easy plant based meals i've been making on repeat | iron & fiber rich recipes

Welcome back to a new video. If you watched last week's video, you saw that I shared some information regarding my health. I found out that I have low iron. I saw a comment that was like, Shakayla, I'm surprised that you have low iron considering the way that you eat. And you know what? I'm honestly, I was shocked too. However, I haven't been as intentional as I should be with ensuring that my body can absorb the iron. Clearly, it's not working. I've kind of taken a step back and just reevaluate the way that I've been eating and working to be more intentional with how and what I eat. In this video, I wanted to share a few recipes that I've been making on repeat that are one balance, but two have a decent amount of iron in them. The first meal that I wanna share in this video is going to be a beet green and carrot top pesto pasta. So we're gonna put the pesto together first. We are gonna be using some beet greens. This is just the top of the beets. I recently started cooking with them. I didn't know that you could even cook with them, but I sauteed them the first time. And then I was like, ooh, this will probably be really good in a pesto. And then I have some carrot tops here, which also are edible. And I just never really thought to use them in a recipe until recently. Also have some basil, because what is a pesto without basil? Throw in a few garlic cloves, some lemon juice. And then typically pesto would have Parmesan in it. I have been using nutritional yeast as my Parmesan substitute and it works wonderfully. And then I also like to add cashew butter in my pesto. And then as far as the other veggies for this pasta, I'm gonna be using some zucchini, which is also in season. So if you see it, get it. It should be reasonably priced and tastes really good. I'm gonna cook up a shallot. And then hopefully I don't lose you here, but I've been loving adding peas to my pasta. Listen, don't knock it till you try it, okay? Because it is really good. Oh, let me show you which pasta I'm using. I'm using this brand of pasta. It's a nutrient dense pasta. It has a ton of vitamins, a good amount of fiber, and it also has iron. So that's the pasta we're gonna be using, but let's go ahead and put this pesto together. And this entire thing is edible and we're gonna use it. And the reason why I'm making the beet green and carrot top pesto is because I learned that beet greens have a lot of iron in them. They actually have more iron than the actual beet itself. Try to get the greens as dry as possible before you start to make the pesto. So I'm just gonna add everything in here. And I have the garlic cloves. Gonna go in with my nutritional yeast, some lemon juice, have some salt, black pepper, and then cashew butter. Now we're just gonna pulse everything. Push those sides down. So I just added the oil in there and I'm gonna let this blend some more. This just smells so good. That is really good. Yum! I could literally just like grab a cracker and eat this. I'm telling you, trust me. Next, I'm gonna go ahead and slice the zucchini. You can just slice this with a knife if you want. The last time I did it, I sliced it with this edge of the cheese grater box. If I had a mandolin, I would use a mandolin. If you have a mandolin, feel free to use it. I don't, so what I have, I just make it work. And before I forget, I'm gonna go ahead and grab some of this pasta water because we'll likely need this to thin out the pasta. So I'm gonna start by cooking up the shallots. I just cooked those down for maybe about three minutes and then I added in the zucchini. I seasoned that with salt and black pepper. And what I'm trying to do here is to get the zucchini to kind of brown a bit. I don't want it to be crispy or overly brown, but I did want to get some of those brown bits on there. After cooking that up for a little bit, I added in those frozen peas. And then once the pasta was done, tossed that in there. I forgot to mention this in the intro, but with all of these meals, they have a good amount of iron and vitamin C, which in order for my body to absorb the iron, I also have to focus on vitamin C. In between the pesto, the additional veggies, and the pasta, I got about six and a half milligrams of iron and almost 30 milligrams of vitamin C per serving. That pasta is so good. Oh my gosh, that pesto was everything. I did go back and sprinkle a little bit of black pepper and salt on the pasta after I tasted it. I am gonna top the pasta with this VioLife Parmesan. I've also added these spicy fried shallots, garlic, and chilies. I showed these in my last video, in my last what I eat in a week video. I really like them. They're so good on this pasta too. They add a nice crunch, but then also a little spice. And I almost forgot to squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on here. Adds a little bit of vitamin C and some brightness to the pasta. Doesn't this just look so good? I got a