Meal Prep Week One

Meal prep is challenging no matter who you are or what your lifestyle is like. The thought of cooking & prepping a weeks worth of food is not appealing, even for me – and I love cooking! It’s the organising, the shopping lists, storage and then the desire to still want the same thing by day 5?

I’m going to let you in on my meal prep for an 8 week period, join me if you dare! Each week I will give recipes a shopping list and tips on the week of meal prep ahead.

Personally, I hate eating food thats been prepped days before, I tend to do my meal prep a little different – which requires a tiny bit of cooking each day but it will help when your feeling a bit tired of the same god damn dish! Also, I aim to prep for 5 days mon-fri (unless I have a big job on the weekend then on the friday I would prep)

What I start with is choosing a dish for the following:

• 2 different breakfast options
• 3 lunch/dinner options
• 2 snack options

Week One Menu

BREAKFAST

• The fueller smoothie – 3 days
• Egg Muffins -2 days and use as a snack for one day

LUNCH/DINNER

• Spicy Tuna Burgers
• Chicken coconut cashew skewers
• Veggie stew

SNACKS

• Pumpkin Hummus-  early morning snack
• Mini meatloaves –  evening snack

Now to prep for breakfast, firstly with the smoothie, I dice up 2-3 bananas and store in a zip lock bag in the freezer so for when I’m making the smoothie fresh all I need to do is grab a handful from the freezer to add in the Nutri Bullet along with a scoop of protein, one tablespoon of nut butter, a dash of almond milk and then you have a creamy smoothie done in no time!

Natural Born Fueler Smoothie Recipe 

*Serves 1

Ingredients

• 1 banana frozen
• 1 scoop (30g) vanilla whey protein powder
• 250ml unsweetened almond milk
• 1 tbsp peanut or almond butter
• 1 tsp raw cacao powder (optional)
• I love to add a pinch of cinnamon too

Method

1. Place all the ingredients into a powerful blender and blitz until smooth. If your blender isn’t that strong, leave out the ice and add it to the glass instead.

For the egg muffins, I fully prep these and store them in the fridge. I tend to eat them for breakfast from Mon-Wednesday then the smoothie Thursday-Friday. If you’re like me and you do your training fasted in the morning it’s a good option to grate some sweet potato into your egg mix to get some carbs in after training unless you eat before training leave the recipe as is. (The fuller smoothie is perfect for post training as is). Store the egg muffins in a tuber ware container in the fridge and eat hot or cold!

Egg Muffin Recipes

*Makes 10 muffins – you can half the recipe if you want, I usually would have 2- 3 muffins as a breakfast

Ingredients

• 8 eggs
• 4 cherry tomatoes quartered
• 200g smoked salmon/torn chicken
• Handful spinach chopped finely
• 2 tsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• 30g feta chopped into small cubes
• Optional add in – 300g grated sweet potato
• Salt and pepper to taste

You can alter this recipe to suit your preference, example you can opt to leave out some of the yolks and add extra whites.

Method

1. Whisk the eggs together in a large mixing bowl using a fork.
2. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, giving a good arm work out to ensure there is no separation.
3. Pour evenly into silicone moulds or a greased (use coconut oil) bun tray.
4. Bake for 25 minutes. Leave aside to cool fully before placing into a container in the fridge to store. If you store them before they have fully cooled they will go soggy and no likes soggy egg muffins!
   these are both handy breakfast options for on the go!

For lunch and dinner, I always tend to choose 3 options so I can mix it up between lunches and dinner, a burger recipe is just key to meal prep, I’m not a fan of plain chicken or plain cuts cause thats when it all just gets way too boring hence why I love the cashew chicken skewers, they’re awesome and then of course a stew option (for the colder evenings) these are all really satisfying and importantly you won’t get sick of them.

Spicy Tuna Burgers 

Ingredients

* makes 4 portions

• 6 x 92g tins of tuna drained of oil/brine
• 1/2 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tbsp. chilli flakes
• 3 tbsp. fresh corianderDF
• 1 tbsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 tbsp. tamari or soy amino
• 1 egg
• 4 tbsp. ground almond

Burger Sauce

• 1.5 tbsp. tahini
• 1/2 juice of a lime
• 1 tsp. tamari
• 1.5 tbsp. maple or honey
• 1 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tsp. hot sauce

Method

1. Preheat oven 200°C
2. In a food processor or nutribullet blitz up the onion, garlic, sesame oil,coriander and tamari into a paste.
3. In a medium sized mixing bowl add the drained tuna, stir in the chilli flakes, ginger, ground almond, egg and homemade paste.
4. Once this is combined really well, let the mix stand in the fridge for 30 minutes.( it still works if you skip this step they are just a little easier the old after being chilled).
5. Take sections and using your hands make patties/burgers.
6. Place on a lined baking tray and bake for 25 minutes.
7. Let cool for 5-10 minutes before serving. ( they also develop a nice crispy out crust during this time).
8. For the sauce, combine and ingredients together into a smooth & creamy dip.
9. Once cooked these can be frozen or you can keep the uncooked burger mix in the fridg and make the second batch on a wednesday/thursday- the tinned tuna will keep for much longer than other fish burgers.

