Meal Prep Like A Boss!

Meal prepping! For some individuals the mentioning of those two words sends goose bumps up their arms and they get all giddy. They associate meal prepping with being organized, calm and prepared. Me... I associate it with "something else to do on my to-do list." Though I don't get goosebumps and get all excited about it, I too associate it with organization, being prepared and, most importantly, staying on track.

The meal prepping party is something I've just recently arrived to in the last year. I know... better late than never though, right?! FINALLY, after New Year's, I decided to listen and I actually realized my food intake mattered so much more than I was giving it credit for. You see, growing up I ate crap. I was a competitive dancer, a high school cheerleader and a competitive cheerleader. At least two of those sports going at all times. Every Monday and Wednesday was at least 4-5 hours of vigorous tumbling and activity. With gamedays mixed in, tumbling privates and then 2 more hours of practice Saturdays. In College it was 2-3 hours every day, plus games on weekends in football season, extra workouts, and multiple games a week during basketball season. So what I ate, mattered little. I never had to worry because my metabolism worked like a non-stop clock. So when it finally slapped me in the face that even though I've been making "healthy-ish" food choices in the last few years, portions mattered and dialing in exactly what my body needed was of the most importance.

So meal prepping became the forefront of one my goals this year. Within 6 weeks of doing a nutrition challenge at my gym, I lost over 10 pounds, many inches, and a large percentage of body fat. Seeing that, my excuses of age, supplements, and portion sizes went out the window. Now, just because I saw results and knew meal prepping and planning was important, it didn't make me like it more. So I hunted for "EASY" meal prepping ideas that I could replicate weekly that I a) liked and b) wouldn't take alot of time to get ready.

When thinking of topics for my next blog post, this one stuck out in the forefront of my brain. Why? Because more than likely MANY people don't like meal prepping, OR say they don't have the time. So the bulk of the rest of this post is EASY, FAST go-to meals I use on the reg for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. My hope is that this will resonate with you also and you MIGHT just get a few new meal ideas out of it.

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Breakfast

Egg Muffins (similar to ones pictured below.) I eat these on a daily basis. Why? Because they are awesome! For the last, probably 9 years, I drank an Advocare protein shake on my way to teach school. It was "routine!" It's healthy, it's balanced and it got me through the morning. When starting my "meal prep madness" back in January I rotated to the egg muffins. Come to find out, eating an actual breakfast revved my metabolism up even more and I think was a contributor to my weight loss. Another reason I love these is because I can make anywhere between 12-18 of these with 1 16 oz. package of lean protein and I've got easily portionable breakfasts ready to go for more than a week. I cook them all, put them in a container, then take out 2 every morning and heat them up and eat quickly. Pair it with a little fruit and "Voila!!!" There are about a million different "egg muffin" recipes you can search for anywhere. Here is one simple recipe with variations listed. I still keep Advocare meal replacement shakes in the pantry for a back-up when I don't have time to meal-prep. https://lilluna.com/healthy-egg-muffins/

Lunch and Dinner

All these examples take little time to prepare and when you make a recipe, you could get more than just one meal out of it.

Chicken Fried Cauliflower Rice

Pictures above are from my kitchen when meal prepping on Sunday. You can see portion amount, ingredients and final product in pictures. I made two lunches out of this and paired with a few more carbs (Fruit or carrots) for energy when eating this week. It's SOO GOOD!

Example recipe here: https://www.skinnykitchen.com/recipes/amazing-skinny-chicken-fried-cauliflower-rice/

Sheet Pan Pesto Chicken

Pictured above are actual pictures of meal prepping from Sunday. This made two meals for me. I found a squeezable pesto sauce and mix it with some olive oil rather than fresh pesto. There is also a vegan pesto sauce in a jar I've used as well that I like. You could do any vegetables you wanted with this recipe. I try to do as many green ones as I can but I'll also throw in squash here as well. It's a little more fat than I need in this recipe so I don't fix this one every week. My hubs loves this one for dinner; and those of you who know him know he's a picky eater. So that tells you just how great it is!

Original recipe here: https://www.staysnatched.com/sheet-pan-chicken-sweet-potatoes/

Sheet Pan Chicken and Sweet Potatoes

There are many different versions of this one. So many in fact, that you can't go wrong. My go-to favorite recipe is here. https://www.staysnatched.com/sheet-pan-chicken-sweet-potatoes/ However, you could really do anything with this. Don't like brussel sprouts? Add broccoli or asparagus instead. Don't do sweet potatoes? Sub in red or new potatoes and use less of them. When I do any chicken sheet pan recipe I buy chicken tenders because they are all ready cut and cook quickly in 20-25 minutes. So then I don't have to cut them into chunks and I also know that about 2-2 1/2 chicken tenders equals my needed amount of protein in a meal. I also cut up my sweet potatoes into smaller chunks so they cook better. I rub olive oil on all things in the pan, sprinkle my favorite seasoning on the chicken (I've got that pictured below) and put a little cinammon on the sweet potatoes for a sweet flavor. On the brussel sprouts I do some Himalayan pink salt, pepper and then a little basalmic vinegar. Each has it's own section of the pan rather than mixed like pictured above. Then I mix when I portion it out into containers after I cook. You could easily sub in fish or pork instead of chicken for any sheet pan recipe as well!

Crack Slaw

Pictured from meal prepping on Sunday

This one is SOO good, SOO easy and SOO fast to prep. I actually got three meals out of this one. I do 1 lb. of ground turkey with mine so it is super lean and I top with sesame seeds. I also do 1 bag of frozen cauliflower with 1 bag of coleslaw to add carbs. It's honestly still not enough carbs so unless it's a "non- crossfit" day, I will add some extra carrots or fruit to pair with this to give me enough energy until snack. Unless you LOVE spice, take it easy on the Sriracha! That stuff gets spicy quick!

Example Recipe here: http://onlywwrecipes.com/low-carb-crack-slaw-recipe/

My Favorite Go to Spice is Paleo Pink Powder! I discovered it at some point this past Spring and just love it! So does my hubs! We put it on or in just about everything. It has all my favorite "go-to" spices included in it.

Side note: When meal prepping this past Sunday, I prepped the Pesto Sheet Pan Chicken and put in the oven at 425 for 20ish minutes. While it was cooking, I made the Chicken Fried Cauliflower rice. In 25 total minutes I had 4 lunches/dinners ready to go for the week! I then made the Crack Slaw recipe in 5 minutes and had an additional 3 meals. In less than an hour I had a ton of lunches and dinners ready to go! Total work time was 1 hour with cleaning dishes, letting food cool, and putting into containers. Meal prepping like a boss!!!

I encourage you to like and share this post with others who also have a love/hate relationship with meal prepping. I also encourage you to comment on this post with your favorite meal prep recipes to share with others!