I’ve written before about how important meal prepping is for us to keep us on track with healthy eating. Each Sunday afternoon, I spend a chunk of time prepping food for the week and this past Sunday was no different.
To prep for the week, I made the following things:
- Chopped Thai Chickpea Salad with Curry Peanut Dressing from Ambitious Kitchen
- Snap Pea Salad with Radish and Lime from Eating Well
- A large batch of brown rice
- A batch of steel cut oats (bobs red mill quick cooking steel cut oats)
- Marinated Grilled Shrimp (made up recipe using inspiration from Pinterest)
Since I have a 21 month old and a 4 year old, finding time to cook isn’t always the easiest. I usually try to do the bulk of my cooking while my youngest is napping but on Sunday, I was at a birthday part while she napped. This meant I somehow got these things done while both girls were awake – sometimes the stars align and I can actually cook in the kitchen while they play in the living room. This is always a dream of mine that rarely comes true.
This afternoon I got lucky so I went to town on meal prepping. I started chopping everything for the thai chickpea salad and snap pea salad. I also started on the shrimp marinade to get them marinating in the refrigerator for a little bit before dinner.
Here is the “recipe” for my shrimp marinade:
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil – maybe 2-3 Tbsp
- Juice of two limes
- 1/2 tsp smoke paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic
- 1/4 tsp salt
- a few grinds of pepper
I whisked all of those ingredients together and mixed the marinade with about a pound of tail-on, shelled, deveined shrimp. I let them sit in the fridge for about an hour before putting them on a grill pan (you could actually grill them on skewers but it was cold in MN) for about 2 minutes on each side, or until the shrimp were opaque in color.
Since I knew time was limited because somebody was likely to have a melt down, need more snacks, need a diaper change, etc, I started to multi-task. I got the green beans steaming in the microwave, while flash boiling the snap peas for that salad. I also started the water for the rice and oats.
I’ve come to realize that I enjoy steel cut oats more than old fashion oats
With that said, I don’t make steel cut oats often because they take like 30 minutes on the stove top! I don’t have that kind of time, especially in the mornings. That is why I was pleasantly surprised when I saw quick cooking steel cut oats at Costco the other day. These oats only take 9 minutes total on the stove top. Still slower than my 2:45 microwave old fashion oats but much better tasting. I think it is the texture that I really like of steel cut oats. What I found works best for me though, is to cook 4 batches at once on the stove top on Sunday and then eat it 4 times throughout the week. I put them in a square container and then cut it into 4 squares for portion control. Then I just warm it up in the microwave for around a minute and add my toppings (usually 1/2 banana, dash of cinnamon and scoop of peanut butter).
As the girls continued to be content with their game of “throw everything out of the toy boxes on to the ground”, I decided I could get even more done. This “more done” included cooking a batch of brownies. What is the occasion of my brownie making you ask? Well, I found a recipe in an old cookbook of mine and decided that I wanted a healthy dessert for the week. I used to cook a healthy dessert each week more often but had stopped doing that as much after the second kid.
Now was a good time to bust out my baking skills again.
I made Ellie Krieger’s dark chocolate brownies and wow, are they good! I am a huge Ellie Krieger fan. She used to be on the cooking channel and has several cookbooks. She is more of a healthy cook, not something you see much on TV. I would highly suggest picking up any of her cookbooks, you will not be disappointed! The brownie recipe came from her comfort food cookbook, one of my favorites because I LOVE finding healthier ways to cook the comfort foods I love.
So when all was said and done, I had a full meal cooked with leftovers for the week, breakfasts prepped, lunches prepped and a tasty healthier dessert for the week. I got all of this done without any meltdowns or potty issues so I celebrated with a brownie and a glass of wine.
Did you meal prep this past weekend?