For my side dishes, I prep green bags (as seen in pic) stored in the freezer and when I get home I just grab a bag and steam the veggies for a fresh side – all the prep is done and they only take 10-15 minutes to cook. Likewise, I have diced sweet potato cubed as an option but also I stock up on handy things like Mother Nature cooked quinoa pouches.

For my next lunch and dinner option, I’m going for the coconut and cashew chicken skewers, making chicken far more desirable and guess what these taste just as good cold as they do served warm – handy for lunches on the run. You have two ways of doing these, prep them from scratch and freeze a batch or as I like to, make the topping keep it stored in a sealed glass jar and have the chicken diced up in small slices so when you get home, all you have to do is place the chicken on a baking tray and drizzle over the marinade and grill for 15 minutes. I would usually make 2 batches, one for lunch the next day.

Coconut & Cashew Chicken Skewers 

*2 portions

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (cut into thin strips)

Marinade

• 1.5 tbsp. cashew butter
• 1 tbsp. desiccated coconut
• 1 tsp. curry powder
• 1 tsp. cayenne
• 1 tbsp. tamari sauce
• 1 tbsp. Sesame oil

Method

1. Mix all the marinade together to form a paste.
2. Taking the strips one at a time rub through the paste covering with a thin layer of marinade.
3. Pierce the chicken through the skewers.
4. Bake in the preheated oven at 210°C for 30 minutes until golden brown and cooked through.
5. The veggie stew is awesome its one of those dishes that just gets better and better as the days go on.
6. Make it in a big batch and section off into portions, perfect for freezing! I serve mine up with the pre cooked quinoa pouches or brown rice after training.

Veggie Stew 

*Serves 4 large portions

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp. coconut oil
• 2 red onions chopped
• 2 cloves garlic diced finely
• 2 large sticks of celery sliced
• 1 large butternut squash cut into 2cm pieces
• 1 tbsp. cumin seeds or ground
• 1 courgette sliced and quartered
• 500ml vegetable stock (opt for low sodium)
• 5 large tomatoes (on the vine if possible)
• 150g frozen peas
• 10g parsley leaves to garnish

Method

1. First prep the tomatoes, dice two into 1” chunks, with the other 3 tomatoes place them in a food processor or nutribullet and puree into a smooth liquid (it may turn pinkish in color- that’s ok).
2. Place the coconut oil into a large pot over medium heat, once melted add in the onion giving a quick stir, place the lid on and sweat the onion for 6 minutes until almost tender.
3. Toss in the garlic, cumin, celery and cook for a moment or two.
4. Next add the butternut, cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally.
5. Pour in the stock, adding the courgette, chopped tomato and tomato puree.
6. Turning the heat up and bring to boil for 4-5 minutes before turning the heat low and allowing the stew to simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes.

 

The mini meatloaf are so delicious you can have the recipe here to make 5, keep them stores in an airtight container in there fridge.

Mini Meatloafs
*Serves 10 – I usually half the recipe for meal prep

Ingredients

• 1 large onion (diced)
• 1 large carrot (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 1 tbsp. dried parsley
• 380g Irish Organic beef Steak mince
• 4 tbsp. ground almond
• 3 Organic eggs
• 70g Organic Mozzeralla or Feta (grated)
• 1 tbsp. Organic Olive Oil (to coat the bun tray)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Prepare the bun tray by rubbing a little olive oil in each mould.
4. Spoon 2 tbsp. of mix into each mould and press down using the back of the spoon.
5. Bake for 20 minutes at 200°C.

Snacks are always something people tend to fall down on because more than likely we tend to opt for sweet snack options over savoury and we never know when to stop! When I am on meal prep game, I opt for homemade hummus and protein based snacks they manage to keep you much fuller for longer and make the gaps between meals far more bearable! For the hummus opt for veggie croutons like celery, cucumber & some carrot, sliced apple is also really nice with this hummus. Try to stick to 2 tbsp hummus per snack. Keep store in a glass sealed jar or tight seal tuber ware in the fridge.

Roasted Squash Hummus

Ingredients

• 1 x can chickpeas drained and rinsed
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 3 tbsp virgin olive oil
• 100g squash chopped into chunks
• 1 tbsp. tahini
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 clove garlic (optional) – I like to roast mine first
• .5 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp. Manuka honey optional – I love it in this!
• 1 tbsp olive oil – for roasting the squash
• Sea salt – for roasting the squash

Method

1. On a lined baking tray, scatter the butternut chunks evenly and drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.
2. Roast for 20-25 minutes until tender and golden brown along the edges.
3. In a Nutri Bullet or food processor, blend the drained chickpeas, roasted squash and all other ingredients until smooth.