When I’m busy at work, I try and do whatever I can to simplify my daily routine. Oftentimes, this involves cooking meals in “batch” so that I don’t succumb to eating fast food to compensate for not having time to cook.
This past tax season, I was really hardcore about precooking meals. Every Sunday I would set aside a couple hours and cook ALL of my meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for the workweek ahead of time. This took a lot of planning and creativity on my part. Since FerventFoodie.com didn’t come about until after tax season, I don’t have any documentation of my meal plans. Guess we’ll have to wait til next tax season for that 😉
Breakfast #1
Last night, I decided to pre-cook a few things for the week. I threw 3 chicken breasts and 3 Jennie O’s turkey sausages on the George Foreman grill to cook up. I don’t have a plan in mind for the meat at this point — just hoping to simplify what I expect to be a very busy workweek!
I decided to use one of the turkey sausage links in an egg scramble. I whisked up 11 egg whites and 1 whole egg with a splash of water. Once in the pan, I seasoned with S&P and some Red Pepper Flakes.
When the eggs were about 1/2 way done scrambling, I added 1 chopped up turkey sausage link and a few splashes of Frank’s Red Hot.
I also roasted up 3 cups of broccoli. When I roast veggies, I typically spray a heavy coat of cooking spray on a cookie sheet, toss the veggies around on it, then add S&P (and sometimes garlic powder, onion powder, or red pepper flakes). Then, I cook in a 415 degree oven for 15 minutes.
This mix made 3 lovely portion-controlled breakfasts:
One of which I enjoyed at work this morning with a dollop o’ ketchup:
I’m glad roasted veggies taste just as good when heated up in the microwave 😀
Stats on Scramble, Broccoli, & Ketchup: 180 calories, 10g carbs, 5g fat, 24g protein, 2g fiber
Breakfast #2
Chobani strawberry greek yogurt + 1/2 cup blueberries =
I <3 Greek Yogurt
Stats on B#2: 181 calories, 31g carbs, 0g fat, 15g protein, 3g fiber
Lunch
Last month, the BF and I made some zucchini turkey burgers. Jarrod liked them so much, that he replaced the daily burger on his meal plan with a turkey burger. When I was cooking all my foods up last night, I decided to help Jarrod out and make up his turkey burgers for the week… for the low LOW fee of one burger of course 😉
Here’s what went into the turkey burgers this time:
- 1 package Nature’s Vally 99% Fat Free Ground Turkey Breast (about 20 ounces)
- 1 small zucchini, grated
- 1/3 cup red onion, grated
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- Salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes
This mix made four burgers, one of which I brought with me for lunch today. I heated the burger up, then sandwiched it with a Pepperidge Farm 7 Grain Deli Flat, ketchup, mustard, tomato, and onion:
Side shot:
I also had a crap ton 2 cups of roasted cauliflower on the side:
I wish my lunches ALWAYS made me this happy!
Stats on just the turkey burger (no bun/toppings): 163 calories, 3g carbs, 2g fat, 33g protein, 0g fiber
Stats on whole lunch: 363 calories, 45g carbs, 3g fat, 44g protein, 12g fiber
Side note of the deli flats — I compared the backs of various brands and varieties of the “deli flat” style buns in the grocery store the other day. Both Pepperidge Farm and the Arnold varieties were comparable — though the Pepperidge Farm deli flats have 2 less grams of carbs and 1 more gram of protein. Not necessarily something to write home about, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless 🙂
(Screen shot taken from myfitnesspal.com)
Speaking of planning ahead, some things to look forward to in the coming months:
- Healthy Living Summit in Chicago in August (shout out to my roommate Haya!)
- Wedding in Columbus in September (I love weddings!)
- Pittsburgh with mom/sister/brother in September
- New Orleans in October
- My Annual Halloween Spooktacular 😀
- And the holidays….
I have a feeling the rest of this year is going to FLY. Plus, I’m hoping we can squeeze in another trip to Charlotte before year-end….
3 Comments
i feel so so so much better when i plan my meals out. esp. lunch. i leave the house so flipping early, that if i dont plan it the night before, i am scurrying around trying to throw something low fat in the lunch bag! i have not roasted cauliflower yet, but need to try. do you think i could use frozen? i have a bag in my freezer i have yet to use….maybe if i defrosted first?
also, you have a lot of fun stuff planned for the upcoming months!!! what is your halloween spooktaculer? i LOVE halloween!!!!
I’ve never tried roasting frozen veggies — let me know how that turns out!
I am a Halloween FANATIC, and I have all my friends over for a HUGE Halloween party every year. Costumes are MANDATORY 🙂