Ultimate Meal Prep

When it comes to meal prep, simplicity is the key.  The less steps you have to take to get a meal on the table, the better.  I have complied a list of my favorite recipes that can either be prepared in advance, in bulk (and frozen), or made on a Sunday night to feed you the rest of the week.

I have a few rules when meal prepping that make things go faster, as well as saving you time and money.
1.  Make meals with like ingredients.  
If I am prepping one chicken meal, I am preparing many chicken meals.  If I grill chicken for dinner, I will also grill extra chicken for salads, sandwiches or to keep in the freezer.  The same goes for ground meat.  It is just has easy to brown 2 pounds of ground meat as it is to brown 1 package.  Additionally, buying large quantities is often cheaper.  You can either freeze the unused portion to grill later, or divide it among different meals.  This also works great when buying produce.  I will get giant bags of onions, potatoes, peppers, green, carrots, etc from Costco, and then use them to make all my freezer meals.
2. Chop Once
If you have to chop onions for one meal, you might as well chop the onions you need for all your meals.  If I am making slow cooker meals, I will line up all my gallon zip top bags and drop the ingredients as I chop.  This is a great job for any kitchen helpers too!  Just set things out assembly line style and chop away!
3. Measure out your serving sizes
The easiest way to to know how much food you have on hand, is to know how many servings you can have.  I like to portion my meals into 3 servings (3 people in our family) so that I don't have to worry about leftovers or worrying if I am eating too many servings. I also know that if I am feeding more than 3 people, I will need to pull more food out of the freezer.
4. Keep the freezer and pantry stocked for emergency meals
Keep items you regularly use in the freezer and pantry.  Meat, eggs (out of the shell), milk, cheese (if you plan on grating), bread, flours, sugar, onions, peppers, tomatoes and other produce (except greens) all freeze well.  Even if it comes out a little mushy, once you cook it you won't be able to tell. I also always double any meal I am making, and freeze one for later.  Just defrost over night, and you've got dinner.  My personal goal is to only buy fresh produce and milk every week because my pantry and freezer is so well organized and stocks.
5. Shop the sales
Base your meals around what is on sale.  Most items run on a 6 week sale cycle so buy 6 weeks worth.  Meat has been on sale lately, which is awesome.  This also means that my freezer is over flowing.  Every week, I buy a few packs of whatever I use often and toss it in the freezer or make it into a meal I can freeze for later.

Soups/Stews:

Vegetable Soup

15 Bean Soup

Tomato Basil Soup

Butternut Squash Soup

Breakfasts:

Baked Oatmeal

Balanced Breakfast

Slowcooker Oatmeal

Oatcakes

Steak and Eggs

One Pot Meals:

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta

Roasted Red Pepper Baked Ziti

Sausage and Kale Stew

Slowcooker:

Chicken Burrito Bowls

Pulled Pork

Chicken Chili

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Cincinnati Chili

21 Day Fix Friendly Sweet Potato Fries

Who doesn't love french fries? I rarely meet a potato I don't like, and sweet potatoes and french fries are at the top of my potato love affair list.  That means sweet potato fries are basically a match made in heaven.  Unfortunately for me, deep frying a sweet potato is along the lines of calling strawberry ice cream a serving of fruit.  That is why my recipe for Baked Sweet Potato Fries is so awesome!  

You will need roughly 2 medium sweet potatoes for 4 people.  You'll want to eat the whole batch yourself, but we are trying to be healthy here, so let's call it 4 servings.  Each serving of this recipe is 1 Yellow 21 Day fix container and 1 tsp.  

Start by slicing the sweet potatoes into a fry like shape (whatever that means to you as long as they are uniform).  Put your potato pieces in a bowl of ice water and soak for one hour.  

Drain and rinse the potatoes, pat dry and place in a gallon sized zip top bag with 1 TBSP Corn Starch and 1 TBSP All Purpose Seasoning.  Shake until the potatoes are well coated by the corn starch mixtures.

Toss the Corn Starch coated potatoes with 4 tsp melted coconut oil.  Spread on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Try to keep them from touching each other for the crispiest of fries.  Clearly my baking sheet was too small...

Bake in 425 degree oven for 10 minutes.  Flip/stir/shake around and then return to the oven for another 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and shove a few in your mouth when no one is looking.

Let me know if you try these!  I'd love to hear how you liked them and if you sprinkled them with anything other than All Purpose Seasoning (a little cinnamon and sugar perhaps?). These are also great leftover smashed in a quesadilla with a little chicken and black beans!

I served mine along side Crockpot Pulled Pork and a simple cole slaw salad.  

Rattlesnake Pasta- The First Meal I Cooked For My Husband

When my husband and I were first dating, we used to go out to eat a lot.  I would get out of school, change out of my scrubs, shower off the anatomy smell, and then he'd come over, pick me up and we'd go eat somewhere.  This went on for a few weeks, until I finally decided it was time to take our relationship to the next level.  I was going to cook for him.  He'd eaten food I'd made for parties, but I'd never just cooked a meal for the two of us.  I wanted it to be really good, I wanted it to be something easy, and I wanted it to be spicy since he loves spicy food.  So I made Rattlesnake Pasta.  

