After oogling the pictures of container after container of healthy food made by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean each Sunday, I was finally inspired to do my own food prep for the week. One of my New Year’s goals was to pack more exciting lunches for work. I’d say I’ve been so-so on this goal so far. Sometimes I’ll pack a salad or leftovers but I usually get stuck eating the same ol’ sandwiches…not this week though! My food prep focuses on my breakfasts and lunches as I eat both at work and have about 2 seconds of free time in the morning. I need things that are ready to go, so here’s what I made:
#1- Pesto Quinoa with either chicken or flank steak
#2- Cut up strawberries and pineapple
#3- Baked lentil chips by Mediterranean Snacks (the rosemary flavor is awesome!)
#4- Edamame
#5- Hummus (I bought a container of original flavor)
#6- Carrots and cucumbers sprinkled with lemon pepper
And then there’s also the Quest Nutrition bars which I am LOVING, I swear I’ll get my review of them up soon! And I also packed some containers of cottage cheese and bags of Planter’s Nut*rition Heart Healthy nuts. Yum!
Most of the prepping was just cleaning and cutting up different fruits and veggies and packaging them into snack-sized portions! I bought the hummus and portioned that out as well. Trader Joe’s supplied the edamame. It comes in 16oz. packages in the freezer aisle. All I had to do was boil the beans for 5 minutes, and voila! Then they went into baggies as well. I pretty much used up all my plastic baggies…sigh. I will try to re-use as many as I can though! I swear I won’t be the reason for global warming with my excessive plastic use.
Pesto Quinoa:
-2 cups organic quinoa
-4 cups water
-5-6 tbsp pesto (I used Priano Pesto Rosso)
-1 12oz. jar roasted red peppers
-Olive oil
-Sprinkle of red pepper flakes
-Sprinkle of Parmesan cheese
-Fresh cracked black pepper
-Protein of your choice (chicken, turkey, etc.) optional
Put the quinoa and water into a pot, bring it to a rolling boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 15 minutes. The quinoa should absorb all of the water, puff up, and become tender. Portion out your quinoa into 5 or 6 containers. Add a heaping tbsp of pesto to each portion. Drizzle about 1 tbsp of olive oil over each container. Chop up roasted red peppers and add them, red pepper flakes, cheese, and pepper to your quinoa. I also baked some chicken and grilled some flank steak and put about 6oz of each over top of the portions. I had some avocados that were ripe that I needed to use up, so I chopped one up and put some avocado pieces on top. Yay for healthy fats! You could also add some pine nuts and fresh spinach if you have those hanging around.
Breakfast Food Prep was simple: Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats with different toppings! Hey Bob! Are you listening to me? Can we be best friends?! I eat your oats every darn day now! I think my reader’s think I’m a broken record! I’m not sick of it yet 🙂
How to make it: Boil 3 cups of water. Once boiling, add 1/4 tsp of salt and 1 cup of oats. Turn the heat off and let it simmer for 20 minutes on the warm burner. Remove from the burner and let it sit to thicken up for approximately 2 minutes. And look how much 1 cup of dry oats makes – a ginormous bowl!
And ugliest food picture goes to this one! I swear it tastes better than it looks 🙂
Here’s what my breakfast ends up looking like each day:
Now, doesn’t this look better?
I top my cereal with a bunch of different things: nuts, strawberries, flax, craisins and other dried fruit, PB2, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. That one night of prep provides me with wholesome breakfasts for the entire week.
Okay, have I bored you enough talking about the food I make? Have you read this entire post? You are a saint. Now go out and eat some awesome food and enjoy your Tuesday!
Thoughts??
Do you do weekly food prep?
What’s your favorite quinoa topping? (I need ideas!)
Her Happy Balance 