Meal Prep Monday – first prep in a while and I am TIRED.

Meal + ingredient prepped for the first time in a while today! I work from home and gave up meal prepping once I was no longer commuting to an office, but I recently realized that I still need to prep in order to avoid the last minute panic of a busy day (and to avoid food waste as someone who lives alone). I’m also trying to improve the quality of my diet since I want to lose some extra weight, see better results in the gym, and improve my bloodwork. I’m aiming for a high protein, mediterranean-ish-style diet with some leeway. 

I don’t typically like eating the same thing for more than 2-3 days in a row, so I prepped some stuff for the first half of this week and some stuff for the freezer. I’ll do my best to lay out ingredients below, but I did all of this on the fly, so I don’t have exact measurements. 

Left to right, top to bottom: 

• Chicken sausage egg McMuffins: 1 whole egg (I bake them in muffin tins), 1 slice cheddar cheese, 1 Amylu chicken sausage patty. These go in the freezer for future breakfasts. 
• Sheet pan Buddha bowls: This will make 2 hefty servings or 3 smaller ones, depending on how hungry I am. Sweet potato, tofu, white beans, red onion, zucchini, and Brussels sprouts with a homemade honey mustard tahini dressing. I roasted all the ingredients in the oven and made the dressing with mustard, honey, tahini, olive oil, garlic powder, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and a little water. I didn’t measure – I just kept adding and whisking until I was happy with it. This will be my lunch for the next few days. 
• Frozen veggie mix: I like doing this on occasion to make meals easier later in the week. This mix is cremini mushrooms, red bell peppers, zucchini, and white onion. A mix like this is great for tossing into omelets, pastas, stews, stir fries, etc., when I need a quick dinner. 
• Beef fajitas: Sliced skirt steak with red + green bell peppers, jalapeños, and red onion. I shook it all up with some olive oil, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and homemade taco seasoning. This will be dinner later this week/weekend – just have to thaw, cook, and toss into some tortillas with cilantro, lime juice, and light sour cream. 
• Veggie frittata: This week’s breakfast. I plan on having 1-2 of these slices per morning with some whole grain toast. I sautéed some of the veggie mix listed above and then added 4 beaten eggs, 1/3 a pint of egg whites, milk, salt, and pepper. Cooked in my cast iron on the stovetop for a bit, then transferred to the oven on 350 for ~15 minutes. Added a few slices of cheddar on top, then returned to the oven until it was fully melted and set. 
• Garden salad: Just some leftover salad mix, cucumbers, and tomatoes that I’ll probably eat tonight and tomorrow with my dinners to avoid food waste. 
• Tzatziki: Nonfat greek yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, a little olive oil, garlic powder, dill, salt, pepper. This and the white bean salad below will be part of my next few dinners (leftover pork souvlaki that I froze after a family BBQ + a whole grain lavash wrap). 
• White bean, tomato, and cucumber salad: Mixed these ingredients with some olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, and oregano. 

This isn't everything I'm eating this week; one night I'll definitely be making some salmon, for example. But it'll make the week exponentially easier. It took me longer than I would have liked, but I feel good about getting it done and some of this should last into next week in the freezer! Thanks for the inspo, everyone. 🙂