Meal Prep

Hello everybody,

I've received a ton of inquiries about the meal prep photos I've been sharing on social media, and I finally decided to blog about it.

Meal prep is super easy and something that anybody can do. My husband I both work 12 hour shifts, and the last thing I want to do is stay up late or wake up early to pack our lunches. So instead I've been taking a few hours on the weekend to prepare for the coming week, and it has completely changed the way I do things.

I got some reasonably priced containers on Amazon (I also use a lot of good old fashioned zip lock bags, so it doesn't have to be fancy. You can use what you've got). I'll link to all containers at the bottom of this post.

I like to take a lot of pictures, so I'll just post them and explain what I've made. I'll try to answer all questions in the comments, so feel free to ask away!

Without further ado, here is a little bit about today's meal prep.

I started out with a wal-mart grocery order, since I've had the flu and didn't feel like spreading the love.. I forgot a few things so I had to be creative.

I should have mentioned, my husband and I are doing WW so a lot of the meals I will be sharing have point values. You don't have to be on weight watchers to enjoy them though.. Healthy is healthy!

The first thing I made was a zero point chicken salad! Absolutely delicious. I'm always looking for ways to make life easier, so canned chicken was the base of this dish. You could always use freshly cooked chicken if you cared to do so. I used tyson grilled canned chicken, used my manual food processor to chop up some celery and red onion, cut a few red grapes in half and added about 1/2 a cup of Fage 0% Greek Yogurt, a little salt and pepper and 1 packet of stevia in the raw for that little bit of sweetness. It's pretty delicious if I do say so myself. I put some chicken salad in a meal container, added a Joseph's Whole Wheat Pita (1 point), some lettuce and some tomato, and a frigo light mozzarella cheese stick (1 point). Making this entire meal a grand total of 2 points.. Not many, but perfect for one of those days when we have a higher point breakfast or dinner. I made a few of these for my lunches.. I can't talk my husband into chicken salad (yet, I'm working on him), but I promise I made other meals that he will eat.

I cheated again on these, with frozen grilled chicken breasts from Tyson. I still think it's better than going through a drive through for lunch. Maybe I'll make everything from scratch eventually.

Each one of these boxes has a grilled chicken breast, grapes (leftover from my chicken salad), bell peppers & hummus (I measured out the hummus in the little condiment containers I got on amazon, 2 oz each- 2 points). My husband's meals have a slice of cabot sharp cheddar cheese (3 points) and mine have a light laughing cow swiss wedge (1 point). Making his 5 points and mine 3 points.

I also made a few with turkey cheddar brats (3 points each) and grilled veggies (mushrooms, some leftover red onion from the chicken salad, and zucchini). I sprinkled a little feta (1 point), added an unsweetened apple sauce and a light string cheese (1 point). So these boxes were only 5 points each. 

While I was making these lunches I was also cooking a few chicken breasts so I could prep a dinner for one of my work nights. So I took my crockpot, added some chicken broth, canned kidney beans, canned black beans, canned corn, canned green chiles, a pack of taco seasoning and then my shredded grilled chicken breasts. I set the actual crock in the fridge, so whichever day I decide I need an easy meal all I need to do is grab it out of the fridge and plug in the crockpot and go.

I switched gears and prepped some breakfast after that. The first thing was these Turkey sausage/egg muffins. Super easy. I greased a muffin tin (I used the square one from pampered chef, but you could use any). First thing I did was cook my turkey sausage (I bought it at walmart I chopped up the last of that leftover red onion, chopped up a red bell pepper and threw them in a mixing bowl. I cracked 6 eggs, added 1 cup of 2% milk, 1 cup of fat free cheddar cheese, and I chopped up 3 slices of Sarah Lee 100% Multi-grain bread added some salt and pepper and mixed it all up. Added it to my greased muffin tins and popped it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. After cooking and cooling, I have individually wrapped all 12 of them, put some in the fridge and some in the freezer and now all we need

to do is pull them out and pop them in the microwave or the oven to reheat! I added all of these ingredients into the Weight Watchers app using the 'create a recipe' feature, for a grand total of 1 point each. 

While these were baking I whipped up some of my 2 ingredient bagels (I've shared them on social media before, but I'll make another post about them soon). Each bagel is only 3 points. I top with some pure blends avocado butter (2 points) and light cream cheese (1 point - mix in some everything bagel seasoning with your cream cheese and yummy!!). I measured out my butter and cream cheese into my 2 oz containers for easy portion control and

also so I can just grab them and take them to work with me in the mornings.

And to wrap up my meal prep, we needed some snacks. So I made these zucchini chips (using the zucchini I had leftover after making grilled veggies for lunches earlier). Easiest thing in the world. Sliced the zucchini, dipped in 2% milk, then dipped into my breadcrumb mixture (panko breadcrumbs, reduced fat grated parmesan cheese and some salt and pepper and garlic powder). Laid them out on a stone pan (any baking sheet will do, but if you've never used stoneware you are missing out!) and sprayed with Pam. Baked at 350 for 15 minutes, flipped them over and baked for another 15 minutes. Let them cool and then throw them into a ziplock bag! Delicious and only 2 points for the whole batch. 

I also made some apple chips, super easy. Slice your apples up, sprinkle some cinnamon on them and bake at 225 for two hours. I don't have a final product yet since they're still in the oven, so no picture. But I have made them before and I can guarantee deliciousness for this zero point snack. Let them cool and store in a zip lock bag.

Well! That's all for now. Only around 3 hours to prep all of our breakfasts, lunches, snacks and 1 dinner for the entire week. Not too shabby. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I've linked to all containers below.

15 pack Freshwater Meal Prep Containers - $14.99 Prime Eligible These are reusable and very sturdy. I'm a fan of the separate compartments, and that the lids are tall enough so they don't squish your food! They also lock into each other to stack in the fridge or for storage.

50 disposable two ounce portion cups - $5.95 Prime Eligible These probably aren't necessary and they aren't really sturdy enough to be reusable, but since I'm really watching portion control I'm loving them. And honestly I can swing $6 for 50 of them.