Menu Planning and Meal Prep

One of the biggest steps to getting healthy is nutrition.  You have to get your eating going in the right direction if you want to get results.  Believe me you can't work off a bad diet.  It's not possible, I know I've tried it.  And a few months after I started working toward getting healthy, my gym instructor brought a DVD to class about meal planning and prepping.  I had already been working on menu planning.  I still do.  On Thursdays I sit down and plan what we are going to be having for dinner the following week. And then I'm not scrambling around, throwing hands up in the air and going to McDonalds.  I try to make a variety of different dinners.  Fish and lean pork at least once a week.  Switch between lean ground beef (93/7) or ground turkey, and of course lots of chicken.  A good stir fry with plenty of veggies is always good too.  Wednesdays are leftover day.  Fridays I do my grocery shopping.  But, the biggest thing I learned from the DVD, and what I really want to talk about is this:  Have fruits, veggies, and snacks readily available.  Put them in baskets where you will see them right away.  So I went down to the Dollar Store got me a few baskets, and it has made a huge difference. Here they are:

The first one is the veggie basket.  All the vegges are prepped and ready to go either as a snack or into salad.  Right now I have baby carrots, cucumbers, celery, yellow bell peppers (those are my favorite color, but you can use red or green or orange), radishes, cherry tomatoes, a couple limes, and a lemon.  It makes putting a salad together a snap.

The second one is the fruit/cheese basket. Today I have halos, gala apples, pineapple cups, green and purple grapes, and my beloved laughing cow cheese.

The last basket is the snack basket.  This one usually changes but basically it always has individual popcorn bags.  And other low calorie snacks. 

 The other point the DVD made was to keep the baskets right where they would be the first thing you see.  Then it's the first thing you reach for instead of candy or cookies and all those naughty things.  So I keep the veggie and fruit basket front and center in my fridge.

And I keep the snack basket right beside the fridge in my little space saving pantry.

For meal prepping, what I like to do is on Sundays I take boneless skinless chicken breasts, trim all the fat off, which usually it doesn't have all that much.  Then I pound it to an even thickness. Really big breasts I cut in half.  Rinse it in cold water, pat dry with a paper towels.  Place all the pieces in a gallon ziplock baggie and I marinate them in a lemon pepper marinade in the fridge for several hours.  When I get ready to cook, I spray a skillet (or you can use a grill) with Pam, they sell one that is for grilling that's the one I use. Heat the pan to medium.  When it's hot I sprinkle each side of the chicken breasts with lemon pepper seasoning.  Cook for about 12-15 minutes flipping once.  Until the juices run clear.  Then I transfer the cooked chicken to a tin, cover with foil, and let it cool.  Then I stick it all in the fridge and I use it through out the week for salads, wraps/burritos, tostadas, soups, I have a delicious pita chicken bacon pizza recipe that I found on the HungryGirl website, or any other recipes that called for cooked chicken.

 The other food I prep is black beans.  I love black beans.  I buy the can of No Salt Added whole beans, not the refried ones.  Rinse them in a colander.  I take a medium size skillet add about 1/4 cup of water.  Heat over medium, and once the pan is hot I add the beans.  Then I season them with garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, pepper, crushed red pepper, cumin, hot sauce, and 25% less sodium seasoned salt.  Stir it all up and then mash them.  You can add more water if you want them to be bit more runny.  And all the seasonings are to taste.  Just depends on your taste buds.  I cook them for about 5-7 minutes on low and then put them in a container.  Once they have cooled down I put them in the fridge.  Again I use them for wraps/burritos, quesadillas, and tostadas.

So these are just a few of the things I have learned.  I hope that it helps, I know doing all this has helped me immensely.   And if you take the time to prep and plan, you'll save yourself time, and frustration through out the week.  Not to mention cutting back on junk food and fast food suppers.