HOW TO EAT HEALTHY FOR CHEAP! New Year INSPO for CHEAP MEALS! 15 BUDGET Friendly MEALS!

Closing out the year with some budget friendly “best of 2023″ recipes! Check back tomorrow January 1st for my first video of the new year! Make sure to subscribe because many of my new videos into the new year are budget meal focused to help keep you inspired in your kitchen in 2024! As always thanks for being here❤️

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Cordless food processor 3 in 1: https://amzn.to/41MBpU0

Make my PO BOX smile!
Miranda Swartz
6720 N Hualapai Way STE 145
PO Box 348
Las Vegas NV 89149

Things I mentioned in today’s video:

debt pay off video: https://youtu.be/V5cs6AbiM5c?si=vWN2ff_egIhoDT68

sunflower bar recipe: https://flourishingmiranda.wixsite.com/flourishing-miranda/post/plant-based-chocolate-protein-bars

my dutch oven: https://amzn.to/3PYvEOI

vinegar salad recipe:
Try this vinegar salad on the side:
-3 heads romaine lettuce, finely chopped
-4 tbsp red wine vinegar
-1 tbsp dijon mustard
-sprinkle of salt
*Mix together vinegar, mustard and salt, pour over lettuce and mix well before enjoying!

best stove top rice recipe: https://pin.it/54S3xXq

Shop my favorite kitchen items!:
💦my sink strainer: https://amzn.to/3Axehx5
🪵my cutting board (large) https://amzn.to/3P4nkcO
🔪my knife: https://amzn.to/3yNnKiD
🎂my lazy Susan: https://amzn.to/3C3mM3H
🥜my large food processor: https://amzn.to/3pdH2YS
🥛my vitamix: https://amzn.to/3j0WYxA
✨3 in 1 food processor / blender / grinder: https://amzn.to/3o2Dknu
🥘preasure cooker: https://amzn.to/3rzdo4Y
🫕Dutch oven: https://amzn.to/3PYvEOI

My blog for more recipes! https://flourishingmiranda.wixsite.com/flourishing-miranda

Need MORE easy budget friendly meal ideas!? Check out these playlists!
🧡One pot meals! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGHQLi4JakdxxyeVJN_PA9pjmJyrjL9iY

🧡”get it done” playlist!! https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGHQLi4JakdzQU4AIE9Chfu5O-GTB9RWG

🧡Extreme Budget Meal Ideas (full
playlist) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGHQLi4JakdxBu4-m4_BFLo989iR8JKaU

🧡$1, $2 & $3 Dinner Ideas (full playlist) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGHQLi4JakdyIZ12ExJzkCa50hVsbHCu3

🧡$5 or Less Meals (full playlist) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGHQLi4JakdytfUW-QndM0W7r41eFEP8c

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For this first recipe I’m going to use frozen vegetables because it’s what I have on hand and we’re going to roast these I’m going to make some jasmine rice this is 1 cup we’re just going to cook this up on the stove top super simple and then we are going to bake

Some tofu and we’re going to make it super crunchy this is a silken tofu extra firm it is really soft I love extra from tofu so if you want it like really really dense then you would definitely have to press this it has a very different texture

Than what I normally buy but I really like it especially if you do crunchy I feel like this is what all the restaurants that I eat at use and I think I have found a recipe that will be so good and really easy so grab a bowl

Grab some tofu grab a plethora of seasonings like what is happening in Miranda’s kitchen I know I know so I have some cornstarch this um Hot Chili Pepper paste so good green chili sauce cocoa MOS mustard garlic ginger salt little whisk little bowl we’re going to just make this most fabulous tofu

Crunchy tofu Bowl that’s going to be so good for lunch this week let’s get started first with the rice cuz that’s probably going to take about the same amount of time as the oven baked goods but we’ll get this started first all right I do have two sheet pans with

Parchment paper that’s my preferred method for cooking you can do the no slip mats you can do aluminum foil you can do nothing whatever you want do whatever you prefer but we’re going to get this up to 425 get that preheating and I’m just going to slide this one

Over and start my rice also want to give a little shout out to my tripod today the grapefruit scented candle from Trader Joe’s if you find this it is my favorite and I did buy a few of them yesterday because they’re so good also got those flowers over there on on my

Broken table more on that later but they’re so beautiful okay I shouldn’t have said broken table I should have said defective but no worries guys this dining room table issue has literally been a year as of February in the making but uh don’t worry I just got off the

Phone with West Elm and they will have one to me in the next 6 to8 months okay so I do want to say this did not crumble the same as the extra firm tofu that I normally use but it’s still turned out really great so it doesn’t

Matter what kind of tofu you use okay we’re going to go ahead and add some corn starch about three tablespoons since I do have two blocks of tofu I’m just eyeballing it it doesn’t have to be perfect but you’re just going to sprinkle that in okay it’s more like a

Third of a cup doesn’t matter and then once this is in I’m going to just kind of stir it with my spoon and I’ll let it sit for 3 to 4 minutes so the tofu kind of absorbs that corn starch and it kind of will make it so good and crispy when

We cook it in the oven all right now that this has been sitting for just a couple of minutes and the cornstarch is really absorbed to how I like it to look it it just kind of looks so it’s attached I guess to the tofu just let it

Sit for a couple minutes it turns out best that way okay add a little salt you don’t have to add salt if you don’t want to a little bit of ginger garlic Coco aminos about 3 or 4 tablespoons or whatever you want I was

