Spring has sprung and for all of my fellow fit friends out there, you all know what that means. It's time to buckle down on our diets and push hard in the gym to whip our bodies back into shape for the summer time to come. After far too long of having a sort of "YOLO" diet, I think it's time I start getting back on track with what I'm putting in my body. After all, it doesn't matter how hard you train. You cannot out-exercise a bad diet. For optimal results and just overall health, you need to be fueling your body with the best foods possible.
For this post, I thought I'd share with you all another one of my meal preps. This week, I was really determined to make sure I had all of my meals prepped. We all know what happens when we are tired, hungry, and just don't feel like cooking up a healthy meal. We opt for the unhealthy, quick foods with little nutritional value. I am a total culprit of doing this and that it the exact reason why I am now an avid meal prepper. Meal prepping is honestly one of the best things you can do if you find yourself short on time or simply too lazy to cook a meal. It truly makes reaching your fitness goals much more attainable and a heck of a lot easier!
On the menu for this week is...
Lunch for school: Grilled chicken with roasted butternut squash, zucchini, and steamed broccoli
Dinner (2 different meals): Homemade healthy burrito bowl and (because I'm a repeat offender...oops) the same meal I prepped for my lunch
Ingredients:
- Chicken breasts (can also use fish or if you're vegan, tofu would work great!)
- Butternut squash (or sweet potato)
-Broccoli
-Zucchini
-Corn
-Salsa
-Brown rice (or quinoa)
-Taco seasoning
-Seasonings of choice
I've mentioned my recipe for Healthy Butternut Squash 'Fries' multiple times on my blog so I'll spare you the reading. This recipe can be found in this post on my blog! Same instructions, same ingredients! Being I was prepping more meals this week, I actually used two big butternut squashes and one little one. I told you I was obsessed with these!
While these were roasting in the oven, I began the (absolute vile) process of cutting up my chicken breasts. Before grilling, I seasoned the chicken with the taco seasoning for the homemade burrito bowls and the rest with sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Ninety second rice is the best time saving hack ever created, so just pop it right in the microwave and watch the magic happen. Don't forget to keep an eye on your butternut squash and flip the pieces from time to time!
After my rice finished up, I chucked a big bowl of frozen broccoli into the microwave to let it defrost. Frozen vegetables are a huge time saver being you don't have to chop them up yourself and the vegetables just need to be defrosted.
In the meantime, I portioned out all of my toppings for my burrito bowl. Once the chicken is all grilled and the butternut squash is done roasting, it's time to start assembling all of your foods into the proper portion sizes for each meal. For each meal, I typically have 4oz of my protein of choice and I follow the serving size for everything else. As for the butternut squash, I get about 150g for each meal. As always, you can always make more if needed!
In total, this week's meal prep took about 2 hours to complete and I made 12 meals! Now, I can simply pop my meals in the microwave and they are ready to be eaten. No more opting for quick, nutritionally lacking foods that won't keep you satisfied! It may seem overwhelming the first time you meal prep, but once you get the hang of it, you'll actually look forward to it (as least I do)!
I hope you enjoyed this meal prep post and let me know if you try out any of my recipes! Also, be sure to let me know if you would like to see more fitness related posts such as more recipes, what I eat in a day, and workouts!
Much love,
Gabriella xx
