Hey Guys!

If you’ve joined “Eat Better Owosso” —Thank you! The goal is to build a community where ideas can be shared to help everyone “EAT BETTER!” Feel free to add friends : )

Meal prepping is a great tool to be successful with your nutrition goals — check out the post on 3 Simple Ways to Eat Healthy on a Budget for more tips

Here is my plan for this week's meal prepping. In my posts, I will be sharing snacks, some lunches, and dinners. The plan is to reuse some as leftovers too! 

As a side note, I commonly use an app called eMeals to create my dinners (so you will see recipes from there) and it interfaces with shopping apps for Meijer and Kroger - so it’s super handy!

Now to the prepping!

If you are anything like me, this “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order has me wanting to snack! So this week I am trying to plan around that for my family and I will share some of those with you!

Snacks:

The plan here is to have things that are “poppable” that last a little longer and you can snack on for a little while. A great goal is to make sure your snacks have a good amount of protein, maybe 10-15g and fat. These nutrients make you feel fuller, for longer. You will want to snack less!

Some foods I will be preparing are Almonds (other nuts too, like cashews), fresh air-popped popcorn (not movie theater-style!), fruits and veggies: We commonly have oranges, apples, and bananas lying around. For protein, foods like unsweetened Greek yogurt with fruit or cottage cheese and cheese sticks are good choices. I like the cheese stick choices at Aldi!

For the nuts, be mindful of your serving size! They are high in fat — not bad fat though! Fat is not bad! Very quickly that macronutrient can add up, so serving size is important here.

Vegetables with Ranch or Hummus

1 head of Broccoli, 1 head of Cauliflower, 1 pack of baby carrots, 1  stalk of celery (we go through less of this! So if you like it grab some more!), 2 cucumbers, 1 pack of heirloom cherry tomatoes

Chop them up and store in containers, creating single sized portions to grab and go would be handy too! Especially for little ones.

Greek Yogurt Ranch

If you choose not to make it, a good alternative is “Primal Kitchen Ranch Dressing” - this is available at Kroger - Owosso, at the time of this post (4/5). You should be able to find it in the refrigerated pre-made salad area, near the vegetables. Or at Meijer, in the non refrigerated salad dressing section.

1 cup plain Greek Yogurt, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 of a lemon, juiced

1/2 teaspoon of each:

Onion powder, black pepper, sea salt, Worcestershire sauce, ground cayenne, dill, chives

Pro-tip: If you double your batch you’ll have ranch dressing for the lunch recipe below as well

Breakfast:

On to breakfast!! Here are a couple of items I will be prepping this week:

PB&J Oats - Courtesy of my friend Elizabeth!

1/2 Cup Oats, 1/3 cup nonfat milk (or almond milk!), 3 tbsp Greek yogurt, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp maple syrup, 1/2 cup raspberries (frozen pictured! But fresh or frozen will work well!), 1 .5 tsp chia seeds, 1 tbsp peanut butter

This is a powerful start to the morning! You should feel fueled and full - 386 Calories, 17g protein, 47g carbohydrates, 17g fat

This is for one serving, I typically will prepare a couple of days at a time -- so double as necessary. Right now, in this situation, I probably would make fresh!

I love Cottage Cheese with fruit and almonds for breakfast! This can also be a great protein snack!

I was inspired by my Fit Fam’s breakfasts post this past week on social media and so I wanted to find a sandwich to prep! Here is what I am going to do:

Whole wheat English muffin - sliced in half

1 egg - I have a ton of eggs from my parent’s chickens - Woot! But I need to USE THEM! (YAY, farm-fresh!)

I prepare my eggs over medium, a little runny but nothing that will drip all over my clothes! Ha! 

salt and pepper, to your liking

1 tbsp whipped cream cheese

1-2 ounces meat of your choice - we’ll probably do chicken or ham

Slice of tomato

Optional: swap out the cream cheese for a slice of cheddar! Or add some greens! Like spinach or romaine lettuce. This sandwich is perfect to make modifications to! Let me know if you are going to try it and how you will create yours!

Lunch:

During the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order, I have been trying to make fresh lunches — the one part I am really excited for is to create something FRESH instead of having to pack.

I made a really fantastic taco salad this past week (here is that recipe! I do recommend it!), so I am going to make a different version this week. I have been enjoying the fresh Tex-Mex flavors and so I am rolling with that again this week.

1 cup frozen corn

1/3 cup ranch dressing - Primal Ranch Dressing or leftover dressing made in the recipe above

3 tbsp salsa

1 can black beans

2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken - Kroger and Meijer sell this in the deli section! - I prefer Meijer’s shredded chicken.

1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered

1/2 cup red onion

4 cups chopped romaine lettuce

Optional: tortilla strips for crunch

I also keep frozen chicken breast on hand to pop into the air fryer! I love that thing. Have you tried one?

Here is what I do: Thaw the chicken, dip in an egg bath and cover with panko bread crumbs and seasoning of my choice. I usually do lemon pepper or garlic herb depending on the day.

This week I put this chicken with carrot sticks, snap peas, tomatoes and a little ranch! Yum!

Dinner:

2 Lemons

2 lb Chicken breast

2 tbsp olive oil

1 ½ tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp salt

1 cup plain greek yogurt

½ cup fresh parsley

3 tbsp water

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Grate zest from lemons to yield 2 tsp; cut lemons in half.
2. Place chicken in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish; rub with oil, and sprinkle with turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, and salt. Place lemon halves around chicken cut sides up.
3. Bake 20 minutes or until chicken is done.
4. Combine yogurt, parsley, water, and lemon zest. Stir in juice from 2 lemon halves to yogurt mixture; squeeze juice from the remaining 2 lemon halves over chicken. Serve chicken with sauce.

Side Dish Ingredients:

2 lb asparagus, trimmed

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 (8.5-oz) pkg microwavable brown basmati rice (or use jasmine rice)

2 shallots, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp olive oil, divided

1½ tsp ground turmeric

½ cup sliced green olives

½ cup chopped fresh parsley

Side Dish Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spread asparagus in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet; drizzle with 1 Tbsp oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
2. Bake 20 minutes. Meanwhile, cook rice according to package directions.
3. Cook shallots and garlic in 1 Tbsp hot oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 2 to 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in rice, turmeric, olives, and parsley.

6 Servings: 487 Calories total, 26g Fat, 34g Protein, 33g Carbohydrates

Well, that is it! I threw a lot of things at you! I hope they are useful!

I am really excited to share meal prepping and nutrition ideas with the community! My hope by sharing here- is to also see what others are preparing!

Let me know what recipes you are going to try! What are you prepping this week? Let us know in the comments! 

&& as always If you have any questions, let me know! I’d be happy to help answer them! 

Let’s Eat Better Owosso, together!

—Rachel