What I eat in a week: feel-good fall meals 🍂

I'm starting this week off like I often do with a mini meal prep. Essentially I take 30-ish minutes to prep a few condiments that I can use to make my meals later in the week tastier and easier. So first up is a simple roasted nut and seed mix featuring chopped walnuts, pepitas, and sunflower seeds that I tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper. I like to use parchment paper so that cleanup is a total breeze. It needs about 12 minutes in the oven at 350 Fahrenheit, tossing halfway through until it is perfectly golden and toasty. This stuff will stay good in the pantry for a few weeks, but if I'm being honest, it never lasts that long because I like to put it on pretty much every salad, grain bowl, or soup situation. It's nutty, it's crunchy, and it is just very delicious. Next, I whipped up my creamy balsamic vinaigrette. I feel like balsamic vinaigrette has gone out of style in favor of trendier Tik Tok dressings like Green Goddess, but I think this oversight is a mistake and it is one that I would like to rectify. So I start my version with a bit of shallot and garlic, and if you want to avoid big chunks, grating them is the way to go. Then of course, you need some balsamic vinegar. It helps to have a good quality aged balsamic, but it doesn't have to be the most expensive option. I think this one from Whole Foods is an amazing deal. A big spoonful of Dijon mustard for the dressing, plus, you know, a little extra for the chef. Maple syrup helps to balance the acidity and sharpness here, and then of course I added some sea salt, black pepper, and extra virgin olive oil. So you can just seal your jar and shake it up vigorously to emulsify, but if you have an electric frother like to make lattes, this actually helps blend everything super well, but it's obviously easier to clean this than a whole blender. This stuff is drinkable. So good. Tart, savory, a little salty, a little sweet, and I like putting it in a jar because now it is ready to store in the fridge. No other dishes needed. And last but not least, I made a batch of my whipped tofu. If you saw the What I Eat in a Week video I did this summer, you're probably already familiar with this one. It's super creamy, deliciously savory, and high in protein. It's just like the perfect dip or spread. I tossed a couple garlic cloves into the food processor to quickly mince them, then crumbled in a block of extra firm tofu. For a double umami boost, I added a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast, as well as some white miso. It helps if you get it inside the food processor. Lemon zest and lemon juice add some brightness here. And then of course, my very best friend extra virgin olive oil makes this so luxurious. And then you just need some salt and pepper. From there, it's simply a matter of blending until it gets really creamy. It did want a slightly fluffier yet looser consistency, so I added a tablespoon of ice water. This is actually what I do when I make hummus, and it works great here too. Just look at that texture. It is perfection. And this stuff will stay good in the fridge for a whole week. So I've got my mini meal prep complete. This took like 30 minutes. And of course, these aren't meals that I can eat on their own, but they are going to make my meals for the next several days so much more delicious and easy. I've got some crunch. We've got some tangy salad dressing. We've got some creamy deliciousness. So I'm going to wash up all the dishes, and then I'm going to get started on dinner. I started dinner by scrubbing a few honey nut squash that I had been itching to use up because they are one of my favorite fall vegetables. Oops. As I was saying, honey nut squash, one of my favorite fall vegetables. It's like a sweeter, smaller, more adorable version of butternut squash. And it roasts up not only beautifully, but also quickly. For now, I am treating them super simply, just olive oil, salt and pepper before they get popped in the oven. But I will give them a bit more flavor later on. Meanwhile, I filled up a pot of water and got some black beluga lentils going. I love this particular variety because they are bold and a little peppery in flavor. Plus, they hold their shape well, so they're not going to get mushy on you. I am making more lentils than I need for this particular dish so that I can use some leftovers during the week in a couple different ways. While the squash and lentils were doing their thing, I used the rest of my downtime to make a miso glaze for the squash. It's just a generous amount of miso, some apple cider vinegar and tamari, a little bit of brown sugar, and some grated garlic. It's savory, it's sweet, and it's got a nice little zingy kick to it. After 20 minutes in the oven, I took out the squash and generously brushed that glaze all over. To help set the glaze and let it caramelize onto the squash, I put it back in the oven, this time at 500 degrees Fahrenheit, for five minutes. When it was time to plate, I started with a generous layer of the whipped tofu, followed by the gorgeous glazed squash and some lentils, a little fresh parsley, a drizzle of good olive oil, and a few spoons of that roasted nut and seed mix. Look how cute this is! I'm so delighted by this beautiful fall package, and I cannot wait to dive in. I've never tried this, so we shall see. I think