Personally I think I've tried every route, I first tried making a bunch of chicken breasts, veggies, and sweet potatoes to last through the week, but honestly living with two hungry men can sometimes sabotage my best laid plans. I have found what works best for me at my household is a few simple things:
1) ALWAYS have plenty fresh & frozen fruit available
Why? Because one, it's just as easy to grab an apple or banana as it is to grab that bag of chips or a candy bar, and it's obviously doing a much better job nourishing your body. Also, having frozen fruit around makes it easy to throw together a quick smoothie for a sweet snack, and you can add some protein or greens to it to up the nutritional value!
2) ALWAYS have carrot sticks, sugar snap peas, or cucumbers around, something crunchy
Why? Because when we reach for something like chips or pretzels and mindlessly munch by the tv, we are consuming mega calories, and they are mostly empty. If we have a healthy crunchy option around, our brain is satisfied with the crunching it takes to consume these snacks, and the calories are nil and very nutritious...so go nuts! If those don't trip your trigger as snacks, use a little hummus to go with them, or make a super healthy dip, my favorite recipe as follows:
Healthy Veggie Dip:
-1 container of cottage cheese
-1 packet of organic dill dip, OR ranch dip
(with no MSG, GMO's, or high fructose corn syrup)
Method: put your cottage cheese in a food processor and run on high until all of the chunks are gone and it's nice and smooth like sour cream. Then add in your flavoring packet and run for 1 minute on high until it's completely mixed through.
This usually keeps for as long as your cottage cheese date says. I like to make this and keep it on hand for raw veggies, then you're getting a healthy dose of protein & flavor with your veggies, without the guilt of a traditional veggie dip! Give it a try!
3) ALWAYS have healthy treat options on hand for when you get that sweet tooth craving
If you're at all like me, you have a sweet tooth whether it rears it's ugly head once a day, or once a week, most people can appreciate my condition. There are TONS of healthier snack recipes on Pinterest that you can both satisfy your sweet tooth with and not derail your healthy eating plan. My go-to because I am a HUGE chocolate fan, is a really nice dark chocolate. It SHOULD be at least 70% cocoa or more. These bars are found in the health aisle and are a little more spendy, but that helps keep me in check by just having ONE serving, instead of the whole bar!
4) I sit down and plan our weekly menu to coincide with our weekly calendar
I like to sit down and schedule out what I'll be making, and what nights my husband will cook while looking at our schedule for the week. When I know I have a busy day, kid's activities, a late meeting, I can schedule our menu taking all of that into consideration. My best friend most weeks is my crock pot, because I can usually throw some ingredients together in there over my lunch hour, or in the morning, and then we all sit down to a healthy meal together at night. When the kids have practices, or games and we have a midwife appointment to boot, I like to make sure that we'll all have access to a healthy meal so I don't end up picking up some fast food because everyone is STARVING by the end of the night. I usually reserve weekends, or less busy nights for a more elaborate meal, and fill my weekdays with things I can prep ahead, or just pick menu items that I know will take 30 mins. or less to prepare. I like to get the kids input too so they feel like they get to have some say in our dinner options for the week. Once I have all of this set, it's easy to put together my grocery list for the week based off of what ingredients I need, and what other staple items we're out of.
5) Give yourself a break once in awhile
Usually on the weekends we have a night where we order in, or we go out to eat. Not every weekend, but it's nice not to have to prepare all of the meals, ALL of the time! Sometimes we're invited to my parent's house to eat, and we always offer to bring something, but that's a nice reprieve from cooking as well, just being in charge of a side dish always seems easier! You can still make healthy choices when eating out or ordering in, and it feels like a treat enough not to have been the one to make anything!
A day in the life...
So, my weekends are a little less organized because I'm usually home, but M-F I work full time so I prep my meals as I go depending on appointments, or if I'll be able to get home for lunch. But, here's a typical day.
Breakfast: Two eggs sometimes w/leftover veggies & an english muffin w/almond butter or organic jam & for sure my ONE cup of coffee
(I rarely prep breakfast ahead, BUT if I'm in a hurry, I opt for a fruit smoothie with protein, shakeology, or piece of fruit & some overnight oats that I've made ahead)
MY EASY OVERNIGHT OATS:
I use a mason jar, but you can use a tupperware, whatever works.
