Are you looking for a new breakfast idea after eating oatmeal for the last 30 days in self-isolation? Are you realizing it’s time to upgrade your pillow game since you’re spending so much time in bed? Want to listen to me rant about my complicated relationship with sleep? You’ve come to the right place!

Please feel free to scroll down past all my chit-chat if you just want the recipe!

I have always had a conflicted relationship with sleep. I love sleep and I’m really good at it, but I also feel guilty waking up late (for me, that means any time after 9:30-10 am) because I feel like I should’ve been using that time more productively, and I feel like I’m starting my work day playing catch-up (especially because some of my clients are on the east coast).

This has actually been exacerbated during quarantine because, while I normally “let” myself sleep in more on the weekends, it currently feels like the weekend doesn’t exist. And, because I could technically sleep in every day of the week, I battle my conflicting desire to sleep and desire to be productive damn near every morning.

The fact that I’m nearly getting sick of my usual breakfast hasn’t helped either, so I decided to change things up just like I changed up my pillows before all of this craziness started.   

The cheap pillows I purchased at Target got flat seemingly quickly (in about 9 months—or maybe that’s normal?), so I knew it was time to upgrade. I’d previously tried Crown Goose’s duvet cover (click here for my full review), and they kindly offered to send me two of their goose down pillows as well.

Let’s just say that my sleep game seriously improved after adding these pillows to my bed. First off, having four pillows on my bed seems way more legit than having two (and is also ideal if you have any guests over). Second off, these pillows are perfectly fluffy and firm. Not like those hotel pillows that look fluffy until you put your head on them, and not like those foam pillows that are low-key hard and not my thing.

You can purchase your own Crown Goose pillows here, because now seems as good as ever a time to improve your sleep game.  

After you’re done with a good night’s rest, might I recommend trying my Beyond Sausage, Kale, + White Bean Oat Bowl recipe?

Here’s what you need for 1 serving:  

• 1.5 TBS olive oil
• 3 stalks of kale or 1.5 cups of kale (or, just fill your pan with an even layer of kale)
• ½ cup red onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ½ cup oats (I use these because they’re gluten-free also)
• 1 Beyond Spicy Italian Sausage (or any sausage, but these are my favorite plant-based sausages by far)
• 1 cup vegetable broth OR 1 cup water
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Red pepper flakes
• ¼ cup white beans (or any beans really)
• OPTIONAL:
• Bitchin’ Sauce, Sriracha, or any other sauces you may wanna add on top  

This recipe, like most of mine, was crafted on one random day in the kitchen when I was sick of my usual breakfast, so feel free to adjust as you want for your preferences/for what’s currently in your kitchen, I think you can play with this a lot and it’ll still turn out good!

Here’s the recipe:

1. Add 1.5 TBS olive oil to a large pan and turn to medium-high heat.

2. Add garlic and red pepper flakes (just a few shakes is fine) to pan.

3. Once the oil is bubbling a bit, add the red onion and kale and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes to taste (just a few shakes of each should be fine). Stir the kale so that it’s evenly coated in the oil and spices, then leave it be for two minutes.

5. Stir/flip the kale pieces a bit before leaving it to sit again for another 2-3 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, wash and drain your beans and add to kale. Then, start cooking the sausage and the oatmeal according to instructions. Instead of making my oats with water or milk, I used vegetable broth to give it more of a savory flavor.

7. Flip your kale one more time. It should be crispy and even a little burnt in some places. If it looks good, you can turn the heat off or low while you prep the bowls.

8. Top your bowl of oats with kale, cut-up sausage (feel free to add the extra oil/juice from the pan), the white beans, and any sauces or other toppings you would like. I added bitchin’ sauce, Sriracha, and fresh herbs to mine. This would also be good topped with nutritional yeast, avocado, or even some kind of red sauce.

9. Enjoy + start your day off on the right foot (or, if you intermittent fast like I do, start your afternoon on the right foot).

If you want to see this visually, check it out here on my TikTok. And check out more of my recipes below if you’d like:

Easy Vegan Meal Prep: Green Goddess Bowls

Gluten-Free Vegan Meal Prep: Italian Zoodles With Chickpea Meatballs

Comin’ at you with another gluten-free vegan meal-prep recipe!

This recipe was inspired by Brandi Doming, creator of The Vegan 8. She shared her meatless bean balls recipe with me and I ended up making one week’s lunches around them!

Below is Brandi’s recipe for the meatless bean balls, and if you keep scrolling you’ll find my recipe for the zoodles that I paired them with.

