Food Prep

Alright folks, so I've had some people ask for a blog on the hows, whats and whys of food prep. I'm going to try to break it down to show you just how easy it can be, and how you don't really need to spend hours in the kitchen to get easy, healthy meals for the week. The advantage of preparing your food in advance is always knowing what you're going to eat, and having food readily available which should help you to stop binging, grazing, or snacking on things that may be a little less healthy. It also saves you a ton of money if you're going out to eat every day, and it is a HUGE time saver in the morning (or the night before) if you're like me and hate making lunches. Also, if you're counting your macros (calories, protein, carbs and fat) you can have everything measured out and ready to go ahead of time so you're not stuck at the end of the day trying to fit x-grams of protein into your daily goal while maintaining y-grams of carbs and so on.

The one thing about food prep is you have to be prepared to eat a lot of the same thing every day, which I know doesn't appeal to some, but when you consider food to be the fuel your body needs to get through the day it makes it a little easier to get down. Not to mention, it makes the special meals that much more...special. If you are serious about trying to eat healthier, spend less cash doing so, and losing weight (or body fat depending on your goals - and yes there is a difference) and you don't have endless amounts of hours in the day to whip up super meals (and really who does?) eating pre-prepped meals 5 times a week is a small sacrifice to make.

Sundays are typically my food prep day. This is the day I dedicate to all things domestic; laundry, groceries, food prep and cooking an actual sit down meal for the 3 of us. Aside from the fact that it means Monday is up next, I actually don't mind Sundays and at the end of it I feel like I've had a productive day that ultimately makes the upcoming week that much easier.

When I prep food for the week it is usually only my lunches for the week and possibly a second meal or snack through the day. But like most of you, I am thinking about my other meals as well in order to come up with a grocery list for the week. One of the tips I read recently in The Forks Over Knives Plan (which I highly suggest reading btw) is to come up with a meal plan for the week on a sheet of paper, or an excel spreadsheet, and on one side have the meals you plan to make, and on the other side a list of the groceries you need to make these meals. Switch it up every week and in a month or so you will have 4 different meal plans - already laid out with corresponding grocery lists. I LOVE this idea and while I'm definitely not there yet, I did make this weeks list according to recipes that used similar ingredients so I wasn't over-buying. You will no doubt have a system that works for you but if not, try this one out. I am famous for making lists and not adhering to them, or leaving the grocery store without getting key ingredients for something I had planned to make - you think I'm kidding? Emily at No-Frills knows now to ask me if I remembered everything.

So what is it that I make and eat ALL WEEK LONG...Based on the Forks Over Knives plan I have been transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle but I can share pre- and a little bit of post- switch-up meals with you - its only been a couple of weeks going plant based so I'm still figuring stuff out but the basics are the same whether you're a meat eater or the most hardcore of vegans.  My go-to meals through the week would be as follows:

Breakfast (post workout)

• scrambled eggwhites, slice ezekiel bread and maybe some fruit, or some avocado, rice or ground chicken/turkey if I had any left over from the weeks prep, spinach, veggies etc. 
• Plant-based option - 1/3 cup overnight oats and half a grapefruit. The extra carbs here feed the workout and keep me full until meal 2

Meal 2 (mid-morning)

• 1/3 cup of oats with a scoop of protein powder (thrown together in the morning unless I had abundant tupperware available which started dwindling when my daughter started prepping her own lunches)  When I was eating an abundance of dairy I was having greek yogurt with no sugar added instead of the oatmeal - which I would often do a few days worth at a time
• Plant-based - veggies and hummus (garlic breath in the morning - lovely!!)

Meal 3 (lunch!)

