Food Prep with Me for the Week!
Hey friends! Today I’m excited to talk about food prep. A while ago, I decided to commit a few hours each week to food prep: making and baking food for myself and the kids that will make our weeks a little smoother. Today, I’m showing how I food prepped for the week by cooking myself five easy to reheat, portioned lunches. We also made a few batches of sourdough banana muffins (and accidentally burned a mini loaf to a crisp, but who’s counting?). I love to prep overnight oats to grab for a quick small breakfast before I go to the gym in the morning so we are making some of those as well. And don’t forget dinner in there too!
Let’s do some food prep together!
Why Food Prep?
Last week, I shared with you in detail about my health journey over the last two years. I still have so much to learn and I still have so much farther to go, but I loved hearing from you and how so many of you have been on similar journeys.
Food prep has been a big part of that health journey. If I don’t have a plan for my week in eating, I never do as well as when I do make a good plan. Food prep is kind of the next step in that process. So if I know what I’m eating, food prep can help me take some steps to make actually eating what I planned out a reality.
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Usually what this looks like is this:
- over the weekend I do a quick inventory of what we have, what we need, and what I’m cooking that week
- I pull out any meat that I can thaw and cook ahead of time
- Either Jarrod or myself goes to the grocery store over the weekend or on Mondays typically
- I make sure I have healthy things for us to grab for snacks: cheese + low-ingredient crackers, fruit, fruit leather, peanut butter + rice cakes, popcorn (to pop on the stovetop)
- On Mondays usually, I prep whatever I can: bake things, sauté veggies, grill/cook meats, and more depending on the menu that week
I do not do any of this perfectly or follow my plan perfectly either, but all of this makes eating throughout the week so much easier!
What’s in my Lunch Containers?
As I said in my last post, I like to stick to about 1750 calories per day. Typically that means I have Greek yogurt and berries for breakfast, a lunch container for lunch (more on those in a second), and a healthy dinner that my family is eating–sometimes I have to make minor tweaks.
My lunch containers typically include the following:
- chicken (about 6oz)
- about 100 grams of rice
- and sauteed veggies of some sort
That’s it! To some it can seem kind of like a boring diet, but eating the same basic meals each day makes it so much easier for my mind to handle it all!
Food Prep: Breakfasts
For this food prep session, I had a bunch of brown bananas and I found a sourdough recipe for banana bread my kids LOVE!
I made a few dozen muffins and even a mini loaf that I actually burned 🙁
The other breakfast I prepped was Overnight Oats. The recipe below is approximate:
- 1/2 c. oats
- 1 TBSP Greek Yogurt
- 1 tsp honey
- sprinkle of cinnamon
- sprinkle of vanilla extract
- 2 tsp raisins
- 1/2 whole organic milk
Mix together in small jars. Put the lids on and shake. I like to eat mine cold, but you could heat it up too.
Watch me Food Prep!
Ok! I think that covers everything! Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below.