it's going to be good, but you never know. This is almost the perfect fall dish. It basically melts in your mouth with the super tender squash and the whipped tofu, but you get a nice little bite from the lentils and the walnuts and the pepitas. The only thing missing, however, is a nice big crusty slab of bread, so you can just like scoop it all up and just shove it in your mouth. I'm gonna go check my freezer now to see if we have any bread, because it would be delicious here, and I will see you tomorrow. Cheers! This morning started slow and cozy, just how I like my Fridays. Per usual, I made a mug of my Indian spice tea, which is just a gentler way to start the morning than with caffeine. Every time I make this tea, I get questions about what's in it, so I'm just gonna let you know. It's one teaspoon each of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds, and fenugreek seeds, and then you steep it in boiling water for 5-10 minutes, and that's it. A bit later, I did go back for a caffeinated morning beverage, this time matcha. While I love the taste of coffee, I really, really do, matcha is my everyday caffeine of choice because it provides a nice, calm, steady energy. After doing a bit of work and planning out my content for the next few weeks, I decided to get started on breakfast. I recently saw that the CDC declared watercress to be the healthiest vegetable in the world, so I've been trying to be a responsible adult and eat more of that. I made a quick watercress arugula salad with the balsamic vinaigrette from yesterday and some hemp seeds for protein. I'm not a scientist, but I'm pretty sure I just added a couple years to my life expectancy. Then I got a generous shmear of the whipped tofu, also from yesterday's meal prep, onto a slice of this gorgeous whole wheat seeded sourdough from my local bakery before piling on some of the salad. Added a few pickled onions for some color and a bit of tang, and I had a little excess salad, so I just added that to the side. This gets two thumbs up from me. It's delicious, it feels indulgent even though I'm eating arugula and watercress, and with the creamy whipped tofu on sourdough, I mean, how bad could that be? Later in the morning, I decided to bake pumpkin bread because one, I'm headed to my parents' house tomorrow and I wanted to bring something everyone can enjoy, and two, because it's fall and this is what you do in fall, you make pumpkin bread. I started with the vegan buttermilk, which is just plant milk and apple cider vinegar, and that helps to keep the pumpkin bread tender and light. And then whisked together the dry ingredients, just all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. The real superstar of the recipe is the homemade pumpkin spice, which has a generous amount of cinnamon and cloves, plus ginger, allspice, and nutmeg. Okay, so this is whole nutmeg. This is from my aunt's tree in India, and it's got this hard protective shale. You just crack it, and then this is the stuff you can buy at a grocery store. Always buy whole nutmeg instead of pre-ground. So much better. It's more nuanced but fresher, obviously, so buy the whole stuff. Pumpkin bread can be quite dense, especially vegan versions, so to give it some lightness and lift, I lightly whipped some aquafaba until it was foamy. And aquafaba, by the way, is just the liquid from a can of chickpeas, and it is a fantastic egg substitute in baking. Then I mixed some oil and brown sugar together before combining that with the rest of the wet ingredients. The whipped aquafaba, a can of the best pumpkin puree, shout out to Libby, the vegan buttermilk I made earlier, a little maple syrup, and a touch of vanilla. I gently folded the dry ingredients into the wet, and then it was ready to bake. One must always taste one's batter. Excellent. Got my loaf pan lined with parchment paper. These little flaps are helpful for when you pull it out of the oven, but they kind of go everywhere when you're pouring the batter in. Get yourself some little clips like these. And now it stays in very nice. But of course, once you pour your batter in, take these off, don't bake them. You'll be very sad if you do. This baby needs 55, maybe 60 minutes in the oven. So in the meantime, I cleaned up and got started on making the icing, which is really simple. A few tablespoons of softened vegan butter, the same amount of softened vegan cream cheese, then fold in the organic powdered sugar. And once it was fluffy, I seasoned it with vanilla extract, a pinch of salt, and a little lemon juice to keep things nice and tart. This frosting is incredible. It is so lovely with the tart zinginess. It's not overly sweet. