Meal Prep Essentials

I promise to post my week 2 progress tomorrow! But first I received some questions on meal prep and how to make food that isn't boring as well as time consuming. So here are my week 3 meals and a breakdown on what I consider the essential tools to make prep easy and quick (and tasty!).

First, I recommend investing in a set of containers that will hold a full meal and fit in your lunch bag. I purchased this set from Isolator Fitness but there are many other brands. Tight fitting lids are essential! Second, a scale, measuring cups, and an array of knives. This is about all you will need!

On to preparing actual food! My absolute favorite tools are my pressure cooker, rice cooker, and NutriBullet (but any decent blender will do). I can make 3-4 pounds of chicken in the pressure cooker in only 20 minutes or so. I simply throw in the chicken and some marinade, set it, and forget it! The rice cooker makes several cups to perfection in 15 or so minutes plus has a basket for steaming veggies while your rice cooks! And finally, the blender takes the place of a mixer and also makes some delicious protein shakes.

Using only these tools I can complete my meal prep in 1-2 hours for 4-5 days worth of meals. This week I chose to make protein pancakes for easy breakfasts. I will add the recipe below. My second meal is a venison burger with buffalo cauliflower. The final meal I prepped is chicken (prepared in the pressure cooker) with a side of either frozen veggies and rice or sweet potato (baked in the oven). Dinners will likely be salmon and veggies prepared fresh each night. I also packed tuna packets, almonds, and Quest bars into my lunch bag for snacks. Since the rice cooker, pressure cooker, oven, and stove top can all be going at the same time I didn't have to do anything more then get each one started and cook the burgers and sweet potato while I waited. 

Four days of meals ready to go

I hope this helps anyone struggling with meal prep. I will start sharing recipes from now on as I favor simple, flavorful cooking to anything over the top. I think it will help those of you who are new to this see that you don't have to get food-blogger-fancy to eat healthfully!

Protein Pancakes

Ingredients:

2 ripe bananas (I used over-ripe ones that I had frozen)

3/4 cup egg whites (about 4 eggs worth)

1/2 cup quick cook oats

1 1/2 - 2 scoops of whey (I used MyProtein Rocky Road flavor)

4 TBSP flour (I used regular bread flour but feel free to substitute)

1/2 cup coffee, brewed

1 Tsp. baking powder

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender

2. Heat skillet or griddle with oil (I used coconut oil)

3. Measure out 1/2 cup of batter into hot skillet

4. Cook until bubbles form and burst 

5. Flip and continue to cook 1-2 minutes

Makes six 1/2 cup pancakes. Freeze leftovers and spritz with water then heat in the microwave for 30 seconds to serve later. Top with PB2, sugar free syrup, or fresh fruit.

Super Surprise!

This week has been rough. And I mean that in a my ass is kicked, stick a fork in me, did I just get hit by a bus kind of way. Gemma has been sick with a cough and fever since last Thursday. The doctors said to wait five days before taking her in, so I did. After being sent home from school a few times and then me keeping her home as well, I gave in and took her to the walk-in clinic. Nothing was obviously wrong with her so the NP gave her a course of antibiotics and sent us on our way.

After all that my boss texted me to say that I needed to work night shift for the rest of the week. I scrambled to get the kids to my mother-in-laws and drink enough caffeine to make it past 10PM. I ended up working 10pm-8am Thursday night and 10pm-6am last night. And I'll be working another night shift tonight and possibly tomorrow too.

I came home knowing that Shane had already signed us up for the Central Elementary Healthy Family 5k on the rail trail today. It was raining out and I hoped that he would decide to crawl in bed rather than get me up. I wasn't so lucky and he dragged me out of my warm covers to get ready.  The girls and Shane's mother were going to run with us too. Thankfully the rain had stopped for the most part by the time we made it down to the trailhead. I told myself I would go nice and easy and just shake out my legs.

The race started at 9:30am on the dot and I went out quickly to get past some walkers and slower runners. I was right behind a woman who was running a pace that seemed comfortably hard. I decided to stay right with her and see how that went. About a half mile out I started looking up ahead and realized I couldn't see any other women besides the one in front of me. Could I really be in second place?

As we approached the turnaround I caught sight of a ponytail way off in the distance. I realized I must be third woman and decided I'd better go ahead and make a race of it afterall. I passed the woman I'd been drafting off of and tried to gap her but she stuck to me, always just off my shoulder. As we made the turn around she stopped to take a cup of water. I almost screamed with joy right then. I'm glad I didn't because it would have been premature. A half minute later she was back on my shoulder again.

I was starting to hurt and my breathing was ragged. A headwind felt like it was beating me back with every step. Only the footsteps echoing behind me kept me pushing. I started reminding myself, "It's supposed to hurt" and "It's all about who's willing to hurt the most now." A young boy caught us and as he went by the woman he told her, "You can catch her!" Knowing he meant me I decided to prove him wrong. I did my best to stay with him and it worked. I put a 10-15 second gap on the woman and was picking up speed. I didn't know if I could hold it but I figured passing out or puking were the only things that might stop me.

I temporarily passed the boy again but he sped up in the final tenth of a mile and beat me by a few seconds. As I reached the last stretch I glanced back and saw I had at least 15 seconds on the woman. I glanced ahead and I saw the clock said 24:10! What?! No way! I was going to PR AGAIN! I found my after burners and eeked out a strong kick to cross the line in 24:27, a 25 second PR!

Showing off my hardware

I found Shane and he had finished in 21:06 for a new PR as well (not counting his 20:50 on a short course). He also got 5th overall and first in his age group. We went back out to look for the girls and his mom and cheered on our friends along the way. One of our friends was really struggling so Shane turned around to run back to the finish with her and ended up helping her get a PR too! I continued to head back out along the course and around a half mile out I found Shane's mom pushing Ash in the stroller. I took the stroller from her and pushed Ash to the chute where I let her out and so she could run across the finish herself. Her time was 38:53 and she got second in her age group (but we gave it to the next girl because Ash was pushed). We cheered in my mother in law for a 39:23 finish and second in her age group. Shane went back out again to find Gemma and run her in. She finished around 55 minutes and was really upset she didn't get an award. I reminded her she's been sick for over a week now and it's okay to take it easy and walk when that happens.

Shane's medal

After the awards were announced we stuck around for door prize drawings. Gemma won a Kids' Book of coupons for clothing stores, entertainment, food, etc. Ash won a basket of Bath and Body Works goodies. We sure do have some lucky kids! A representative from GNC was there and sent me home with a bag of vitamins and goodies so I guess some of that rubbed off on me. :)

Basket and Coupon Book

 

All of our goodies

 

All in all it was a really pleasant surprise and I'm really excited to see what I can do in Baltimore next week!