Sunday Meal Prep

In October, when I turned 30, I vowed that by my next birthday, I'd be at my goal weight. I'm thirty pounds out now, and I have about three months to go, which means I have to really get on top of it. Ten pounds a month is completely doable though.

One of the consistent challenges that I have is around meal planning. If I don't have something ready, more often than not I'll choose convenience and that means a choice that isn't as healthy. I saw an account on Instagram this week, and the guy meal preps 10 meals every weekend for the upcoming week. He preps lunch and dinner, but I decided to start out with breakfast and lunch.

I stopped by the grocery store yesterday to pick up my groceries, and spent today cooking. It didn't take long at all, and I'm so glad that it's done! I think it's a good system, and I'm going to try and keep up with it.

This week's menu is as follows:

Breakfast - green smoothie
Lunch - roasted carrots, swiss chard, brown rice, and black beans with mushrooms, onion, and garlic

I'll also be eating an afternoon snack of fruit. Since strawberries were on sale, that's this week's choice.

The recipes were uncomplicated. I make a lot of green smoothies, so I have a base recipe, and then modify it from there. This week I used half a banana, half a cup of berries (I used cherries and raspberries), a big handful of spinach, a combination of flax meal and flax oil, an ounce of walnuts and protein powder. I added water to blend it. Almond milk is my favorite for smoothies, but I forgot to buy it this week. I put individual servings in mason jars and stuck them in the freezer. I'll just pull one out the night before to stick in the fridge to thaw. A little shake in the morning and it's good to go. In the past when I was making smoothies for more than just myself, I'd put all of the ingredients in a freezer bag. Then in the morning I would only have to dump the bag in the blender and add water or almond milk.

For lunch, I bought a bag of black beans (way cheaper than canned), and that made 12 servings total. I soaked them overnight, so I put them in water before I went to bed last night. This morning when I got up I threw them on the stove for about an hour and a half, and made the brown rice as well.

What took the longest was the chopping, and that really wasn't bad at all. I chopped up the carrots, swiss chard, and onion/mushroom/garlic mixture.

 

The carrots were tossed with olive oil, cinnamon, and red pepper flakes and then roasted in the oven until they were tender. The chard I steamed and then tossed with apple cider vinegar (which I'm convinced is the only way to eat greens of any kind), and once the beans were finished cooking, I added hot sauce and liquid smoke. Then I added the sautéed onion, mushroom, and garlic mixture right on top. I didn't do anything special with the brown rice - I had a lot of flavor going on already, so I figured it would just pick it up. I froze the meals in freezer/microwave safe Tupperware, so I'll be able to pull it out the night before and nuke it at work.

 

 

After all of that cooking, this is where Millie and I ended up, and where I intend to stay. I'm starting PiYo tomorrow, so I'm using that as an excuse to be lazy tonight! Ha!