Healthy Lunch Meal Prep Made Easy

Meal prepping has become a pretty big thing. There are countless blogs, pinterest pins and websites dedicated just to the art of meal prepping. If you're anything like me, you love the idea of meal prepping, you see the benefits, you know it would help you stay on track with healthy eating during your busy week but you're overwhelmed with the wealth of information, recipes, how to's etc.

I have been lunch meal prepping for a little over a month now and Love Love Love how it's helped me stay on track. I've stayed on track to the tune of being down two pants sizes..... can I get a "raise the roof". (no? ok, I'll do it myself......*happy dance...raise the roof...Happy dance*)
Phew, ok, I'm done celebrating. Back to business.

Taking the time to meal prep my lunches has saved me time, calories and mental block as to what to make for lunch at that moment when I'm absolutely starving and am battling between what my taste buds want and what my fitness goals need. Have you been there??? Those battles for me usually resulted in a grilled cheese sandwich and chips. :( not such a great option.

I hear people say things like, "I don't have time to meal prep" or "I really want to, but I don't know where to start." Sometimes I hear..."Doesn't that get expensive eating dinner type foods at lunch"??

So, I decided to break it down for you to show you how easy and cheap lunch meal prepping really is and hopefully help you on your road to making this a routine that can assist you with your health and fitness goals.

FIRST, Buy your ingredients
                                      
For this weeks meals. I bought
-Bag of Chicken Breasts
-Bag of Steamable Green Beans (I got these from walmart)
-Bag of Sweet Potatoes
-Cottage Cheese
-Salad Greens
-Eggs
-Light Italian Dressing

I bought all these items from Aldi and spent just about $15.00 for them all.  I wont use everything in it's entirety for this week. So the break down per meal is less than $3.75. Not bad. Pretty affordable right?

Ok.

Step 1.
Place either 3-4 LARGE chicken breasts (or 5-6 small ones) In crock pot and cover with 3/4 bottle of italian dressing. Turn on High and let cook for 4-5 hours.
You will want the remainder of the dressing for your salads this week.

Step 2.Prepare Sweet Potatoes- Poke three small holes in each potato and wrap with foil. Place on baking sheet and cook on 450 for 1 hour. When your timer goes off, check and see if they are slightly squeezable. If you can squeeze them with your over mitt on, then they are done. I always cook more than I need for just my meals so I can grab them easily for snacks or dinners as well. *Plus my kids LOOOOVE sweet potatoes*

Step 3- Boil your eggs- I usually boil several because they are a great snack..full of protein. *great for throwing in your gym bag for after your workouts*

Step 4- Cook your steamable green beans in the microwave. 

Step5- While your chicken is cooking, your potatoes are baking and your eggs are boiling. Measure out your salad, Cottage Cheese and Green beans into your containers.

For this I use

1/2 c Cottage Cheese

2 cups of Salad Mix (topped with chopped cucumbers)

1 cup Green beans

I decided I wanted a lil variety for the week. So I am making two containers with salad to put my chicken on, and two containers with a starch item(my sweet potato) and veggies.

The end result will look like this \/

                                                       \/

By then your eggs should be done boiling- So peal two to add to your containers.

Put your containers in the frig.

Then all you have to do is wait for your potatoes and your chicken to be done.

Once they are done. Place one medium potato in your containers and 4-6oz of chicken. Be sure to spoon out some of your left over dressing over the chicken.

(I don't add the chicken to my salad, til I'm ready to eat it. Sometimes, I like it cold, sometimes I like it warmed up and I can't warm it up if it's already on the lettuce. So I store the left over's separately.)

And Voila!! 4 healthy lunch meals that are prepped and ready for a quick grab.

All the Prep Time only took me about 45 minutes today. From start to finish. That of course is not counting the cook time for the potatoes and chicken. But while those are cooking, I can do whatever else I need to get done. 

As you can see, this method is easy, cheap, and quick. 

I know we all lead busy lives, with work, families, kids, sports...whatever it is you do.

But one thing I've learned is that, If I have 1 hour of time to sit and do anything like watch t.v, read, sew, look through facebook, or pinterest 

I HAVE TIME TO MEAL PREP!

Seriously, we all HAVE the time, somewhere within our week. The question is will we TAKE the time to make this skill and healthy routine a habit for our lives.

If you've ever wanted to try lunch meal prepping, I encourage you to try it. You wont regret it!!!

I believe in you. You CAN do it!!

Happy Cooking!! XOXO