Donny is home from over a week of work travel, so my grocery shopping trip was a bigger than the last couple weeks! I can deal with a bigger grocery trip because Donny was kind enough to grill for me. I (almost) forgot how nice it is to have a couple things cooked outside of the kitchen! It goes a little quicker if he is cooking outside while I am cooking inside.
I found one recipe online and one in a magazine this week that I wanted to try out for meal prep. Pinterest is a fantastic place to hunt for recipe ideas! I rarely make the recipe exactly the way it written. Most of the time I take a not-so-healthy recipe and make it clean eating friendly. Other times, I only have certain ingredients on hand so I’ll make a couple substitutions.
Where do you find inspiration for making healthy meals?
Here are the healthy foods I bought while grocery shopping on Saturday. I also show you how I prepare those foods for easy and clean-eating meals to last the week.
If you have questions about how I prepared something then please let me know. Comment below, send me a Facebook message or email me at eatliftplayrepeat@gmail.com.
Grocery Shopping:
- boneless, skinless chicken thighs and boneless pork loin chops
- eggs – they were on sale for I bought four dozen!
- 2% Greek yogurt (plain), unsweetened almond milk and crumbled feta
- zucchini, green beans, broccoli, spaghetti squash, carrots, yellow onion, white onion, green onion, bell peppers (red, orange and yellow), parsnips, turnips, jalapeno and garlic cloves
- bananas, lemons and avocados
- full fat coconut milk (canned), tomato paste and cumin seed
Meal Prep:
Sunday morning I started preparing food right away. I wanted to make chicken curry in my slow cooker, so I began with that and it just kept escalating!
I was looking through Pinterest and came across a chicken curry that was made in a slow cooker. It sounded really good so I decided to give it a go! The recipe was on PopSugar, but it was the Crock Pot Curry Chicken recipe from the food blog Paleo Hacks. The only thing I changed about the recipe was the chicken. I actually used boneless, skinless chicken thighs rather than chicken breasts. Chicken thighs take less time to cook, so the chicken curry took less than four hours to cook on high (the recipe says 7-8).
***Crock Pot Chicken Curry before cooking***
***Crock Pot Chicken Curry after cooking***
Last week I made some brown rice for dinner and used most of what we had in stock. I wanted to take brown rice with the curry, but settled for red quinoa instead. We have SO MUCH quinoa that I need to use it before buying more grains!
One of my favorite things about fall is the abundance of winter squash! Spaghetti squash is one of my absolute favorites and I bought one this week for meal prep. I sliced the squash in half, scooped out the seeds and pulp, then placed it cut-side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. I roasted the squash at 425° for 45 minutes.
Donny is home (yay) so he offered to grill for me. He grilled the pork chops and the rest of the chicken thighs (what I didn’t use for the curry). He seasoned the chicken with smoked paprika, Mrs. Dash Southwest Salt-Free Seasoning and salt.
He also grilled green beans, broccoli and bell peppers.
While he was grilling I decided to roast some root vegetables. I was inspired by a recipe I found in Health magazine, but (surprise surprise) I adjusted the recipe slightly. First I chopped carrots, parsnips and turnips then coated them with extra virgin olive oil and salt. Next, I roasted those in an oven set at 400° for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through. They turned out delicious! I love cooked carrots, but I forget how much I like parsnips and turnips.
Last week during meal prep I made meatloaf cups and they were so good that I made them again. I changed the recipe slightly this time, based on ingredients I had on hand. First, I defrosted 1.5lbs 93% lean ground beef and mixed it with 1/3 cup quick oats, 1 large egg, 1 small yellow onion (diced), 1/4 cup tomato paste (I didn’t have tomato sauce), 1 Tbsp stone ground Dijon mustard and 1 tsp salt. I baked those at 350° for 25 minutes.
Since eggs were on sale I decided to make a giant frittata for my mid-morning snack. I whisked together 12 egg whites with 6 whole eggs plus 1/2 tsp salt. I sautéed 2 cups kale with 1 medium zucchini (chopped). Once those vegetables were done I added the egg mixture and sprinkled chopped green onions on top. Next, I added 5 dollops of 2% cottage cheese (~2 Tbsp per serving). After the bottom of the frittata was set I popped it in the oven for 25 minutes at 350°. Check out my Kale & Red Pepper Frittata for a similar recipe.
Well that was everything that I prepped food-wise this week. We have a TON of extra meat, so dinners will be pretty easy! If you have any questions about how I prepared something then please ask! Comment below, send me a Facebook message or email me at eatliftplayrepeat@gmail.com.
Did you prepare any healthy foods this weekend to get you through the week?
