Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Food Prep!

I've been getting more and more into the idea of doing most of my weekly cooking and food prep on Sunday afternoons so that I have less to do when I get up in the mornings and when I get home from the gym at night. 

The photo below shows everything I made two Sunday's ago. I'm just now coming to the end of this supply, as I ended up having clients around for three days of lunches and dinners and found myself eating out (on the company's dime, of course) way more than usual. I can't say I stuck to my nutritional goals during these restaurant meals, but at least it didn't set me back financially, which is another huge reason I try to cook at home as much as I can.

  • One Dozen Hard Boiled Farm Fresh Organic Eggs: I eat 3-4 eggs a day, on average.
  • Roasted Spaghetti Squash: To be eaten with leftover sauce w/ ground turkey that I'd had frozen
  • Garlic Roasted Cauliflower
  • Apple Cinnamon Quinoa Breakfast Cereal
  • One LB of Chicken Breasts: I marinated 1/2 in Chipotle Pepper marinade and the other 1/2 in Mediterranean herbs for variety throughout the week
  • One LB of Chicken Strips for Salads: Also divided these between the two marinate flavors
  • Four Salads
Overall, the process didn't take all that long. It's all about how you time things! For example, the Apple Cinnamon Quinoa and Roasted Squash both needed about 45 minutes of cook time, so I prepped those first. While they cooked, I mixed up the two marinades for the chicken and let them soak up the flavor for about 30 minutes. 

Next, I got the cauliflower roasting in the oven. There was about a 25 degree discrepancy between oven temps for the two veggies, so I went with the lower temp and gave the squash extra time to roast. As the Quinoa and Roasted Veggies were finishing cooking, I heated up the George Foreman for my chicken. I started off with a batch, both breasts and strips, of the Mediterranean herb flavor, since it wasn't as strong. When those were cooked, I quickly wiped down the grill with a wet paper towel and repeated the process for my Chipotle Pepper chicken. 

Since the chicken cooks so quickly, it require my full attention. No multi-tasking whilst George Foreman-ing, or else your food will likely end up tough and overcooked. While the chicken cooled, I got my salads ready. I used a dark greens blend with kalamata olives, tomatoes, cukes, and bell peppers for the salads that would get Mediterranean chicken and a blend of iceberg and baby spinach with black beans, tomatoes, cukes, and bell peppers for the ones that would get Chipotle Pepper chicken.

And...DONE!