The Fit Wander Woman is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC affiliate program as well as many other affiliate programs. This means I earn money, at no additional cost to you, when readers click through, purchase or sign up for anything through certain links as outlined in the full disclaimer.
The idea of meal prepping can come across as a big scary daunting task but what if I told you that once you are able to nail down a routine and schedule it would make your week feel almost* stress free. Meal prepping should be kept simplistic, now let me tell you that that does NOT mean make boring tasteless meals but rather be mindful of the meals you make so you actually want to continue this process. Planning and efficiency is the key to eating well without spending hours upon hours in your kitchen because let’s be real, Ain’t nobody got time for that!
Starting with your menu narrow down what your ultimate goal is for meal prepping. Is your goal to make meals that are low in calories? High protein? Low carb? To just save time or money? Once you figure out what your end goal is then you can find a recipe(s) to create. When I mentioned simplicity earlier this is when it comes into play. Change up your menu weekly but pick only one or two of your favorite meals to avoid having a ton of different and intricate meals that will leave you with a lot of wasted food, wasted time and frankly defeated.
I base my weekly prep meals on my set macro percentages; I prefer meals that have slightly high protein, moderate carbs and moderate fat contents. I prep all my snacks and lunches for the week and I cook most of my veggies and sides for my dinners. Feel free to play around with meals that you prefer but here is my menu for this week.
Snack 1- 4 oz fat free greek yogurt mixed with 1 oz. just cherry tart juice and 1 oz almonds.
Nutrition facts: 230 Calories, 14.7 g Carbs, 13.2 g Fat, 16.9 g Protein
Lunch- 4 oz shredded whole chicken, 35 grams lentils, 100 grams asparagus Nutrition facts: 340 Calories, 24 g Carbs, 17 g Fat, 33 g Protein
Snack 2- 60 grams roasted garbanzo beans and 2 scoops of protein mixed what unsweetened chocolate almond milk Nutrition facts: 245 Calories, 23g Carbs, 6.5 g Fat, 25g Protein
Dinner- Whole chicken, Brussel sprouts, Broccoli, Beets and Sweet potatoes.
Completing my whole menu takes about 2-3 hours from start to finish to include grocery shopping (keep in mind I order my groceries through curbside pickup at Kroger; it’s a $4.99 fee but that saves me at least an hour from walking around the store so $4.99 is totally worth the peace of mind) and each meals cost is roughly $3. That includes 2 snacks, lunch and 3/4 th of dinner sides which runs about $12 a day that’s about the price of one take out meal.
Start with your oven items that take a while to cook. I cook two whole chickens, one is more than enough for my lunches but I always cook an extra one for the days I am just not up to cooking dinner for the family. It is healthy, easy to mix with about anything and way faster and cheaper than any take out you can find. Do not be afraid to add dark meat into your diet, it is higher in fat content but fat is good for energy and helps produce important hormones for your organs to function properly. I won’t forget to mention whole chicken is a lot juicier than regular chicken breast so you don’t have to worry about eating dry chicken for lunch every day, blah!
Whole chickens are SUPER cheap even if you want to go extra and buy organic because they are practically unprocessed. I can find organic 5lb chickens here locally for about $9, so just over $1 a pound. I don’t add any olive oil to my chicken since they are already more fatty so to season them I add pepper, garlic powder and this awesome herb mix I found at Costco.
Do not be afraid to add seasoning people, I really cannot stress this enough. Most people don’t like eating “healthy food” because it is bland. There is absolutely no reason to eat bland food, we are in the 20th century with a million options right at our finger tips. Stay away from high processed sauces or any sauces with added sugar and salt, as this will just add unnecessary calories. I like to add lemon, chipotle rubs and dill.
Pop both your chickens in the oven at 450 degrees for 90 minutes. The actual time to prep a whole chicken is maybe five minutes… it will take longer for you to wait for your oven to preheat. When they are done cooking, place them in the freezer to cool for around 20 minutes. I like to shred my chicken and place 4 oz in my lunch containers and all the remaining chicken goes into a big container for weekday dinners.
I am lucky enough to have a double oven so if you also have a double oven I will also add the sweet potatoes and beets to the top oven at 425 degrees for 90 minutes; after 1 hour of cooking check on the beets as they may be finished before the sweet potatoes.
I blanch the broccoli and Brussel sprouts for about 10 minutes and cook the lentils at the same time.
*Tip-measure EVERYTHING. This extra step will pay huge dividends in the long haul. Think of measuring your food from a financial standpoint, would you go into a grocery store that has no price tags listed on the items and be okay with going over your budget when you ring up your items? No, you absolutely would not, so why would you be okay with your food being over your “calorie budget”? I remember when I first started measuring and tracking my food intake, I was SHOCKED to actually see how much I more I was actually eating. Once I was able to dial in what 4 oz of chicken really was I was able to change my mindset of how to portion my food especially when there is not a scale available.
This doesn’t have to be a forever thing; maybe just try food tracking for a month or two until you feel comfortable gauging your portions on your own.
I bought a food scale on Amazon for about $10 use it every day and I have had it for over year so that $10 goes a long way.
Lentils take about 15-20 minutes to cook. Now, here is my trick to measuring lentils; I first measure out five 35 gram servings (one for each of my lunch meals) and add it to the pot to boil. Avoid cooking these too long as they turn mushy once they are overcooked. I set my timer for 15 minutes and check them every minute on the minute until my desired consistency. Strain them and add them to a bowl to measure their final weight. Divide the total weight by five to know how much each lunch portion is needed for your container.
I do mix my own yogurt because flavored yogurts have a lot of added sugars but if you like the taste of plain yogurt you really don’t need to mix anything in. I add the tart cherry juice because its low in calories but has just the right amount of natural sweetness to make plain greek yogurt tolerable for me to eat. I have containers to add my yogurt and almonds in so they are easy to grab and go.
Garbanzo beans(chickpeas) make such a good afternoon snack, I work out in the evenings so I think adding these into my diet has been beneficial in my performance during training. These are another super easy throw in the oven and let them cook themselves items. I do the same measurement with garbanzo beans that I do with the lentils as the weight differs from pre-cooked state to fully cooked state. I measure out five 60 gram portions; lay them flat on a baking sheet and pop them in the oven for about 40 minutes. Once cooked I add them to little baggies to grab throughout the week.
The sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, beets and broccoli are for family dinners, these are some of our favorite staples but they can take a long time to cook so I just prepare them on the weekend and store them in the fridge so I only need to prepare the main dish. It is a game changer when it comes to saving time.
*Time Saver Tip- If you have kids let them help. My 9-year-old daughter loves to help me with measuring. I just give her the amounts of each items and she gets them all weighed out for me while I am cutting veggies, etc. It helps us bond and she learns a life skill and we save time, I call that a triple win!
You see meal prepping really can become a simple task to complete when managed properly. Not only will you feel super accomplished once you get everything stored in the fridge but you will also be thanking yourself during the week when you have healthy tasty meals to eat and more time to spend with the family or doing other fun things.
I would love to hear what your favorite meals and snacks are you prep. Do you need help figuring out which type of meals to prep? Would you find it helpful if I created a menu for you to follow? Sound off below and let me know what your favorite part of meal prep is!
Below are some links to the items I use for meal prep; not a requirement for a successful meal prep just things I consider to be useful.
Comments