Tag: ZP Challenge

Weekly Food Prep

Sunday Meal Prep: February 7, 2016

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized3 Comments

(Note: Sorry for the delay. I had some technical difficulties. Hopefully we have gotten them solved.)

Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend! Things are going pretty well here, except for my body seeming to turn on me šŸ˜¦ My back is doing quite a bit better (yay!!) but now I’m fighting a rather nasty sore throat. So since I’m not feeling all that great, today’s post is going to get right to the point.

Enjoy!

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Spicy Chicken in TomatoesĀ 

Red Curry LentilsĀ 

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork: Island Style

Skinny Chicken Enchiladas

Sunflower and Oat Energy Balls

Sorry for the short (and late) post today! But keep an eye out for a post later this week…I have something exciting for you guys!

Did you do meal prep today? What did you cook? I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment below!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

 

Fitness Update: 2 Months of Kayla Itsines’ BBG Complete!

On By SaraIn Self Improvement, Uncategorized3 Comments

Two months done! I’m not going to lie, this last month was rough, mostly schedule-wise. The holidays and my day job kinda threw everything off track. That being said, I’m really proud of myself for all that I did this last month! I did miss a few LISS workouts, and one resistance workout (kinda two, but that shoveling definitely should count as a full body workout!) but even with that being the case, my strength has shown improvements and I’ve been feeling much better overall!

The two workout sets (weeks 5 & 7 and weeks 6 & 8) are set side-by-side to show progress. The workout circuits are the same in each week, so I love seeing that I made it through a little farther in weeks 7 & 8! It wasn’t a huge amount of progress, but it is there!

Measurements

These progress pics were taken a little late and after not working out for a couple days, early in Week 9. I’m loving that I’m actually seeing progress now! (Although I’m pretty sure some of it is finding clothing that actually seems to work for progress pictures)

Hopefully I will see more visible progress in the next set of progress pics, but either way I know that I’m making improvements, so I’m just going to keep at it and trust the process!

Also, the reason that the side progress pic is a Week 1-Week 8 comparison instead of Week 4 like the others is that the Week 4 side pic was really weird and not accurate at all!

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I am redoing Week 9 next week, due to fighting a nasty cold all week this week. Even with that delay, I am loving this program and feeling better than ever!

How is your fitness journey going? Are you finishing the end of the year like you had hoped you would? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Sara (1)

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep, Uncategorized2 Comments

Hey everyone! Welcome to this week’s meal prep, which is going to seem a bit different than normal.

Ok, so through my day job I get a lovely %25 discount once a year. This year a lot of that went towards groceries! When this discount was used also meant that we did most of our grocery shopping a few days early. So a couple things didn’t get cooked for on meal prep day, namely more of that Slow Cooker Korean Beef from last week. So that was already cooked, hence why there is only one main dish shown on here today. That stuff is delicious and so easy to make, plus Draz loves it! Plus the chicken for our salads got cooked one day in advance. I made double of that as well, the rest being frozen after I made the salads.

One of the things that we decided would be worth making extra of is our breakfast burritos! So a lot of my meal prep time went to making these, but we won’t be running out for quite a while…There are almost 70 total!

Our main dish for the week, other than the Slow Cooker Korean Beef, is this Spicy Beef Vegetable Stew from this cookbook. This was a new recipe for me and turned out delicious! (By the way, this cookbook has some of my favorite recipes in it and is really cheap on Amazon. If you are looking for a new cookbook, you should definitely consider this one! Also, not an affiliate. I just really like this cookbook.)

That’s it for this week! What are you making this week? Do you ever cook something in bulk to make things easier later, like I did this week with our burritos? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

 

 

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep1 Comment

Hey everyone, welcome to this week’s meal prep! Due to the holidays and having some meals outside of the ones I cooked, we didn’t need quite as much food for this week as we usually do.Ā So this meal prep is going to be pretty short and sweet, but it still involves some really tasty food!

Do the holidays effect how you meal prep too? This is the first major holiday season that I’ve been meal prepping to this extent, so it’s been an adjustment!

So without further ado, here’s what I cooked up this week!

