Step 1- read this post! Woohoo you’re already on your way to success in the kitchen! But honestly, I’m going to go through the exact steps and process I went through when I meal prepped for a friend of mine to help her have meals for the week that she didn’t already know how to cook and didn’t have the time or patience to try. When you want to meal prep you first need to figure out the amount of meals you actually need. Do you already have a lunch date twice this week? Do you usually practice intermittent fasting and therefor don’t need breakfasts? Start with mapping it out exactly. If you normally eat 4 meals a day and you’d like to prepare meals for 6 days this week, you’ll need 24 meals. Ahhh my kindergarten math teacher would be proud!
Your next step is to start looking into what recipes you’re going to use. I started with the breakfasts, naturally but also because it's my favorite meal of the day. I picked 2 breakfast recipes based on the fact that 1 of my recipes made 4 servings and the second recipe could make 2 servings, giving me my 6 days of breakfasts. I wanted one breakfast to be something more hearty like your typical egg breakfast recipe and one to be more time-efficient such as a smoothie. Then I took my meats into consideration. Now, none of my breakfasts included any meats, as my protein source was either eggs or protein powder. So because I wasn’t including meats in those I decided what meats I wanted to prepare that week: chicken, salmon and ground turkey. Chicken is usually easy to find on sale somewhere and the wild caught full salmon at Kroger is the cheapest I’ve ever found for a decent amount of protein. The large bag of wild caught salmon in the frozen food bin in the fish section is almost always around $7 for 1 whole big piece of salmon. Deal!! Plus it’s wild caught which means nutrient dense for fish. The ground turkey is hit or miss on sale so I was just taking a chance on that and it sounded yummy. Normally we have a freezer full of beef outside, since we raise beef cattle and all, however we were out and waiting on our next load of beef. I had a few recipes I was looking over and ultimately decided on making some pulled chicken for mainly lunches and 2 dinners. Pulled chicken in the crockpot or instant pot is my go-to! It’s just too easy not to make it. Keep your recipes simple so you can use your chicken on a salad, or with veggies, and and start with ground turkey set aside for taco meat or turkey burgers. My whole family has became obsessed with this seasoning and I've used it for chicken as well as salmon.
This is important- you must do more math here! Take your recipes and the amounts the recipes yield for a serving. Make sure you are doing the math so that you buy the correct amount of meats and food you’ll need. For example, if my target is to eat 4 ounces of protein at each lunch and 6 ounces at dinner, I need to make sure my recipe for chicken will yield 30 ounces to cover 4 lunches and 2 dinners. Then, I need to make sure I have the correct amount of salmon and ground turkey to cover the other 4 dinners, which is 24 more ounces between the two, in addition to the additional 2 lunches so that’s 8 more ounces or 32 ounces in total. Whew. A+ in math today!
Now, before you google, 1 pound = 16 ounces. You're welcome. Most people don’t go to the store looking for the package of 30 ounces of chicken. Or maybe you do. I’m not here to judge.
Since you’re making 24 meals, this also means you’ll need 24 containers for your meals. Now, containers are a personal choice but they should meet the needs of your meals. For example, if you have meals that will contain a portion of meats and vegetables as your carbohydrates, then make sure the container has the appropriate sizing so you’re not trying to squash 6 ounces of meat into a small area and you're left with a space not big enough for 2 cups of broccoli. Also consider if you’ll have any liquid bases like soups, puddings or smoothies. Preparation with your containers is a key to your success!
So we've got the meats covered, let's move on to the sides. The hands down easiest way to go here if you aren't a chef or just don't have a lot of time, is frozen bags of veggies. Sams Club sells big bags of broccoli and mixed veggies. Super easy, super cheap and time efficient. Now, with the frozen veggies I do like to add certain carbohydrates throughout the week to keep meals interesting. Some warm up better than others so keep that in mind too! Asparagus is awesome when I roast it in the oven however it gets really mushy warmed up. Sweet potatoes are one of my favorites but they are more starchy so I tend to use them sparingly. To go along with some frozen veggies, quinoa is a good carb and added protein source, but just remember a little goes a long way. I'd add only a few tablespoons. Salads are great for lunches too and I like to make my salads interesting. You can thank my mother and her love for something "crunchy" in her salads.
My favorite salad combo is 2 cups of either spinach/kale, whichever you prefer, with 2 tbsp cooked quinoa, 1/2 grapefruit with the juice squeezed on top, and 2 tbsp almond silvers, topped with 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar for a dressing. It mixes well with the grapefruit and makes it sweet with the quinoa adding a hearty, filling element to the nutritious spinach/kale.
Salads are fine to prepare ahead. If you want a slightly fresher tasting spinach/kale, don't add the balsamic vinegar until you plan to eat it. I prefer to heat my chicken and keep it in a separate container than the salad so I have something warm. You could do the same with the quinoa if you wanted. Your preference to make it something you're looking FORWARD to eating!
Snack time!! Your snack meal of the day is crucial to you feeling full and not craving something unhealthy. Make a good choice with foods that fuel you and meet your needs nutritionally. I enjoy something sweeter that makes me feel like I'm getting a treat but really is packed with protein and healthy carbs. I plan on making these amazing looking muffins today to have as one of my snack meals. This is also a great time to add a smoothie to your day! In addition to the smoothie bowls in a previous post, these smoothies are not only nutritious and filling, but they're a tropical work of art! I think it's fun to eat something super yummy that also makes you think of a warm, sunny beach oasis. Maybe I'm just sick of winter?
Now that you've got your menu selections and you've been to the grocery store to get the right amount of food, let the fun begin!! I love to jam out to some upbeat music while I cook away. Keep your recipes simple and the more you start to enjoy putting these meals together, the more you'll look forward to eating them and keeping your nutrition on point instead of being tempted because you ran out of time or energy. I've been there! It's so easy to grab a protein bar and then you still feel hungry 250 calories later and now your nutrition is thrown off. It's also easy to not eat and skip a meal but that will only lower your metabolism and again throw off your day and leave you more susceptible to overeating later. Eat to fuel not fill! The only thing you should be filling are those gorgeous meal prep containers waiting on you to start cooking!
XOXO
Ashley
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