making the world small one conversation at a time.
"Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself" George Bernard Shaw
Guys, I'm pretty excited to start the weekly edition of the Garcia Meal Prep: Recipes, How-To's and other exhilarating information! Meal Prep is something fairly new in our home in that we have never been consistent with it. This is the third week that we have taken a day at the beginning of the week and really set ourselves up for success with picking healthy food choices. It does take a chunk of time but it is so worth it once the hustle and bustle of the week starts. We currently prep enough for me to have 3 lunches (I typically work 3-4 12 hour shifts per week), 4 lunches for Michael and breakfast and snacks for the whole week. I know some people also meal prep dinners, and for that I totally commend them because that is on another level! For us, we have been using the meal subscription Plated for the last year and it has been perfect for us. We do 4 dinners a week and it takes all the guess work out of "What do you want to have for dinner tonight?". We both work long shifts and I work crazy hours so it has been such a game changer to grab a recipe off the fridge and know that all of the fresh, local and mostly organic ingredients are ready to be cooked into a delicious meal. Ok, so lets get started! Please let me know if there is other information that you want to know as far as our food goes, but I'll try and include some details each week! Also I will go back and list the recipes for last week on another blog post because I know several people were interested :) Breakfast PaleOatmeal Inspired by Strawberry Paleo Oatmeal (Per 1 serving) 1 small to medium organic banana 2 organic, pastured eggs (We LOVE Vital Farms) 1/4 cup coconut or almond milk pinch of cinnamon splash of vanilla pinch of pink Himalayan salt 1 tsp maca powder (this can be omitted but is really great for hormone regulation) Mash the banana, then add the remaining ingredients. Put skillet over medium heat and cook just like you would scrambled eggs. Make sure to use a spatula to scrape the bottom so your oatmeal doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. If you are eating this right away, keep cooking until most of the liquid has evaporated however if you are batch cooking to reheat later, leave a little bit of the liquid so it doesn't dry up. After your oatmeal is cooked, top it with whatever sounds good! My favorites are coconut butter, almond butter, cinnamon, hemp hearts, blueberries or strawberries. Top is with whatever you like to top oatmeal with! The oatmeal is naturally sweet with the banana, so I don't add any additional sweetener but feel free to play with it! Lunch Paleo Coconut Chicken Tenders OMG. These are so good! I have requested Michael make us these every week :) We followed the recipe above exactly other than we used the whole egg to bread the tenders, which allowed us to use less eggs. We used 3 packs of organic chicken tenders which made about 20 tenders and tripled the original recipe due to the amount of chicken we were cooking. Our only modification was a little extra salt and this seasoning because we are addicted to it. Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice Inspired by Avocado Cilantro Lime Rice (Per 3 servings) 1 bag of riced cauliflower (you can also buy a head of cauliflower and rice it in a high powered blender like a VitaMix or food processor) 1 tbsp grass fed butter salt and pepper to taste 1/4 c. chopped cilantro 1/4 c. freshly squeezed lime juice Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add in cauliflower and sauté until soft but not mushy. Add remaining ingredients and stir together. Side note: cauliflower smells horrible while it's cooking. Push through. It's worth it! The recipe calls for avocado to be mashed into the rice but since we were meal prepping, I decided that I will take 1/2 an avocado to slice over the rice before I eat it. I'm sure that mashed avocado in the rice would be amazing if you are serving this right away. A lot of places are selling the bagged cauliflower in the fresh produce section now-hooray! We found this one at Kroger-not organic but that's ok :) Trader Joe's has a really yummy one that I love and is so inexpensive. Sauteed Butternut Squash Zoodles This is the brand that I buy my "noodles" from. We have found them at Whole Foods or Central Market. Easy, peasy. Melt butter in pan. Sauté zoodles. Season with salt and pepper. Done! Spicy Rice Noodles This is the recipe Michael made to go along with his chicken tenders. He used gluten free rice noodles and omitted the kimchi, egg, and cucumber. His pack of rice noodles was about 12 oz so we doubled the sauce recipe. Super yummy and spicy. This is one great part about our meal prep, everyone can get exactly what they like! You don't want to make giant batches of anything (we never make more than 4 meals of any given dish) so that you don't get tired of what you make. So try new things! Michael wanted something different with his tenders than I did and that is totally ok. Snacks Matcha Chia Pudding The only modifications that I used with this recipe is that I omitted the cashews and added 2 tbsp of maple syrup instead of 1. It was a little bitter with only 1 tbsp in my opinion. You could also use honey. Also make sure you use high quality matcha powder or it will really throw the taste off. A good matcha is going to have a beautiful bright green color and smell really fresh and herbal. I really like the matcha from Republic of Tea, which you can buy in the bulk bins at Central Market. Also if the color of matcha totally freaks you out or you just can't jump on the bandwagon yet, this pudding can definitely be made without it. There are also tons of plain Chia Seed Pudding recipes out there that have turned out really yummy, like this one. Justin's Almond Butter Packs These are SO good by themselves or with a banana or apple. We love how portable they are for a quick protein and fat boost on the go. Thunderbird Bars These bars are seriously my new love language. And they are local out of Austin which just makes them all that better. #supportlocalbusiness They are SO good, especially the nut and seed ones. The fruity ones are a little too chewy in my opinion, but see what you think! The Hazelnut-Coffee-Maca one literally tastes like a Heath Bar! We have found them at Whole Foods and Central Market so far. Other Snacks I'm so all about that snack life. We also have organic applesauce cups, organic blueberries and watermelon. Michael loves these little single serve mozzarella balls we have found at Target and Whole Foods to go with cherry tomatoes. Dairy doesn't agree with me very well but I will sometimes grab a Goat Cheese Brie wheel at Whole Foods and cut it into small chunks for several little snacks. I could write a whole post on what kind of snacks we buy, so let me know if you are interested in that kind of thing! Alright, that wraps up our first meal prep edition! Please let me know if you have any questions and what you thought about this blog post :) Hit the kitchen and set yourself up for an amazing week! Love, Stephanie
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AuthorHey! I'm Stephanie. I'm super excited you are here with me! I'm a lover of all things Jesus, health, family and friendship. Stick around for some wonderful ramblings about life, love & the pursuit of JOY <3 Archives
May 2017
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