Meal Prepping

You've heard about it. You may have even seen co-workers that seemed to have balanced, healthy lunches everyday and your first thought was, "Omg, how do they find the time to make that every morning?" They don't. Well most normal people don't. You get the occasional "I have tons of free time in the morning" person, but in the real world most of us have barely enough time to eat breakfast and put clothes on. So I'll show you how it's done. It's all about preparation. Think ahead to what you want or think you might want that week and make it happen when you do have the time rather than fighting for it 5 minutes before you're supposed to be in the car.

Now I'm going to lay out a Meal prepping plan for you exactly how I do it every Sunday afternoon. Feel free to get creative. Use different meat. Change up your veggies. Buy different seasonings. This can vary based on the nutrition plan you're following. This is what I did when on the Fix and currently on p90x3.

Here's what you will need:

Tupperware- I don't care if it's brand new from Costco or your grandmother's hand-me-down from a tupperware party she had in the 60s. It will work. 5 containers should do it.

Cooking spray- olive oil or coconut oil spray are my fav.

Chicken- if you can afford it get the good stuff. I can't, so I buy the stuff in the bags. I typically get the "tenderloins" instead of breasts because they cook better and I can portion control them as well.

Seasonings- I love Mrs. Dash Original. No salt and it tastes great with whatever I decide to do with my food. Anything will work though (The Fix has great seasoning recipes!)

Bake sheet

Frozen Veggies- this makes my life. Seriously. And now just about every brand makes them in the steamable bags. It's a win/win world. Now I have tried just about every "mix veggies" package out there. California blend kinda makes me hate lunchtime. Stir-fry mixes are where it's at. Particularly at Target. Market Pantry brand is great, just the right mix of veggies and NO MUSHROOMS. (blech.)

Quinoa- it can seem intimidating but it's not. Super easy. I buy bulk organic so that I don't have the "rinse" step taking up my time, but if you choose to buy it "normal" than just rinse your quinoa in a really really fine mesh strainer first.

Ok. Got it all? Let's get started.

First you want to Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Great. Now place 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of water in a pan, cover, and let it come to a boil. 

While that is heating up, let's tackle the chicken prep. Gather your supplies:

Spray your baking sheet down, distribute your chicken, and then spray the chicken a little just to make the seasoning stick to the frozen surface. Then sprinkle a little of the seasoning over the chicken. Now you're probably thinking, wait how much chicken am I going to need? If you did the tenderloins about 2 is a serving. If you did breasts then 3 is about what you need. Think 5 portions at about 3 oz a piece. 

By now your oven should be preheated. Set the timer to 7 minutes and throw them in. Check on your quinoa. If you're boiling, turn in down to just a simmer and keep it covered for 15 min. ( or when we're all done with the chicken b/c that's how awesomely this is all timed out)

VEGGIES. Thank God for microwaves. I have friends who don't have them. What the what?!?! How do you survive. Actually my husband didn't own one when we met. He literally heated leftovers on the stove. Sounds exhausting I know, but if you don't have a microwave, there are instructions on the frozen veggies on how to heat them on the stove. For us microwave people, I heat them for 4 minutes. Not enough to actually cook them, but just defrost them a bit so I can measure them. You'll end up cooking them when you heat them for lunch the day of. Here's so you can see which ones I typically buy:

When the timer goes off for the 7 minutes mark, check your chicken and flip it over. I HATE dry chicken and this seems to be the best way to cook it without over cooking it. Set the timer for another 7 minutes. 

When that is finished pull it out and set the chicken to the side. Check on your quinoa. It should be fluffy and all the water should be cooked out. Lay out all your tupperware. 

Now here is where you would cut up the chicken if you needed to measure it in your RED container on the Fix or you can just weigh it like I do and stick to 2-3oz as a portion size. 

The veggies I do 1.5 cups for regular or p90x3 portioning... if you're on the Fix just use your green container. 

Quinoa is a yellow container OR 1/3 cup.

Mix it together and you have a great stirfry that's read for you to just grab and go for the week!!!!

There are all sorts of clean stirfry sauces you can find on Pinterest. I'll try and upload a recipe soon! I personally like it plain but I appreciate the need to spice it up. Also I've found that these keep for a week. I know people say don't keep things for more than 3 days, but I've never found that to be a problem. I make them on Sunday and eat my final one at work on Saturday. Works for me! :-)

 I hope you found this helpful! Please comment any questions or ideas! I'd love to hear them. Also shoot me an email if you would like more details on eating clean or the 21 Day Fix or P90x3.