Grocery Shopping & Meal Prep – Week 19

Saturday morning I had some down time and decided to plan a couple meals for the week. I decided to make zoodles, because it has been a while since I’ve prepared zucchini that way. While looking at Pinterest I also found a healthy recipe for cauliflower “fried” rice!

I went grocery shopping Saturday morning at Safeway then made all my food on Sunday. Donny was busy with a two-day golf tournament so no grilling this week! I made everything for the week inside with my stove and oven. I managed just fine and have some great meals ready for the week.

If you have questions about what I bought or how I cooked something, then feel free to ask. Comment below, shoot me an email or send a message on Facebook. I love talking about food and will answer any questions you have.

Here is what I bought at the grocery store and how I used it to prep easy, healthy meals for the week.

Grocery Shopping:

• spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, green beans, green peas, yellow onion and zucchini
• bananas, strawberries and avocado
• 2% Greek yogurt, 1% cottage cheese, and almond milk
• boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• roasted red pepper chicken sausage
• eggs
• extra virgin olive oil

Meal Prep:

We’ve been eating boneless, skinless chicken thighs lately, but I decided to go back to chicken breasts this week. Since Donny was playing in a two-day golf tournament I decided to cook all the food myself Sunday morning.

I started by cooking the chicken. My favorite way to bake chicken is to sear it first. First, I preheated the oven to 350°. Then I heated a large saute pan over medium-heat and added about 1/2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil. I seasoned both sides of the chicken breasts generously with salt and pepper.

Next, I placed the chicken in the hot pan cooking one side for 2 minutes, flipped  the chicken and then cooked the other side for about 1 minute. While the chicken was searing, I covered a baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprayed it with non-stick cooking spray. After both sides of the chicken were browned, I placed the chicken on the cookie sheet and baked it for 20 minutes. By searing the chicken, it helps keep the chicken moist on the inside.

While the chicken cooked in the oven, I halved a container of grape tomatoes. In a small bowl, I mixed the grape tomato halves, 1/2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. I poured that onto a aluminum-foil lined baking sheet that was sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. After the chicken was cooked, I put the baking sheet with tomatoes in to roast for 15 minutes at 350°.

As the tomatoes cooked, I prepared vegetables for a frittata. I diced sweet potato and bell pepper, plus diced a few ounces of cooked chicken breast. In a large mixing bowl, I whisked together 12 egg whites, 6 eggs and salt and pepper. I sautéed the sweet potato for about 7 minutes, then added the bell pepper and finally the chicken and spinach. After the spinach wilted slightly, I added the egg mixture. Once the bottom was set, I put the frittata in the oven (still at 350°) and baked it for 30 minutes.

I also made zoodles during meal prep using my hand-held spiralizer. After I made the zoodles, I sautéed them in a large pan over medium heat for about 8 minutes (stirring frequently). After dividing the zoodles, I topped them with the roasted tomatoes.

Along with the zoodles, I wanted chicken AND chicken sausage. Woah, getting crazy! I took all four chicken sausage links and removed the casings (as much as possible). Once the casings were removed I crumbed the sausage and sautéed it over medium heat.

I wanted broccoli, but I didn’t want to roast it. Instead, I decided to blanch the broccoli. I boiled a pot of water and added the broccoli. Once the water started boiling again I started the timer for 90 seconds. After 90 seconds, I poured the water and broccoli into a strainer and immediately put cold water on the broccoli to stop it cooking.

I forgot to take a picture, so I used one of broccoli and cauliflower. I love how bright green the broccoli stays when blanched!

Saturday morning I was doing some meal planning before going to the grocery store and found a recipe that peaked my interest (via Pinterest). It was from Damn Delicious and is called 10 Minute Healthy Cauliflower Rice. This is a healthy version of fried rice, using cauliflower rice rather than regular rice. 

The recipe was not entirely clean eating, so I made a few substitutions. I used less oil overall and used extra virgin olive oil instead of vegetable oil to saute the onion and garlic. I also used chili sesame oil, rather than regular sesame oil and added some rice wine vinegar to the sauce. The recipe turned out spicy, but I am excited about this meal!

I packed four containers with zoodles and four with cauliflower rice. I needed to pack two more containers so I pulled a few homemade meatballs out of the freezer.

Donny didn’t grill for me, but I wanted grilled green beans and Brussels sprouts so I used our grill pan indoors to cook both. I cooked the green beans first, so by the time I was ready to cook the Brussels sprouts the pan was nice and hot. It browned the sprouts very nicely!

This week meal prep took quite a bit more time than usual, but I cooked a few things I hadn’t cooked in a while. Chicken was the only meat I cooked this week, but I will pull a serving of cooked pork out of the freezer each day to take with the fried rice. We have quite a bit of cooked meat stocked in the freezer, so I need to start using it more often.

If you have any questions about what I bought or how I prepared something then feel free to ask. Comment below, send me a Facebook message or email me! I am happy to answer any questions you have.

Did you prepare any foods this week? If so, what did you prepare?