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to frost this because we're going to my parents tomorrow, not today, but just know that it's delicious. For lunch, I decided to make a stuffed pita using some of the leftovers from last night's dinner. I mashed up the flesh from some roasted honey nut squash with a drizzle of tahini and a glug of olive oil, folded in some of the leftover cooked lentils for protein and fiber, plus a bit of maple syrup and champagne vinegar to round out the flavors. I wanted to add more veggies to this meal, so I peeled some carrots with my julienne peeler and chopped up a Fresno pepper because I like things a little spicy. To serve, I spread a layer of that whipped tofu inside a whole wheat pita and then stuffed it with that lentil squash mixture. And I made a last minute decision to grab some broccoli sprouts and I mixed those into the carrots and the chilies, and then just a super simple dressing of my best olive oil and vinegar. My favorite kind of lunch is really something like this where I can remix some leftovers and it's done in 10 minutes or less. And this has so many good things going for it. It's got the creaminess from the whipped tofu and the mashed squash, nice chewiness from the really good quality pita, and of course that nice crisp freshness from the vegetables, a little kick from the Fresno chili. There is one downside, these carrots are a little too long. I should have cut them smaller, but otherwise. All right, I'll see you later. After lunch, I spent some quality time with my computer, uploading footage for this video, writing the voiceovers that you're currently listening to at the moment. Very meta. And I also finished off the last of a dark chocolate bar because what's an afternoon without a little chocolate pick-me-up? For dinner, I made a very hearty kale salad that is packed with everything I love about fall. I know salad for dinner doesn't sound exciting, but please watch because it's a really, really good salad. I started off by making my simple baked tofu, which is one of my go-to easy proteins. Once I pressed the tofu, I chopped it into cubes and tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper, followed by a light coating of potato starch, which is what helps the tofu crisp up in the oven. While the tofu baked, I prepped the rest of the salad. First up, a lot of kale. Like a lot. Well, technically not this much kale for just today, but since I had some downtime while the tofu was baking, I prepped extra kale so I could just have more salads later in the week. Kale can be a little, let's say, difficult to eat. So first, I tore it into small pieces and then I massaged it with some olive oil and salt to make it nice and tender. I also sliced a sweet tart apple nice and thin and tossed that in with the kale. I wanted some chewy sweetness in this salad, so I grabbed some dried cherries. Oh, what is that? Well, that was a fail. Luckily, I always have medjool dates on hand, so I chopped up a couple of those instead. I added in more of last night's lentils, plus a few items from yesterday's meal prep, the balsamic vinaigrette and the roasted seed and nut mix. And I added some vegan feta to make this salad even more fun. The tofu was just about ready when I finished this, so I popped that on top as well. If you think salad is boring, you're boring. Okay, that was mean. You should try the salad instead because it is so good. It's gonna make you fall in love with kale. The balsamic vinaigrette really just like punches everything up. Got that nice sweetness from the apples and the dates, creaminess from the feta. I'm so excited to eat an entire head of kale. So I'll see you tomorrow night. Tomorrow morning. Whenever. I'll see you whenever. As I get older, I'm trying to do more things that will be better for my future self. Things that I can easily add into my life that don't feel like a chore or a restriction. So I started wearing a weighted vest a few times a week on my morning walk because it's been shown to help women with maintaining bone density and strength. How's that vest feel right about now? Feels great. My shoulders don't ache at all and I look super cool. You look like you're wearing a backpack but missing the pack part. And as a Saturday morning treat, I picked up a soy latte from our local coffee shop. And when I got home, I finally got around to frosting the pumpkin bread I baked the day before. There is something so satisfying and maybe even meditative about spreading frosting on a cake. I also added some pepitas on top for a bit of crunch and I'm not gonna lie, I really, really wanted to eat a slice but I thought it would be rude to deliver half-eaten pumpkin bread so I made my own breakfast instead and leftovers came to the rescue. I spread that gorgeous creamy whipped tofu over toasted sourdough and then added some of the lentils we had leftover from dinner for extra protein and I smashed them down with a fork so they wouldn't fall off the bread and topped it all with a handful of watercress. A nice drizzle of olive oil and champagne vinegar to season the greens and lentils plus flaky sea salt to finish. Light yet satisfying and of course delicious. Where are we going? Oh uh to my parents' place. Cousin's visiting and I'm sure there'll be lots of food per usual. Beautiful fall day. Never tell what time of year it is here. For lunch, my mom served pav bhaji which I will admit is not the prettiest dish. It is a little messy kind of like a sloppy joe but it tastes amazing. It's basically mashed vegetables with lots of warming Indian spices. You serve it with soft buttery bread. It just it hits every time. If you'd like to see a video with my mom's recipe, let me know in the comments. So after lunch which featured my mom force-feeding me pav bhaji and eating pumpkin bread for dessert, I'm in the mood for something a little more vegetable forward. I'm gonna make the buttery charred cabbage recipe from my cookbook and I am filming a little bit earlier than I would normally make dinner just so that you can see it when it's not super dark. Cabbage is a wildly