Hello again! Motivating mum Rachel here. I have lost 31kgs* with Lose Baby Weight.
I am loving the recipes this moth and still sitting comfortably at 63kgs. As promised, my blog this week is about meal prep and planning.
I went back to work in April this year and healthy eating suddenly became a lot harder.
I can’t prevent the work morning teas, but I can ensure that I am prepared enough to take the stress out of the dinner rush and avoid the vending machines (And extra slices of cake).
Need quick healthy meal ideas? Our 28 Day Challenge is FULL of them with over 1400 recipes to choose from- get your FREE sampler here
Or you can join the challenge directly here
Okay, so the menu planner can look daunting, but once you get used to it, it is super easy. It used to take me an hour plus to coordinate my week, but now I can get the lot done in around 15-20 minutes.
My tips for wrangling the meal planner are:
Repeat Breakfast and snacks
I usually have a smoothie for breakfast on weekdays, so I will pick one or two that look appealing and use the “bulk swap” tool to quickly change multiple meals.
For my morning tea, I have the same thing every day – The boiled eggs and a kiwi fruit. It is just one of those things of which that I never get bored!
I find the eggs are filling enough to get me through to lunch and I love the tangy hit of the kiwi fruit; especially with a mug of green tea with peppermint!
Choose freezable lunches
No one likes pre making lunches. We do it for our kids and sometimes our spouses. The last thing we want is to do yet another boring lunch!
I recommend finding a meal you like, cooking it in bulk and freezing it in portion sizes.
The Thai Chicken Broth is one of my favourite freezable lunches, as is the Tamari Fried rice. If you want something a bit cheaper or easier, the turkey, cream cheese and spinach toasties freeze very well.
I make a bunch of them up as per normal, but instead of toasting, I pop them into individual ziplock bags and freeze. I pop one in my lunch bag in the morning, and it has defrosted perfectly by lunch time so I just put it in the sandwich press at work and enjoy!
Another tip is to deliberately make too much dinner so that you can eat left overs for lunch the next day.
Evening snack
This is another one that I like to bulk swap. Mostly because I don’t think you can beat dark chocolate and a cup of tea as a night time treat! Though I do like to allow for the strawberry parfait once or twice a week!
Need quick healthy meal ideas? Our 28 Day Challenge is FULL of them with over 1400 recipes to choose from- get your FREE sampler here
Or you can join the challenge directly here
Dinners can be tricky
I shop fortnightly, so I like to make each meal on my planner twice and freeze half.
Monday is my day off so it I usually spent bulk cooking meals for the week ahead.
Weeknight dinners are much less daunting if you just need to steam some vegetables, make a salad or cook some pasta while your dinner is heating up in the oven or microwave.
My favourite challenge meals for freezing are the Chicken pie, Chicken and Mushroom Filos, San choy bow filling, devilled sausages and the turkey meatballs in rich tomato sauce.
I have also discovered that if I make Bolognese instead of meatballs with the turkey mince, it goes much further!
I like to serve it with some vetta high fibre pasta (I don’t like wholemeal – this tastes like white pasta but much lower in calories) and a big handful of fresh baby spinach.
The beef burger patties freeze really well too. I assemble these, but freeze before cooking.
Oh – and cook up a big pot of brown rice each fortnight and freeze in portion sizes. Brown rice is nutritious and tasty but just not practical to make some nights as it can take up to an hour to cook.
Easy, microwavable portions in the fridge really speed things up!
For the afternoon snacks
I like to choose a few baking recipes and make these in bulk when I get the chance.
Having a freezer full of healthy goodies makes it easy to avoid temptation and makes packing the kindy lunches easier too!
The raspberry muffins and the chocolate bliss balls make regular appearances in my freezer.
I also make muffins out of the free banana bread muffin recipe and send those to kindy with my eldest son.
For a nut free kindy, you can replace Almond meal with oat meal in most recipes.
Need quick healthy meal ideas? Our 28 Day Challenge is FULL of them with over 1400 recipes to choose from- get your FREE sampler here
Or you can join the challenge directly here
Invest in a food processer
It is possible to do all the prep work without one, and I did for months, but it has been a life saver!
I had all the veggies prepared for the san choy boy in about 3 minutes today.
No more getting bored of grating carrots! I seriously couldn’t live without it now.
Plus it is so handy for making your own nut butter! Just wiz your nut of choice until the oils release and you have a delicious paste.
Mmm – Now I want a sneaky snickers smoothie…
Choose your recipes based on what you have and repeat ingredients
I eat a lot of chicken because it is relatively cheap and easy to buy in bulk.
The same applies to mince – I either double up my mince meals or choose two for a bit of variety.
We also usually eat vegetarian one night a week.
The Brown rice with spinach and sweet potato is a favourite of mine.
Well that is just about all from me tonight – See you at the finish line!
Rachel xx
Need quick healthy meal ideas? Our 28 Day Challenge is FULL of them with over 1400 recipes to choose from- get your FREE sampler here
Or you can join the challenge directly here
Results from mums on the 28 Day Challenge
Mums lose an average of 4-6kg (8-13 pounds) on our 28 Day Challenge and below are some of the amazing results from mums JUST LIKE YOU who are already using the 28 Day Challenge and losing tummy fat – make the change and join them today too!
You can see lots of more results and you can join here too
Claire Lost 26kgs* with the 28 Day Challenge
Claire says: “I started off my journey by participating in the Lose Baby Weight challenges. The food was amazing! Our daughter was one of my main motivations to get healthier and to completely overhaul our family’s diet.
I have now developed a love for exercise and aim to exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes per day 5 days per week. I have lost 26kg to date and have gained health, energy, self respect, pride and confidence.”
Join here
You won’t regret it!
