Happy Sunday! Whoa, where did this weekend fly off to? Amirite? I got up late this morning, drank a ton of coffee and read in bed for about an hour and then decided I needed to get productive at about 11:30–Then I decided I should make this day EXTRA productive by FINALLY do a post on my food prep process. It’s pretty easy, not fancy and takes about 90 minutes from grocery to finish.

First I should tell you the entire process including:

Outfit: yoga pants, tank top I slept in (I don’t control the heat, so my apartment is either FREEZING or as hot as Arizona in July–today it’s pretty toasty)
Beverage: Rotating between water and coffee.
Playlist: The Devil Makes Three  PANDORA station (I’m going to see them for my birthday in a few weeks, so gotta get my hippie/bluegrass dance moves down before hand)

So first things first. I went to the grocery store with a plan. I always do, because if you don’t have a plan you’ll for sure forget something, buy something you already have, or go hungry–and we all know that grocery shopping hungry is a terrible idea. I got all the stuff I needed for my lunches, I also cook dinner at home so I got different veggies and proteins for those meals, but I cook those fresh each evening so no need to prep anything.

What I got specifically for my lunches this week:

-1 onion
-3 large yellow summer squash
-a few large handfuls of green beans
-1 pound of lean ground turkey

(Note: I already have EVOO, spices, rice…etc. The basics were covered. Also, I generally each week just chose two veggies and protein, this is what looked good; it varies due to mood, season, how late on a Sunday I get to the store… and therefore how picked over everything is.)

I throw on some tunes that match my mood–today it was bluegrass, mostly for above reasons, and it always puts me in a good mood. Then I start chopping. I turn on the oven, throw the veggies in a pan and spray with EVOO. I got a Mister Mister to keep my olive oil use under control–it lets you use the oil of your choice in a misting manner. You can buy one HERE. I’ve had mine for about a year and only spent like $6 on it, I highly recommend getting one.

Everything goes in the oven, they only have two jobs and it’s to cook and make my house smell amazing.
I tend to use a lot of spices instead of sauces, keeps me in absolute control of what I’m putting in my body. On the onions and squash I used a little salt, garlic powder (mostly because I’m too lazy to chop up garlic,) and cumin. The green beans get some lemon pepper and that’s about it.

While those guys are partying in there I start on the brown rice. I have to look up the ratios every time and usually still mess it up–today was half a cup of brown rice to a cup of water, I think? Now I’m second guessing myself–just look it up, that ‘s what google is for. 

Anyway, I cook the rice and the turkey on the stove top–I add turmeric to the turkey for some added health benefits  and about half a cube of veggie bullion to the rice to add some flavor. Today I decided to mix the two after fully cooking each and I like the flavor outcome–this will definitely be happening again!

(Keep in mind, I snack all day–this meal is not high in calories, for most it is probably not enough for a mid day meal sans snacks. This meal contains approximately 330 calories and a good balance of your daily macros. )

So, everything cooks pretty independently for a while. While it’s hands off I tend to clean as I go, dance around the kitchen and sip coffee. Eventually I taste test everything, take the kids out of the oven and let it all cool before divvying it up in my mismatched Tupperware, take a couple snap-chats and throw it in the fridge with a proud grin on my face.

I’m sharing all this with you not to give you a recipe, not to tell you what to eat, not even to give you nutrition advice–I’m sharing this because I want you to know that making 5 delicious, healthy, cheap meals for the week took me less time than this blog post took.

Don’t get intimidated by those “how to” posts that end up looking like a page or two from Real Simple magazine. The prep should take 90 minutes (on the high end) and the finished product doesn’t have to look perfect. Mine don’t. But my co workers are always jealous of my home made meals that were cheaper, are healthier and probably taste better than whatever they got from the place around the corner.

Try it out and tell me how it goes! Sloan.personaltraining@gmail.com