This was a great weekend for meal prep. I compiled a pretty good mix of goodies to set myself up for success this week. I’ve linked available recipes so you can easily print them.
- Homemade Hot Sauce
- Tomatillo Sauce
- Rice
- Quinoa
- 2 Cup Fresh Fruit Bowls
- Fruit Smoothies
- Spiralized Zucchini
- Spiralized Beets
- Peanut Butter Power Balls
Fresh Homemade Hot Sauce is pretty much a staple in our home. We love Mexican food and can easily polish off a quart of hot sauce in a week. These are my favorite tortilla chips for dipping! Garden Of Eatin Corn Tortilla Chips.
The Tomatillo Sauce is a favorite and can be used as a dip for chips, a sauce for enchiladas or burritos, on a salad, or atop a savory mixed veggie bowl. This green little goddess is truly versatile.
Cooking rice and quinoa in the oven is a huge time saver and a total game changer. You can store it in the fridge for the week, or in the freezer for a few months. When freezing, I separate it out into portioned bags so I can just pull one out and pop it in the microwave for a super quick lunch or dinner. So far this week, the quinoa has appeared in the Chicken Fajita Veggie Bowl pictured at the top of the post.
Since my Challenge Group is striving to eat 2 cups of fresh fruit every day for the month of February, I decided to cut up a pineapple and a couple of kiwi to make me a couple of 2 cup dishes of fresh fruit. The less I have to think about during the week when life is crazy, the better. Having the fruit prepped means I will definitely eat it.
The Fruit Smoothies are a favorite in our house and another way for me to get my fruit in on a day that I know I won’t sit down long enough to eat fresh fruit. Berries have anthocyanins which give the fruit their color, fight free radicals, and offer anti-inflammatory benefits. I like my smoothie drinkable like a shake. My husband likes his the consistency of ice cream, so I freeze a few cups each week for him to eat as an after dinner snack. He does not eat berries raw, so this is the only way I can get them in his diet so he can reap the anti-inflammatory benefits.
The spiralized beets and zucchini will find their way into veggie bowls throughout the week. They are a simple way to dress up a dish so it’s pretty and fun to eat. There are several brands of spiralizers out there. I bought mine from Amazon and it has several blades, but to be honest, I really have only used one blade so far. Spiralizer 5-Blade Vegetable Slicer.
I have made Chicken Zucchini Noodle Soup, and Chicken Zucchini with Marinara in addition to just adding them to veggie bowls. I’ve made spiralized potatoes in the oven, but I didn’t love them.
My husband is getting busy because the weather has been so dry and will be spending his lunch hour in the field, so I needed some portable snacks for him to pack with him. One of his favorites is my Peanut Butter Power Balls. Because we live in a rural area, some of the ingredients are not available locally. I purchase the ingredients at Natural Grocers, but they are all available on Amazon as well, and I often purchase them online. I have added links to the products at the end of this post.
If you’re striving to lead a healthy lifestyle, food prep is a must! You have to set yourself up for success! If you’re prepared when life gets crazy, you don’t have to make a trip through the drive-thru and pick up a heart attack in a sack. You’ll have a few staples prepped so you can pull a meal together in under 30 minutes.
AMAZON PRODUCT LINKS
Bob’s Red Mill, Organic Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
Bell Plantation PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter
Healthworks Cacao Nibs Raw Organic
Bob’s Red Mill Unsweetened Flaked Coconut
Kretschmer Wheat Germ
Navitas Organics Hemp Seeds
Sunrise Fresh Dried Dark Sweet Cherries