underrated vegetable in my opinion and this is one of my favorite ways to prepare it. So I cut the cabbage into wedges and seared them in a hot cast iron pan until they were caramelized and charred. The charring really adds this nice complexity of flavor in addition to that natural sweetness you get as the cabbage cooks down. I set that aside and got started on the spiced tomato sauce. I bloomed some cumin seeds and olive oil to bring out their nutty aroma and then added sliced shallots and garlic followed by a lovely warming spice mix which makes the dish feel cozier and even more perfect for fall. I stirred in some canned tomatoes that I crushed by hand and mixed in a bit of maple syrup just to give the sauce a subtle sweetness and then nestled the cabbage wedges back into the pan. I also added a can of chickpeas and just braised everything together on the stove until the cabbage was melt in your mouth tender and the sauce had thickened a little bit. In the meantime I chopped up some parsley and whipped up one of my go-to easy condiments, a lemon tahini sauce. This recipe is also in my cookbook and all you need is good quality tahini um where were we? The juice from one large juicy lemon, some grated garlic, salt, cumin, fresh cracked black pepper, and a bit of maple syrup. It's ridiculously creamy and rich and fluffy if you mix in some ice water and I would be happy to pour this stuff on pretty much anything. I served this gorgeous cabbage with some brown rice that Max cooked in the instant pot while the cabbage was searing plus the chopped parsley and the tahini sauce. Probably not going to actually dinner for another 45 minutes an hour because it's like 5 30 p.m but it looks so good I need to have just a little taste test. I remember why I called the recipe buttery charred cabbage because even though there's no butter in there it's so buttery it melts in your mouth. This is like my dream fall winter comfort food and I am so excited this is my dinner tonight. After dinner we went for our usual evening walk and decided to grab some ice cream. You're sniffing the weed? It just looks nice with the sun back. The only vegan flavor they had in stock was pumpkin spiced latte so I settled for that. Very interesting texture. That's actually good. I can taste cloves and allspice in there. I gave it a 7 out of 10. Too sweet though I'm gonna take it down to a 6. I feel like I'm gonna drop it down to a 5. It's it's just too sweet. So there is a house on this street that has the most incredible Halloween decorations. I'm not like a big Halloween person but they take it over the top. It's kind of spooky even for an adult so let's go. Sunday morning started with a pre-workout protein shake with soy milk and yes I am using the same I used for my balsamic vinaigrette. I washed it though so it's not like weird. Cheers. I don't love this stuff but it helps fuel the workout and I can drink it quickly so it'll be done quickly. After my workout I decided to make my chickpea scramble with garlicky spinach and yogurt sauce. I'm not trying to break a record for cooking speed for Sunday brunch so I just did all my prep ahead of time. I dried off the chickpeas, sliced some garlic, and made the spice blend which is just a mix of coriander, cumin, onion and garlic powder, a little cayenne, plus a pinch of kala namak for a subtle eggy flavor. By the way I'm using the word scramble pretty loosely here. I just pulse the chickpeas in a food processor until they're kind of scrambled into pieces before they turn into a paste and I saute them in a hot pan with olive oil until they're golden brown and a little crisp stirring just occasionally so they have a chance to get nice and crunchy in spots before adding the spice blend. While the chickpeas cooked I made my yogurt sauce which is just creamy coconut yogurt, lemon juice, salt, some chili flakes, and today I decided to add a touch of za'atar. Once the chickpeas were golden I spooned them over the yogurt sauce and then quickly sauteed the garlic in the same frying pan and added a nice big mound of baby spinach before plating everything together and I made this as one big sharing plate for Max and I completed with a big scoop of sauerkraut for some gut healthy goodness and sliced sourdough. Since it was Sunday morning we took our plates outside and had a very leisurely breakfast while we read our respective novels and yeah I know it looks like summer but I promise it's actually late October. San Diego just kind of looks like this year round. For lunch I kept it really simple with leftovers from the night before. I just reheated the buttery charred cabbage in a frying pan until it was hot and to make it a bit heartier I added some leftover cooked lentils, the gift that keeps on giving this week, and I served it over a bed of brown rice with the tahini sauce and I am pleased to report that the cabbage leftovers are just as tasty as they were the night before. After lunch we decided to head out for an afternoon hike and again there might be golden and orange and red leaves on the trees where you live and it might be a brisk 49 degrees here it still looks like and feels like summer. It was actually so hot that we had to cut our hike shorter than expected because I was genuinely afraid that we would get dehydrated. For dinner I made a crispy rice salad of sorts. This is my favorite way to use up leftover rice