples like frozen fruit and vegetables, brown rice, peanut butter, and of course, whole grain pasta, and whole grain bread.
Looking for inspiration? Here are five easy, delicious vegan recipes you can make when you don’t have the time or energy to cook.
Sam Turnbull
1 Whole grain pasta with frozen greens and beans
Pasta often comes to the rescue on those busy days where appetites are ravenous and the willingness to cook is low.
For an easy pasta dish packed with greens, combine a serving of your favorite whole grain noodles with frozen spinach, shelled edamame, and extra virgin olive oil. This combination of complex carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fat is an excellent way to get all of your macrobiotics on one plate.
“Half your daily grains each day ideally should be whole grains,” Geiger says. Whole grain pasta tends to contain more B vitamins, …….