little bit of everything on this first bite. And again, I already know that this tastes good, so I'm just doing this for you. Mm, it is so, so good, so flavorful. By the way, this shape of noodle is so perfect because the peas and the pesto kind of got caught inside of the noodle. So you get a little bit of everything in one bite. But listen, this is so good. You can find the recipes for all of the meals I'm gonna share in this video in the description box. So be sure to check that out. But I hope you enjoy the rest of this video. Time to eat dinner. So this next meal, I could seriously eat this every single day. That's how good it is. It is a kale and white bean pan fried tofu salad. Now, of course, this salad has to have a leafy green. And the one I'm going with is dino kale. Absolutely love using dino kale so much. And then we're going to add some cannellini beans. This is going to make up a good amount of the iron in this recipe. I've also challenged myself to incorporate beans more often. I want to at least eat a serving of beans a day. We're gonna see. I also have some tofu in here. This is just super firm tofu. I just have half a block in here because I use the other half, honestly, to make this salad. I think it was like two days ago. And then I have some nutritional yeast that we're gonna add on there. I also like to add a cucumber. Then I have my last little bit of hemp seeds in here. Also going to add half of an avocado, a shallot. And then of course, squeeze some lemon on there, which will help my body absorb the iron because of the vitamin C. So let's go ahead and put this together. Okay, and I'm gonna start with the tofu. Just gonna cube that up. Okay, I just added the tofu to a bowl. I'm gonna add this like coconut amino soy sauce substitute that I have. And I'm gonna let this marinate while I prep everything else. And I honestly will be using all of this kale because I just love it so much. And I just want a really big salad. If I could get this, I'm done. Okay, and I'm just going to wash the kale really good. If you have more time, you can let this tofu marinate for about 30 minutes or so. It's probably been about 10 for me and I'm okay with that. So what I'm gonna do is just take it, transfer it to this bag. And I like to transfer it to another bag because since there's still liquid in here, what I found is that if I add the seasoning in here, it'll just clump up. It won't stick to the tofu. Now for this, you kind of got to measure with your heart. I'm gonna add some nutritional yeast, have some organic umami seasoning, which is completely optional. I just like the flavor that it adds. I'm gonna do just a little bit of salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper. So it's seasoned up really well. And just shake it up. And I'll have these bags linked in the description. I get a lot of questions about it. They're just reusable bags that I order from Amazon. But yeah, it's seasoned up really well. In the past, I would add cornstarch to the tofu to make it extra crispy. But nowadays I'm trying to dial it back just a little bit, just for personal reasons. So what I have found is that by coating it this way and then cooking it on the stove, it tends to get crispy. I mean, it can get crispy in the air fryer if you want to use it, but I've just been doing it on the stove and it works. So that's what we're gonna do. I have my stainless steel pan heating up back here. So while we wait for that to heat up, I'm gonna go ahead and finish prepping everything else. Beans are drained and rinsed. Switching over to cut up my cucumber. Also gonna cut up this shallot. Back to the kale. I'm gonna dry it off in my salad spinner. And you can always adjust this to use however much kale you like. You don't have to use the exact amount that I used. Look at all that water that was left on there. I don't plan to eat out of this bowl, but I am gonna massage the kale in this bowl. But I wanted to get this as dry as possible so that when I go to massage it with this avocado, which I'm just using half of an avocado, everything sticks to it. Also gonna add some lemon juice. I like to massage it with some black pepper. And for good measure, some nutritional yeast. If I wasn't recording, I would have just used my hands to massage this. I don't have any food grade gloves. So I'm just gonna use a salad tosser to kind of get up in there. Also by doing this to the kale, I'm essentially softening it, which is going to help it be more digestible. And I did add a little bit more nutritional yeast because I just love nutritional yeast. I also like to add just like a splash of maple syrup. You don't have to, but I like to. And a little baby bit of Dijon mustard. Those just work really well combined in here. I feel really good about where the kale is. So I'm about to just cook up my tofu and put everything together. I sprayed my pan generously with some avocado oil and I'm gonna cook the tofu for about three to five minutes. And while the tofu is cooking