Easiest Meal Prep Ever

We've been meal prepping for going on 12 weeks straight now, and I love it.  I wouldn't want to cook every day even even if I had the time, and this way nobody has to.  At first it seems like a lot of work, but it really isn't and it saves us a lot of time and energy, throughout the busy workweek.  I don't get home from work or to the gym until 5:30ish.  I don't finish working out until about 6:30-6:45pm.  I'm not out of the shower until about 7:15ish.  I do not have time to cook dinner at 7:15pm, eat, and be in bed by 9:00pm.

My lunch and dinner (snacks not pictured)

Grocery shopping is easy, because the menu for the week is simple and all set.  We buy similar whole foods every week and make enough food to last the entire week.  Things like seasoning, rice, almonds, peanut butter and string cheese are purchased with enough to last for a while.  We go back back for perishables, like fruit, veggies, milk, and more meat every week. We grocery shop and meal prep either Saturday or Sunday depending on weekend plans.  Sometimes the meal prep happens over the course of two days, and sometimes it happens on one.

A photo posted by Cece (@mahoganydrive) on Feb 6, 2016 at 7:19pm PST

I do the easiest meal prep known to man.  The only thing that requires actual cooking is the meat, because neither one of us is eating rice right now.  It only takes about 2 hours in all.  In the amount of time it takes me to make one meal, we can make ten. We do the dishes and then we are done with the kitchen for the week.  I do insist that we stay on top of plastic container washing so we don't end up with an overflowing sink full of plastic containersat the end of the week.  We usually marinate chicken and cut broccoli on one day, and then throw the meat in the oven the next day.  Later on, we get back in the kitchen to dish everything out into the plastic containers, and portion out whatever snacks we need. Fresh broccoli is so much better tasting than frozen, and it's super easy to make.  Actually, we don't even cook it anymore.  Our house was literally stinking of broccoli!  It was MJ's idea to put a little bit of water in the meal prep container and microwave it along with our meat so that we are eating fresh crispy broccoli every day. Both of us opt for no cook breakfast's.  MJ has been drinking shakeology.  I eat two slices of Whole Wheat bread with peanut butter, which is my favorite meal of the day. 

During the workweek I just need healthy meals to put in my mouth and fuel me through the week.  It's kind of a blur anyway, so dinner doesn't have to be anything special as long as it's nutritionally balanced and keeps me satisfied.  I don't mind eating the same thing every day, but you don't have to be boring.  MJ likes variety and sometimes cooks Chicken and Turkey plus a pasta salad.  It would be much more time consuming, but another option is to make three separate meals, all at once.  I stick with chicken.  Chicken, chicken, chicken all day every day.  I am a slow cook, and even I can make chicken quickly.  I don't even set the timer.  A digital meat thermometer tells me when it's done.  The marinade powder we use is really tasty and if I want to spend a bit of extra time I can pan sear it before baking to pack in even more flavor.  I usually don't.  Even better, if MJ throws all the meat on the grill.  For lunch I eat chicken with baby carrots because they are easily transportable and don't require cooking.  For dinner I eat it with broccoli.

The hardest thing is figuring out how much you need of everything to last the week.  I eat 5 lbs of chicken by myself and it takes at least 7 heads of broccoli to feed us both for a week.  We were short on chicken this week, so we are still figuring it out. 

A photo posted by Cece (@mahoganydrive) on Feb 21, 2016 at 8:32pm PST

We use Reditainer® - 2 Compartment Containers.I love having grab and go healthy meals all ready to go in the refrigerator during the week.  I don't have to worry about cooking.  We don't have to spend time thinking about what we will have for dinner, and we don't have to stop on the way home and pick something up.  It makes sticking to my specific meal plan really, really easy.  I am entitled to a cheat meal on the weekends so I have that to look forward to.  MJ enjoys cooking so he will want to cook something more exciting, at some point but during the weekdays our simple easy meal prep is perfect.

I'm not a cook, so if it's not easy, I'm not doing it and if I can do this meal prep anyone can.

 
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