Going to mix it and whisk it and make it look beautiful but we ain’t doing that because I don’t want to waste it like I don’t want to dirty another dish any kind of mustard that you’d like about 2 tspoons I’m going to do just regular

Yellow mustard and this is going to be for another recipe too so green dragon sauce skip this if you don’t like heat but I think it’s so good and it just goes really well with all the flavors but a tablespoon of that and I’ve been really enjoying this from Trader Joe’s

I’m I’m sure they have it in other like grocery stores as well I just don’t know what it would be called about a tablespoon of this okay now that it’s starting to look like egg salad and not like baked tofu mix it up real good and

Then we’re going to bring it over to our Dove top get on our baking sheet and get it in the oven perfect timing our uh preheated oven just beeped our rice is going going to put a lid on this set a timer for about 12 minutes turn the heat to low

Put this in the oven as you can see it’s more mushy than if you were to do Cube tofu but trust me it’s going to be so good put in for 25 minutes for 25 and flip it about halfway it’s awesome especially with rice and veggies all

Right other baking dish we’re going to go ahead and pop our ow that was hot the steam coming out of there our veggies on here we’re going to add a little salt and garlic pop these in the oven 425 about 20ish minutes you can roast them as dark

As you want to it’s actually kind of nice when they are frozen because you don’t have to add any additional the water kind of releases from them and makes them really nice and crunchy so bake them as long as you want I do about 20 minutes let’s go ahead and add in

Some prices here because I love a good price point I love a good budget video these meals cost me $166 a piece if you don’t include the seasonings but I did a quick breakdown of seasonings and was about $185 so I feel like that’s awesome

The tofu I got for $125 a pack I used about 50 worth of rice since I just used one cup and then the veggies I got for 10 for 10 so they were a doar a package which if you do the math really quick that’s $5 worth of ingredients you’re

Probably thinking why did you only make three of them well I could have obviously made more I only had two packs of tofu left though in my refrigerator and I’m pretty sure if I would have froze these I would have got a better texture I know these don’t look pretty

But they taste so good and as when it comes to how I’m warming them up I usually put them in a skillet and reheat them or just pop it in the microwave it does make the tofu a little less crunchy but for a better term it almost has like

A honey glaze on it right now where it gets really crispy and the on the outside and the inside is really really tender so it’s really good it’s I usually make this with the other tofu I use from Trader Joe’s or from Kroger this one’s still really good it has more

Of an egg-like texture I know that’s weird but like a hardboiled egg that’s how I remember hardboiled eggs so I feel like an egg salad sandwich would have been really good with this but I can’t make egg salad sandwich and what I’m making next to much I am so excited for

This lunch because I’ve been craving it all like forever it feels like and I just keep saying like oh I’m going to make it I’m going to make it haven’t made it so we’re doing a chickpea salad sandwich if you will but because it’s springtime and I feel like these are

Just so good we’re going to put on these for the weekend I’ll just throw these in my lunch bag and then have this on the side and then just plop them on here but you could do bread croissants crackers I feel like this is more cracker esque but

I love these from Trader Joe’s picked some up yesterday and uh yeah if you’ve tried that like crisp biscuit gluten-free multigrain something biscuit I’ll pop a picture up here and you’ve tried that Trader Joe’s let me know how it is I would love to know okay so we have some

Slims um which are just they were on sale and they are really good and I just grabbed them uh banana peppers garbanzo beans carrots those are for the side and grapes we’re going to throw in the salad I’m going to wash these up chop these into a little chunks

And then basically this and some seasoning is going to go together in my food processor and that’s going to make this beautiful lunch I forgot to also add the extra grapes cuz as you can see I’m using about a half a cup total I also pack those for my lunch as well

Just wash them off and put them in another container you’re going to see me put the carrots in a container but you’re not going to see The Grapes so I just wanted to let you know that that was just kind of part of my lunch and I

Only made five lunches for the week even though yes there are seven days in a week on weekends sometimes we’ll go out to lunch or we’ll have like an early dinner we’ve been going out more that it’s nice out because we’ve been going to our favorite patio places or we’ve

Been going to a friend’s house so like our weekends have just been like all over the place but I have been craving this chicken chickpea chicken I call it chicken like chicken not chicken I’ve been craving this since I made my pantry video and that was over a month ago but

I’ve been just thinking about this recipe I saw on Tik Tok where you just take pickles or relish mustard chickpeas and you put on a Saltine cracker and I don’t usually eat Saltines because I do try to eat gluten-free and I don’t know if they’re gluten-free or not I’m sure

There’s probably a gluten-free Saltine cracker out there somewhere I just don’t know about it but rice cakes to me are basically the same thing but I added some banana peppers a little bit of pickle juice a little bit of banana pepper juice was so good it just like

Hit the spot and I end up serving this as two lunches so I used half and half and I feel like that’s a good meal meal portion for me it’s also really light feeling it’s getting hot here really quick like 3 weeks ago I ran a marathon

And it was so cold I thought I was going to die my face was frozen and then yesterday it was 82° and I got sunburned like I feel like here in Vegas we go from like winter to summer in a blink of an eye like it doesn’t we don’t really

Have a spring our spring is like everybody else’s summer and then our actual summer is like you’re touching Hades but I love the Heat so here I am just kind of dishing everything up also I got these cute little dishes you can’t even see it I didn’t show you from the

Dollar section at Target for like3 or $5 and they’re so cute they’re so spring-like the little square ones I will try to share a community post with a picture of it tomorrow with my lunch because it’s so adorable but this is like the perfect lunch I went ahead and