up, I'm gonna add the remaining ingredients to our salad. So we have the cucumbers and shallots, also those white beans. Add in the hemp seeds. And please forgive me, I forgot to mention this, but I have some roasted sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds that I'm gonna sprinkle in here as well. All right, that's all mixed together. The tofu is done as well. And I also like to serve this with a little bit of sauerkraut. And if you've seen my previous videos, you know I love sauerkraut down. So I'm gonna add a little bit of this on the side. And because sauerkraut is fermented cabbage, it's full of probiotics, which is really good for the gut. And here's our kale, white bean, and pan-fried tofu salad. Doesn't this just look so good? Let's go ahead and dig in. It's always so good. You gotta get a little bit of everything on the fork. The salad has about half or a little over half of the iron that I need on a daily basis. So this is a great way to get it in, but I'm also getting a lot of fiber and protein. So a well-balanced meal, mm-hmm, so good. All right, I just got back from the gym and I'm hungry. So I'm gonna make this one kind of quick. I have been thinking about these since yesterday. This is my take on Marry Me Chickpeas. I've shared this in a previous video, but it is definitely a recipe that I continuously go back to. This is a good old faithful, and it is packed with a ton of nutrients, including iron. Now, I soaked some chickpeas for about 48 hours, and then I cooked them on the stove. If you have canned chickpeas, you can also use those, but I had a ton of dry chickpeas in there that I needed to use up, so that's what we're gonna use. I also have spinach, some cherry tomatoes. This is a bell pepper that I've clearly been using. In my original recipe, I don't use bell pepper, but this is gonna add some vitamin C in addition to the cherry tomatoes. So I thought, why not add it, especially to help my body absorb the iron from this meal? I'm gonna dice a red onion, mince some garlic, nutritional yeast, of course, I use it all the time. So I'm gonna use fresh and sun-dried tomatoes in oil. Then I'm also gonna go in with some vegetable broth, as well as some coconut milk. I wanna say that is it. I'm so hungry. So let's go ahead and put this together. And I do wanna mention that you don't have to have low iron or even be concerned about your iron levels to enjoy these recipes. Maybe you just want to enjoy some well-balanced meals, or maybe you're looking to get more fiber in your diet. And these recipes will seriously help you do just that. But let's focus on these marry me chickpeas. I started out, as you saw, by dicing up my veggies. I'm cooking the onions and red bell peppers on the stove. After that, I added in some of those chickpeas, and then some roughly chopped sun-dried tomatoes. In my recipe, you will see that I recommend you use the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes. If you use oil, it just adds another layer of flavor. But I also seasoned it up with some garlic powder, smoked paprika, a Greek seasoning blend, and then I added in the coconut milk and vegetable broth before stirring this really well. After that, I added in the spinach and just let that cook down until it was wilted. And then I added in some nutritional yeast. Now, at first, I wasn't gonna add any dairy-free cream cheese, although my original recipe does call for it. But after simmering it for a bit, I was like, girl, what the heck? Just throw it in there. So I added in a heaping tablespoon of the dairy-free cream cheese. This recipe was also three servings, and each one had about six milligrams of iron and close to 63 milligrams of vitamin C. And I do have to mention that based off of what I've learned, consuming too much iron is not a good thing. So please, please ensure you get your iron levels checked so that you know how much you should be consuming on a daily basis. Okay, y'all, it's finished. I'm gonna serve this with some more spinach because I've really just been enjoying spinach lately. And then I also cooked up some quinoa. So I have some of that in here, which also has a good amount of iron. Then I have the Marry Me chickpeas. All right, now, seriously, doesn't this just look so delicious? Dear Lord, thank you for the meal of vitamin C. Let it be nourishing for my body. And in Jesus' name I pray, amen. This looks so good. First bite. It's amazing every single time. I'm so excited to sit down and just enjoy this, but I did wanna go ahead and close this video out by saying thank you so much for watching this video. And if you are someone who has also been dealing with low iron like myself, I hope that these recipes are going to be helpful for you while you work to get those iron levels back up. I'm not here to give any medical advice. I'm only here to share what I've researched and what I've learned and what has been working for me. With that being said, thank you again, and I will see you in next week's video.