Feature Photo Friday


My Feature Photo today is this sweet little girl who is growing up way too fast!

Meal Prepping Tips


I love meal prepping.
I spend two to three hours on Sunday afternoons in my kitchen preparing all of our meals and snacks for the week. It's a sacrifice of time on the weekend, but makes my week a breeze when it comes to choosing healthy options to eat and saving me time.

I know meal prep sounds overwhelming, and you may wonder where to start, so I wanted to give you some easy tips and tricks!

1. Prepare: Make a list of meals you want on your menu that week. Take a look and see what supplies you may already have in your pantry, then make your grocery list.



2. Prep: Once I have all my supplies, I like to separate them into groups on the counter; all of the veggies together, fruit together, meats together. This makes it easier for me to chop and/or season everything at the same time.

  • First, I like to go ahead and get my meats in the oven baking since they take the longest.  For chicken, I just place the breasts in a glass dish, sprinkle with seasonings and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. (TIP: Did you know you can bake chicken breasts frozen?)
  • Second, If I'm preparing quinoa or rice that week, I like to go ahead and get that cooking on the stove. Quinoa is my favorite grain to eat during the week because it's one of the healthiest foods on the planet and full of protein (google it!).
  • Next, I go ahead and chop all my veggies (or use a tool to make veggie noodles) and depending on their purpose (steaming, baking, snacking..) separate them into their containers. Most of my veggies I steam in the microwave since it's much quicker than baking, but that's personal preference! 
  • Once all my meat and veggies are cooked, I bake my egg muffins. These are super easy and great to for a quick breakfast in the mornings! I like to just crack the eggs in a greased muffin tin, but you can mix in any veggies you want!
  • My last step, is preparing our snacks. We normally have greek yogurt with fruit for a mid-morning snack, and the afternoons rotate between salads, turkey roll-ups and boiled eggs.

3. Practice: The more often you meal prep, the easier it becomes. If you're just getting starting with meal prepping, start small! Plan out just your lunches or snacks that first week and see how much time you save.  I promise it gets easier and becomes second nature.

I'm a creature of habit, so it doesn't bother me to eat the same things each day. It's also easier to me to cook a lot of one type of meat at one time, than multiple different options. It's also good to have a little protein with every meal.  Hence, I always have boiled eggs on hand!
 

 

If you have any questions, would like some help meal planning, or want to get in on my next free meal prepping group on FB, email me!

Have a wonderful day!
xo