Just threw the rice cakes in my bag and then just like kept them in my car cuz it doesn’t really matter but you can dip the carrots in oh man this was like the best lunch this week being that it was so hot Out change has a reason baby let it come to you every soul every season lives outside a status quo if you stoping we meant to be expanding our abilities if the passion’s gone we are doing it wrong baby you and I baby you and I should start living now with the whole

World that heart Fe we could stay all we could Hello friends do me a huge favor and give this video a huge thumbs up it helps me out so much so it has been a year and a half since I’ve done this this style of video I’ve only done

Eating for a dollar a day once so let’s just jump right in so with this box of mashed potatoes I’ll explain later why I decided to use it but it has 34 servings and it Cooks up so incredibly quick like 3 minutes you have some mashed potatoes

Also I am only using salt and that’s just an ingredient I feel like everyone may have at their house if they don’t that’s okay you don’t need any seasonings but you can also add whatever you’d like I’m just keeping it super super simple and really sticking to that

$7 budget I really wanted to see how much I could make for a do a day and if it was still possible in 2023 I know it was possible in years past because I done it before these potatoes are looking nice and fluffy and delicious I did add additional water to them because

I only used water as an ingredient when mixing them up I didn’t add any butter so I just made them kind of as kind of eyeballed them if you will so let’s get into breakfast so this pan is actually already dirty because I just made lunch

In it but we’re reversing back in time I am adding a little bit of Pam cooking spray because I was worried that this would stick so I’m taking my freshly made mashed potatoes and making potato pancakes now they’re not the most beautiful potato pancakes in the world

But they sure were delicious and I’m going to explain to you what I’m going to do for lunch for the rest of the week and kind of my thought process behind breakfast because just hang tight even though this breakfast looks kind of ugly it still tasted good so let’s jump in

And I’ll explain to you what I’m doing for the rest of the week checking in with you really quickly I know breakfast does not look the best originally I was going to use my waffle maker because that’s how we love to do leftover mashed potatoes whether they’re instant mashed

Potato flakes or homemade mashed potatoes but I figured that I would get roasted in the comments if I used something other than my stove top or oven because if I think of what someone has for Essentials a waffle maker is not an essential home kitchen appliance so I

Decided to go ahead and make them as a pancake and going forward tomorrow I’ll make them a little bit drier so they cook up a little bit faster but they’re still very tasty I mean they have a nice crunch on the outside they’re really creamy the inside super creamy in the

Inside so I just thought i’ would add that really quick so hang with me because lunch is possibly the most fabulous thing ever and I’ve never made these before also if you’re wondering why I did potato flakes and not regular potatoes is because of the price when it

Goes by volume I could get actually a lot more servings out of the potato flakes than I could the actual potatoes and I was also thinking for convenience if you were someone who is really stressed and managing your money and maybe having to really buckle down an instant potato can be really helpful

Because they’re ready in like 5 minutes you don’t have to make mashed potatoes peel them and boil them or if you don’t peel them chop them boil them Etc if you know what I mean and I didn’t want to use my instant pot for regular potatoes and have that for conv venience cuz

Again kitchen appliances you see what I’m trying to say here but I think instant mashed potatoes are kind of looked over a lot of the times but that box has 34 servings and today alone you’ll see what I have for dinner I have enough to make one more dinner um which

Is huge I have enough for three pancakes or waffles every single morning and I have enough for a serving at lunch every day so yes there is a main starch component but I feel like there’s enough variety where I won’t be tired of it this week so come on let’s go finish and

I’ll share with you what I’m making for lunch this was such an awesome lunch and I love doing these types of budget videos because sometimes I stumble across a meal that I know is going to be a staple in our house for a long time so

I took two cans of black beans I did drain the liquid I kept some of the liquid I did not rinse them the reason is is because I needed the liquid to add a mixture component so you can kind of see what the beans look like just like I

Said just drained didn’t rinse them and then I added about a half a cup of mashed potato flakes in total I just kind of eyeballed it but I added the starch to the beans to soak up that liquid and then it made it really really

Easy to mash so I just mashed them with a fork it just took a couple minutes and added a little bit of potato flakes at a time until they became the perfect consistency and you’ll see here there’s really no like way that you could really

Mess this up if you added a little extra potato flakes it would just be a little bit thicker but as you can see I’m just kind of like mixing and adding a little bit of a time and you can see how thick and creamy these mashed beans are

Getting and then I made a black bean burger and I can only imagine how good this would be with some roasted Peppers inside of it maybe some onions these were amazing texture-wise and they’re really just two ingredients add a little bit of salt if you want to add some

Additional seasonings maybe add some garlic but these were so good I can see these being a staple for us all summer long if you have a grill you could definitely Grill these but the texture was absolutely fabulous I’ve always had a hard time with black bean burgers kind

Of getting them to stick together but I saw a very well executed recipe on a Blog that had like 30 ingredients I thought no you know what I can make this with too and I did and I’m so happy with these so if you have black beans and

Mashed potatoes on hand right now I highly recommend trying these out this weekend so then I just added some more of the mashed potatoes that I went ahead and pre-made so that way I had a bunch made for the week added um a few black bean burgers I ended up making 10 total

Black bean burgers so I could have two at lunch each day and this was super filling and delicious and like I said these burgers are highly must- try even if you’re not on an extreme budget they are so good and you can kind of add whatever ingredients you want to them to

Kind of jij them up a little bit I cannot recommend these enough the texture was absolutely perfect so when my husband and I were going through our debt-free journey a few years ago if you followed that 2020 through 2021 6 month solid we paid off almost $3 $5,000 in

