Meal Planning Tips

[ashleypoptodorova]

Meal planning is an essential piece to your success in this journey. I always say that “proper preparation prevents failure” and it is oh so true! This forum is a place to share your meal planning tips, suggestions or to ask questions.

Preparing your meals does several things:

• Prevents food emergencies
• Ensures you succeed in making wise choices
• Makes it easier to turn down junk 
• Ensures you have the right portions ready to meet your goals

Another little meal prep tip that I love is using Mason jars to prepare easy to make salads, meals and also a great way to store your raw nuts/mixes.

Here are some great tips for meal prep:

• Bulk prepare your meats by easily baking, boiling or steaming them
• I cut my sweet potatoes into slices and steam them (this is the simplest trick and it helps you to easily weigh out your portions)
• Hard boil your eggs in advance (this is a really easy and quick protein option)
• I love to purchase single serving cups of GREEK yogurt which are easy to throw in your cooler
• Slice up a variety of veggies/hummus

What are your favorite tips for meal planning? Share them here!

 

[ariahimar]

I prep my breakfast for the whole week every Sunday. I make protein shakes so I line up seven containers and put all the dry ingredients in plus coconut oil. So easy in the morning. My bf and I bring a salad everyday so we prep those too. We usually do two to three days at a time so we only have to make salads every few days. And we take turns. So simple and we always have a great lunch. I also prep sweet potatoes and peppers and hummus to take with me. I keep Brazil nuts in my desk along with lots of tea bags.

We have a thing called Company Kitchen in the break room. It’s pretty much an open vending machine. When the people come to stock it or service it they always try to engage the employees and make sure everyone knows how to use it. It is mostly junk (sometimes there is Greek yogurt or almonds) so I stay away. I don’t want it to tempt me so I refuse to let them teach me how to use the machine you pay at!

Question: How many days in advance do you cook chicken? I only like to keep it in the fridge for two days max. Anything longer and it seems to go bad. I always see pictures where people have chicken prepped for five or six days. I don’t know how they are doing it.

[Elizabeth – Happy Healthy Caregiver]

Love the salad co-op idea!!!

[ashleypoptodorova]

These are all great ideas!! I love that salad co-op idea too! Honestly, I am with you on the chicken. 2-3 days is my max. I simply bake with a little bit of low sodium pasta sauce, garlic powder and himalayan salt. I find that this seasons and helps the chicken taster fresher.
Alex likes to boil his chicken (not my fav) but I find that if I season well and use some dijon mustard, it tastes good! I have to give it to him, this is the quickest way I have ever seen chicken prepped.

Also, we slice our sweet potatoes into ‘pucks’ if you will and steam them! So easy to weigh/measure and portion out! I love adding a tiny bit of grass fed butter and himalayan salt with cinnamon! NOM NOM! YUMMY!

KEEP THESE COMING… 🙂

[ashleypoptodorova]

Anyone else have some meal planning tips they want to share? 🙂

[ashleypoptodorova]

Anyone else have some meal planning tips they want to share? 🙂