Meal Prep Ideas

What type of meal are you planning for--lunch or breakfast?

My go to planner is a carb, a vegetable or two, and a protein.

My carb is normally quinoa cooked with spices or sprouted wild rice cooked with some saffron and low sodium vegetable broth. Lentils also work instead of rice or quinoa, as well as a bean salad (mixed cooked beans, a touch of agave nectar, a drizzle of olive or avocado oil, spices to taste, and some rice vinegar). Sweet potatoes, yams, squash, and other starches work well as your carb.

My vegetables are generally broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower and I'll portion out a lot of broccoli or califlowee with a small amount of carrots and I'll generally steam or roast them with spices and salt and pepper. I've also done grilled asparagus, grilled mushrooms and zucchini, and even baked egg plant.

For my protein I use mock meats (generally grilled vegan chicken breast), tempeh, tofu (baked with sesame oil), or I'll add more beans. I'm a vegan so what I use as my main protein will likely be different from what you use. I'm assuming you can use regular grilled chicken breast as well. Play with spices, that's how you make it enjoyable.

I'm a type one diabetic so I understand the struggle of needing extra sugar every so often. Get your blood sugar under control. If you're low try to eat just enough pure sugar so you don't eat too many calories.

I have access to a small kitchen at work ... so I will throw a bunch of salad stuff into my bag each day (lettuce, kale, cucumber, tomato, broccoli, cabbage - whatever is in there) ... with either hard boiled egg(s) - an avocado or some sort of left over protein .... I keep some stuff at work in the fridge - salad dressing - salsa - a container of nuts/seeds - crackers and some hummus ..... I also keep some lean cuisine in the freezer for the emergency days when I don't have time to prep/plan anything else. I find the hummus/crackers work for me in the mid-afternoon as they get me through to dinner.

Buy a crap ton of chicken, like 5 pounds. Saute or bake it for the week. Make lotsa servings of rice, quinoa, potato, something like that. Lots of bags of steamed or fresh veggies. Assemble meals in size Glenn serve containers. Reheat when needed.

Soup is the simple solution. It can be cooked in big batches and then transferred to a thermos. Add chopped chives, croutons or parsley for extra bite. Soups really fill you up.

Lunch for 150-300 cals. I prep on Sunday and reheat at work.

Soups - seafood gumbo, chicken noodle, etc.
Wraps - lunch meat, low carb tortilla, veggies, yogurt dressing
Salads - lettuce/spinach, veggies, protein, yogurt dressing
Beef Stroganoff- http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beef/BeefStroganoffLowFat.htm
Mediterranean stuffed peppers (I sub quinoa for rice)- http://www.bumblebee.com/recipes/mediterranean-stuffed-peppers/
Stir fry - chicken/beef/seafood, oriental veggies, teriyaki, rice
Fish and mushroom casserole with crispy phyllo - http://mobile.eatingwell.com/recipes/fish_mushroom_casserole.html
Saxon chicken with peppers and onions - https://mobile.fatsecret.com/recipes/sazon-chicken-with-peppers-and-onions/Default.aspx
Shrimp Mykonos - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/orzo-with-shrimp-feta-cheese-and-white-wine-107904

Simplest of all - protein + carb + veggie.

Marinate and bake or grill a bunch of chicken on the weekend. Take some with a salad, a single serve frozen veggie, etc. I also have Lean Cuisines on hand for crazy busy times. Soup is good. You can also make a big batch of burritos and freeze them in packs of one or two.

Sunday I grill up a week's worth of chicken breast for myself and my wife. Cook up 2 cups of brown rice and put it all in the fridge. Daily for lunches we grab 4oz portion of chicken 1/3c of rice and make a salad. Lunch done. Add in a couple protein shakes each for morning and afternoon meals.

Takes maybe 40mins on sunday to get it all ready.

Later on today, I'll be prepping my lunches for the week (I'm trapped by needy kitties at the moment). But this morning, it took about 10 minutes to prep an oatmeal and oat flour based loaf which will serve as my breakfast base for the week. Cooking time was about 30 minutes, and the kitchen filled nicely with whiffs of cinnamon and ginger. A 1-inch slice breaks down to 341 calories: 7g of fiber, 11g of protein, a nice heap of 210mg of potassium, a measly 54 mg of sodium (yay!) and, 4g of saturated fat - more than I like per meal, but we can deal with that - that's the egg, whole milk, olive oil; and the dark chocolate chips I threw in for fun.

The lunches will be centered on my braised top-round steak thins (6 in all, each one weighing in at between 3 and 4 ounces - braising liquid will be based on low sodium beef broth and spiced rum. No added salt). It'll take me about 40 minutes, start to finish.

I'm also diabetic (who is obsessed with meal planning/prepping). What works for me is prepping all the fruits/vegetables I will be using for the week (peppers are cut, mushrooms washed, berries are washed, etc.) and then pre-packing my lunches and afternoon snacks for the upcoming week. Typically, I like to batch cook a package of chicken (or use up whatever leftovers there are from the weekend, such as smoked sausage, chicken breasts, chilis, or casseroles), combine it with some cauliflower rice/zucchini noodles (regular pasta and rice are the devil for my BG), and add some extra nonstarchy vegetables that will hold up to being nuked in the microwave (green beans, asparagus, broccoli, etc) for my lunch. I throw everything into 2.5-cup Rubbermaid Takealong containers and prelog it as soon as I weigh out everything. I also use the 2.5-cup containers for carrying a ton of chopped raw vegetables as an afternoon snack (I often combine it with some guacamole, cheese, and/or a piece of fruit). The entire process (from the time I first start prepping the fruits/vegetables until the time I am done prelogging - a solid 40 minutes is spent screaming at MFP because it takes so long to load everything to prelog) takes about 1.5-2.5 hours.