Debt I can link a video down below and tell you how we did it if you’d like but basically we grinded we spent $30 a week on groceries which I know $30 a week then stretched more than $30 a week now cuz High inflation but a lot of times we

Did these dollar per person like for an entire week we did $2 per person for an entire week um like I said $30 was our budget so we were as Extreme as possible and no not every single day we get three servings of produce vegetables and fruit

And still to this day we don’t do that we’re not perfect so I do feel like a lot of times people will come to these style of videos and they will comment about everything that’s wrong with it if that’s the case maybe this video isn’t for you maybe you’ve never been so

Crunched financially that you are just looking to feed yourself some calories for the week and that is why I decided to design this style of video so maybe it’s not for everyone but I know it’s for someone and I hope that it helps someone out today like I said I made two

Of these for dinner this week but the first up I needed to do was make some homemade lentils I love lentils especially if you make them with taco seasoning and have them as a taco component one bag of lentils ends up being 2 and 1/2 cups and I just used one

Cup this day and then I used the rest the next time I made this shepherd’s pie if you’ve never made homemade lentils before it’s super easy it’s one cup of lentils to 2 and 1/2 cups of water you bring it to a boil once it comes to a

Boil you put a lid on it turn it down to low and let them cook for 25 minutes they always turn out perfect and you can add any seasonings that you like to them my favorite is taco seasonings to to a large bowl I added my tomatoes and my

Mixed vegetables you could definitely went a different route with any of the inside seasonings or flavors to this shepherd’s pie but I went with the mixed vegetable cans just to kind of give it some extra volume and of course a little bit of vegetables and this I actually

Split in half I used half for this day and then half on Wednesday when I made a second pie so I just kind of layered my shepherd’s pie here I make shepherd’s pie all the time on my channel and I use different ingredients all the time you

Can really add anything to the inside of a lentil pie and it’s so good so there you see my kind of vegetable layer if you can’t have tomatoes you can definitely substitute for something else then I added my lentils and this really bulked it up lunch and dinner have very

High protein lots of nutrients going on breakfast might have been a little sad with just the mashed potato pancakes or waffles but I did forget to mention mashed potato french fries so good and you can add a couple of vegetables if you want to add a couple dollars worth

To this as well but this is Extreme and then I made some Fork lines for the shepherd’s pie a little bit of paprika on the top of this is so so so good if you have it but I’m just using salt this day just to kind of really be extreme if

You will sometimes it’s fun to be really extreme for me with my budget to see what I can come up with because I did it for so long before my whole goal when I do these types of videos is to give you all some inspiration to just use some

Things that you have on hand yes all of these things I have on hand and most likely it need to be used up because I don’t like things just sitting around I do have a pantry for like emergencies but things like this right rice I’ve had

On hand now for almost 3 months and I haven’t used it and this onion scallet shallot thing um been around for a while the mixed veggies I’m pretty sure I got in January from Target and tofu I think it was near its expiration date I tend to buy things based on a

Meal plan every single week but I don’t always get to them unfortunately sometimes just weeks happen and things sit in my fridge here are the two condiments I wanted to use up the Coco aminos and the sweet chili sauce these are things we always have on hand but I

Haven’t repurchased because I just had you know some out on hand and I was like oh we don’t need any sauces yet originally I was going to make this a condiment focused and then use up a lot of the condiments in my fridge but you know what it just didn’t happen this

Week it just didn’t feel that inspired to make crazy new meals as you can see this was just a really simple make the rice and put the veggies in the microwave and then the tofu I just end up making in the skillet and it turned out really really good and as far as

Reheating this for my lunches my husband took some of these to work I took some of them to work he ate them microwaved and I put them back in a skillet to reheat them this sauce for the tofu was so good I just added the shallot some

Cocinos I end up adding them all it was like maybe 1/4 cup maybe a thir cup and then the sweet chili sauce I add a little bit of water too add a little cornstarch slurry and it got nice and thick it would be so much better if I

Would have marinated My Tofu but wait till later I do marinate a tofu and then baked it but I just didn’t have time and sometimes turning your oven on when it’s like 100° just isn’t overall energy productive because then your whole house has to cool down and I don’t have an air

Fryer anymore so this is just what I did but again this is just to hopefully inspire you to you know maybe use something up you have at home or try something different a lot of times when I do these meals since I’m like basically shopping my own Pantry fridge

And freezer I don’t have a meal plan I don’t have an idea of what I’m going to make and so I just take things out that I feel like go well together and make them into a meal and I shared this over on Instagram I was actually super

Inspired this day by my neighbor because I knew she was meal prepping for the week she was um getting after it and meal prepping breakfast lunch and dinner to set herself up for Success she is getting ready for her wedding and I was texting her I was like you know what I’m

Going to make some lunches for the week you inspired me and I shared this over on Instagram so if you don’t follow me over there I try to post daily just like lifestyle workouts food just tons of different stuff so like I said I reheated this in the skillet this right

Rice I’m like on the fence with somebody had commented on the video where I got it and said let me know what you think of it I feel like it’s kind of slimy I feel like the cooking directions just aren’t correct I don’t know it says to

Add like a cup and a quarter of water per bag but then it’s like really liquidy and you’re right it is kind of slimy when you reheat it uh I feel like it’s good right off the bat like when you eat it fresh but I don’t feel like

It’s very good reheated again I put on the stove top so it kind of dried out a little bit but it does have a weird texture in compared to regular rice so I don’t know I’m kind of on the fence with it I did like that it was higher in