and turn it into something a bit more special without very much work. I started by heating a frying pan pretty hot with some of this algae oil which has a super high smoke point and lots of good healthy fats. Added the leftover brown rice from yesterday's dinner with a bit of salt and I let this cook with minimal stirring since the goal is to get the rice golden and a bit crunchy. I also had some leftover cabbage to use up so I sliced it thinly and stir-fried that until it was starting to soften. Added some chopped garlic and then some of the leftover baked tofu from two nights ago I believe. Continuing with the theme of repurposing leftovers I grabbed some massaged kale and tossed that with leftover balsamic vinaigrette. Tossed in the crispy brown rice and stir-fried cabbage and tofu plus a few tablespoons of roasted sesame seeds because I really like my crunch. Let's get a bite of this big ol' bowl. This is really good especially for how much kale and cabbage is in here and I think it would have been slightly better with the tahini dressing instead of the balsamic vinaigrette but I already ate the tahini dressing with dinner yesterday and with lunch today so I kind of want to just mix things up but more importantly Max already tried this and gave it two thumbs up which is a huge win in getting him to eat his vegetables so I am very pleased. I had been waiting a literal week for this pear to ripen and tragically it turned out to be quite spoiled so I grabbed an apple instead and dusted it with cinnamon and ginger and a spoonful of almond butter. A sweet but nourishing way to end to the weekend. I started my morning with a steamy hot cup of this adaptogenic coffee alternative slash mushroom tea. I have no clue if there are real health benefits to it but it does have cacao and fermented tea, it tastes good, and it gives me a lot of energy so I am rolling with it. And then I decided to make some tempeh breakfast tacos. I found this recipe for tempeh scrambles slash tempeh hash from my recipe archives dating back to 2020 and I don't think I've made it since then so I was curious to see how this recipe held up after four years. I crumbled a block of tempeh into really small pieces and I almost always thinly slice or finely crumble my tempeh because it just makes it less dense and easier for the tempeh to absorb sauces. I also chopped some garlic and the jalapeno and whipped together a smoky spiced sauce with chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, plus a bit of tamari and agave nectar. After sautéing the garlic and jalapenos I added the tempeh for about five minutes followed by a bit of tomato paste just to make it richer and more flavorful and then the sauce plus a few dashes of liquid smoke to just give it that extra smoky flavor. Once the tempeh was cooked I mashed up a ripe avocado with lime and salt and then heated up some tortillas in a dish towel in the microwave for some very delicious taco action. A layer of avocado, the tempeh, and some pickled onions for tang. I've never tried this recipe so I'm very curious to see how it turned out. It's smoky and spicy and a little sweet and honestly anything with avocado mash and pickled onions is a win in my book. Even Max, the resident tempeh skeptic, liked this one. For lunch I threw together a very quick bowl of a bunch of leftovers. I started with some massaged kale and added a squeeze of lemon juice to keep things bright and spooned on some leftover tahini sauce plus some reheated brown rice, yet more leftover lentils, and a scoop of whipped tofu, a nice big sprinkling of the roasted seed and nut mix, and for a little color plus a gut health boost some red cabbage sauerkraut. Not bad for three minutes of work. For dinner I made a sweet potato lentil curry and if I can be honest for a second I filmed this at 1 p.m so that I could turn it into a reel for instagram. Such is the life of a food content creator you're always cooking before you're ready to actually eat or you're eating cold food. This recipe is a riff on the red lentil curry from my channel and blog which remains my most popular recipe after six years. So I started with the usual garlic, ginger, fresh turmeric, and serrano peppers and also added some shallots for more flavor. To switch things up from the original recipe I also diced some sweet potatoes for more of a fall theme and a touch of sweetness. Once you've done the prep it comes together quite easily. You just saute the aromatics for a couple minutes, add in the spice blend, pour in your vegetable broth, red lentils, and sweet potatoes, and let it simmer for 20-ish minutes. Then you pour in the coconut milk and peanut butter for lots of richness. I actually slightly prefer almond butter. I'm not a huge peanut butter fan to begin with but it is delicious either way. And then I just tossed in a few handfuls of baby spinach for some green action just until it wilted. Cilantro and a squeeze of lemon for a bright fresh flavor. How good does this look? When you see this on the gram be sure to like, share, comment, and follow for more. This is the perfect fall curry. It's got those melt-in-your-mouth sweet potatoes and those warming Indian spices. And you can find this recipe plus all of the recipes from today's video in a free pdf guide. Just scan this QR code or click the link in the description box below. I'll see you in the next video. Bye!