MEAL PREP

Meal prep is a way to make life easier for your future self!
It helps us make healthier choices easy and convenient.
It doesn't have to be overwhelming or take hours to complete!

Mason Jar Chef Salads

02/13/2020

I love a good chef salad. Hard boiled eggs in a salad are THE BEST. I love my chef salads with thousand island dressing. I don’t know why, but it’s not a chef salad without that dressing.

I didn’t eat chef salads for a long time because I told myself they were too high in calories and I didn’t want to waste points on the dressing, etc. Well no more! These salads are delicious and nutritious, and I genuinely get excited to eat them every time I made them!

Mason Jar Chef Salads

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Prep Time 15

Servings 4 salads

Calories 400 kcal

Equipment

32 oz wide mouth mason jar
Collapsible funnel (optional)

Ingredients

8 tbsp thousand island dressing
1 mini cucumber chopped
8 baby carrots chopped
8 oz ham diced
4 tbsp bacon pieces or bits
4 eggs hard boiled
8 tbsp cheddar cheese shredded
1 bag romaine lettuce chopped

Instructions

Add 2 Tbsp dressing to the bottom of each jar.
Add cucumber and carrots (and any other veggies you want) to the jar on top of the dressing.
Add diced ham, bacon, cheese, and hard boiled egg.
Top with lettuce.
Store in fridge until ready to eat, up to 5-7 days.

I used chopped baby carrots in this recipe because it’s what I had on hand, but I also really like shredded carrots. I also want to try adding in mushrooms at some point. I don’t love tomatoes in this salad but that’s just my personal preference. If you want tomatoes, add them in to the bottom layer with the carrots and cucumbers.

I estimated ingredient amounts since I’m more eyeballing than measuring these days… I didn’t realize how hard it would be to share a recipe that I didn’t measure. It’s kinda tough to explain how much “looks right” to me.

If you think 2oz ham is too much per salad, you can reduce it of course. If you use a different dressing, that will affect the nutrition stats as well. The thousand island I use is 130 calories for 2 Tbsp but it’s amazing so it’s worth it for me. I also usually throw a few croutons on top for added crunch and flavor, but that’s totally optional and not included in the nutrition stats.

If you want more info on mason jar salads, check out my original mason jar salads post from back in 2014.

I’d love to hear what you put in YOUR favorite chef salad. What dressing do you use? What other toppings do you include?

Meal Prep with Produce

02/14/2015

Have you ever purchased a beautiful assortment of fresh fruit and vegetables on grocery day, only to throw it out on trash day? I’m ashamed to admit that I used to do that ALL the time. I always bought my produce with good intentions. I promised myself that I wouldn’t let it go to waste the next time. I even really like fruits and veggies, but I never wanted to do the work.

We all know that fruits and vegetables are good for us right? So why don’t we eat more of them? For me, it was convenience. It seems like so many other things are easier. You can’t get a salad or a piece of fruit out of a vending machine, but you can certainly get chips or candy bars. That means that lack of planning would often lead me to grab something for a snack that was not really good for me.

Over the years, I have found ways to make it convenient to grab the nutrient rich fruits and vegetables. Preparation is key. Having a head of lettuce or a stalk of celery in the fridge doesn’t do me any good when I’m pressed for time.

How can you make it easier?

Plan time for prep

Plan time to prep your produce soon after you get home from the store. I used to try to make myself do the prep before I even put the groceries away, but that was too overwhelming. There were times when I either didn’t have the time or was too tired or hungry after shopping to do it. Then I would feel like a failure and the prep would never happen because I didn’t have a plan for when to do it. Now I make meal prep a regular part of my routine. I even schedule it on the calendar if I know I will have a lot.

Use small increments of time

You don’t have to do everything at once. Let me repeat that. You DO NOT have to do everything at once. Why do we feel like if we can’t do everything then we shouldn’t do anything? It takes me 5 minutes to throw together my mason jar side salads. It may take even less than that to separate baby carrots and sugar snap peas for snacks.

If you have 10 minutes, do something that takes 10 minutes. Maybe that isn’t the time to start cutting up 2 dozen bananas, but there is definitely SOME prep that could be done in 10 minutes. Utilize your small pockets of time. (Jessica Turner talks about this concept in her book The Fringe Hours. I am counting the days until I can get my copy!!)

Store produce in individual servings

Now that you have planned time for prep and completed your washing/chopping, it’s important to think about how to store your produce. Having a large bowl of salad or chopped up fruit is great, but what happens if you are running late? Chances are you won’t take the entire large serving with you. If the goal is convenience, having individual portions on hand will be key!

My goal is to make the healthy options just as convenient as the not so healthy options!

What I do:

Cut bananas and freeze for smoothies
Wash and separate grapes into 1 cup servings
Wash and separate raw veggies into snack packs
Buy single serving fruits (apples, bananas, oranges, peaches, apricots, plums, pears, etc.)
Buy pre-cut packages of fruit (melon or pineapple chunks) or veggies (baby carrots, sugar snap peas, pre-cut celery, etc.)
Make mason jar salads
Buy canned fruit and separate into portions (pineapple, peaches, pears, etc.)
Buy frozen fruit and vegetables and separate into portions (mushrooms, peppers, berries, tropical fruit)

As you can see, I use snack size bags to create individual servings. This makes it easy to just grab a serving when I want it without having to take extra time to get things ready. When I am truly hungry, the amount of prep time is a huge influence on my choices. Having the grapes prepped is a HUGE help to me. If I don’t have this done, I will either ignore the grapes or end up eating the whole bag. My hubs likes to have smoothies for lunch. Having the bananas pre cut and frozen makes it easy for him and also eliminates the need for ice.