Protein I am trying to eat a lot more protein these days with my meals so this meal in total had like 33 g of protein and I’m going to pop up a picture here because I totally forgot to film since I was like on Instagram so there is the

Finished product it was a really pretty lunch all right let’s get into my pantry and use up some of these lentils I thought I had way more lenal than I actually do on hand but that’s okay this is a use it up recipe video so I’m using

Up what I have so I found this recipe from growing ananas which is a workout girl that I follow on YouTube she shares a lot of shorts and different things and she made these two ingredient wraps however I let them sit overnight because I didn’t feel like they were blossomed

Enough so it’s uh double liquid to red lentils so like if you’re using half a cup of red lentils like I did use one cup of water you’re supposed to let them sit for 3 to 4 hours as you can see they’re kind of blossoming I just let

Them sit overnight and it was perfect after I let them sit overnight I threw them into my food processor Blend or not food processor oh my goodness my Vitamix you can use a food processor probably too but it depends on what one you have

If you can add liquid to it or not so threw them into my blender whipped them up and then heated them in the skillet and they made such good wraps however like the right rice they were not as good once I put them in the refrigerator and you’ll see I only made

Three wraps because I only had half a cup of lentils I would make these again but they would be something I would make for like taco nuts night or burrito night and then I would have them freshh the texture was weird once I put them in the refrigerator and even though I

Reheated them I was like M didn’t like love them they’re something for me that I would have to eat warm and fresh but they turned out so good I do want to see if I can use other lentils for these I’m just curious to see if other lentils

Would do the same thing if I could Sprout them but if you’re looking for like a really inexpensive wrap they’re not super low calorie but they’re really filling and really good and you’ll have to wait to see what I stuffed with later because I did decide to marinate some

Tofu but like I said these were so good it is a timelier process obviously if you let them sit for 3 hours or overnight but I feel like they’re worth it they’re really really good when they’re fresh they’re I feel like they would make a great pizza too um I

Thought about trying that like reheating them again I only made three because of only having a half a cup of lentils but I feel like they were just really good I don’t know it was just something different in their high protein and and I feel like lentils are just like really

Accessible and they’re gluten-free so let’s get back into my pantry I’m making my favorite thing ever I’m obsessed with black bean burgers if you’ve seen any recent videos I think I’ve made these twice in recent videos I just can’t help it it’s two ingredients black beans and

Mashed potato flakes that’s it but you can add anything you want to the inside of them to kind of amp up the flavor we’re going to go in and get an onion and use some balsamic and do a balsamic onion on the top I again am meal

Prepping these for the week so I can just take them with me I find that Monday through Friday I have to have my meals ready to go because otherwise I fall into this trap of like ordering food skipping a meal just having a protein shake and it’s just like with me

In my lifestyle just having food ready to go I can just pull out and throw into a meal whether it’s bulk meal prep or having meals ready just works for me so with these black bean burgers you’re just going to open up your cans or boxes

Or black beans or however it is I don’t rinse them I drain the excess liquid but you do need a little bit of liquid so if you are making these in the instant pot or crock pot and making them fresh you do need a little bit of liquid with it

Just cuz it helps the potatoes kind of adhere to the beans a little bit better so for every uh can of black beans you’re going to use a/2 cup of mashed potatoes pretty simple stir around with a fork you kind of mash it a little bit but the potatoes really bind the black

Beans together and they turn out so perfect you could add anything you want to the inside of these you could do red peppers green peppers onions corn make kind of like a Southwest black bean that would be super super good I end up making six patties and each Patty was 10

Gr of protein again I’m just trying to eat a little bit more protein in my life so just a really awesome meal that you can make ahead and they taste so good I added some cumin salt and garlic to my Burgers as you can see I made them into

Little patties and I made these on the stove top as well and then I also cut up an onion and decided to do a balsamic onion because that just sounded so amazing I didn’t have a bun or anything but as I was making these I was thinking

Ooh those wraps that I made the day before would be so good with this made fresh so just kind of sharing different ways that you could uh you know add a bun to this some lettuce some Tomatoes balsamic onion oo that sounds so good

But all I do is put these into to a hot Skillet and I cook them up and I have some great black bean burgers I’m going to be making these all summer as far as it goes to warming them up I just usually pop them in the microwave and

They turn out perfect but you can put them back in this Skillet if you want to you can leave them like this in the fridge and then just make them one at a time as you use them completely up to you as the balsamic onions I just put in

A skillet and add a little balsamic to them once they start to get translucent and they’re cooked to my liking and then I put everything off to the side let it cool and then just pop it in my refrigerator and then we can just pull

It out as needed again for us us in our lifestyle I feel like having meals on hand that we can reheat really easily that taste really really good a couple of days in is like the perfect thing and look at these Burgers they are so good

If you haven’t made these yet this is your sign make these they’re so good I’m sure it would work with other beans as well so you’ll have to give it a try and let me know all right so we’re going to marinate this tofu it has been in my

Fridge for a while but thank goodness has a really long shelf life but I like to use things to just kind of restart my refrigerator as you can see in my refrigerator it was it’s kind of getting empty I like that so I can just like

Wipe it all down and then just make a big list go to the store and get everything I need so I decided to marinate this tofu with just some garlic uh some brown mustard green sauce and then that red chili onion paste or whatever it is it’s so good so it’s very

Very spicy but this is what I put with the red lentil wrap so I marinated this overnight and then I just baked it in my oven in the morning when it was nice and cool I think I got up at like 5:20 in the morning just to bake this which is