-1/2 cup gluten free rolled oats
-1/2 banana mashed (this will sweeten it)
-1/2-1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk (regular milk works too)
-1 TBSP chia seeds
-1/2 scoop of protein* (completely optional)
-1/2-1 cup of frozen blueberries (because I love them)
Put the lid on and shake everything up, stick it in the fridge & it'll thicken up overnight. In the morning you'll have a grab and go healthy delicious breakfast. You can figure out what amount of almond milk you want depending on the consistency, if you like your oats super thick, stick to 1/2 cup, if you like them a little thinner add from there. The base recipe is the oats, banana, milk, & chia seeds- from there you could try all different kinds of fruits, or flavors. You can add in a little greek yogurt as well, especially if you like a specific flavor and that will add protein & thickness. You could add apple chunks & cinnamon. The sky's the limit, and they have like a million different recipes on Pinterest, check it out!
Morning Snack: I usually opt for plain greek yogurt (about 1/2 cup) with a tsp of raw honey, and 2/3 cup frozen blueberries. I leave this on my desk and by about 10:30 the blueberries are thawed, but everything is still chilled. I add in homemade/or organic granola, or muesli for some crunch. OR if I'm running behind, I'll grab a piece of fruit usually an apple, or orange, & a hard boiled egg or two.
(I sometimes make this the night before, but it literally takes me 2 minutes to throw together in the morning before I leave for work.)
Lunch: I generally just eat leftovers from dinner the night before for lunch, so my only prep is re-heating it. If there aren't any leftovers, or I don't feel like eating them, I'll make a quick salad. I like to keep hard boiled eggs in the fridge for this purpose, & as quick snacks.
Afternoon Snack: Lately this is something I'll pack ahead, a piece of fruit, or carrot sticks/cucumbers & 1/4 cup of raw nuts. Very simple, crunchy, and easy to eat at my desk in between patients, or on my way home from work before I make dinner!
Dinner: I'll use last night's dinner as a reference. Our power was out for the majority of the day yesterday (not sure why, but apparently so was 1150 other MidAmerican users on the north side) but it was beautiful and 76 so that means grill weather at our house. I whipped up a super quick marinade with what I had on hand for some chicken breasts I had. Then I washed & cut up zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, & pre-cut kale and set it aside in a bag to throw on the grill when the time came. I also washed and sliced up three sweet potatoes & seasoned them and set them aside in a bag that would also be going on the grill later. My husband cut up a watermelon, but total time prepping dinner was about 10 minutes. When we were getting hungry & ready to eat, Randy fired up the grill and everything was ready in about 20 minutes. Pretty easy peasy.
Honey Lime Marinade:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- juice from two limes
- zest from 1 and a 1/2 limes
- 1 heaping TBSP raw honey
- 4 shakes of Frank's Red Hot
- 1 TBSP dried cilantro (bc I was out of fresh, otherwise 4 TBSP fresh)
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp himalayan sea salt
Whisk it all together, and pour over your chicken breasts or fish and let it sit for at least 1 hour, up to 3 hours and grill when ready!
This was fast & delicious, and would've been even faster if I had prepped my veggies by washing and cutting them up the day before. I like to leave my weekends less planned though, and we didn't have anywhere to be, so the 10 minutes prep time was super easy to fit in.
After Dinner Snack: I've been drinking my shakeology at night because this is when I want something sweet like chocolate, or ice cream, or whatever this pregnant lady is craving at the time. SO, I've been doing better about keeping myself in check with opting for my superfood at the end of the night. The cafe latte flavor is by far and away my fav, and if I'm really craving sweets, I'll put a little dark chocolate in the blender when I mix it up, so it's like a mocha frappuccino from your favorite coffee shop. :D
Thanks for reading this post, I hope it helps give you some ideas for your own meal prepping. It's different for everyone and every scenario. My brother is a bachelor so I know he likes to grill up a bunch of chicken breasts, steak, & meat, and cooks rice, potatoes, and veggies ahead to portion out through the week. And for some people this is a fantastic option. Like I said, at our house, it's no holds barred, and the men are always hungry, so I generally cook so our whole family is included and on board because that's what works for us. Leave comments to let me know what works for you! OR if you like any of the recipes I posted.
www.beachbodycoach.com/DRJENNCHICOINE
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