|
Menu Rescue
The good news is, you don't necessarily need recipes or family participation
in
order to pull this off. I'm a total cooking dolt. If it has more than 3
ingredients, I can't make it. I can boil
water and push the buttons on the
microwave, that's about it.
The secret to success is a good grocery list. Then
it's just a matter of
grabbing a protein and a carb and possibly opening a can or sticking something
in the microwave.
My meal prep time is usually in the neighborhood of 30
seconds. I don't like to fiddle around in the kitchen, it's time
away from my
internet addiction.
Here's my typical grocery list. It's probably not clean enough for the hardcore
fanatics.
It's geared toward my fellow kitchen idiots who can't fathom how to
get started.
bananas
oranges
apples
strawberries
celery
bag of baby
carrots
canned white albacore tuna (3-pack)
canned chicken breast (3-pack)
Progresso Chicken Noodle Soup
pickle
relish
Wheatables stone ground wheat crackers
whole wheat bread
whole wheat flour tortillas
bag of steel cut oats
box
of Kashi GoLean Crunch
box of Splenda
Hellmann's (Best Foods) light mayo
Kraft Light Done Right ranch dressing
olive
oil
salsa
garlic salt
lemon pepper
aluminum foil
Gladware cheap plastic containers
canned black beans
canned
Mexican corn (with the green and red peppers in it)
8 raw boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2% cottage cheese
light
sour cream in a squeeze bottle
a dozen eggs
a couple cartons of Egg Beaters or Scramblers
Lean Cuisine and Healthy
Choice meals (at least 20g of pro, less than 35g carbs)
bag of frozen strawberries
bag of frozen mixed vegetables
Morningstar
Farms Breakfast Patties (frozen veggie sausage)
Morningstar Farms Grillers (frozen veggie burgers)
And from the
supplement store...
Zone bars
Detour bars
a tub of chocolate EAS Simply Whey Protein
a box of Myoplex
To
do this right, you'll probably also need a small cooler or insulated lunch
bag and a couple of those blue ice thingies.
I
usually go buy all of this on Saturday. On Sunday I spend roughly 15 minutes
in the kitchen setting myself up for the week.
Really, all I *have* to do is put
the chicken in the oven.
preheat the oven to 350
line a metal baking dish with
foil
smear a little olive oil in the pan and on the chicken breasts
sprinkle with garlic salt and black pepper (or whatever)
cover
the pan with more foil so that it's sealed tightly
bake for 1 hour
throw the breasts in a tupperware and stick in refrigerator
It
makes really juicy deluxe chicken. Never dry or tough. It takes like 2
minutes of prep time. Afterward you don't even have
a pan to wash. You just
throw the foil away. Cool, eh? Now you have pre-cooked chicken breasts to eat
all week!
It's
not a bad idea to hard boil some eggs too. They make great portable
protein.
bring a big pan of water to a rapid
boil.
drop the eggs in
turn the heat down a little
cook exactly 15 minutes
stick the pan in the sink and run cold
water in it to cool off the eggs
peel them and throw them in a tupperware container to use as protein portions.
If
I'm really on a roll, I'll drain and rinse the can of black beans and the can
of corn. Mix them together and throw them
in a tupperware.
Now you have like a bazillion easy meal choices.
The canned tuna and chicken can be mixed with
light mayo and relish and eaten on
the wheat crackers. Chicken breasts can be eaten cold with a piece of fruit, or
rolled
in a flour tortilla with salsa and sour cream, or heated in the microwave
with a portion of the corn and black bean mix.
You can eat the hardboiled eggs
with fruit or crackers. Mix the Kashi in the cottage cheese. Put frozen berries
in protein
shakes or cottage cheese. Heat the Egg Beaters in a bowl in the
microwave and have scrambled eggs and wheat toast. Dip
the celery and carrots in
the light ranch dressing to get in some veggies. Stick one of the Morningstar
Farms Grillers
in the microwave and eat it on wheat bread with catsup and
mustard. Microwave some of the bagged frozen vegetables to eat
with a chicken
breast. Have a can of soup. The Progresso Chicken Noodle is actually protein and
carb balanced! Grab
a bar or a frozen entree if you're really crunched for time.
Go mainly by the palm/fist portions in the book. One of
my days might look like:
1) scrambled eggs, strawberries
2) can of tuna, orange, carrots
3) protein shake, oatmeal
4)
chicken breast, black beans, bell pepper, salsa
5) protein shake, frozen berries
6) cottage cheese, apple
It's
not very creative but it's easy and effective. That's all that matters.
If you'd like more meal ideas and easy recipes,
check out Bill Phillip's book Eating for Life.
|
