Cleaning out your fridge like I am today?? Sundays are the perfect day for leftovers for our family. In the process of pulling it all out and warming what we want, I can assess what I need to use up so it won’t go to waste. This means Sundays are also the PERFECT day for some meal prepping!
We hear it all the time and it IS so true, either make a plan or plan to fail—and I am living proof! The weeks I prep on Sunday, the meals are healthier and I am happier (and feel better)-we won’t even talk about what happens on those ‘other’ weeks. I will admit, I have had too many of those ‘other’ weeks lately-so even though I really wanted a nap or a bike ride in the park today, I opted for prepping for the week.
Here are some tips for you:
- Don’t overthink it! Make a quick assessment of what you have and what you can do with it. For example, I had veggies that were going to go bad and even though they did not fit my ‘recipe’ for roasted veggies perfectly, I roasted them up anyway-more zucchini than I needed and not enough peppers, but they work. These veggies will be great as a side dish this week, I will throw some in a wrap for my husband’s lunch one day and I can put a bit in my salad for lunch tomorrow.
- Be creative! As I described above, your available food items may not fit any recipe perfectly, but it’s easy to swap things out or try a new combination. Don’t have cheddar cheese for a recipe! Try swiss or pepper jack for a little zip and something new!
- Give yourself credit! Go ahead and pat yourself on the back-let the fam know that you saved the day (and the budget) by finding ways to use what was on hand. Those lonely food items that had been neglected are now the stars of your yummy dinner! I don’t know anyone who doesn’t LOVE feeling like they avoided wasting food!
- Be real! Of course the ‘perfect’ planning scenario is to sit down and plan a week’s worth of healthy and delicious meals and then go buy all the products, ON SALE, of course. And then find the time to cook it with love each evening……NOT! (If this happens more that one week out of the year at your house-without a PT barking in your ear-please call me, I need to meet you!) What IS real is what I described above-work with what you have on hand. Now, you do have to start out with some good choices/products to work with, tips about these are found elsewhere on this website 🙂 But seriously, if you start out with REAL food (avoid boxes and bags, unless frozen) you cannot really go wrong.
So, using the tips above, here is what I did today, in less than an hour~
It is easy to plan for a successful, nutritional week –One that allows you to be creative, resourceful, realistic and doesn’t require a ton of thought, time or stress!
- Cut up zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, onion, asparagus and roasted them, while I
- Cut up celery -that had been ignored way to long, but was still crisp-and put servings in individual bags to go with individual cups of peanut butter for snacks and lunches
- Pulled grapes that were looking ‘sad’ off the vine and placed in individual serving bags *Note: if your grapes, celery, carrots, peppers, etc. look extra sad, put an ice cube or two in the baggie when you package them, they will crisp right up and have new life!
- Put together wraps with turkey pastrami, cheese, dressing and coleslaw mix (that was about to go bad) for lunches this week
- The rest of the coleslaw will go in the beef and cabbage soup I will make for dinner tomorrow. The recipe calls for green cabbage, but I am pretty sure the red cabbage and carrots in the slaw mix will only ADD flavor to the soup-AND I saved it from ending up in the trash!! Yay me! {pat on the back}.
So, there you have an example of how easy it is to plan for a successful, nutritional week –One that allows you to be creative, resourceful, realistic and doesn’t require a ton of thought, time or stress!
If you have other ideas or tips to share-please do!! I would love to hear from you!
Until next time, Be well!!
Your Bff
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