Meal Planning Monday

Alright, I’ve officially decided to give meal planning a try. Jake has been bugging me about it for months but I’ve never been able to get my act together enough to do it. Well I’ve recently started to become more involved in the fitness community and after seeing picture after picture of fitness competitors prepping all of their meals, I decided it just can’t be that hard. I mean, they eat nothing but oats, plain chicken, brown rice and sweet potatoes so maybe they have it a little easier. But I was determined to give it a go this week.

Originally my plan was to actually cook everything on Sunday, but after some thought, I decided to just prep everything and have it ready to cook each night.

Monday: Spagetti Squash with a parsley, butter sauce

Tuesday: Beef and Vegetable Skewers

Wednesday:  Root Vegetable Potage  (but with carrots, parsnips, turnips and potatoes)

Thursday: Ground grass-fed Beef and Roasted Brussel Sprouts 

Then for lunches, I would make salads with spinach, salad greens, red onions, cherry tomatoes, Trader Joe’s broccoli slaw, cashews and dried cranberries. And hardboiled eggs for a quick breakfast.

After making a list of ingredients that I would need to buy, I went to the store.

Then, I prepped everything. I hardboiled 6 eggs, and then peeled and chopped everything I needed for the skewers, potage and my lunches.

In the end it took about an hour. The tupperware on the left is the potage ingredients. The hardboiled eggs are in the middle. Chopped red onions for my salads on the top right and then the skewer vegetables on the bottom right.

 It’s honestly a little weird having my fridge this full. But knowing that I have most of this week taken care of does feel pretty awesome. No everything isn’t cooked so my job isn’t completely done. But even just taking the time to plan and then chop all of those veggies is going to make a huge difference. No coming home tired, wondering what I’m going to make Jake and I, and then whether or not we have the ingredients. I don’t know anything more disappointing then coming home from a long day at work and realizing you need to run to store.

Now, I’m sure life will probably happen. Jake or I will suddenly realize we have plans after work that we forgot about. Or one of my meal ideas will actually turn out awful and not be edible (thankfully that doesn’t happen too often anymore but you never know). But at least I can say I tried.