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Included in this picture:

  • Our regular snacks and treats
  • Buffalo Chicken Mason Jar Salads
  • The extra buffalo chicken to freeze to use later
  • Mixed Berry Smoothies for the freezer – Not only was my stash in the freezer pretty much gone, I had some extra vanilla soymilk to use up and smoothies are a great way to do that!
  • Garlic Parmesan Pasta – For the second week in a row šŸ™‚ Boyfriend really likes this dish, so I see this becoming a pretty regular addition. Plus it’s so quick and easy to make!
  • And our new dish of the week: Slow Cooker Korean Beef

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I know this picture of the Korean Beef doesn’t look like much, but it is so delicious! Boyfriend has already requested that I make more of it for next week. Another quick and easy dish to make, it’s most definitely going to become a regular in our house.

I will say that I need to find a vegetable side dish that goes well with it, since there are not any vegetables in the dish itself. Any suggestions?

That’s it for this week! What are you cooking? Any new dishes that you are just loving?

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep1 Comment

Hey everyone! How was your Thanksgiving? I hope you had a lovely holiday weekend!

Even with the holidays, regular life goes on, and so do the things that make that life run a little more smoothly. In my case, that is meal prep! This week’s meal prep is a little different. Excluding our regular favorites, all of the recipes cooked this week were from one blog. A little over a week ago, Brey over at Ordinary Adventures posted this articleĀ introducing me toĀ Chungah and her lovely site Damn Delicious! I may have gotten lost wandering through her site for a while….okay, a bit more than a while. Two hoursĀ šŸ˜› This site is amazing and I found so many recipes that I just can’t wait to try! So this week, I tried out a few of them!

And with that, I hope you enjoy this week’s meal prep!

To start off, our regular favorites: Mason Jar Salads and our array of sweets and treats!

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And now on the the main dishes! Along with the new recipes, this week included some venturing into new areas! To be specific, new foods and new cooking techniques!

I’m going to admit something that makes me feel a little silly…I’ve never used my broiler. It intimidates me. I’ve seen so many recipes that I have been all ready to make until I saw the word “broil”…and then that recipe was out! This week I finally decided to get past this silly fear and make something using my broiler! And what do you know, it turned out wonderful! It still makes me a little nervous, but I can’t wait to see what else I can make with it.

I also am still trying out different cuts of chicken, branching out from our regular boneless skinless chicken breasts. This week was thighs and drumsticks!

I will say this, if you are learning a new cut of meat or are unsure what would be best for a particular recipe/method, check out the meat counter at your local grocery store. There are usually one or two chains that are well known in a region for their meat counter…here it’s Fareway! I had some questions answered and even had the leg trimmed into thighs and drumsticks. They were super helpful and helped me feel a little more confident about what I was doing šŸ™‚

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In this picture, our four new recipes:

  • One Pot Garlic Parmesan PastaĀ I used spaghetti instead of fettuccine, as it was what we had on hand. This was delicious, and I will admit we ate most of it before this photo was taken šŸ˜›
  • One Pan Roasted Chicken with Fall VegetablesĀ  Along with this recipe being the first time using the broiler, this was also the first time I had cooked chicken with skin on and the first time cooking with butternut squash! I will admit, I have no idea how she fit all of the ingredients listed on one pan. I used 4 thighs, 4 drumsticks and I estimated for the fall veggies and it was definitely more than one layer on the pan. That’s ok though… I just increased the cooking time a bit and this turned out delicious! I need to cut the potatoes a little smaller next time and maybe do two pans instead of one, but this is definitely a make-again dish!
  • Buffalo Chicken Cups This was a great find for me! This year for Christmas, we are doing more of a snacky-food type gathering instead of a full meal and I have been searching for the right recipe to bring. I think this one is a winner! So this week was me testing it out beforehand. I used mozzarella cheese instead of blue and they turned out great! I also made half using the buffalo chicken she has in the recipe and half using the buffalo chicken I make for our salads. Both turned out great, but I think the one she has turned out a bit better!
  • Slow Cooker Sausage, Spinach and White Bean Soup I am in love with this recipe! While all of the recipes this week were super tasty, this one really hit the spot with this cold weather we’ve been having! And even better, it was cooking while I did all my other meal prep stuff. It was really quick to throw into the slow cooker and turned out so tasty! One tip for all you distracted people like me: Make sure you take out the bay leaves before you put the spinach in! šŸ™‚ You can find them afterwards, but it takes a lot more time!

That’s all for this week! I hope you enjoyed this week’s meal prep and I encourage you to check out the awesome blogs linked above!

What are you cooking this week? Do you ever find a new site or cookbook and just want to cook everything out of it?! I would love to hear your thoughts!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep11 Comments

Welcome to this week’s meal prep!

This week is all about veggies and comfort foods, featuring Pot Roast and Sausage and Veggie Bake. I gotta say though, the Pot Roast definitely was the star this week!