  

Rattlesnake pasta, has no snake, it's made with spicy Italian sausage, tomatoes, green chillies, and bell peppers.  It's not smooth like a traditional marinara sauce, because it's full of different textures and flavors.  Because I am always on the look out for ways to make things healthier, I like to use Hot Turkey Italian Sausage.  I use one link per person, because I like leftovers...and sometimes seconds.

Ingredients:
1 package Hot Italian Sausage
1-3 cups Tri Color Bell Peppers (the more peppers you use, the less pasta you need)
1 onion
1 can tomatoes and green chilies
1 can crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp Italian Seasoning
1 tsp minced garlic
Pasta of your choice

Directions:
Cook the pasta according to package directions, minus 2 minutes.  Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.  Brown the sausage in a skillet, and set aside to cool.  In the same pan, add the pepper and onions.  Cook over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes.

Add the canned tomatoes, garlic and Italian Seasoning to the peppers and stir to combine.  Slice the sausage into bite size pieces, and add to the pan.  Bring to a bubble, and then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered until thickened.  Once slightly thickened, add the pasta and pasta water if the sauce seems dry.

Taste the sauce and add Salt and Pepper if desired.  Garnish with parmesan cheese and try not to eat it all in one sitting!

Creamy Butternut Squash Pasta- 21 Day Fix Recipe

Oh my gosh, this pasta is good.  It came out of a need to fill a macaroni and cheese craving while still limiting my dairy.  I can have a little bit of dairy, but full blown macaroni and cheese with a pound of cheese, cream and butter is way to much.  Butternut squash to the rescue!  This recipe isn't dairy free, but they dairy has definitely been cut back a lot.  It also has a secret serving of veggies which is always great.

Ingredients:
1 box pasta (I used Gluten free penne with 6 servings per box)
1 package Italian sausage links (4 servings)
12 oz Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
8 oz Gruyere Cheese, grated
16 oz Butternut Squash, cubed
2 tsp all purpose seasoning.
Unsalted Vegetable Broth

Directions:
Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain and distribute between baking dishes.  Grill the sausage links, allow to cool, slice and add to the pasta in the baking dishes.

Meanwhile, steam the butternut squash and transfer to a blender with the ricotta cheese and all purpose seasoning.  Blend until smooth, adding vegetable broth as necessary.  Add half the gruyere cheese, and blend until incorporated.  Taste, and add more seasoning if necessary.  You should end up with a nacho cheese consistency.  

Stir the cheese sauce into the pasta and sausage mixture until well combined.  Sneak a taste and get super excited by the cheesy goodness.

Top with the remaining gruyere cheese, and wrap in aluminum foil to freeze.  Alternatively, pop in a 350 degree oven until bubbly or about 30 minutes.

There you go!  Macaroni and cheese you can feel good about.  The whole recipe serves 6, or 3 servings per pan.  If you are serving a larger crowd, you can just make one pan.

with mushrooms sautéed in olive oil with garlic and parsley

21 Day Fix Conversion: 1 red, 1 yellow, 1/2 blue, 1/3 green.

This Week's Menu and How I Budget for Groceries- 5/11/15

When I sat down to right this post, I meant for it to be about the recipes I made this week.  However, it turned out that I had a lot to say about budgeting and grocery shopping, so instead, it is going to be about budgeting and grocery shopping.  I'm sorry it's so long and there are zero pictures, but I want to get it posted.  I tell you what, I will take pictures as we eat our meals this week and I will go back and update them.  For now, I hope you find this helpful...

For about 2 weeks now, I have been trying to make our family stick to the envelope system of budgeting.  We are having passing success in that I now know we were way off track in our spending and I have finally made a budget and found a way to organize all our bills and monthly spending.  I divided our spending into 2 categories: bills we pay online through our bank or websites and purchases with make with cash.  Our groceries fall in the cash category.  Groceries also happen to be an area where I really cut our spending.  I am limiting us to $50 a week in groceries.  Sounds crazy right?  Well, I am justifying it by this logic.  When I was single, I spent $30 a week shopping at Whole Foods.  I didn't clip coupons, I didn't buy generic, I certainly didn't pay attention to sales and I never ever planned ahead.  Granted, I ate pretty much the same thing every day, but I was eating pretty well.  So $50 a week, is roughly $7 a day to feed my husband and I.  Enter meal planning...

Almost every dinner lately (unless we are grilling) is something I have made in bulk and frozen.  Our freezer is pretty full, and as I see items go on sale (or if I have a coupon), I will buy it and stock pile it until I have all the ingredients for a regular recipe.  This means I don't usually shop for a specific meal each week.  This is not a perfect system, and we are frequently guilty of an impulse buy, but we are working on that.

