What's going on?

Follow up post from my earlier monthly prep. It’s been a long day in the kitchen.

Meals left to right:

Meal One- Instant Pot ground turkey, white rice and fire roasted veggies

Meal Two- SV Chicken, steamed baby carrots and baked broccoli

Meal Three- Don Lee Farms grilled chicken patty, Aerofarms micro greens, and fire roasted veggies.

Locked down our meals for the next five to six weeks. I don’t have the exact number but this is about $600 worth of food for my wife and I. The last picture is last week’s meal prep and not made with this batch, just an example of what one week of meals looks like.

Chicken Prep 1: Chicken, Olive Oil, Italian Seasoning, Garlic, Onion Powder, Salt and Pepper

Chicken Prep 2: Chicken, Olive Oil, Taco Seasoning

Steak: Prime Top Sirloin (No Cap), Olive Oil,Garlic, Onion, Salt & Pepper.

We aim for 6-7 ounce of protein in each meal, each bag contains about 60 ounces of raw meat. I cooked all the protein in a sous vide machine so not a lot of weight is lost in the process.

Trout Bake for tomorrow, Fajita Bowls, Steak and Feta Salads, Philly stuffed Peppers. Not pictured is the chicken pesto soup.

Teriyaki chicken w/broccoli & rice, cheesesteak pasta, banana bread. Recipes in the condiments.

I know, 5 isn't nearly as exciting as those family of 12 meal preps, but it is more realistic for most people. We started meal prepping when my girlfriend went back to teaching full time in the classroom. We have 3 kids, all in different schools, and she teaches at one. I work from home, so take all that with what caveats you will.

Our meal prep really starts on the Monday after we shop and do our actual food prep. We have a menu on the fridge that lists the days, and the dinners for those days. We plan what dinners we want around what the weather is going to be, what we have going on after school, what needs to be used up, etc. On that same board is a "grocery list" section that we use for suggestions. If one of us thinks of something we want for dinner in the coming weeks, it gets written down. This is how we come up with 90% of our dinners for the weeks.

We do our shopping and prepping every 2 weeks. The weekends the kids spend with their other parent are our shopping weeks. On the Friday before, we gather up the meals from the list, add in any more we need to bulk it up to 11 meals, then start the list. We try to duplicate ingredients, so if we're doing chicken breast one night, we might switch pulled pork to pulled chicken so we aren't buying extras. Then, we shop our pantry and freezer. Whatever we already have gets crossed off the list. Our list is divided up by the 3 stores we shop at most, just to make sure nothing gets forgotten.

The next day, Saturday, we do our shopping. We start around 8am and are home and done by about 12:30pm. This includes breakfast at a local diner, it's important to treat yourself. Once our shopping is done and things are pur away, we are done for the day and enjoy our Saturday.

Sunday, the real work gets done. Once we are up and caffinated, we set to work. Sandwiches for the kids, including lunch meat sandwiches, and homemade uncrustables. Then the Mrs. will take leftovers, snack trays, pasta salads, and occasionally sandwiches. We don't usually prep for me as I can cook for myself or eat up leftovers at home. We also make breakfast burritos, mini muffins, and mini pancakes for grab and go breakfasts on school days.

Where the most of our prep time goes through, is snacks. We prep baggies of berries and grapes, and we slice apples and toss them in a lemonade drink mix to stop them from browning. We cut up blocks of cheese and sticks of salami and pepperoni, and break down bags of chips, pretzels, and trail mix into individual servings. We have two teenage boys and entire bags will vanish if we don't. Also, working from home lends itself to voracious snacking, I am not innocent.

The most prep we do for dinners is breaking down and freezing big bags of peppers and onions, garlic, and some other occasional veg. Otherwise, dinners are made fresh every night.

