Veggies, Mushrooms/Onions & Brown Rice Meal Prep

We all know it's important to eat our veggies, but how many of us are actually doing it? I know I wasn't until recently.  The surprise is, I really like it!  I look forward to eating my vegetables, especially a variety, and prepping them is really easy.   

I'm eating a good 2-3 cups of veggies per day and typically prep a big bunch (my husband eats them too) so they are ready to eat right away. On Monday evening, I made a colorful variety of steamed veggies, brown rice, and sautéed onion and mushrooms to add to my lean protein meals.  Be warned, this makes a lot of veggies, so you may want to half it. 

Veggies = appx. 17 cups 

• broccoli (2 bunches)
• cauliflower (1 head)
• squash (2)
• zucchini (2)
• carrots (1 cup)

Mushrooms & Onion 

• mushrooms (16 oz pre-cut) 
• onion (1)

Brown Rice = appx. 10 (1/3 cup servings)

• brown rice (1 cup) 

After washing and chopping my veggies, I put them into a large pot with about 2 inches of water.  Put the lid on and let the water come to a boil and steam for a few minutes.  I don't let it boil too long because I don't like mushy veggies and these cook quickly.  Then, I strain the veggies and rinse in cold water to stop them from cooking.  I don't use any salt or seasoning. 

 

 

The mushrooms are pre-sliced, so I just cut up an onion and put it in a skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil and let them sauté, uncovered, until nice and brown.  Just turn every once in a while.  They take a good 10-15 minutes to cook on medium to medium-high heat.  At the end, I poured in about a tablespoon of blackberry balsamic vinegar, but you don't need to.  

For the rice, I don't follow the package directions because I never thought it tasted right, so I found a way of cooking brown rice on the web (I don't recall the site) that recommends rinsing the rice (I use one cup dry rice), then add it to a lot of water (maybe 4 cups) and boil uncovered for about 15-20 minutes- I keep tasting it until it tastes cooked through.  Then drain and rinse again, returning to the pot with the heat off for a few minutes.  I don't use any salt or seasoning. 

I prepped and cooked everything at once.  The picture below is just before I put the lids on the veggies. 

And below is everything all cooked. 

It's really nice to have this prep done so you don't have to think about it for the next few days at least.   It takes a little time on the front end, but then no time later.  :) I haven't made this large a batch before, so I'm not completely sure how long it will be before it's gone (or stays good).  

Here's the food in action the next day at lunch and so you can see how I store them.  I just popped this in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. 

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