• 4 oz chicken breast, 1 cup steamed broccoli, 1/2 sweet potato (or ground chicken/turkey, rice, asparagus, brussels sprouts etc)
• Plant-based - baked tofu, 1/2 sweet potato and quinoa salad, or lentils and rice, and some fruit or applesauce

Meal 4 (mid-afternoon)

• Usually by this time I am pretty full but a protein shake or oatmeal (if I didn't eat any at meal 2) or fruit

Meal 5 (dinner)

• Since we have a small family we do a lot of leftovers - I can cook a full meal and it will last us 2+ days (usually 2 nights of dinners and maybe a lunch for me or the kids) 

Some people prep all their meals every day - this level of prep is something I aspire to but for now  doing my lunches and having a meal plan through the week for the rest of my meals relieves me of a ton of stress, and because of what a lot of what is being done is through batch cooking it does save money as well. Buy your oats, rice, quinoa, lentils all in bulk. Many fruits and veggies can be purchased fresh on sale and then frozen. (Grab a head of cabbage, shred it and throw it in the freezer). When I was buying meat I would get 4 packs of ground turkey at Costco, or chicken breast that was already filleted if boneless/skinless wasn't on sale. Costco is also good for yogurt and eggwhites.

   

photo courtesy of www.kimtoslim.com

On my Sunday afternoons, after doing my groceries, the prep begins. I usually start with preparing what I need to get dinner on the go, and while that is cooking  I do the rest of my prep, and finish up after dinner when the kids are getting ready for the start of the school week. Broccoli is steamed, rice or lentils can be left cooking on the stove while we eat dinner. Once the oven is free, the chicken can be done. I normally would drizzle with olive oil, add garlic salt and dried basil and bake for 25-45 mins at 375 degrees (depending on if it was filleted or full breast). If I had asparagus I would lay that over the chicken and bake at the same time. If I had ground chicken or turkey I would brown it with the garlic salt and basil, and occasionally add dijon mustard. For my macro goals I was usually able to split a breast in half after it was baked per meal, or a package of ground meat would cover me for 3 meals - this of course would vary depending on what your personal macro goal is. Sweet potatoes are done in the microwave every couple of days (less time than if I baked them)  I find that if I'm already in dinner mode it doesn't seem like an extra chore to do more. If you're making a batch of pancakes for breakfast, make some extra and freeze them! They heat up nice for a quick and easy breakfast to-go. Hard boiled eggs, salads, edamame, roasted chickpeas, hummus, guacamole, chopped vegetables, fruit....so many options to make in bulk and have ready to go in the fridge! You can pre-slice cheese, open a bag of pretzels and separate servings into baggies, divvy up pretty much anything that can be divvied! And don`t even get me started on the things you can do on the bbq! You can batch grill veggies, do a whack of chicken, portabello mushrooms, beef, turkey, chicken, bean or quinoa burgers - the list is endless!
 
Here are a few additional recipes I`ve mentioned to get you going:

Beanoa Salad
Cook 1 cup of dry quinoa and set aside to cool (I put it in the fridge while I am making the rest of the salad)
Combine 1 can black beans, a couple celery stalks - diced, a red pepper - diced, 2 green onions - diced, 1 clove of garlic - diced, a handful of cilantro - chopped. Add 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbs lime juice (i use a bit more) 1 or more tbs chili powder and a half tsp salt. Mix it with the quinoa and let it sit in the fridge overnight to absorb all the flavours. This salad will last me all week at a half to full cup serving.

Baked Tofu
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
1 (or more) packages of extra firm tofu sliced into 1 cm-ish slices (i like mine a bit thicker and 2 pkgs last me 5 days)
Marinate tofu in sauce of choice - I use a couple tbs of olive oil, honey, dijon mustard and garlic salt all to taste but bbq sauce is delish too! I let it sit for about a half hour and then put in the oven for 20 minutes. Flip the tofu, add the sauce to the new side and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Overnight Oats (this one has a million different combinations - put whatever you want in it)
add 1 third cup of quick oats (or oats of choice), enough milk of choice - I use almond, my daughter uses soy - to cover oats, blueberries and a sprinkling of chia seeds to a bowl and let sit overnight. I add a drizzle of honey in the morning and eat cold but you can warm it up in the microwave if the thought of eating cold oats eeks you out.

Protein Pancakes (the complicated way)
half cup oats, one third cup egg whites, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1 tbs flax seed, 1tbs greek yogurt, 1tsp vanilla extract, blueberries 

Protein Pancakes (the easy less fancy reckless way)
one third cup oats, eggwhites to moisten, 1 scoop protein powder, unsweetened applesauce for added moisture or maybe a little milk of choice - mix and hope for the best (I haven`t been disappointed yet)

So hopefully that has helped a little bit and as always if you have questions feel free to get in touch with me! Happy Prepping!