Prep your food for the week!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

 Do you prepare your food daily or at the beginning of the week? If you try and cook the meats at the beginning of the week so they are ready to heat up and munch on, it makes things that much easier and keeps you from wanting to run down the street to Mcdonalds or where ever else it is you go when your on a hunger strike!
Eating healthy all week long doesn’t have to be a chore. The key is preparation, especially at the beginning of the week. =)
I do ALL of my grocery shopping on ONE designated day during the week- For me, it's Sunday!





Making my FAV Chili recipe to eat for lunch all week!
This is the BEST chili you'll ever eat!!!
Here are some easy ways to prep healthy meals for the week ahead:

Prepare Proteins:

Buy chicken breasts in bulk (especially when they are on sale) and cook 3 – 4 chicken breasts at a time. Eat one right away for a meal, then chop the rest up and place in the refrigerator. You can throw the chilled chicken on top of salads, use in a wrap, or heat up with Himalayan red rice with basil olive oil pesto for a quick chicken pasta dinner.

Hard boil a dozen eggs at a time. You can use them for egg salad, eat them individually for snacks, or chop them up for a salad topping. EGGS DO NOT CAUSE HIGH CHOLESTEROL PEOPLE!!!

Cook 1/4 bacon and refrigerate for a quick addition to breakfast burritos, salads, or BLT wraps.


Chop Produce:

Fresh produce always takes a little prep time. Do it in bulk right when you get home from the grocery store, and you’ll spare yourself the effort later in the week. Pump up the jams or your favorite podcast to keep yourself entertained, and go to town. Start by washing all produce, then trim any ends such as carrot tops, lettuce head bottoms, and gnarly sweet potato ends.

Then, chop and portion produce. For example, cut celery into snack-sized stalks and prepare a reusable container with celery, carrots, and chopped peppers for a grab and go veggie snack. If you are going to make a veggie stir fry, chop all veggies that you want to include and place in a large container then refrigerate.
Pick One Day to Cook:

Choose one afternoon or evening to cook a large meal that will feed the family for a few days. For example, is you have a family of 4, cook a large beef stir fry with 8 portions. You’ll have dinner and lunch the next day. Unless you eat like me, then you will have it for a day!! Also, take this time to cook a large batch of a food staple, like quinoa and black beans. You can eat quinoa and black beans as a chilled salad with chopped veggies, stuffed into a burrito, or in a bowl with mashed sweet potatoes and salsa. You can even add your pre-cooked chicken to the bowl too! MMMM.. ENJOY!!! Give it a try and let me know how it goes:)

Thanks for all of the tips Shannon! 

Do you prepare your meals ahead of time? Please share tips! I always love to hear how other people do it!

- THEME BY ECLAIR DESIGNS -