Food Prep Sunday

Hannas Fridge

Each Sunday, I take about an hour or so to prepare myself and my family for the week.  I wanted to be very open here and share with you some of the things that I do to help me stay on track with my nutrition during the busyness of each day.  What this also does is allows me to know that my family will also have a well-rounded and balanced assortment of food.  So I will just start at the top and work my way down.

Top Shelf: My lunch already packed for the next morning.  My Post Workout Super Shake ready for my 5 AM workout.  I will be posting recipes for these soon.  Reddi Whip cool whip for a late night sweet treat if I’m dying for one.

Next shelf:  A lot of eggs. I love eggs and they make for a cheap any time of the day protein and/or fat source.  Note underneath of them is another container- these are hardboiled. I make about a dozen as well for quick snacks.  I often use egg whites as quick protein with very little fat.  Next to my eggs is lean ground turkey which will be the meat we use for our tacos on Tuesday night.

Under the two shelves of eggs are my prepared vegetables.  Each week I pick about three different ones that I will cut up into serving sizes and put them in ziplock bags so that each day I can grab a few on my way out of the house.  Again, this is also great to hand to my husband or kids for a healthy snack.  If it’s already cut, you are more likely to grab it.

First pull out drawer: this is my meat and dairy section.  I personally do not eat a lot of dairy, but I do every now and then put a slice of cheese on a wrap.  I make sure this drawer is stocked with Boars Head lower sodium chicken breast, at least one shredded rotisserie chicken with no skin, and a few grilled chicken breasts.  I keep with these items my Lavash bread.  These amazing wraps have become my happiness each lunch time.  They are really large so you have the satisfaction of a full lunch when packed with turkey or chicken, mustard, and lots of sprouts.  They are packed with great macros! One wrap has 16 C/12 P/ 3 F so it works really well into the day’s worth of food.                     

Middle pull out drawer: this is full of my dinners that are already prepared.  This week was have a Sweet Potato Lasagna already prepared in a container, the rest of my taco ingredients, salmon and asparagus, and kabobs put together.  After we finish these meals, I will pull the lean ground beef out of the freezer to be prepared into burgers and served with sweet potato slices on the last night of the week. While I prepare each dinner, I go ahead and log it all into My Fitness Pal for the night I plan to eat it.  If something changes, I can go ahead and delete it. But by logging it early and having a plan, it sure makes everything run smoothly.

Last drawer: this is actually our yogurt drawer.  Again, I don’t personally eat yogurt often so this is my husband and my girls’ drawer.  My girls love to have a chobani yogurt daily.

On the door shelves you will see some different cooking supplies such as lemon juice and lime juice and of course four different types of mustards to keep each lunch different.  You will see my girls’ whole milk and then my unsweetened almond milk that I enjoy in my post work out smoothies.

In our pantry you will find raw nuts, some things like ground flax seed, cacao powder, protein powder (I use very little), oatmeal (traditional and also lower sugar quick pouches), lara bars for my girls and quest bars for my work days, some regular peanut butter and PB2 for me.  You will also find on the counter a very large glass bowl full of fresh fruit.

So when you are first starting to try and plan out your week better, I suggest starting a list of foods you eat more often and then write up your dinner list.  When you go to the store, only get what is written on the list, do not stray from it.  Set aside the hour or two on a given day and prepare as many things as possible.  By taking this initial preparation time, you will be ready to succeed for the entire week.

Love deeply, eat well, and floss daily,

Hanna