My Current Take on Meal Prep

So, lately I’ve found that I would prefer NOT to spend half, or more than half of every Saturday or Sunday cooking and pre-making meals for the week. Don’t get me wrong, I still love being in the kitchen, testing out different flavors and creating something wonderfully delicious (hopefully, ha). I love how something absolutely mouth watering can be made from a handful of select ingredients that, on their own, are not that captivating at all! However, while I love creating these types of recipes, in the last year or so, I’ve admitted to myself that creating a list of all these things I need to cook in preparation for the week and then actually getting them cooked, can be stressful! And, while cooking typically inspires me and calms me, this diligent meal prepping can leave me exhausted and worked up if I’m trying to prep and accomplish too much. Also, starting in 2019 I have really been trying to make Sundays more about a day of rest. My husband is much better at it than I am, but I’m catching on. And when we say “rest” we think anything from sitting on the couch reading to taking a nap to going on a post-brunch walk, or a spontaneous trip to the park to play with our niece and nephews. It’s something that rejuvenates us or leaves us inspired again. So, when I feel meal prep starting to become more of a burden or a stressor, taking away from quality family or recharge time, I have begun to take a step back.

In 2020 I’m taking a new approach to meal prep. I, of course, still want to play and create in the kitchen, but I want to loosen the rules and allow myself some flexibility, some space to deviate from the “plan”. I’ve developed a simpler definition of “meal prep” that involves having a basic idea of meals for the week and then cooking a few of the ingredients that I know will hold up in the fridge for the week and then washing, chopping, slicing and dicing the rest, and storing them in airtight containers in the fridge for easy use during the week. I also try to choose meals / recipes with similar ingredients. What I’ve also realized about myself this past year is that my biggest barrier to cooking after work on a weeknight is realizing how long it will take to prep everything before I even start cooking. So, if I can just get that time-consuming prep part out of the way and everything is then ready to throw in a skillet, in the oven or on the grill when I get home, I am much more likely to follow through with our dinner plans, which also leads to less waste (I hate wasted food)! This also allows us a little flexibility in case we do move away from the plan. Maybe those prepped veggies will be added to leftover pasta, or Chinese food or tacos, instead of the homemade dish I had originally intended! Now, don’t get me wrong, I like structure and a plan because it means less decisions once the work week starts. And, at times, I love spending time on a really fantastic, but more labor intensive dishes. However, this year, I’m learning the peace in a little more flexibility.

So, what is an example of a menu using my new meal prep method? I’ll give you an example from a week or so ago. I ate out with a girlfriend one night and my husband traveled one night and we had some leftovers from the weekend, which I fully intended to utilize to simplify our weeknight dinners! Here is a list of what I prepped and how I incorporated it into our weeknight dinners…

Meals Planned:

• Pita sandwiches

• Chicken Caprese Salad Jars

• Kale Caesar Salad Jars

• Chinese (leftovers from a restaurant) or Spaghetti (home cooked leftovers from the weekend)

Items prepped:

My Chicken Caprese Salad Jar. One of the items I fully prepped for the week! Only had to cook 1 item in this jar, and I used the remaining quinoa for my other salad jars for the week!

• yellow squash sliced and quartered

  • to be sauteed and used with leftover Chinese or spaghetti and then used in my pita sandwiches

• zucchini squash sliced & quartered

  • to be sauteed and used with leftover Chinese or spaghetti and then used in my pita sandwiches

• Baby bella mushrooms, washed and quartered (stems removed)

  • o to be sauteed and used with leftover Chinese or spaghetti

• Kale, washed, ribs removed and chopped

  • to be added to my Tahini Caesar Salad Jar

• 2 Portobella mushrooms, cooked according to my Balsamic Roasted Mushrooms recipe.

  • One is in large dices (to go in my Tahini Caesar Salad Jar this week) and the other is thinly sliced (to fit into my pita sandwiches). Both mushrooms are stored in airtight containers for the week.

• Cucumber, washed and thinly sliced

  • to go in salads, pita sandwiches or used as snacks for dips this week

• My Chicken Caprese Salad Jar, prepped and ready to go for one lunch this week.

• Cherry tomatoes

  • These will go in salads, my pita sandwiches or snacks with hummus. I leave them as is until ready to use b/c they will not hold up as long after being washed and diced.

Do you have items that you prep weekly? What are your go-to meals in a pinch? I would love to hear as we start out this 2020 year!

Happy Fueling!

Taylor

Meal Planning for the Young Athlete

I started meal planning and prepping in high school. I had begun to find myself giving the same effort as always but with less gains and improvements. I then experienced 2 individual events, one in my running and one in my skating. I first discovered that chicken fingers and fries from the school cafeteria was not the meal that was going to give me my best afternoon run or skate. Then I discovered that, on the flip side, not eating enough before events and not being prepared with snacks at away competitions would leave me tired and underfueled for practices and competitions. Both scenarios led to poor performances and, realizing this, I started to spend more time taking an interest in what I was putting onto my body and when.

