Bai's Bowls #5: Salads That Slap! 🥗

Week 5 of Bai's Bowls Meal Prep! 🥳

Welcome to another delicious week of Bai’s Bowls. Your go-to series for building budget-friendly, nutrient-packed, plant-based bowls in under two-ish hours.

Bai’s Bowls are all about keeping meal prep fun, flexible, and totally customizable so you never get stuck in a food rut. These bowls are your blank canvas to mix and match, letting you switch things up every week while staying on track with your health goals. Think vibrant, colorful bites packed with the rainbow of fresh fruits and veggies that spring and summer bring. It’s meal prep that celebrates abundance and variety, helping you enjoy every bite while nourishing your body with the best seasonal goodness. No boring meal preps here… just endless possibilities to keep your fridge full and your taste buds happy.

This week’s Bowls are all about spring salads with personality. We’re layering crisp greens, colorful veggies, and bold toppings like smoky tempeh bacon, herbed tofu feta, and crunchy sunflower seeds. With dreamy dressings like tomato vinaigrette and sunflower ranch in the mix, every bite is fresh, satisfying, and anything but predictable. It's your spring salad era, get ready to vibe out!

As a reminder, we’ll be posting these every other week (On Thursday or Friday), so you’ll have plenty of time to stop at the store, meal prep, and have everything ready for the next work week! My goal with this series is to transform the way you look at meal prep, using ingredients you already have while getting confident sticking to your budget. Every other week we’ll have a different vibe, and use different ingredients so you’ll never get bored and will always have a fridge full of delicious things to eat. It’s self care… in the form of food!

What’s inside the “Bai’s Bowls” meal plan?

• A curated meal plan for two, changing week by week with rotating whole food plant proteins, grains, veggies, greens, sauces, and toppers.

• Detailed recipes and instructions for each meal prep element.

• The complete grocery list for each week.

• A full prep list on how to make the most of your time to master the art of multi-tasking in the kitchen.

• Examples of the customizable options (the bowls!) you can make with each meal prep.

This week’s mix is:

• (2) Proteins: Tempeh Bacon + 3 Bean Salad

• (1) Grains//Carbs: Crispy Rosemary Quinoa

• (3) Veggies: Steamed Beets & Carrots + Roasted Asparagus + Raw Sugar Snaps Peas

• (2) Greens: Arugula + Pick your favorite greens! (I love kale or romaine)

• (2) Sauces: Classic Tomato Vinaigrette + Sunflower Seed Ranch (White Wine Vinegar Base)

• (2) Toppers: Spiced Sunflower Seeds + Herbed Tofu Feta

What you can make throughout the week with this one meal prep:

• BLT ranch salad or wrap.

• Arugula tomato salad with steamed veggies, crispy quinoa, and tofu feta.

• Crispy quinoa bowl with 3 bean salad and toasted bread.

• Kale and tempeh bacon salad with tomato vinaigrette.

• Spring veggie wrap with ranch.

• + so many more! Scroll to the bottom of this post for examples!

So many of us grew up thinking we had to be a certain kind of person to cook, like it was reserved for people who grew up with a grandma in the kitchen or people who love reading cookbooks for fun. In reality, cooking isn’t some exclusive club (although we are inside a pretty awesome one right now), and anyone is invited. If you’ve been telling yourself you're “not a good cook” or that you don’t know where to start, I want to challenge that voice. You don’t need anyone’s permission to show up in your own kitchen and make something nourishing and delicious.

Starting where you are is enough. Whether you’re working with a single pan and a shaky cutting board or you’ve got the full-on dream kitchen, what matters is that you’re showing up. Cooking is personal. It’s creative. It’s messy and weird and beautiful. And you’re allowed to figure it out one ingredient at a time. Try stuff. Burn a few things. Season too much one day, not enough the next. It’s all part of it.

So don’t let anyone’s judgment - or your own inner critic - keep you from starting. The world doesn't need more “perfect” chefs. It needs more people who aren’t afraid to try, to nourish themselves, and to enjoy the process, mess and all.

That said, I wanted to highlight a very important part of this entire meal prepping series and it’s the actual Prep List!

Why?? Because it’s not just a list. It’s your whole roadmap for the 2ish hours in the kitchen. Use it as a chef would. We prep. We plan. We scribble on paper towels and tape things to cabinets and build systems that help us flow. This is you doing the same. Your kitchen is your space, and this prep list is your co-pilot. Use it. Make it messy. Make it yours. It keeps you focused, and it’s weirdly grounding. Writing things down, crossing them off as you go…it’s kind of magical. It turns this big, overwhelming “meal prep” task into tiny doable steps. It’s also super validating. Like, yes, I did roast those veggies. Yes, I am crushing it today.

I really believe the key to actually enjoying cooking (and not dreading it) is having a plan that still gives you room to play.That’s what this prep list is. It doesn’t lock you into a rigid schedule - it gives you a structure you can lean on when your brain is bouncing in six directions. It’s like having your past self show up with a hug and say, “You got this.”