Weekly Menu – Refocusing On Prep

Now that we’ve settled into a new school year routine, days are busy. Between work, school, home work and working out, the days becoming shorter isn’t just a reflection of changing seasons! Staying on track with my weight loss goals and putting delicious, nutritious food on the table for my family will require simple, prep ahead meals.

Like usual, I’ve planned 6 dinners allowing for 1 night to finish up leftovers (which is usually Wednesday or Thursday). I plan my dinners to have enough left over protein for my lunch because I never have time to cook a meal during the daily run around.

dinners

roast chicken with green beans and smashed potatoes

apple pork chops with roasted root veggies

chicken fajitas with rice + beans

eggplant parmesan with zucchini noodles

white chicken chili

grilled pork tenderloin, green salad and honey mustard vinegarette

daily nutrition

Dinners are a family affair in my house. We try to sit down at the dinner table together whenever possible, so those meals are designed to satisfy the whole family. The rest of the day I’m usually eating by myself. I wake up very early – between 4 and 4:30 am – and spend a lot of time at the computer. I also work out twice during the week and spend a good bit of time in the car. I have a tendency to forget to eat until I’m starving and grabbing something on the run. To avoid that, I set alarms for myself and plan foods that I can munch on. I take a break for lunch and usually read something totally non-work related for that half hour after talking a walk with my dog. Key for me is not getting to the point that I’m SO hungry it affects my energy level. I’ll eat the same things all week, because that makes fewer decisions that I have to make and easier meal prep for the week!

Meal 1 – protein powerballs (protein powder truffles)

Meal 2 – hard boiled egg + sliced apple

Meal 3 – Left Over Protein + Salad In A Jar

Meal 4 – Creamy Root Veggie Soup

Sunday Meal Prep

Roast Chicken

Today, I’ll roast 2 whole chickens. We’ll eat some for dinner and the remainder will be deboned and shredded for meals this week. I’ll leave one dinner portion in the fridge for Tuesday’s fajitas and the rest will be divided into single portion sizes for the freezer.

Roasted Root Veggies

This prep will produce multiple meals. I’ll peel + chop 2 butternut squash, parsnips, a couple sweet potatoes and whatever other root veggies I pick up. 1 gallon size ziploc bag of the mixed veggies will go in the fridge for tomorrow’s dinner. The rest will be roasted for creamy root veggie soup. I’ll put a couple servings of soup in the fridge for the next couple days and the rest will go in the freezer. I make a large enough batch of soup that I’ll be able to have 4-5 servings a week.

Salad In A Jar

Prepping my salads has changed the way I eat. It is so much easier to get those veggies in when it’s all prepped and ready to eat. I’m very picky about the freshness of my vegetables and salads and this is the only I’ve found that I can make my salads ahead of time. I’ll wash/chop/prep all of my salad ingredients first: halved cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, shredded carrots, red cabbage, red onion, and a little goat cheese. Then I’ll assemble two dinner portion salads (larger jars) and 7 pint jars for my daily lunches. I usually don’t include dressing because I tend not to use it when I’m eating at home and topped with a protein.

Hard Boiled Eggs

I’ll hard boil 10 or so eggs to use as my mid-morning snack and on my salad if I’m in a hurry for lunch. I cook my eggs in the oven simply because it makes it easy to do while I’m doing my Sunday prep!

Powerballs

I’ll mix enough powerballs for all week today and stick them in the fridge so breakfast is an easy grab-and-go option!

Would prepping ahead make healthy eating choices easier for you? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!