We grocery shop on Wednesday's because my mom gets a Senior Discount at Kroger.  Since Kroger is running a fuel point special over the summer, I might also shop on the weekends for the extra points, but I try not to since we don't get the discount.  However, since I get my gas at Kroger, and you get twice the fuel points by shopping on the weekend, and argument could be made for moving my savings on gas over to the grocery budget.  Since this weeks dinners are already planned, the only thing we will be shopping for is anything we need for breakfasts and lunches, and I'll be on the look out for coupon or sale items I can stockpile for dinner prep.

This weeks menu is:
Monday- Chicken breasts with roasted carrots and smashed potatoes.  This is the only meal that didn't come from the freezer this week. The chicken was on sale, the potatoes were purchased in bulk for multiple meals, and the carrots we paid full price for.
Tuesday- Roasted red pepper baked ziti- A few weeks ago Italian Sausage was on sale, so I grabbed two packs and tossed them in the freezer.  Gluten free pasta seems to be in a sale cycle right now, so I have been buying 2 boxes every week. I made 4 batches of this meal over the weekend, for a total of 12 servings.
Wednesday- Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas-
Canned items were on sale, and I used up leftover chicken, cheese, and tortillas from other meals.  I only paid full price for the enchilada sauce and sweet potatoes.  I made 5 batches of this meal, or 15 servings.
Thursday- Beef stew with mashed potatoes.  I made the beef stew awhile ago, and it had finally come up in the freezer rotation.  Usually I will make a triple batch, and then freeze two.  I will be making the mashed potatoes fresh this week (since I have a few more potatoes left from my bulk purchase), but otherwise I usually keep some on hand that I defrost and bake while the beef stew is reheating.
Friday- Thai Shrimp Soup.  This starts with my vegetable soup as a base, and then I add frozen shrimp, coconut milk, rice noodles, and a peanut sauce to the mix.  We did not plan ahead for this one, so we paid full price for the extra ingredients, but sometime you give into the cravings.
Saturday and Sunday will be leftovers, unless we see an awesome deal when we grocery shop tomorrow.

This week I planned 3 meals to prep for the freezer:

Roasted Red Pepper Ziti

Bran Muffins for my husbands breakfast

and Butternut Squash Pasta.  

I got gluten free pasta for less than $2 a box last week, so we are definitely going to have a lot of pasta meals in our freezer.  Since I also prepped a ton of Veggie Spaghetti Sauce not too long ago, this gives us something to put it on. I should note that I always try to include a meat, a veggie, and a carb in my dinners.  Sometimes I make a salad as the veggie, and sometimes the carb is an after thought, but I do try to make sure it is always balanced.  Additionally, it is very important to consider serving sizes when you are on a budget.  You will get so much more bang for your buck when you actually measure servings.  I like to freeze meals in 3 portion sizes (since there are 3 people in our family), so we don't waste food by throwing away leftovers.  This also keeps us on track calorie wise.

So, what should you take away from this?
1. You are probably spending so much more on groceries than you need to.  You don't have to go coupon crazy to really see a difference.  We are saving an average of $30-$50 a week by combining sales, coupons and my mom's senior discount.
2.  Definitely shop with a grocery list, and keep an eye out for sale items you can use later.
3.  Stock your freezer with easy meals.  Every morning when I get up, I pull out that nights meal to defrost.  This has saved us so much money since we aren't eating out any more.
4.  Use those gas points!  I saved 70 cents a gallon this month with gas points.  I can't believe I haven't been doing this sooner.  That savings goes back into my grocery budget or my emergency fund.
5.  Buy in bulk and plan in bulk.  It is often cheaper to buy a lot of one type of meat or other ingredients.  If you can make multiple meals out of these and freeze them, not only does it save time but it saves a lot of money.  Just because you make them all at once, does not mean you have to eat them all the same week.
6.  Measure your food before your freeze, and package in appropriate serving sizes.

21 Day Summer Slim Down!

I don't know about you, but in our house we celebrate any holiday with a lot of food, and a festive cocktail.  Mother's Day was no different.  My mom does a lot for other people, so it was nice to spoil her with her favorite foods.  We had mimosas, homemade gluten free waffles with bacon and mixed berry syrup for breakfast .  For dinner we went out for gluten free pizza and salad and then wrapped the evening up with Frosty's on the way home.  Everything was delicious, but it is definitely time to get back on track. 

With warm weather approaching, my thoughts are turning to summer fun – Pools, Lakes, Fireworks and Popsicles! My goal this year is to be in the BEST SHAPE OF MY LIFE to feel confident poolside and have the energy to play all summer! I am looking for 10 people who want to get FIT with short, yet effective workouts {30 minutes per day}, eat clean {REALISTIC food} and feel amazing for summer! 

I am running a 21-DAY SUMMER SLIM-DOWN accountability group that will help you eat clean, exercise effectively and stay motivated! This program will SCULPT and TONE your entire body while getting in the best shape of your life! It also includes low impact demonstrations for every move making it suitable for ALL fitness levels. We will use some amazing tools to keep us on point! 

PLEASE COMMENT "GET SUMMER READY" AND ADD ME ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE INFORMATION!