Monday Meals: Food Prep for Success

The two excuses I hear most often when it comes to eating healthy? It’s too expensive and I don’t have time. Well, I’m not buying it. Cooking your own nutritious meals does not mean spending two hours over a hot stove every night, preparing a meal comprised only of ‘super foods.’ A weekly meal prep session is the number one way to set yourself up for diet success.

Personally, I usually don’t get home from work until 8 or 9pm, and if I had to do anymore than reheat my meals, I would end up eating chips and salsa most nights. By making meal prep a habit, our weekly food bill for two never exceeds $75, and we don’t end up wasting money on takeaway dinners and overpriced salads for lunch. I love indulging in new, exotic foods and going out to different restaurants, but my mantra most of the time is that food is fuel, and while it should always be delicious, basic is often the best, particularly when you are short on time and keeping a budget. Our meals stay pretty similar week to week, though we play around with spices and herbs to keep dinners interesting.

Here is how I food prep for the week. We all have different tastes, nutritional needs and family sizes, but here is just a little bit of inspiration if you’re not sure where to start!

My typical shopping list:

• Normally 1 whole chicken, 3lbs of thigh/breast meat, or ground beef
• 3 dozen eggs
• 12 bananas
• Melon or grapefruit
• Frozen berries
• Sweet potatoes
• 5 avocados. Some ripe, some not.
• A mix of veggies for lunches. Normally celery, cucumber, carrots and tomatoes
• A mix of green and colorful veggies for dinner. Whatever is a good price
• Onions and garlic (once a month)
• Gluten free oats (once a month)
• Chia seeds (once a month)
• 1 tub plain, full fat yoghurt
• Hummus and baba ganoush
• Coffee for the French press. Very important
• Almonds/walnuts/cashews and jerky for snacks (once a month)
• Herbs, spices, coconut oil and olive oil I use every day, but typically only buy every 6 months or so.

Breakfast

• I make a large Tupperware for each of us of gluten-free, high-protein bircher muesli, and take out 1/5 each weekday morning and top with frozen berries or banana. Recipe coming next week!
• On the weeks we don’t have eggs for lunch, we have them for breakfast, hardboiled or fried, with half an avocado and a banana on the side.

Lunch

• Hard-boil 30 eggs.
• Chop veggies (carrots, celery, cucumber) and put in a Tupperware. Great to have for snacks too.
• Each night I put 3 eggs in a Tupperware with half an avocado, raw veggie sticks and some store bought hummus or babaganoush. Then lunch is ready to grab and go in the morning.
• Don’t feel like eggs? Try these Nori Rolls or Tuna Quinoa Pie.

Dinner

• Dinner is whatever meat and veggies are on sale, all in the slow cooker. It takes about 15 minutes to chop everything up, and then I can forget about it for 6-8 hours. I put the ceramic dish in the fridge, and then just warm up 1/5 of it each weeknight. This recipe for chicken soup is a staple in our house.
• On weeks I don’t feel like using the crockpot, I make a couple of trays of roasted veggies, season and grill meat, and cook a pot of quinoa. Store in the fridge, then just portion out and reheat.

Post WOD and Snacks

• Chop a cantaloupe or other melon and put in a Tupperware for desserts.
• Bake whole sweet potatoes at 350 for an hour, or until soft. These are our post-workout snacks, alongside a grass-fed whey protein shake.
• Check out True Nutrition for affordable, grass-fed whey protein. I like the Vanilla Cake Batter flavor, and although eating ‘real’ food is ideal, if you are time-poor and on a budget, it can be an excellent supplement to ensure you are getting your protein requirement.
• I typically only prepare breakfast, lunch, dinner and post-workout meals. However, I keep Trader Joe’s ‘Just a Handful’ unsalted, dry roasted almonds, good quality jerky and canned tuna in the cupboard on the days I do want another snack, plus there is always chopped fruit and veggies in the fridge.

A few more tips:

• Have an army of Tupperware available.
• Portion out breakfast and lunches the night before.
• Invest in a crockpot.
• Buy the meats that are on sale and veggies that are in season. Buy extra and freeze what you don’t use.
• Freeze extra portions that you don’t eat for emergency meals down the track.
• Keep it basic, and dress meals up with different spices and herbs. These are a worthy investment. Plant an herb garden while you’re at it!
• Write a weekly shopping list and stick to it.
• Set aside the same time every week to create a food prep habit. For me, this is Sunday afternoons, and I actually find it quite therapeutic to get organized for the week ahead.