Not early for me I usually get up between 3:30 and 4:00 so not not that wasn’t super early for me but I just thought you know what it would taste so much better baked again I don’t have an air fryer or anything so this would just

Be so good I love spice and I feel like with the wraps you can add anything to them because they’re very Bland I don’t know and you can marinate this any which way I do a brown sugar marinade which I haven’t done in a long time but I do it

With a extra firm tofu and I used to throw at my air fryer I might try to do it in my oven on bril one of these times but I just do a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce a little bit of garlic and a tablespoon of brown sugar put that over

The tofu let it marinate overnight and then put it in the air fryer or you can put it in oven whatever and it just the sugar of the brown sugar like caramelizes it and makes it just so good this was really good it was a different

Type of tofu than I’m used to like marinating air frying SL baking but it still turned out really really good it wasn’t as crunchy as normal but it’s because it’s silk and tofu but it had so much flavor let me know in a comment below which meal inspired you the most

Which one are you going to try out I feel like these are just such simple meals that you could make at home no matter what ingredients you have on hand you don’t have to have the same sauces or seasonings as I do you don’t have to

Have the same beans or tofu but you could probably make this work with anything that you have on hand and you can see all of my meals in the refrigerator ready to go for the week I absolutely love that so much oh this was also another thing that I made this week

That I did not film because I was with my friends when I made it but these are sunflower bars and I shared this over on Instagram so pop over there and grab the recipe or I will link it down below in my blog in case you’re not on Instagram

These are like four ingredient bars they’re so good they are high protein bars they’re they’re amazing so if you don’t have sunflower butter you can use any different kind of butter you’d like and have a little bit of sea salt on the top just so so easy to use okay so the

Next day we are down to marinate our tofu let it sit in the refrigerator for a while I also had those bananas I wanted to use up this week just didn’t get to it but it’s crazy to me how in my mind I have like 30 different things I

Want to make but then when it comes down to it I just don’t have time and I don’t always film everything either I want everyone to know that I don’t film my entire life I don’t film every meal when I say I’m going to use something up

Sometimes I just grab like a half a bag of frozen veggies that’s are in the fridge and some beans that are in the freezer and I’m like okay this is a meal and I used it up so this is what I Ed the wraps for it was really really

Delicious I highly recommend if anything from this video you make the wraps and the black bean burgers and maybe marinate some tofu to pop on the grill or put in the air fryer for dinner this week two ingredients here that I’ve never used before this vegan cream cheese alternative from Trader Joe’s and

It’s made with coconut and potato starch chickpea protein I’m really on the fence with how this is going to taste but I feel like if I mix all of this together it’s going to be good the other thing that I was talking about let me know if you’ve

Tried this it’s the impossible meat I know I’ve had it as a burger at a restaurant before but I’ve never personally cooked with it and every time we go to Trader Joe’s I see it and I’m like I should just try it fun fact before I went plant-based I hadn’t eaten

Red meat in over 10 years so I don’t actually like hamburger but I do remember having the impossible meat at a restaurant before and it was like okay so I was like okay I’ll try it as 19 g of protein I’m trying to eat a lot more

Protein in my diet and I feel like my husband will like it so if I don’t like this dish I know he’s going to like it cuz this is like his Jam so five ingredients this is actually a really inexpensive meal and if you want to make it cheaper swap the impossible for

Lentils that’s how I would like definitely prefer this but again I’m trying to step outside my comfort zone cook with new things cuz you never know you might really like it a lot of people suggest that I would like this people tag me on Instagram all the time with

Different recipes so I’m like okay I’ll try it so we have one of these which like I said if you want to make it cheaper switch out for lentils that will make this like that will make this this side item like less than a dollar we have diced tomatoes you can also use

Fresh tomatoes or tomato sauce the cream cheese alternative if you can’t find this or don’t have anything like it you could just use nutmilk instead and a little bit of corn starch and it’ll make it as a thickener it’ll it won’t be the exact same but it’ll be close enough

We’re going to use part of this onion this is a massive onion this onion was 99 Cents at Trader Joe’s since they charged by the onion and it’s like literally the biggest onion I’ve ever seen in my life so we’re going to use just part of that and and then also the

Brown rice penet pasta from Trader Joe’s I’m just going to use half of this cuz I am going to use half for another recipe so here is ingredients five or less which it ends up being five today and so is the second one we’re going to chop

This massive onion I’m only going to do like a quarter of it so it’s like a half a cup of onion I feel like that’s perfect this is also a very potent onion and I even had in the refrigerator which I thought was a secret to keeping it so it wouldn’t burn

Your eyeballs that’s a lie have only been cooking for like a minute but I am going to add the meat I don’t know why this creeps me out so much but I like I said I have a lot of people on Instagram that use it and

They love it and they’re always like oh you should make meals with it and they’re tagging me in recipes like I said I know my husband’s going to like it I’m just so on the fence with it maybe it’s just cuz of how it looks but

I’m going to mix this in with the onions and cook it until it’s browned all right it’s been like 2 minutes and it’s basically cooked I think I mean again I don’t eat red meat I haven’t eaten red meat in 10 years so it’s not like I really cook with it but

That’s what I’m kind of like going off of because that feels right I am adding the diced tomatoes and I’ll let this cook for like another 2 minutes Tomatoes always help everything cook faster all right I’m going to add add in two cups of water and then bring it to a

Boil because I am going to add pasta so I want boiling water for the pasta so that is a one pot meal and this should kind of make everything like really Saucy and thick so it’ll be like just really like sticking to the pasta and be

