Day 23: Meal Prep

Since it is the last week of Whole30, I figured I would do some meal prep to get me through the next few days at work. This was my least planned week regarding dinners and I seem to be playing it by ear. This is a lot more difficult because I have to plan what ingredients I have at home, what I need to buy, cooking time of a dish - I liked planning my week in advance but the week got the better of me and now I am just cooking based on my time and mood that evening. This works too, but it leaves a lot of room for "slipping."

Yesterday seemed to be so busy at work so I am glad I got to spend the morning at home with Ryan and Haley and have Meal 1 with them! Meal 1 (Ryan and I had exactly the same thing) was an applesauce omelette made with 2 eggs, unsweetened applesauce, coconut milk, cinnamon, salt and pepper! I topped it with almond butter, pecans, and unsweetened coconut! The side was Trader Joe's Spicy Italian Sausage (the only one without added sugar) and mixed vegetables (asparagus, onion, mushroom, avocado) topped with homemade pesto!

Unfortunatley I had to eat Meal 2 at my desk and have a working lunch which I don't like to do. It forces me to not focus on my food - the tastes, textures, flavors - because I am more focused on emails and projects. But it did keep me full all day so at least I didn't have cravings for sweets! Meal 2 was a large mixed green and vegetable salad with hard boiled egg, oven roasted chicken (Trader Joe's), walnuts, figs, 100% cacao nibs and guacamole as dressing.

Meal 3 was something I was looking forward to. Up until now I have eliminated a lot of starches (except for the once a week butternut squash and sweet potato fries) but I knew I wanted to try something new. I had never baked a potato before and PaleOMG had an amazing Whole30 approved recipe for Turkey and Spinach Stuffed Sweet Potatoes. I had found this recipe last week so I planned ahead and bought the potatoes at Trader Joe's this weekend. It really is a simple recipe and it allowed me time in the kitchen to meal prep a few Meal 1's for the rest of the week.

The potatoes baked in the oven (wrapped in foil) for 50 minutes! That's it. After 40 minutes, I cooked the onions, ground turkey and spinach in a large pan over medium to high heat and when the potatoes were done, I sliced them in half, mashed them a bit and served the turkey mixture over them! I made 4 potatoes to have in the fridge for the weekend (sweet potato hash?) and doubled the turkey mixture recipe so I had enough for lunch today and a Meal 1 later on in the week with fried eggs. The sweet potato tasted so sweet. I guess this is what happens after 23 days without sugar. It tasted like candy. It melted in my mouth and I almost couldn't finish it because it was so sweet, decadent and filling - almost! I finished it...cleaned my plate and loved every bite!

While the potatoes were baking in the oven I prepped proscuitto vegetable egg cups. I have been eating a vegetable omelette on Bar Method mornings that I buy at the local deli and on morning when I am home I have much better meals (tastier, more filling, more satisfying) so I wanted my Bar Method mornings to be just as delicious!

I made 8 cups (I only had 8 pieces of prosciutto). I sprayed a muffin tin with coconut oil and lined each of them with 1 piece of prosciutto.

 

The egg mixture was 6 eggs, 1/3 cup of coconut milk, 2 tbsp coconut flour, cinnamon, salt and pepper. I added the fresh vegetables I had in my fridge - this is a great way to use up any vegetables that won't last a few more days. I had asparagus, onion, mushroom, spinach and I added a few pieces of oven roasted chicken.

 

I poured the egg mixture into each prosciutto cup and topped with grape tomatoes.

I baked this for 20 minutes in the oven (preheated to 375) and let them cool. I brought 6 with me to work (2 each day for the rest of the week) and made a small salad to go with it.

Ryan and I decided to take a walk after dinner. It was so warm and so beautiful and finally still light out after I finished eating. We walked along the East River and watched a beautiful sunset. The park was crowded with runners in all directions and we felt a little funny being the only people walking but it was a perfect evening! One weekend we will walk all the way to South Street Seaport but tonight we turned back at 14th street.

 

It makes me so happy the spring is finally here in NYC! The Stuyvesant Oval was on, the grass was green, trees were budding and flowers were blooming. It seriously made me so happy!!!!

XO