Low Carb Meal Prep With Me!
For me, this magical thing called meal prepping is one of the key pillars for me maintaining a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy, whole foods on a consistent basis. Without it I would never have achieved my healthy lifestyle. Once I figured out the meal prep method that worked best for me, eating clean consistently is simply a part of my healthy routine rather than being a goal that I’m constantly setting and failing to meet. So in this post, I will be sharing:
Why I meal prep
My meal prep method that I use to maintain my healthy lifestyle goals
What I ate this week that was conducive to my low-carb eating style
Why I Meal Prep
As explained briefly above, when I learned about and started implementing meal prepping into my weekly routine, it changed everything for me. The biggest advantage to meal prepping is taking the all of the decision making around eating and grouping it into your meal prepping time rather than spreading it out over the week. I get decision fatigue very easily, so the more automated the choices are for me, the less stress it causes, and the more likely that I stick with my healthy eating intentions. The days during the week are BUSY for me, and as much as I love my boyfriend, he’s not much of a cook (but he’s getting better!). So when I come home at the end of a busy day, the last thing I want to do is come up with what to eat and cook the whole thing on top of it. The best part about it is that over the years, as my life has changed and evolved, I’ve always been able to take the principles of meal prepping and mold it to fit whatever season of life I’m in.
Why You Need to Know Your Personality
When it comes to any aspect of our health, in my opinion, we are ALL individual. What might work for me might not work in the slightest for someone else. That’s why it’s important to know yourself and what strategies work best for you. For example, I am a big planner. I plan almost every part of my life and I have to-do lists up the wazoo. If I want to do anything, it goes down on paper or on a long lost note on my phone.
For someone who has a more rebellious personality, they might hate the idea of planning every exact meal they are going to eat and when they are going to eat it. But, they can still make meal planning work! Instead of being so rigid, they could use another strategy, such as prepping simple ingredients. Like grilling up chicken, washing and cutting up some fruit and veggies to snack on or making a new salad dressing. Then, they can decide as they go throughout the week what they want to eat out of the variety of options they have.
My Meal Prep Method
Now for what you’ve been waiting for - the actual meal prep method! After many years of perfecting my meal prepping method, I meal prep in three steps.
I first take to Pinterest, Instagram or the internet and find recipes. My boyfriend and I have been sticking to a cycle of three weeks eating low carb and one week eating normal carb. So I will either search for ‘low-carb’, ‘keto’ or ‘whole 30’ when looking for recipes while eating a low-carb style diet.
As I mentioned earlier, weeknights are extremely busy for me right now. So, I have been fully prepping AND cooking two meals (because Mondays and Wednesdays I work a little later). Then, I partially prep two or three more meals that will be fully cooked on the remaining nights. Depending on how many servings the recipes make, instead of doing three meals, I will plan two meals with leftovers one night.
So in total…FIVE recipes (or four with one day of leftovers).
Step two, I screenshot each recipe’s ingredient list (typically found at the end of a blog post recipe). I then go through and write down any groceries I will need for my recipes. Sometimes I will double a recipe to get more servings, so I have to be careful to write down the correct amount of each ingredient.
Step three, I screenshot each recipe’s instruction list (typically found after the ingredient list of a blog post recipe). I then go through and write down anything I can do ahead of time.
First, I look if there’s any vegetables that can be prepped. For me, chopping vegetables is much more tolerable when I can do it all in one go.
Then, I usually look to see what meats are being used in each recipe and if anything needs to be defrosted. You can always wait until the day before you want to cook your meat to defrost but I always end up forgetting; so it’s easier for me to defrost in the fridge over a few days if need be.
Finally, if there are any spice mixes or sauces that can be put together ahead of time I do that too! It may not seem like much, but even mixing spices ahead of time makes putting the recipe together so much faster.
And there you have it! This is the easiest, most efficient way I have found to meal prep and plan for a week’s worth of meals. This has saved me so much time and stress during busy week nights and allowed me to stick to my healthy eating goals so much more easily than I have in the past.
Keep reading if you want to see what I made this last week eating low carb.
Monday - Apple Sausage Stuffed Butternut Squash with Roasted Broccoli
Recipe credit from Downshiftology (via Pinterest). Get recipe here.
Tuesday - Chicken and Broccoli Casserole
*Please don’t judge my picture. We had eaten most of the casserole by the time I remembered I needed a picture!*
Recipe credit from “The Keto Reset Diet” by Mark Sisson.
Wednesday - Chicken Pad Thai Inspired Skillet
Recipe credit from The Real Food Dietitians (via Instagram). Get recipe here.
Thursday - Waffles Over Sausage Gravy with Fried Eggs
Recipe credit from “The Keto Reset Diet” by Mark Sisson.
Friday - Sloppy Joe Bowls
Recipe credit from The Real Food Dietitians. Get recipe here.
There you have it folks. Inspiration for five absolutely delicious, healthy and low-carb meals for your week.
I hope you enjoyed getting an insight into one of my most treasured healthy habits and hope you can incorporate some of these tips into your meal prep routine. If you end up trying any of the recipes, I would love to know how you liked them!