January 21, 2013

6 Pack Bags Presents: PREP SCHOOL 101 Instructed By fitlosophy | Session #2

6 Pack Fitness has partnered with fitlosophy to bring you a 3-session lesson on meal planning from the creator of the fitbookÃ¢€ž¢ fitness + nutrition journal.

Session #2: Prep Sesh For The Time-Crunched

I'm busy. I got a lot goin' on. And yet, I've learned that prepping my food saves me tons of time – and money! So this is actually time well-spent that yields an amazing return on my (health) investment.

Sunday Funday After making dinner Sunday night, since the kitchen is already in cooking-mode, I prep healthy foods for the week ahead so that I can "assemble" foods during a busy day instead of slaving over the stove. Plus, it makes it ten times easier to have your grab-and-go meals be healthy instead of accidentally veering toward a drive-thru or opting for highly-processed "health" foods. How long does this take? 40 minutes. That's right: less than an hour, and I don't have to cook again all week long, except for scrambling my breakfast eggs, assembling my pre-cooked lunch, and making a recipe for dinner only when I feel like it.
Grill, Boil, Slice + Dice While your list may vary, each Sunday I prep my proteins (grill chicken, hard boil some eggs, thaw fish, cook ground turkey), boil my whole grains (quinoa, brown rice), and then slice and dice fruits and veggies. Other foods you can prep before-hand: protein pancakes, spaghetti squash, and homemade trail mixes in pre-portioned baggies.
Multitasking Maniac I'm not gonna lie – when I'm in prep mode, you may not want to set foot in the kitchen because I've got all cylinders firing. Water boiling, proteins poaching, microwaving, and baked stuff baking. Just for fun, I timed this week's food prep last night just to give you a glimpse of how I multitask like crazy to get food prepped and dishes washed, all in under 40 minutes.

STEP ONE:

Cook Proteins + Boil Your Grains (13 min.) Doing these both at the same time takes your attention, so focus! I got the water boiling while I heated two skillets for the chicken breasts and ground turkey. Then I added quinoa to the water, and stirred, flipped, and sautÃƒ©ed for another 10 minutes or so. Then I flipped off the burners. Sit tight li'l birdies, off to Step 2! prep-school-101-session-2b

STEP TWO:

Bake Some Goods (6 min. prep) Quickly, I whipped up a batch of my favorite pumpkin protein bars (which I make into pre-portioned muffins) and got those going in the oven. And while those are baking (20 min.)... prep-school-101-session-2c

STEP THREE:

Wash/Steam/Microwave Veggies (7 min.) I pop a few sweet potatoes in the microwave to bake 'em, and with that working away, it frees up my hands to wash all my fresh veggies and place them in the fridge, front-and-center. prep-school-101-session-2d

STEP FOUR:

Pack-Up + Clean-Up (14 min.) With my proteins in the pan, quinoa in the pot, sweet potatoes in the microwave, veggies in the fridge, and muffins in the oven, all that's left is to pack 'em all up in my 6 Pack Bag meal management system, prep tomorrow's lunch (may as well!), and clean my pots and pans. Scrub-a-dub and I'm done!