My Version of Meal Prep

Meal prep is an essential part of any healthy eating plan. It allows you to have everything you need at your fingertips for a healthy breakfast, lunch, and snack. I like to do it a bit different than some of the more “conventional” meal prep plans.

Meal prep is essential. In my opinion, whether you’re trying to eat healthy or not, if you don’t prep your food ahead of time, the chances of standing in front of the fridge and pantry go up exponentially.

Throughout this pandemic, I have been identified as “essential” and I’ve been coming into the office every day. Having had my surgery during the pandemic, this is the only after-surgery life that I know. So I’ve been doing the same thing every week. But I think that even if we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic, I would still want to do what I’m doing.

I have to bring breakfast, snacks, and lunch to work with me. We do have a cafeteria here at work, but it’s not great, the choices are very limited, and since I like to weigh and measure ever bit of food that I put on my plate, it’s just not a great choice for me.

Breakfast Meal Prep

Normally, in a meal prep plan, there will be something that you can make for breakfast that will last 2-3 days. For example, you may make 6 hard boiled eggs that will last you 3 days. Or you will fix 3 containers, each with a certain amount of Yogurt and berries.

I do my breakfast prep a little different and a lot of other meal prep plans. Instead of making one dish that will last for 2-3 days on repeat, I make a few different items to store in the freezer. I love both these Stuffed Bagel Bites and I love making Breakfast Sandwiches. I often vary both recipes, but at the end of the day, I make both of them, I flash freeze them individually (I put them on a baking sheet, unwrapped in the freezer), and once frozen I either put them all together in a big ziplog back (the bagels) or I individually wrap them and put them in their own ziplock bag (the sandwiches).

Now I have a few different choices for breakfast and I’m not stuck with the same thing multiple days in a row. I also love yogurt with blueberries and Fiber One cereal on top (in lieu of granola), and if I’m going to have this, I will fix it the night before, with the cereal in a separate baggie.

Prepping Lunch

For Lunch, I mostly eat leftovers from the night before. Since I made it myself, I know the nutrition facts, and I can measure it out into a container and have it ready to go for the next day.

If I don’t have leftovers that I want to take to work with me, I will often have one of these options:

• Deli ham and cheese with salad
• Hard Boiled Eggs with salad or vegetable
• Cottage Cheese with fruit or vegetables
• Chicken Salad

In all honesty, my goal is leftovers. It’s one less thing for me to have to cook separately or prep. However, on the chance that I have one of these things above, the only items I often make ahead of time are the eggs and the chicken salad. Everything else, I fix the night before while I’m cleaning up from dinner – during cleanup is usually when I know whether or not I have leftovers for lunch the next day.

Snacks

Snacks are pretty easy and are usually already in to-go packaging, although it’s not too tough put something in baggies.

My go to snacks:

• String Cheese with Crackers (I usually buy these Crunchmaster sea salt crackers, and I only have 6) – it’s more than enough and very satisfying!
• Almonds (I love these Chocolate Almonds – they’re expensive, but they’re delicious for a treat!)
• Greek Yogurt
• Laughing Cow Light Cheese Spread and Veggies
• Hard Boiled Egg

A Day in the Life

It’s Sunday night, the worst night of the week. Back to work tomorrow. Dinner cleanup is done, the kids are in bed, it’s time to get all my work stuff ready for tomorrow. Meal prep time:

There are already a variety of choices in the freezer, but I’m going to have yogurt for breakfast. I fix about 1/2 -3/4 cup Fage 0% Greek Yogurt (weighed out and recorded in MyFitnessPal) with 40g (1.5 oz) of blueberries. In a little stasher bag, I fix 15g (1/2 cup) Fiber One Cereal. Breakfast is done.

For dinner we had Tacos and there were leftovers. In a little container I have taco meat, shredded cheese, lettuce, tomato, and chopped olives. I put this aside while I was cleaning up from dinner. Everything is weighed out and ready to be reheated, with a taco shell on the side. Lunch is done.

For snacks, I’m going to grab a cheese stick, 6 crackers (in another stasher bag) and a hard boiled egg (I made a bunch earlier in the day).

I’m ready to eat on Monday!

The final Wrap Up

This works the best for me. At the end of the day, I don’t like eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch multiple days in a row. It gets boring after a while. I love having multiple options at my fingertips, and meal prepping some things on the weekend and other things the night before is the perfect combination for me!