Meal Prep Monday

I've never been one of those people who have it together enough to prep a whole week's worth of meals at once. I have found, however, that a little bit of preparation at the beginning of the week really makes a difference in my eating choices, especially where breakfast and lunch are concerned. Here's my current formula for having healthy (and wallet friendly!) food ready on those days when I hit snooze one too many times before running out the door.

Breakfast

I'm always running late in the morning, so having a nutritious breakfast that I can take with me to work is really important for starting my day off right. One of my favorite grab and go breakfasts is overnight oats.

This week's recipe:

Calories: 381 | Fat: 11 g | Cholest: 0 mg | Sodium: 245 mg | Carbs: 53 g | Fiber: 9 g | Sugars: 24 g | Protein: 18 g

1/4 cup oats

1/2 cup grated zucchini

1 1/3 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp chopped walnuts

2 tbsp raisins

1/2 banana

2 egg whites

1/2 cup almond milk

Mix everything in the mason jar, refrigerate overnight, and eat a great breakfast when you get to work the next morning. I love eating a big breakfast to stay full and avoid snacking until lunch.

Protein

I like to prep one neutral protein I can eat all week in different meals. Last week, I made slow cooker shredded chicken. This week, I decided to try turkey meatloaf muffins.

I used The Fitnessista's recipe for inspiration, but added a cup of grated zucchini and an extra quarter cup of oats to stretch my mixture into 16 mini muffins. With the modifications, each muffin ended up being only 80 calories!

Sides

I don't have the patience to prep all the ingredients for every meal at once, so I like to prep a few nutritious side items with fairly neutral flavors that I can use in a lot of different ways. 

This week, I baked six sweet potatoes and cooked a huge pot of quinoa. I'm on a huge sweet potato kick right now!

Produce

In addition to the above items, I also make sure to pick up a bunch of fresh produce at the grocery store to complete my recipes and eat for healthy snacks throughout the week.

All in all the whole process probably took me less than an hour of active cooking, with another hour or so doing other errands while things baked or simmered on the stove. Pretty simple and it works for me.

What about you? Do you meal prep at the beginning of the week? I'd love to hear your tips and tricks :)