Meal Prep Monday - Apple Quinoa Breakfast Bake and Chicken Nuggets

Happy Monday! (is that an oxymoron?) I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was pretty awesome and included my volleyball team's first ever cash tournament win. So proud of us! My legs are still super sore today, but it was totally worth it :)

Since the weather's gotten colder having the oven on is a lot less miserable and baking is a lot more appealing. Here's what I came up with for this week.

Breakfast

I liked changing things up with a savory breakfast last week, but cold weather makes me crave warm, sweet baked goods. I was inspired by this recipe that I found on Pinterest, but I changed it up a little to get in more protein and healthy fats.

Apple Quinoa Breakfast Bake

Recipe

Calories: 284 | Fat: 10 g | Cholest: 31 mg | Sodium: 84 mg | Carbs: 41 g | Fiber: 6 g | Sugars: 15 g | Protein: 10 g 

1 cup uncooked quinoa
3 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup raisins
1 small apple, diced
1 egg
2 egg whites
2 cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 7 x 11 or 8 x 8 baking dish with cooking spray.
Mix the quinoa, chia seeds, and spices in the baking dish.
Sprinkle the raisins and diced apple on top of the quinoa mixture.
Whisk together the eggs, almond milk, apple sauce and maple syrup in a bowl.
Pour the egg mixture over the quinoa mixture.
Sprinkle the almonds and walnuts evenly over top.
Bake for 1 hour or until liquid is absorbed.
Makes 6 servings.

I am a big fan of this breakfast and it would be a great gluten free option to serve at brunch. It's really easy since you don't even have to pre-cook the quinoa, and it isn't too sweet but has a nice spiciness.  The quinoa makes it very filling, and every bite is also loaded with raisins and nutty goodness. Not your typical breakfast, but I highly recommend giving it a try.

Protein

I wanted to make an easy baked chicken recipe, and Skinnytaste's chicken nuggets fit the bill, although breading the nuggets was a little time consuming. Definitely worth it though for how tasty they turned out. Typically, this was one of the bf's favorite meal prep recipes ever. He's seriously a giant 5 year old.

Sides

Since I was set up for breading things, I went ahead and also breaded and baked some eggplant. Super tasty. Along with the eggplant, I roasted a spaghetti squash, and made some peas (the one thing I didn't make in the oven. although oven roasted peas sound promising).

Workouts

I came up a little short on my Pile on the Miles goal last week since I couldn't convince my legs to run the day after the volleyball tournament, so I'm trying to make up a little this week.

Monday: Nike Training Club Jeanette Jenkins abs, pull-ups, 2 rec league volleyball games

Tuesday: 4 mile run

Wednesday:  Fitness Blender Tank Top Arms 2, pull-ups

Thursday: 4 miles run, coed rec league volleyball 

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Women's volleyball tournament

Sunday: 5K run