Meal Prep Sundays

A few weeks ago, since Hubby was out of town, I opted to meal prep all THREE meals for 4 days ... just to see how it would go.

I wanted to see how much more work was involved.

I wanted to see if it made my food choices a little simpler.

I wanted to see if it would make me stay on track, food wise.

I wanted to see if it was worth it, period.

It was.

So I did it again on Sunday ... started at 9am and was in the pool by 1:30pm. I was aiming for 1pm but my girlfriend showed up and kind of threw me off my game for a bit.

The kitchen was CLEAN before I lathered up with sunscreen and grabbed the first wine of the day.

So, just a few little notes and tips here:

1.  I only use one pan at a time, so therefore, I am NOT using my time efficiently in the kitchen. If I was cooking the bacon and the green beans AND the broccoli all in different skillets/pots, I would have shaved a bit of time off my all around time in the kitchen. Yes, I washed the skillet in between things.

2.  Having a PLAN is crucial. When I did a session with my girlfriend a few weeks back, I did have a plan ... I listed what we were making, had the recipes pulled and was ready to go. This time around, I kind of winged it. I knew I was making the bacon and eggs, the green beans. The broccoli, Un-Rolled Egg Rolls and chicken were an afterthought that required a quick recipe look up and defrosting.

3.  Grab your containers ahead of time. As a girlfriend came over unexpectedly, I didn't package up the meals 100% ... I had the breakfast boxes done and I tossed together a single Chicken BLT Salad and 2 Chicken Kale with veggies boxes. The rest of the items cooked were tossed in containers and refrigerated til that evening and the next day.

4.  I'm lucky in that I have a fairly (overly) well stocked kitchen pantry and freezers ... everything I made was on hand from previous grocery store shops.  I'm hoping to get Hubby on board with this for the next 6 weeks or so.

Just for the record, since I've been meal prepping more of my meals and actually putting them together in each container (on and off since mid-June) instead of JUST the lunches, I've dropped 7 pounds. It's the only thing I can give it credit to, honestly! I attribute that to just being able to grab any container, re-heat it and eat. It keeps me from eating a plate of nachos, popcorn, chips, or just crap food period.  It also keeps me from getting to that bottomless hunger that makes just eat everything and anything I can get my hands on.

So here's the end results:

4 breakfast boxes - 2 eggs each, 2 slices bacon and 1/4 pound or so of sauteed green beans

1 Chicken BLT Salad box (I have more to put together) which was 1/4 pound of bacon, chicken breast, lettuce and chopped grape tomatoes. The dressing is so easy and is actually the marinade as well (1/4 c olive oil, 1/4 c balsamic vinegar, 1 dab of grey poupon mustard and a little bit of basil)

4 lettuce wrapped burgers with a side of guac and a fresh mozzarella (burgers from Trader Joe's, guac and cheese from Costco)

2 Chicken Kale burgers with broccoli, Un-Rolled Egg Rolls and Chicken Kale patties. Yeah, it sounds weird but it was delicious for dinner Monday night!

Inquiring minds want to know how many of YOU Meal Prep and make all THREE meals for each day?

Looking forward to sharing with some of these GREAT Parties ... go check them out!

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