Meal Prep Overview

Today I’d like to spend a few minutes and do a quick overview of what a typical meal prep day looks like for me. I hear all too often that eating healthy is expensive, that prepping meals is too much work, etc etc. If you truly believe those statements, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG….let us help!

I spent some time on Sunday prepping meals for the entire week for my house. Maggie and I have different caloric needs, so there were essentially 3 things I made (yes, all at the same time…don’t act like you’re not impressed!)

1. chicken sausage veggie bake
2. salsa chicken with rice and grilled peppers
3. burger patty with grilled potatoes

Total lunches made: 11

I estimate about $30 worth of food went into the whole thing, which brings the average cost of each meal to less than $3 each.

Total time from start to finish: ~2 hours. (averages out to about 11 minutes per meal….keep in mind that a chunk of this is just bake time where you can do something else though too!)

The lesson I take away from this is that it isn’t worth NOT planning ahead, both regarding use of my time throughout the week wasting time figuring it out every single day and paying way more money for it. If you just have plan in place of what you make, you can repeat lunches or, in my case, alternate lunches from day to day.

I hope that helps! From there, making the best use of your time just has to do with multitasking the different recipes, which is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

Like most of us, I’m always interested if anyone has any other ways to spice up healthy meal prep ideas, so if you have anything for us, send it to me at phil@crossfitdubuque.com!

Remember: A failure to plan is planning to fail.

—Coach Phil

Quick rundown of recipes listed above:

Chicken sausage veggie bake (I buy the chicken sausages at Sam’s club and veggies wherever you want…typically either there or Aldi’s for me)
-preheat oven to 350
-chop up all veggies you want to use..it tends to be whatever I have around! (potatoes cut small to cook through, zuchinni, onion, peppers, etc)
-cut sausages into quarter sized bites
-throw it all in a bowl, add some olive oil and whatever seasonings you like
-lay it out on a pan covered in aluminum foil/baking sheet, etc. for easy cleanup.
-bake for ~45 min, taking it out every 15 or so to stir it around and keep it from sticking.

Salsa chicken (I buy the taco seasoning and salsa at Sam’s club and the frozen chicken thighs at Aldis)
-dump bag of frozen chicken thighs in pan
-add taco seasoning and salsa
-cover in aluminum foil
-bake for about 2 hours at 350…yup….it’s that easy!