Really like a thick goulash type of meal we’re going to call it one pot lasagna okay since my water is boiling this thing Cooks everything so fast I will link it down below if you’d like it is amazing I also have the toaster from the same company we’re going to add

In about that much pasta it’s almost half the bag since it is a make aead meal I’m only going to cook the gluten-free pasta for 5 minutes and then take it off the heat and add the cream cheese so that way it’s not overbaked and it doesn’t become really mushy since I’m not

Rinsing this one but you can also make it on the side if you want to it’s personal preference that’s a great way to also make it but this just makes it so it’s an actual one pot meal okay I’m taking a heat off of this but adding my

Cream cheese and then putting a lid on it and setting it aside and cream cheese wise I didn’t taste this before putting it in but I tasted the pasta and it kind of blew me away like I’m so surprised at how much I like it I’m using about half

The cream cheese the flavor is there it needs a little more salt for my preference but this is actually really good I’m glad I tried something new I think I’m just getting tired of my regular protein sources so I’m really happy with this so I’m just going to leave the kind of

Cream cheese like this and I’ll um stir it again in a little bit but it’s off the heat we’re going to put the lid on scooch you back to the side in the back ooh that’s so hot hold on I’ll I’ll let it sit back here for

Just a couple of minutes check on it but I don’t want those noodles to overcook since this is going to be a make aead meal definitely give this one a try like honestly this took me less than 10 minutes to put together and I feel like

It’s so good I will definitely make this again and I think I’m also going to try to make it with lentils and see which I like better so let me know which one you’re going to make lentils or the impossible let’s check on this pot it’s been sitting for a few minutes yes

Definitely looks completely done cheese is nice and melt this looks good I’m very happy about this I’m not going to serve it up because I’m actually going to just store it in this pot I’m just going to put it in the garage refrigerator and we can

Eat it as we want throughout the week super good I I would say this is like four to six servings depending on how you serve it up perfect a meal in 10 minutes that’s what I call Fantastic the second recipe is like a Mediterranean pasta salad and I keep seeing ones

Similar to this and I think it sounds so good espe especially to make a head and have in the refrigerator the secret with the brown rice pasta is to only cook it for 5 minutes so it’s super alente so once it completely cools down and you put it in your refrigerator it’s not

Super soggy the next day and make sure you rinse it thoroughly because that will also help stop the cooking because you’re rinsing out the starches so you have English cucumber which is my favorite the brown rice penet pasta a tomato the three layer hummus from Trader Joe’s you can use any hummus you

Want or you can substitute for chickpeas like Mash or you can make your own hummus completely up to you I will leave a hummus recipe down below from my blog if you want to check that one out and then the olives which I know a lot of

People don’t like olives so you could definitely leave this out but I feel like the olives just add that nice touch to make it super Mediterranean but like I said if you want to substitute this for chickpeas or take it out all together and then we also have the

Tomato if I don’t already say so but I feel like this is going to be so good adding banana peppers to this would be so so good and there’s also a vegan feta at Trader Joe’s which I’ve never ever tried also be really good in this but I

Decided to keep it super simple today and just go with these five items moving on to the next one the Mediterranean pasta I have my water here and we’re just going to bring it to a boil and then add Salt Okay pasta is cooked rinsed back in the pan and we’re just going to add everything in olives cucumber tomato and I’m going to do about half of this hummus that should be really good this one is so delicious let me know if you’ve had it give it a good stir and

This is going right into the refrigerator because again I’m making this one ahead and I want the noodles to be cooled so they’re not continuing to cook you can add a little bore salt or garlic which I’m going to do you can add a little Dill if you want too this is

Looking Perfection another meal in less than 10 minutes literally all you have to do is chop the tomatoes and chop the cucumber and that’s all the work that is involved and you could add some red onion to this you could add some chickpeas you could add this to a salad

When it’s cold looks delicious feel like the hummus just like makes it look kind of mushy but looks so good recipe number one is that famous Barbie pasta if you don’t know what I’m talking about it’s bright pink but we’re adding an element of protein I was going to do tofu but

The other recipe calls for tofu and I want to try to switch it up and I’ve done it with both I’ve done it with tofu and I’ve done it with beans and I actually prefer it with beans because of the texture but you could do either so

One can of Northern beans a package of beets these are already steamed and peeled you could definitely do canned beets too I just get these at Trader Joe’s they’re super good and then I like to use gluten-free pasta but you can use anything that you like this totals right

Around the $5 Mark give her take depending on which brand you buy if you do can if you do a different pasta this could be less or more just depending but so simple so easy and you’re going to have like the perfect meal in under 10 minutes all right let’s talk seasoning

Salt basil oregano this is actually powdered garlic not garlic salt it just has the wrong label but that’s all I’m doing for the pasta just to kind of give it a little bit of flavor but I’m not going to go overboard cuz I really want to taste the beets if you don’t like

Beets you could probably switch out for something else but if you’re making this it’s probably cuz you like beets also roasting your beets gives it a whole new flavor so if you haven’t tried that definitely do So while my pasta water is coming to a boil I’m going to take my beets and my beans pop them in my vitam mix and blend them until smooth when the pasta is finished I will drain the pasta put it back into the pot add my sauce and make

The pasta Perfection literally this takes 10 minutes because it takes three minutes for my water to come to a boil 7 minutes for it to cook I’m doing the sauce on the side it’s the perfect summer meal add a salad if you haven’t made like a vinegar salad I will type

