A Kitchen Adventure - Meal Prep Monday, Fixate, and 6 Recipes

Its Meal Prep Monday. I know what you are thinking, This girl is in the kitchen WAY more than anyone who hates to cook is in the kitchen. I'm surprised too. But there are 2 very good reasons for this! First, I need to prep my week to make sure that I stay on track. Second, I just got the cookbook I have been waiting for!!! Fixate is the new cookbook by Autumn Calabrese and it is full of healthy meals, 101 of them to be exact. Of course I'm going to test some out this week.

While there are a lot of recipes in this book that I want to try for breakfast, I'm leaving them for my weekends when I have more time. Things like chicken and waffles (yup, that will happen), chocolate crepes, and omelets. As normal, I prepped some oats for Monday - Friday (cuz I love them and they make me happy and fill me up).

Snacks will include my usual Shakeology (and yes, I have some new recipes to try with that too), and fruit.

The main events? Open faced meatball sub and mac n cheese with broccoli and chicken. Oh yes, this book has HEALTHY MAC N CHEESE! (I did green beans since broccoli and I are not friends.)

What stunned me was there are recipes for cake, cookies (raspberry-filled cookie bites that will happen too), and skinny cocktails. Everything in moderation and you have a healthy balanced diet. For me, who kept making the same foods, it is a game changer. Especially since they are easy and require little work. Want a few samples? Click HERE. Pineapple chicken skewers are on my to do list along with zucchini chips and ice cream (Yes ice cream).

As you can imagine it works well with 21 Day Fix. It also works great all by itself. If you want to get your hands on this cookbook, let me know and I will help you. Just send me a message.

Menu Planning

Let's talk about clen eating. I would say I eat clean 80-85% of the time. Some days, I rock out at 100% but not every day. That being said, eating clean is not about reinventing the wheel. I used to think clean eating was way too hard. I couldn't even pronounce qunioa. And do I really need to eat veggies?!

I am a firm believer in keeping it simple. So, I thought I would share what a day this week looked like.

Breakfast: 1/2 cupSteel cut oats, 1 apple (chopped cinnamoned and warmed), 2-3 pieces of turkey bacon
Snack: Shakeology (pudding with peanut butter)
Lunch: Caprice turkey burger, no bun, tomato, cucumber and basil salad,  1/2 banana with peanut butter
Snack: watermelon
Dinner: whole wheat pasta, chicken, veggies

Nothing really hard right? I don't cook every night. Mainly because the hubs cooks. When he works, I cook for me. Here are some tips for a good menu that is healthy without the crazy amount of work.

• Frozen veggies are my friend! Quickly measure and heat.
• Pick a day and prep. I do all my cooking for the week (breakfast and lunch) on one day. Makes the rest of the week grab and go. Bonus, frozen veggies need no prep!
• What do you like to eat? I'm sure we can find a healthy version to it (most times)
• KEEP IT SIMPLE

Here are some examples of things you can cook that are in frequent rotation on my menu.

• Pasta: Whole wheat or quinoa. Cook, portion, and toss in the fridge
• Baked chicken: seasoned, lemon rosemary, chicken parm...so many ways to bake chicken. Portion and stick it in the fridge
• Roasted veggies. portion and put in the fridge
• Burger (turkey, beef, chicken.....make an extra and put it in the fridge)
• Pork chops
• Pork tenderloin
• Oatmeal
• Fajitas
• Meatballs
• Zucchini chips
• Stuffed peppers

I usually pick 1 or 2 main dishes for lunch or dinner during the week. It works. If you need help menu planning for something you like, let me know. I'm always happy to help!