Meatless Bean Balls:

PREP: 25 minutes

COOK: 38 minutes

YIELDS: 5 servings

3⁄4 packed cup (120g) finely diced red onion

1 (15-ounce) can low-sodium chickpeas, drained, rinsed, and patted dry, or 1 1⁄2 cups cooked (255g)

4 tablespoons (60g) tomato paste

2 tablespoons (30g) vegan Worcestershire

1 to 2 teaspoons (2 to 5g) mild chili powder

1 teaspoon (3g) smoked paprika

1⁄2 teaspoon (3g) fine salt

1⁄4 teaspoon (1g) ground black pepper

1⁄4 cup (40g) fine cornmeal

1⁄4 cup (40g) brown rice flour

Parchment paper

1. Add the onion and 3 tablespoons (45g) water to a small stainless steel pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the water is gone, cook for 3 more minutes, stirring constantly, to brown the onions a bit. This will give the balls a lot of flavor. Turn the heat down if the onion is browning too quickly.

2. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

3. Add the cooked onions, chickpeas, tomato paste, and Worcestershire to a food processor, and pulse several times or just until the chickpeas are broken up into smaller pieces and have a rough, chunky texture. Don’t puree this. You will need to scrape the sides after the first pulse. If there are whole chickpeas remaining, then mash them with a fork so no whole chickpeas remain. Set aside.

4. Add the chili powder, paprika, salt, pepper, cornmeal, and rice flour to a large bowl, and whisk well. Add the chickpea mixture to the spice mixture; stir and press the mixture together for several minutes until it is well moistened and comes together. Using your hands, form the mixture into a sticky, cohesive ball. You will need to rotate and knead the mixture several times.

5. Scoop 1 1⁄2 tablespoons of chickpea mixture out, and press together to form a ball. The mixture is too delicate to roll into balls with my palms, but I found placing a ball in one hand while pressing and piecing it together with my fingertips worked well. Just make sure each ball is compact and smooth. This will yield 15 balls. Place them on the prepared pan.

6. Bake at 375°F for 15 minutes, flip over, and bake 15 more minutes. Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes so they can firm up. Store any extra in the fridge.

7. If desired, serve with pasta and sauce. Add the desired amount of sauce to a large stainless steel pan over medium-low heat. Add only the balls you want to eat at that time to the sauce and rotate them carefully for 3 to 4 minutes or until heated through. The balls will soften too much if stored in the sauce overnight.

Nutrition per serving: 158 calories | 2.3g fat | 6.3g protein | 29.8g carbs | 5.8g fiber |

5.4g sugar | 519 mg sodium

Ashley’s Notes:

• I used Trader Joe’s Soyaki Sauce to replace the vegan Worchestire.
• I used Trader Joe’s all-purpose gluten free flour instead of brown rice flour and it seemed to work fine.
• I found that this made closer to four servings for me (I ate 3-4  meatballs per serving), but maybe I made larger meatballs than I was supposed to.
• I only have a tiny food processor, so I used it to mash the chickpeas, then mixed the rest with a fork. If you don’t have a food processor, you should be able to do it all with a fork.

Zoodles:

2 packages Pre-Cut Zucchini Noodles (you can also totally make your own, but for meal-preps I’m all about convenience)

1 package of cherry or grape tomatoes

1-2 cans of artichoke hearts

½ teaspoon dried oregano

½ teaspoon garlic salt

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

½ teaspoon black pepper

1 can tomato sauce (I used Trader Joe’s Tomato Sauce)

1 bag of pre-cut broccoli

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and cover a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

2. Distribute broccoli even across sheet pan. Drizzle about 1 TBS olive oil over the broccoli and sprinkle salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne, and oregano on top. Mix to distribute the oil and spices.

3. Cook for 20 minutes.

4. Make zoodles according to package instructions (the ones I bought were microwavable, but you can also make them in the oven or on the stove). Drain and distribute evenly into 4 tupperware.

5. Cut entire package of tomatoes in halves and distribute evenly into the 4 tupperware.

6. Open artichoke hearts can, drain, and cut roughly into bite-sized pieces (1/2s or 1/3s should be fine). Distribute evenly into the 4 tupperware.

7. When broccoli is done, distribute evenly into the four tupperware.

8. Sprinkle garlic salt, dried oregano, crushed red pepper, pepper, and any other spices you may like atop the four tupperware. You definitely can just sprinkle them instead of measuring, but in case you’re a newbie I figured measurements were nice to have.

For meal prep purposes, I waited to do these last two steps until the morning before I planned on eating them, just to make sure the meatballs and zoodles didn’t get soggy. But if you want to do this all at once you’ll probably be fine.

6. Distribute three tablespoons of tomato sauce into each tupperware, mix so that it coats ingredients evenly.

7. Place 3-4 meatballs in each tupperware.

8. When you’re ready to eat — microwave anywhere from 2-4 minutes (this really depends on the speed of your microwave and your tupperware — err on the lower end to start).

Viola! As I’m sure you can tell from the recipe, the meatballs are the complicated part, the rest are super simple. But even the meatballs were pretty simple and not a lot of cutting was necessary (that’s the part that always seems to take the longest IMO). I’m all for a protein source that doesn’t utilize gluten or other sus ingredients, and these meatballs def did the trick!