Out a recipe and put it in the description box it’s my favorite and I’ve been having it like every single day for weeks but like a vinegar salad it’s so good with this I don’t know what it is but it just adds element to this

Dish and you can add it for a couple of dollars I did want to quickly add in case you are wondering why my my pasta isn’t as bright Barbie pink as the pictures from the inspo is because I did beans when I made it with tofu last week

It was super bright because the white added to the beads anyways just in case you’re curious but you can also do like a feta cheese I’ve seen I’ve seen people do like a vegan or if you’re not vegan or if you’re just plant-based whatever I’ve seen people do a cream cheese so it

Just really depends on what you’re looking for as far as flavorings go you can basically add anything I just wanted to add a little earthy tones to go with the beets but definitely roasting the beets which is what I did the first time adds the most impact on flavor and I

Could have done that this day but this is actually a meal I’m making ahead and I would actually recommend making extra sauce which the sauce I made today I had enough for two of my pastas so I would actually recommend making extra sauce putting it in a recycled glass jar

Popping in the refrigerator and or even the freezer you could leave it for up to a week in the refrigerator or you can mark it and probably leave it up to 6 months in your freezer definitely recommend making extra ahead of time it’s so good it’s so earthy the flavor

Is just like amazing again if you don’t like beets you might not love it but hey maybe this would be a way that you would like beets but again I feel like with a vinegar salad M it’s so delicious and it’s so quick and so easy definitely give this one a try Meal number two another super simple recipe three ingredients less than $5 a bag bag of rice cost me about $2 I am using less than $1 worth so you can definitely switch up use brown rice it’s just as inexpensive you could use a lentil if you want but I’m kind of doing

Like a spin on a b Bowl tofu is the most expensive thing here it’s right under $3 and I got the broccoli for A1 on sale so total if I was even using all the rice it’s still so inexpensive and just a large volume meal but like I said I’m

Only using about a dollar worth of rice a little less than that I like this high pro protein tofu from Trader Joe’s also I’m on a mission to eat more protein because that is what my doctor calls of me as we are doing the IVF process right

Now and then there’s a little bit of protein in the broccoli as well I like to add broccoli to my meals when it’s roasted or steamed so we’re going to roast these two we’re also going to add a really awesome glaze and then I’m just

Going to cook this up over the stove top if you have an air fryer Perfection these two are Perfection the air fryer I don’t have one currently but I’m looking at getting a new one and I asked for recommendations on my last video and if you have another recommendation let me

Know everybody seems to like theirs for a certain reason and I’ve added all of them to a list and I’m carefully deciding on which one to purchase so let’s get these chopped up get the glaze on them get this on the stove top this will take about 20 minutes total which

Is still a great time you’re not wasting a lot of time in the kitchen especially in the summer but if you have an air fryer like 10 minutes Okay for the glaze you’re just going to need a bowl AI secret ingredient in this one is brown sugar you don’t have to use this if you don’t want to but we’re doing really Tangy so we want that brown sugar to have the sweetness I add about 2 tablespoons and unfortunately my brown

Sugar has gone hard well it’s like not hard but it’s like kind of dense so I’m just going in like this with it but it’s about 2 tablespoons this really makes the glaze trust me just add it I really like this mustard you can use any mustard that you

Have sitting around but I think it adds such a nice Tang because of the vinegar the white vinegar and I’m using about 3 tablesp of that I like things a little bit spicy leave this out if you don’t like spice you could also instead substitute a soy

Sauce or a Coco aminos instead of using the green dragon sauce and I’m only using about a teaspoon because we don’t need it to be like overly spicy little salt little garlic if you want to thin this down a little bit you could more so than it is

You could definitely add the Coco aminos or soy sauce or a little bit of water I like it a little bit thicker because I feel like it coats the tofu so good if you haven’t noticed I haven’t done very many budget videos recently because personally with the way I’ve been eating

I’ve been working on surviving surviving and to me taking on one more element with food and really in general with life right now just because there’s so much going on for me that the realistic budget of like taking my food one more step has just not been happening but I

Do have a couple budget videos on deck for August just something different I want to do a full week of meals on a certain budget and if you guys have any amounts you want me to use like $20 per person $30 for the entire week or x

Amount of dollars per meal let me know down in the comments below I’ll see if I can be helpful to you and kind of abide by those but I do have more coming it’s just been me surviving over here and that’s why you haven’t seen so many all

Right I don’t even bother tossing everything in the glaze because I’m going to stir it halfway through and I find that to be the best option for me so I did put some on the broccoli and some on the tofu I’m going to roast this at 425 once my oven is preheated for

About 20 minutes halfway through I will stir it you can also add sesame seeds after which I’m going to do for the broccoli cuz I feel like it just adds a little bit of just extra but we’ll put this with the rice as soon as it’s done

My timer just went off and this is actually my lunch so I am so excited and your tripod for the day is actually my injection medication so you guys are just part of my journey this smells so good it smells sweet and tangy and I literally cannot wait to dig into this

For lunch my husband will be home in a little bit so I’ll wait to serve up his but there’s nothing better than in my opinion roasted tofu a veggie and stove top rice I could eat it for every every single meal the only reason I don’t is

Because I share meals on YouTube and I feel like that would get so boring but let me know your favorite way to eat tofu this meal so good like hit it on repeat all summer long if you have an air fryer and if you don’t make perfect

Stove top rice and it’s intimidating to you check out the recipe down below it’s so good thank you so much for joining me for today’s recipes like I said I hope you gave this video a huge thumbs up subscribe if you’re not already and I

Will see you soon in a brand new video bye-bye