I love working with athletes who have discovered this connection between food / nutrition and their sport and energy levels and are ready to take action. What I find they need the most is simply a starting point. Where to begin? How do you think about it? What is a framework for figuring this out?

Today I’m walking through some basic steps to meal planning and prepping for the young athlete. I’m focusing on lunch here but I can talk more about including breakfast and dinners if you guys want - just comment below! I hope you find this helpful. Please share with a friend or teammate who would also find this helpful!

Happy Fueling!

Taylor

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6 STEPS TO SIMPLIFIED MEAL PLANNING FOR THE YOUNG ATHLETE

1. Look at Your School Schedule

Before you can plan anything you have to know what you are planning for! How many lunches will you need? How many breakfasts? Are you factoring dinner into the equation or just breakfast, lunch and snacks?? I like to use my personal calendar for this so that it is visible in my busy daily schedule.

2. Look at How Much Time You Have for Meals

How much time do you actually have for meals? Are you scarfing down breakfast as you run out the door in the morning? Do you eat breakfast at school after morning practice? Do you get a fast fifteen minutes for lunch that you squeeze in between last minute homework? Or do you have a full thirty minutes to an hour? ( IF your answer is none of the above, “I skip lunch”, then please resubmit your answer as either A or B, because, attention, you need all of your meals! Skipping a meal is not an option in the meal planning or prepping process! )

How much time you have for meals will also help you determine what you should plan for and bring. If you only have 15 minutes, bringing something that needs to be microwaved, is, realistically, probably not your best option. Write down lunch in your planner and how much time you think you will realistically have for it.

3. Know What Your Nutrition Needs Are

All athletes have different macro and micronutrient needs depending on their own unique body and the sport that they play. An endurance runner will have different needs than a volleyball player who will have different needs than a football player who will have different needs than a figure skater. I talk with lots of athletes who are working on increasing their calcium intake, protein intake and overall energy intake. If this is also you, then it’s something you need to be considering! Are you a vegetarian? If so, then it’s really important to make sure you are getting enough protein, iron, zinc and B12 from plant and dairy sources (if you include dairy).

4. List Foods You Like In Each Food Group

While the new MyPlate does a good job of showcasing and simplifying the foods groups and how to incorporate them into meals, it only shows 5 food groups, failing to showcase fat, which I believe is a very important part of a healthy young athlete’s nutrition plan. Now that you have in mind your time-frame and nutrition needs, take a look at the Six Food Groups and the foods that you most commonly include within these groups:

• Meat or Meat Equivalent (for those that don’t eat meat)

• Fruits

• Vegetables

• Whole Grains

• Dairy

• Fat

I like to put these categories in columns like the picture below so that it leaves room to brainstorm all of the possible foods you can include in each category.

5. Choose at Least 3 Food Groups Per Meal

Now, think about what foods you want to include in your meals that week. Say you are planning lunch and you know that you are trying to get more calcium in your meals, you have cross country practice in 3 hours and you will have about 20 minutes for lunch today. That means you should probably bring something that can (A) be served cold, (B) contains calcium, (C) will offer a good portion of carbohydrate to fuel your run but (D) be lower in fat so that digesting the meal will not interfere with your run. For me, I might pick a MEAT (or “MEAT EQUIVALENT”), some GRAINS/STARCH and some DAIRY at a minimum (this could look like chicken, whole grain crackers & yogurt). Young athletes will most likely need much more food than this, but this is an example of the minimum from different categories.

6. Vary the Foods within Each of These Food Groups Weekly

To keep it easy, you could plan to stick with a meat, starch and dairy food in each of your lunches. However, try to choose two or three foods within each of those food groups to get a variety of nutrients throughout the week and to prevent getting bored. For example, I might focus on the following three food groups and then choose the following foods within each food group to mix and match for the week. I’ll also throw in a few foods from other groups to complement meals as needed. Something I might choose would be:

• MEAT = chicken, beans, eggs

• STARCH = whole grain bread, sweet potatoes, whole grain crackers

• DAIRY = low-fat yogurt and cheese

• FRUITS = apples, grapes, bananas

• VEGGIES = spinach, cucumbers, bell peppers, mushrooms

What meals could I make from this? Examples might be:

• A chicken sandwich on whole - wheat bread with spinach, cheese and mustard + an apple + a yogurt

• A spinach salad topped with hard boiled eggs, garbanzo beans, cucumbers and bell peppers + an olive oil - based dressing + a low-fat yogurt (a Greek or high protein yogurt if I need more protein and it digests in time for my run) + a bunch of grapes

• You can also keep it super basic and make what I like to call a “grab bag”. There is certainly nothing wrong with this! Bring a ziplock baggie of chicken + a baggie of grapes + whole grain crackers + a low-fat yogurt and whatever else you might need to keep you fueled!

Remember that my examples here are not personalized. You may need less or a lot more food than this. These examples are just to give you a basic visual.

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