Low FODMAP Vegan Meal Prep
- Nivi Shaham
- Jun 7, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 14, 2019
This weekend I am embarking on a two day road trip back to my university to attend a rowing banquet. Unfortunately, with traveling comes lots of food issues when you have IBS. In order to combat this, I meal prep like crazy. I prepare meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and more than enough snacks to make sure I'm never caught in a situation without food. I wanted to share an outline of the recipes for the meals I made, in addition to some other ideas for meals and snacks you could use.
Steal Cut Oats
This is definitely the simplest and most self explanatory recipe of all the ones I will be sharing.
To prep steal cut oats I follow the instructions on the package for the microwave. Feel free to use the stove top instructions, although I personally don't taste much of a difference and I didn't want to get another pot dirty. Once it's done I simply move it into the container. When you go to eat the oats out of the fridge, you'll need to add hot water or cold water and microwave it to loosen it up again and return it back to its original consistency. I add lots of toppings to my oatmeal which can be seen in that little circular container pictured. I'm taking with me a low FODMAP portion of peanut butter (up to 2tbs), cinnamon, brown sugar (typically I use maple syrup but I didn't know how that would mend with everything else in the container) low FODMAP portion of walnuts (up to 10 nut halves), hemp seeds, chia seeds, cocoa nibs, and banana. I use a far smaller portion than the full low FODMAP portion for the peanut butter, walnuts, and banana (if its not green). This is to avoid FODMAP stacking as all of these ingredients contain fructans.
Brown Rice Pasta with Tomato Sauce
This meal is very simple and easy to make, and lasts a good few days in the fridge.
To make this meal simply boil your desired amount of brown rice pasta for the time recommended on the package. Then you'll want to drain and rinse it. For the sauce, I use just a can of plain tomato sauce and add my own seasonings to avoid the garlic and onion in store bought pasta sauces. Add your desired amount of sauce (I used half a can for the two bowls) to the pot you boiled your pasta in. To my sauce I add fresh chopped basil, an Italian herb mix, dried oregano, salt, and pepper. Feel free to add or omit anything you like to the sauce. Let it simmer lightly until warm and then add in your pasta. I also add spinach into mine and let it wilt. Once fully incorporated just transfer to your dish! It takes only 20-25 minutes to do, sometimes less, and its a great low FODMAP meal. I topped mine with a few basil leaves and fresh cherry tomatoes.
Seitan and Veggie Stir Fry
This is another very easy meal to make that takes only 15-20 minutes! Seitan is not something everyone can tolerate as many people with IBS have a gluten intolerance. If that is the case, replace it with your vegan protein of choice such as tempeh or tofu.
To make this meal you'll want to start by prepping your veggies. I chose carrots, cabbage, spinach, and yellow squash for mine because those were the veggies I had in my fridge. Feel free to add broccoli, bell pepper, or any other veggie you have. Cut them up to roughly equal sizes. For the seitan, I used store bought strips which I simply separated on my cutting board to put in with my veggies. If yours is homemade just cut it into strips or rounds to add to the pan. Prep a large pan with olive oil (or garlic infused olive oil) and let it heat up on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, lower to medium and add in all your veggies and the seitan, minus the spinach. You can also add your seitan in first, let it brown on all sides, remove it, and add it to the veggies later, but I opted to do it all at once. Add salt and pepper to the pan and move the veggies and seitan around as it heats through. Once its cooked for a couple minutes, add your sauces and some minced ginger. I don't measure the amounts I put in but I put a generous amount of coconut aminos (or soy sauce), then a little less of sesame oil, and just a small amount of maple syrup. You could also mix those sauces with peanut butter to make a nice peanut sauce if you like peanut sauces. Because I plan to have peanut butter with my breakfast oatmeal, I opted for the dish without peanut butter. After its cooked a few more minutes add the spinach and let it wilt. The meal will be done whenever the veggies are at your desired consistency. I like mine to be a little crispy but mostly soft, with wilted spinach, so I just taste the veggies throughout until they've reached that texture. Rice or Quinoa would be a great addition to this dish to make it more filling. I would've made it but honestly I was a little lazy, and anticipated my car snacks would contain enough carbs that I probably don't need the addition anyway.
Snacks
For the purposes of the photo I could only fit a few snack options, but I will be listing out some other snacks I will be bringing with me that are yummy and low FODMAP. Pictured I have an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie which if you eat only 1 or 2 of is low FODMAP, in addition to being vegan and gluten free. This is the recipe I used: https://www.instagram.com/p/BxqMlI8h1lt/. Next to it is a chickpea blondie which again is low FODMAP if you eat only 1 or 2 at a time. Don't be scared of chickpeas because 1/4 of a cup of canned and rinsed chickpeas is low FODMAP! Here is the recipe I used: https://www.erinliveswhole.com/healthy-chickpea-blondies/. Both the cookies and the blondies are really delicious recipes I make time and again for a nice sweet treat. Another snack seen in the picture is a Gomacro bar. They have some great protein bars which are low FODMAP and vegan. I don't know which ones aren't low FODMAP, but to be safe I stick to the bars with ingredients I already know are low FODMAP such as peanut butter and chocolate chip. I purchase my Gomacro bars from Trader Joe's, but you can order them online as well https://www.gomacro.com/shop/macrobars/. Another great protein bar choice is Square Organics protein bars. They have a few great low FODMAP bars (which are also vegan), and they are actually my favorite protein bar out there. https://www.squareorganics.com/collections/all/products/low-fodmap-bundle-48-bars They do sell some of their bars on amazon for a cheaper price so I would recommended ordering from amazon or signing up for their subscription to keep the price down. The organic crunchy rice rollers are a really fun sweet treat that is also low FODMAP. I purchased a box full of these individually wrapped rollers from Costco. They're not super filling but they do help when you have a sugar craving. And the last two snacks in the picture are an orange and a cucumber. I really love cucumbers which is why I eat them plainly as a snack, but I understand not everyone is like that. other great veggies to munch on are carrots and bell peppers. You can dip them in a low FODMAP serving of tahini, or other sauce if you desire. Oranges are naturally low FODMAP and a great fruit to have as a snack. Strawberries, pineapple, kiwi, green bananas, and grapes are also really great low FODMAP fruits you could have as a snack. I will also be bringing with me some salted popcorn and Bamba that I purchase from Trader Joe's. You can virtually get salted popcorn anywhere. Look at the ingredients and just make sure the ingredients only contain an oil, salt, and popcorn. Bamba is an Israeli snack I actually grew up eating that happens to be sold at Trader Joe's now. It only contains 4 ingredients which all appear to be low FODMAP and I have not had problems with it, however I can not say definitively that it is low FODMAP.
Hopefully a couple of these recipes will prove to be helpful when you need to have some meals prepped in advance. In the future, I will measure out the ingredients that I use to make everything clearer, but hopefully you can follow along.
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