Donny & I went to a wedding Friday in Estes Park, CO and stayed the night. I dropped Donny off at the airport in Denver Saturday afternoon and decided to go grocery shopping while I was up there. At first I thought I’d stop by a Sprouts or Trader Joe’s, but I didn’t want to have to go back into the city so I stopped by Target in Brighton, CO.
First of all, going to Target is dangerous business in my world! I spend WAY too much money on things I only kinda sorta need…. I’m not the only one that is like that, right?!?!
I didn’t do too bad in the grocery department, but I won’t discuss the other areas! In the end I didn’t end up too terribly bad (aka broke), but I’m glad I don’t go there very often.
Since I don’t shop at Target very often I was not very familiar with their grocery department. I didn’t find anything new or SO interesting that I couldn’t live without, so my grocery list looks pretty similar to other weeks. However, I did find cooked beets! They come in a small plastic container and are peeled, cooked and ready to eat. Otherwise, here is what I bought grocery shopping and what I prepared during meal prep.
Grocery Shopping:
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts and 96% lean ground beef
- shredded kale, shredded Brussels sprouts, broccoli, green beans, zucchini, cauliflower, cooked beets and mini bell peppers
- sweet potatoes
- bananas
- 2% Greek yogurt (plain) and 6 containers of Elli Quark in various flavors
- Dave’s Killer Bread
- eggs (I bought two dozen eggs at Safeway, not Target)
Meal Prep:
I’ve been addicted to kale salad lately. I do not like raw kale, but if you add a dressing to the kale then it breaks it down a little bit, making it less bitter (and edible).
On Friday, we stopped at Oscar Blues in Longmont to eat a late lunch. I had a salad there that combined kale, Brussels sprouts, quinoa and honey mustard together, plus a few other toppings. It was SO good that I decided to make my own version!
First off, I made a clean eating version of honey mustard. As I was browsing Pinterest, I found this 5 Ingredient Honey Mustard that used clean eating ingredients so I decided to try it. The dressing consisted of 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 Tbsp honey, 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard, the juice from 1 lemon and salt and pepper.
I combined 6 cups kale, the entire package of Brussels sprouts (9oz) and the dressing in a large bowl and used tongs to distribute the dressing to all the leafy greens. It takes a while for the dressing to do its magic on the vegetables, so definitely refrigerate for a couple hours before eating.
The salad from Oscar Blues also had quinoa in it, so I prepared 1 cup of red quinoa. I put salad in three meal containers and topped it with 2 Tbsp red quinoa.
Next was chicken! Instead of baking or grilling the chicken, I decided to use my slow cooker! One recipe I found on Pinterest was My Favorite Slow Cooker Shredded Mexican Chicken from the blog With Salt & Wit. I made it similar to that, but did make a few changes based on what I had on hand ingredient-wise.
I combined 1 can diced petite tomatoes, 1 can diced green chiles, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, garlic powder and onion powder. Honestly, I didn’t measure the spices, but I was pretty liberal with them.
***Chicken in the slow cooker prior to cooking***
The chicken was layered first, then sprinkled with the spices and finally I poured the tomatoes and green chiles on top. I flipped the slow cooker to low and let that cook for 6 hours. After it finished cooking I took two forks and shredded the chicken, then left it for a few minutes to soak up the extra juices. So easy and it turned out delicious!
***Chicken in the slow cooker after cooking for 6 hours on low and shredding***
Another recipe that I found on Pinterest was Beef & Cabbage Stir Fry by BudgetBytes.com. My mom had given me a cabbage the other day and I didn’t get a chance to use it. At Target I found lean ground beef on sale, so I decided to use the two together!
The recipe was really easy, but I did have to make a couple substitutions in order to make it clean eating friendly. I also made a giant mistake by forgetting to pick up green onion! Green onion adds such a nice flavor to dishes and it would have been perfect in this!
I browned the beef with minced garlic first then set that aside. Next, I sautéed cabbage, carrot and some white onion. I put a lid on the pan and added a little water part of the way through so that the vegetables steamed a little. Turned out perfect! I had to cook it in two batches because it was a lot of cabbage! Luckily cabbage wilts significantly after cooking.
***Cabbage, carrots and white onion after cooking***
While the cabbage was cooking I mixed together the “dressing”, which included soy sauce, Sriracha and sesame oil. The recipe didn’t call for it, but I added some rice vinegar as well. I ran out of soy sauce so I used liquid aminos instead. Liquid aminos is a natural, preservative-free alternative to soy sauce.
My mid-morning meal was up next. I mixed unsweetened almond milk, chia, vanilla isolate protein and Greek yogurt together to make a chia-pudding yogurt-parfait hybrid. I topped that with a dollop of peanut butter. Easy peasy.
Last but not least, I sautéed zucchini & yellow squash together followed by green beans. I used a small amount of oil and cooked them over medium heat in a large saute pan.
I forgot to take a picture, but the last thing I did was boil shrimp. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil, then add the frozen shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes. The water will stop boiling, but the shrimp still cook. After they are cooked, then drain the water and allow to cool.
Meal prep was fairly simple this week. It might seem like a lot of work, but everything I prepared was fairly simple. I had quite a bit of chicken leftover, plus some green beans, zucchini/yellow squash and the cabbage mixture.
If you have any questions about what I bought or how I prepared something then please ask. Comment below, send me a Facebook message or email me at eatliftplayrepeat@gmail.com. I’d be happy to help!
What food did you prep this week?
