I love Mondays because it's one of my days off. I am able catch up and get ready for my upcoming week. It's also a day where I can enjoy myself at the gym. I don't worry about what time it is and how long until I have to start getting ready for work. I just go and do my thing.
I woke up this morning around 7:30. I made some protein pancakes for today and the rest of the week (more on that in a moment). I ate breakfast and then I ended up falling back to sleep. I must have been exhausted. I slept about an hour and a half.
When I woke up for the second time I fueled myself with some Spark and headed to the gym.
After two hours at the gym-cardio, arms and abs-I decided to do some meal prep. Since I made the pancakes this morning I’ll start with those.
Previously, I was using cottage cheese, oats, bananas, eggs, vanilla protein powder and almond milk. Since I’m doing the Advocare Herbal Cleanse and I am supposed to avoid dairy (I did find out I can have whey protein though!!!) this morning I made my pancakes without the cottage cheese. I do highly recommend the cottage cheese though. ¼ cup per batch. It adds a cream cheese kind of flavor to the pancakes.
For one batch, I blend 1 egg, ½ cup of oats, 1 ripe banana, 1 scoop of protein powder and about a ½ cup of almond milk in the blender. I suggest putting the liquids on the bottom and the oats on top. That way it will blend easier.
This morning I doubled my recipe to make enough pancakes for five days. I was able to make fifteen pancakes and I will eat three each morning. I also used my boyfriend’s new protein powder-Caramel Pretzel. They were delicious! In order to get more protein in, I eat them with turkey bacon or turkey sausage.
Before I began my meal prep I went to Bristol Farms and I made a visit to the butcher. That’s one of the things I love about Bristol Farms. None of their meat is pre-packaged. The butcher prepares what you’d like right in front of you. I asked for Organic Chicken Breast, Organic Ground Turkey and he cut some Tri-Tips into Steaks for me. It was a little cheaper to go that route. I also got some veggies.
When I got home I started with the Organic Ground Turkey. I cooked it up with some garlic and onion powder.
I then measured it out and put each serving into a plastic bag.
Next onto the Organic Chicken Breast. I think I may have mentioned before that I am weird about nerves and blood and veins. I pretty much cut out half of the chicken I had purchased because I only cook the actual chicken. If I see anything else, I cut it out. This is one of the reasons why I don’t always buy chicken breast when I’m in need of protein. I feel like I waste too much.
I grilled up the chicken with garlic and onion powder as well and then I measured it out just like the ground turkey.
Then I cooked my steaks in the oven for twenty minutes. Ten minutes on each side. I also added a little salt, garlic powder and onion powder.
After that I grilled it in the pan for a few minutes, just to add a little more flavor.
Then I cut it up and measured it out.
Below is the finished product of all of my meat measured out and labeled with each bags weight. Some ended up weighing less or more than the next and I want to know how many ounces to put into MyFitnessPal.
I will rotate the chicken and ground turkey for lunches and I will eat the steak for dinner.
I also steamed some broccoli and sweet corn for my sides.
And because I hate spending time each morning collecting all my vitamins and supplements, I got them all ready so I can just grab and go.
For snacks, I have carrots, hummus and rice cakes ready. I also have Quest Bars on hand in case my sweet tooth kicks in and I will have two scoops of protein powder each day. One after my workout and one before bed.
I hope this helps any of you looking into meal prepping. It only took me about two hours total to prepare all of this and now I have no reason to not stay on my plan this week. Let’s make it a great one!
