(mellow contemporary music)
- Hello my friends.
Welcome back to my channel.
If you're new here my name is Alyssa.
Today we have got three delicious recipes
which are meal prep
friendly, they are vegan,
and they also are perfect for
a weeknight family dinner.
So for those of you who
do have kids out there,
these are the perfect
easy vegan dinner recipes
which are definitely
sure to feed your family.
And if you don't have kids,
you're still gonna enjoy these recipes.
They're easy to make, they're delicious,
and they're plant based.
So I am excited to be
bringing you today's video
in partnership with my
friends at Thrive Market.
You guys know I partner up
with them on a monthly basis
and I love Thrive Market.
I think they are perfect
for people who are busy,
short on time because you
can order everything online
and it gets delivered right to your door.
It's fast and free shipping
if you order over $49.
They have great deals so
you're also saving money
and of course they are the place,
like my one-stop shop,
for filling my pantry.
So we're using a bunch
of their ingredients
in today's recipes and as always
I have a special deal for you.
If you are new to Thrive Market
you can get 25% off your first order
by clicking the link that
is in the description box.
So make sure to click that
link before you go shopping
so that you can take
advantage of that deal.
Otherwise, all of these recipes
are either linked for you
in the description box below
and they're up on the blog
or I have put details about
the recipes down below.
So make sure to just check
out the description box.
Otherwise, let's go ahead
and dive in to our recipes.
Our first family dinner is
my quinoa mac and cheese.
It starts by boiling
some butternut squash,
so it's three cups of butternut squash
that you just add into a small saucepan
and then you can top that with water
and just cover it by an inch of water.
And then bring it to a boil
and let these just simmer
for about 15 minutes until
they are fork tender.
Then you're gonna drain them
and transfer them to a blender.
To the blender you're gonna
add your nutritional yeast
and a little bit of almond milk
and then we will blend that up
until it is smooth and creamy
and this is going to be our cheese sauce.
If you want to taste it and
adjust by adding like salt,
pepper, or maybe a little lemon
juice that's totally fine.
And then once you have that
smooth just set it aside
and we're going to be using
cooked quinoa as our base.
So I love Thrive Market's quinoa,
I've talked about it before.
I'll link it down for you below
but it's just four cups of cooked quinoa
which is about a cup, maybe
a little bit more of uncooked
and then you'll top that
with the cheese sauce.
Then just add a coup of
shredded vegan cheese
or whatever kind of cheese
you want, stir it all together
until it's completely combined
and we'll transfer that into a baking dish
and just kind of smooth
it over, press it down,
make sure that it's
kinda evenly spread out
through that dish.
And to finish it off I
just like to sprinkle on
a little bit of extra vegan cheese,
kind of adds a little
nice cheesiness on top
and then we're just gonna
bake this for about 25 minutes
in a 350 degree oven until
the cheese is melted,
everything is warm,
and the cheese on the inside is melted too
so it's really nice and cheesy.
And you can let it cool for a little bit
and then serve it up.
This also makes a really
fabulous meal prep recipe.
You can just pop it in the
microwave and reheat it.
And like I said earlier,
you can definitely adjust
the taste of the sauce.
This is a five-ingredient recipe
which is why the ingredient
list is paired down
but if you wanna add more flavor
go ahead and adjust
the sauce a little bit.
But really this is such a
yummy, kid-friendly meal,
so delicious, packed
with plant-based protein,
packed with fiber,
and secretly sneaking
in some butternut squash
which you can't beat.
The next recipe we have is a Tuscan stew
and we're gonna use
butternut squash again,
you could also use potato,
we have white beans,
we have Thrive Market's
fire roasted tomatoes,
we have onion, kale, garlic,
and we're gonna start by
sauteing our garlic and onion
in a large stockpot with
a little bit of olive oil,
just kind of cook that until it softens
maybe two to three minutes or so.
Then you can add in your seasoning,
so we're gonna use Italian seasoning,
which again you can buy on
Thrive if you're interested,
salt and pepper.
Give it a quick stir to get
the spices nice and toasty.
Then you'll add in your butternut squash
and if you don't wanna
use butternut squash
you can also use regular potato,
which might be more kid
friendly or sweet potato.
And then again give it a quick stir
and we will add in the fire
roasted tomatoes from Thrive.
I love fire roasted diced tomatoes.
It adds a really nice smokiness
and diced tomatoes are just
so good in this recipe.
So add that whole can in there
and then we're also gonna add in
a can of cooked white beans.
If you don't have white beans
you could also use kidney beans,
you could use chickpeas,
you could use lentils
if you wanted.
Give it a quick stir,
top it with some broth,
water, and quinoa.
And quinoa again is gonna
add a really nice texture,
also gonna increase the
protein count a little bit.
Give it a quick stir
and then you will bring this up to a boil.
Once it's boiling you can
cover it and simmer it
and it will cook for about 30-ish minutes.
Once it's been cooking
for about 30 minutes
you're gonna add in two to
three maybe four cups of kale.
You could also use spinach or chard
or whatever kind of green you wanted.
And if you do do this with kids
I would recommend just copping
it up finer than I did here
because it was a little bit hard to eat
and little kiddos might not like that.
So chop it up a little bit finer
if you are serving this for kids
and just give it a quick stir
and you'll cook it again for
another five minutes or so
until the kale is completely wilted.
