Meal Prep

Meal Prepping

How’s your week going? It’s still cold here in Indy but Spring is coming!! This morning I noticed the sun was up (YAY!!) when I left for workout. That feels amazing!

I’ve had some of you ask how I do my food prep for the week, so I thought I’d share my routine with you. There’s no “one way” that you need to do this. Experiment to see what works best for you and your schedule and then go with that! The main point is that you do it. I know I sound like a broken record but it’s really important to make sure you have good food ready to eat when you’re hungry. Prepare for success!

I generally prep on Mondays. Sundays work well for a lot of people but I have all my kids and grandkids over on Sundays for a big Sunday dinner so I don’t even worry about it until Monday. I usually prep enough protein for 3-5 days. I’ve found that trying to do 7 days doesn’t work for me because my schedule changes a lot and I don’t want to waste it if I’m not home to eat it. Making enough protein for 3-5 days allows me to skip a day and still be able to use what I’ve made. I will go ahead and prep my raw veggies for an entire week.

On Monday I make a meal list. This week I’ll have:

-Chicken with spiral butternut squash

-Fried cauliflower rice

-Chicken tacos

-Chicken Ranch Wraps

–Overnight oats

–Raisin Toast

–Garden-Lite Cranberry Muffin

Breakfast is easy-peasy. I get 2-3 airtight containers out and prepare my Overnight Oats and refrigerate. I use Dave’s Killer Bread for my toast and these Garden-Lite muffins are my favorite. I try not to use a lot of pre-packaged items but these are pretty healthy and very good. These muffins are frozen so they’re easy to keep on hand.

You’ll want to prep whatever fruit you plan to have as much as you can. I have grapes almost every week. I’ll wash and take the grapes off the vine and store in the frig. If I come in and want something quick, I can grab a few. I also keep pears washed and ready.

I start with 3 chicken breasts. How I cook them depends on what I’m having, so this week I baked them. I simply season them and bake them for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. While they’re baking I’ll start on the veggies. I pretty much eat the same thing (or different versions of the same thing) so it’s usually chopping about 1-2 cups of onions and a green & red pepper. Butternut squash comes already spiraled so it’s ready. I buy whole mushrooms and cherry tomatoes and they get prepped when needed (because they last longer left whole). Riced cauliflower is a staple I keep in the freezer so it’s ready to go when I need it. Once your veggies are washed and chopped you can put them in airtight containers and store in the fridge. I don’t like to cook the veggies ahead, they’re fresher if you do it as needed and it doesn’t take very long at all to sauté them.

When it’s time to pull your lunch or dinner together, you’ll be able to do it quickly. Like I said before, I like to cook my veggies as needed instead of cooking them ahead because everything is fresher. It only takes about 5-6 minutes to sauté them, and after that’s done I’ll add the chicken to the skillet to warm it and let it cook with the veggies. I RARELY warm my cooked chicken in the microwave. In my opinion, reheating chicken in the microwave ruins it.

That about covers my general routine.  If you have any questions, feel free to message me. Have a great rest of your week & happy “Meal Prepping”!