We just finished our Sunday prep and I thought I'd share our process because it's a lot of work and I'm proud 😂

Recipe from Chef Jack Ovens: https://youtu.be/MXJyH4vdkLk

Pictured: 79 burritos ready to eat for breakfast

No thought or care was put into portioning, wrapping them well, or even if they taste good

I like to start my day off with high proteins, then do a carb heavy meal for lunch, I figure this is a pretty well off shot at that!

Meal 1: Old fashioned oats with egg whites, shredded cheddar, cream cheese, velveeta and water. Sautéed baby spinach, white onion and mushrooms. Topped with homegrown broccoli sprouts and a sunny side up egg.

Meal 2: blueberries and pumpkin seed + flaxseed granola with yogurt. Collagen powder and almond milk in a coffee.

Meal 3: slow cooker chicken pot pie soup. Recipe: https://theproteinchef.co/slow-cooker-chicken-pot-pie-recipe/

Meal 4: smoothie with oats, banana, PB Fit, peanut butter, almond milk, vanilla whey protein powder, cocoa powder, chocolate syrup and honey.

Meal 5: buttery mashed potatoes, 93/7 lean ground turkey burgers lettuce wrapped with tomato, red onion, velveeta slice and guacamole.

Recipe makes 6 total: - Whisk 5 whole eggs, 300g egg whites, and 200g cottage cheese and bake at 375 F for 20 minutes - Air fry 650g russet potato at 400 F for ~25 minutes. Shake pan and rotate potatos halfway through. - Cook 8 slices of turkey bacon and 8 ounces of ground turkey sausage on stove top - Rinse 1 whole can of black beans and set aside - Let everything cool completely before assembling burritos - Slightly warm tortillas, add cheese, black beans, meat, pickled red onions, potatoes, salsa, then egg. Roll burritos and bake at 400 F for a few minutes to toast the outside

Each burrito is approximately 600 calories.

Roughly 3k cal per day. Breakfast is two maple brown sugar oatmeal packs. Above that is 1.5 cups Jasmin rice with jerk seasoning, and 200 grams of roasted chicken thigh, also with jerk seasoning. Two table spoons of garlic sauce I made with no fat high protein Greek yogurt, fresh garlic and onion powder and garlic powder. Included there is one turkey roll up, 3 slices of turkey in an ORO keto wrap.

Above that is 130g no fat high protein yogurt with 100g blueberries, 50g raspberries and 50 g blackberries with cinnamon and in the bag above that is 1 cup go lean kashi oats, 2 scoops of Naked PB peanut butter powder and a scoop of chocolate protein powder. All of this will go into a blender with a cup of skim milk and 100ml liquid egg whites.

Then you see the brust protein coffee, the premier protein, the banana and if it’s a lifting day I’ll have two protein bars, if not just the one.

I’ve recently started a body recomp and have to almost double my calories so been a bit of a struggle to meal prep all whole foods for my 3k maintenance calories but I’m sure with time I’ll be able to cut out shakes and bars. Right now im just struggling to even eat this much😂

Just simple chicken and some veggies for my first attempt. Here’s to saving money and eating healthier!

2 cucumbers, 1 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, 2 avocados, container of pico de gallo, and 1 cup cooked quinoa in the small round bowls. When I’m ready to eat it, all I have to do is chop the avocado and add little bit of olive oil, lemon juice, ground pepper, sea salt, and turmeric. This week I might also add a new seasoning I got of spicy garlic Parmesan.

I like a warm lunch for my office job and always try different meal preps, but this is usually a go to when I’m short on time. I tend to get grossed out of chunks of chicken being reheated after day 2, but never get an ick from shredded. I pre cook my chicken, shred, and then freeze to make this even easier!

Ingredients: 1.5 cup white rice uncooked 3 cups cooked shredded chicken 1 can green enchilada sauce 1 can corn 1 can black beans (I rinse them) 1 can green chilies (4oz) Sprinkle of shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions: Cook your rice, this takes the longest. (I use rice cooker). Heat chicken, enchilada sauce, and green chilies in pot. Rinse black beans in sink. Assemble bowls. For this amount I do 4 lunches.