But more on that in a bit. First we start off with our treats and sweets for the week! Along with a call for ideas: As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we have our favorites that we make every week. I would really love some new ideas if you have some great treat and snack recipes! I’ve been wanting to switch things up recently, but am stuck on ideas. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

And our salads! As you can see, I had some extra greens this time, so I ended up making some sides salads to go with my dinners. I think they turned out great!

Out of all of the wonderful things that are related to meal prep, these salads are pretty much my favorite! I love having a tasty salad every day for lunch and it is healthier too šŸ™‚

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On to the main dishes!

I love love love how this pot roast turned out! With the weather getting more winter-like, all I crave lately is stews and roasts, and this hit the spot…Vegetable-laden and filling, with the meat just falling apart!

The other main dish is much lighter, but no less filling. I used turkey polish sausage this time around and I love how it turned out!

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That’s it for this week! What are you cooking this week? Does the change in seasons influence your meals at all? I’d love to know your thoughts!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep1 Comment

Do you like to make your meal prep quick? Well then this week is definitely for you! This was one of my fastest weeks in the kitchen at around 2.5 hrs. And that time was even split up, since the chicken for the salads and one main dish were cooked in the slow cookers and the rice for that same main dish was cooked in the rice cooker!

On to this week’s meal prep!

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As always, I will start us off with our regular weekly snacks! Not only are these delicious alternatives to junk food and other snacky-type things, but I have found that they keep me from craving those other foods as often too. And with the holiday season coming up, that seems more important than ever right now. So these are definite must-haves!
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Shredded Buffalo Chicken Salads!
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One of the many things I love about Mason Jar Salads combined with meal prep is I am able to cut down on the produce waste in our kitchen. For example, this week one of the main dishes left me with some extra bell pepper. No problem! I just chopped the extras up and put them in with the rest of the veggies in my salads!
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Extra veggies for steaming, leftover Shredded Buffalo Chicken for the freezer, some hardboiled eggs, Slow Simmered Curried Chicken (from this cookbook) and Sausage, Cannellini and Tomato Ragout. You may notice that we have a little less for main dishes than usual. Well, after going through our freezer recently, I realized we have a few meals that need to be used soon, so for this week (and probably the next few weeks) I will be cooking two main dishes and then, if needed, pulling out meals from the freezer. This week the freezer meal is Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese!

I think I am forming a curry addiction. I love how this chicken curry turned out!! The ragout was delicious as well, though I will say I might double the recipe next time.

P.s. If you like Asian foods, you should definitely look at getting the cookbook linked above! A friend gave it to me a couple years ago and I have finally gotten around to cooking out of it. I love it and can’t wait to try more recipes! This is not a paid or sponsored post, nor is the link an affiliate link. I just really like the cookbook.

That’s it for this week! What are you cooking at your house? Do you have an food types you are loving right now, like I am with curry? I would love to hear them!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep3 Comments

Hey everyone! Welcome to this week’s meal prep! As you’ve noticed, I’ve been trying to keep things pretty simple, healthy and inexpensive. This week I succeeded in all three!

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Shredded Buffalo Chicken salads, a favorite no matter how many times we have them!
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Two week’s worth of breakfast burritos and some leftover shredded chicken for the freezer. Our breakfast burritos have Italian turkey sausage, bell pepper, onion, eggs, cheese and plenty of seasonings. They are delicious!
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As always, our regular favorite snacks!
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Red Curry Lentils with rice, chicken to go with the curry and my new recipe-in-testing Cabbage and Sausage Skillet. I think this curry may end up becoming a staple in our house šŸ™‚
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This dish turned out good, great even, but it’s not quite ready to be shared yet. I still have some tweaking to do, but I am really enjoying exploring the recipe-creation side of things.

That’s it! I hope you all enjoyed this week, and stay tuned for some new recipes soon!

What are you cooking this week? Trying out any new recipes?

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep1 Comment

Hey everyone! Welcome to this week’s meal prep! I’ve been keeping it pretty simple lately, focusing on budget-friendly meals, utilizing items from our freezer and making sure to only cook as much as we can eat in a week.

This week I made a couple new recipes and they turned out great! So without further delay, here is this week’s meal prep! Enjoy!

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Our regular sweets and treats. The protein balls are Boyfriend’s new favorite and are actually saving us some money! For our first break he is having these now as part of his snack instead of the Reese’s FastBreaks he was buying šŸ™‚ I love finding these healthy snacks!