Then remove it from the
heat and to finish it off
I like to stir in some nutritional yeast,
some extra salt if you need it,
as well as some lemon juice,
which really kind of
brightens up the flavor
and really brings out all of
the deliciousness in this soup.
So again, this is one of those recipes
that definitely serves a crowd.
It might not be like the most kid friendly
but I feel like it's still kid friendly
because it doesn't have a lot
of spice, it has good flavor.
You could just chop up the vegetables
a little bit more finely to
make it easier for them to eat.
And like I said, again
it's meal prep friendly,
it freezes well, and it
just tastes really good
and it's so warm and cozy.
And then our final recipe
today is my quinoa pizza
and this is a veggie-loaded quinoa pizza
with a twist at the end.
So to start we are going to
add our Thrive Market quinoa
into a small bowl or Pyrex dish.
Top that with enough water to
cover it by at least one inch.
I like using hot water
because you don't have
to soak it as along.
And then just let this soak
for at least eight hours
if you're using cold water.
You can get away with like one hour
if you're using hot water
and you have a really
high-powered blender.
Then you will drain it and
rinse it in a fine mesh strainer
and add that quinoa into a blender.
Follow that with some hummus,
some water, olive oil,
baking powder, and some salt
and you will just blend this up
until it is smooth and creamy.
And the texture
is kind of gonna be like
a thick pancake batter.
It's really smooth, you wanna make sure
that you just blend,
blend, blend, blend, blend
until it gets smooth.
And it will be kind of
like pourable almost
but here is what it looks like.
And then from there you are
going to just pour this batter
directly onto a
parchment-lined backing sheet.
I have a circular pan that
came with my toaster oven
which is what I bake in.
If you don't have a circular
pan, which most people don't,
you can just use like a
regular square baking sheet
and just spread it out in a square pan
and just form it into either circles
or you can do it into
a big rectangle pizza.
Spread it out in an even layer
and then we'll pop this
in a 425 degree oven
for about 15 minutes.
Once you have that you can take it out,
flip it over directly onto the pan,
and cook it for another
10 to 12-ish minutes.
From there we are going
to add on our toppings.
So I love this tomato sauce.
It's their Tuscan pepper
spicy tomato sauce.
It's so good with pizza.
It's also really good with
pasta but it's awesome on pizza.
So we're gonna use some of this past sauce
as our base and just spread
it out in an even layer,
top that with a little layer of cheese,
and then just use
whatever veggies you want.
I did some sliced tomato
as well as some finely chopped
up cauliflower florets.
Also did some red bell pepper.
And then for us
we don't necessarily like
the same thing on our pizzas.
I love zucchini, Matt
does not like zucchini.
So I did half and half, which
is my little twist at the end.
This is a great thing to do
if you have family members
who don't like eating the same thing.
So we did half of the pizza with zucchini,
which was for me, and the
other half had meat crumbles
from Beyond Meat
and it was just like the
perfect combo for us.
And then I like to sprinkle on
a little bit of extra cheese
on top so that the toppings
really make sure that they
stick on there nicely.
You'll pop it back in your
oven for about 10 minutes or so
until the cheese is melted
and the toppings have cooked
and are nice and soft.
And then you can just let
it cool and slice it up.
I let it cool for about five
minutes before I slice it
and you'll see when I pick
up a piece and show you,
but it holds onto all of
your favorite toppings.
And like I said, this is a
really great option for kiddos
because it's super healthy,
really high in protein,
it's naturally vegan which is awesome,
really easy to make, you don't
have to worry about mixing
and rising and all that stuff.
And then if you do want to customize
it's also really easy to do that
so you could do the half and
half, you could do a quarter,
you could make them into
personal sized pizzas.
Basically you can just
have fun with the batter
and form it into whatever shapes you want
or whatever sizes you want,
top it with whatever you want.
So you can really have fun with it.
And then if you have kids
that are old enough to cook
also you can get them involved
by having them help with the toppings.
So either way, pizza is always
a win in my book, I love it.
I love this recipe.
It's one of the most loved
and made recipes on my site
and if you guys haven't tried it yet
you have to because it is so, so yummy.
And there you have it my friends.
I hope you enjoyed today's recipes.
I can't wait to see which ones
you end up making for dinner.
Like I said, these are
easy vegan dinner recipes
which are perfect for your family.
These recipes are sure to
be kid friendly I promise.
There's things like pizza,
I mean how can kids
say no to pizza, right?
And they're all really
healthy which is a bonus.
And if you don't have kids, don't worry,
they're still definitely
friendly for you as well.
You are going to love them.
I also wanna thank Thrive Market
for joining us in today's video.
You guys know I love Thrive Market,
I shop there every single month.
They're a service
that I personally have
been using for years
and I think they're amazing.
I just checked my like
lifetime savings balance
in my account and I have saved over $2,000
since I became a member and
my average yearly savings
is nearly $800.
So for me it's a no-brainer
and if you are not yet a member
don't forget you can get
25% off your first order
by clicking the link that
is right below this video.
Otherwise, thank you guys
so much for being here.
I really appreciate you taking the time
to check out my channel
and watch my videos.
If you have any questions
about the recipes,
any suggestions moving
forward, anything like that,
the comment box is always open.
So please drop your comments down below.
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Give this video a thumbs
up if you enjoyed it
and I'll see you guys
in the next one, bye.
(mellow contemporary music)