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This week Boyfriend actually made a request, so we are having spaghetti! I’m trying my hand at recipe development, so this sauce is a brand-new recipe. While I have improvised and created sauce recipes before, this was my first attempt at recording it while cooking. As such, it still needs some tweaking…but it turned out great (if a bit thick) and filled with veggie-goodness! (It did make a lot of sauce, but if there is some left over we can freeze it or make some more pasta)

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These are based off of the Honey Mustard Pork Chops from the Healthy Eating on a Budget cookbook from this site. The only change I made was I used local Garlic Mustard instead of Honey Mustard. I also simmered the sauce for approx 8-10 min after the pork chops were done to thicken up the sauce. They do mention simmering the sauce in the recipe, but don’t give any sort of timeline, so here is mine!

I made Balsamic Brown Butter Asparagus as a side for these. Check out the recipe below!

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I’m back to having Buffalo Chicken Salads for this week. While I really like the taco salads, it’s nice to keep switching things up…and I do really love this chicken! Check out the recipe on this site. I have been known to use some of the leftover chicken on baked open-faced sandwiches and there are so many other ways you can use it too!

That’s it for this week! I’m really enjoying trying to create my own recipes, so expect this to be the first of many!Ā Hopefully!

Have any of you tried creating your own recipes from scratch? Any tips for a newbie like me? I would love to hear from you!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

BalsamicAsparagus

Sunday Meal Prep

On By SaraIn Meal Prep1 Comment

You know what amazes me? How out of all of the expenses that we have as adults, one of the only essential ones we have any control over is our grocery budget! We have control over all non-essential costs (or at least most), but when it comes to essential costs like bills, food and gas, we are pretty much out of luck. The grocery budget can make a huge impact on weekly costs…I know it does on ours.

So this week I decided to rejuvenate my efforts to reduce our grocery expenses while still keeping a focus on healthy eating. No easy task! That being said, I think I did a pretty good job this week! I did try a couple things this week I’ve never done before in my attempts to keep our budget lower and still healthy. I made homemade vegetable stock and cooked a dish using chicken drumsticks.Ā I know, neither of these sound particularly adventurous, but I have never cooked either of these before. I have never even cooked chicken with any sort of bone in.

In my re-focusing on budget as well as health, I did some extra research when creating my menu this week. A few of the recipes came from this site and while I was originally unsure about how good recipes coming from a government resource would be, I was pleasantly surprised by how well these turned out! The Barley Jambalaya, Couscous with Peas and Onions and Quick Tuna Casserole all came from free cookbooks on this site. šŸ™‚

So on to this week’s meal prep! Enjoy!

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Molly’s Chicken, Couscous with Peas and Onions, Saucy Green Beans and Barley Jambalaya.

For the Molly’s Chicken, make sure to read the comments section. There are a lot of good ideas in there! As for the Saucy Green Beans, check out the recipe below if you have missed it in previous posts!

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Our regular salads, looking delicious as always!
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This is mostly our freezer foods, excluding the Quick Tuna Casserole. The tuna casserole I forgot to photograph earlier, so it got included in this one instead! Also present are enough breakfast burritos for over 2 weeks, smoothies and vegetable stock.
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I really like how this tuna casserole turned out. It definitely was quick and so tasty!
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Smoothies! My favorite post-workout food, now prepped in the freezer to be pulled out the night before!

These are quite possibly the best smoothies I have ever made and sadly I can’t tell you how to make them. I kinda just threw things in, blended it for a long time (I really need a new blender) and voila! Very Berry Smoothies! I promise, I will try to record the ingredients and amounts next time!

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My first attempt at homemade vegetable stock! I think it turned out pretty well, though I’m sure there is room for much improvement.

For these, I used vegetable scrapes from previous meal preps that I had frozen with this in mind. I love that I could make all of this stock out of scrapes that would have otherwise just gone in the trash can!

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And last, but definitely not least, our sweets and treats! All of the weekly favs are there, including our newest addition: Cookie Dough Protein Bites!
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Seriously, these Cookie Dough Protein Bites are awesome. Make sure to check out this lovely lady for the recipe!

That’s it for this week! What have you been cooking? Do you focus much on budget meals? I would love to hear some of your healthy budget-friendly meals!

Sara (1)

Want to get started meal prepping yourself? Check out these posts for my top tips and my staple recipes!

Need some extra inspiration? Check out last week’s meal prep for other recipes and ideas!

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I will also sometimes add red pepper flakes to this while it is cooking for that extra kick!