Wash grapes and store in individual servings!

I don’t think I would ever eat raw veggies if I didn’t have them cut up and ready to go. I would grab chips for a snack instead because they wouldn’t require me to wash or cut up anything first. Having my dips pre-measured really saves me too. It is way too easy to overeat. We tell ourselves that we can estimate a portion, but it is next to impossible to eyeball 2 Tablespoons when eating out of the container.

I love fresh fruit and vegetables, but I don’t always have time for the chopping. If you know you won’t have time for prep in a given week, buy fruits and veggies that don’t require any prep or have been pre-cut for you at the store! It is hard to find the balance between saving money and saving time. For me, it’s better to spend a little extra to have the healthy options on hand.

I usually buy baby carrots or carrot chips for convenience. Sugar snap peas are another great veggie snack that you don’t have to chop. Grape or cherry tomatoes also work well as snacks! Celery and cucumbers require some chopping but it can be done pretty quickly. Bell peppers and jicama are great for snacking but take a little more time prepare.

Make your own veggie snacks in individual servings! — Store veggies in individual servings!

When I started using mason jars last year, it really changed my life and the amount of salad I was eating! My lettuce always seemed to go bad before I could finish it, and I had issues storing complete salads without something getting soggy or gross. I was amazed by the difference it made when I started storing my lettuce and salads in mason jars. I typically buy pre-cut greens (romaine, spring mix, spinach, etc.) to save on time, so I assume chopping it yourself would make it last even longer.

These days I won’t even open a bag of lettuce without having my jars ready to go. Most of the time I will throw in some shredded carrot (purchased pre-shredded) and grape tomatoes to make side salads, but other times I will put just plain lettuce in jars for storage. For my side salads, I use the pint sized wide mouth mason jars. On weeks that I am having entree salads, I will use my quart sized wide mouth mason jars to make my Italian Pasta Mason Jar Salad or the Chinese Chicken Mason Jar Salad. You can see jars and accessories in my Amazon store in the Kitchen Tools section.

You can buy canned fruit that is pre-chopped if you are careful to select fruit that is canned in 100% fruit juice or water rather than syrup. Now there are even lots of choices for individual portions of fruit (in plastic containers) in the canned fruit aisle. Of course you might pay more for the convenience, but it’s better than not having fruit at all.

Another great time saver is buying fruit already frozen. The key for me is separating it out into individual servings. I would never take the time to measure out a serving in the morning before work. Not only that, but it’s annoying to pull the bag out of the freezer and scoop out a serving each time you want it. By spending a little time up front separating the fruit, you will save TONS of time and aggravation in the long run. I actually think it saves me time to separate it all at once because I am not repeating the same steps over and over each time I want to have some!

Frozen blackberries in individual servings!

Individual servings are stored in a large freezer bag. — Store servings in a large freezer bag.

Frozen tropical fruit stored in individual servings. — Frozen tropical fruit in individual servings!

I also absolutely love buying frozen vegetables in bulk and separating them into servings. I do this with peppers as you can see in the pictures, but I also buy recipe ready frozen mushrooms, frozen broccoli, and frozen brussels sprouts. I use frozen vegetables as side items of course, but I also use them in Chicken Philly Sub meal kits, Chicken Stir Fry meal kits, and Chicken Pepper enchiladas.

Once the prep is done, throwing a meal together is so much quicker and easier. For example, if I had to take the time to chop up peppers and mushrooms before I could cook breakfast, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. I would have found another option or made the eggs without the veggies. I know it might seem lazy, but it’s just what happens. When I’m hungry, I don’t want to wait for a ton of prep time!

Use frozen veggie servings for quick meals!

I hope this gives you some good ideas on how you can do advance preparation with your produce items to make your life easier!!

What are your favorite meal prep tips?

Meal Prep ~ Ground Beef/Turkey

01/30/2015

Do you cook with ground beef (or any ground meat)? How do you use it? If you can identify things that you do over and over, you can find a way to make them easier.

There are several ways that I meal prep with ground beef or turkey, such as: taco meat, Italian meat, burgers, meatloaf, & meatballs. As I mentioned in my first Meal Prep post, one of the biggest obstacles to healthy eating is time. I like convenience! If you are in a hurry, you can jump to the end of this post to read about the benefits of doing some meal prep with your meat and how to keep a good freezer inventory.

I used to eat lots of fast food and take out. When I started trying to change my eating habits, I found myself buying things that were pre-cooked to save time. The problem is that many of the pre-cooked or pre-portioned things are more expensive! So how can you make your meals quicker & easier without breaking the bank? You can pre-cook things yourself! It sounds challenging, but it really isn’t! When you take the time to prep things in advance, your actual meal time goes much quicker and smoother.

TACO MEAT
One of the first things I started making in advance was ground beef for tacos. I realized that cooking the meat was the thing that took the most time, so I decided to try to make that in advance. I make a pound or two of meat at once. I cook and season it just like I always have, but then I separate it into individual portions and freeze those portions. When I am ready to use it, I simply pull it out of the freezer and thaw it in the refrigerator or defrost it in the microwave. I then use the meat just like I always have for tacos, burritos, or even taco salad!

Recently I decided to try the same process with ground turkey and it worked fantastic too! I didn’t really notice a difference in the taste between the beef and turkey once the meat was seasoned and loaded up with my other taco toppings. It only saves me 1 point per serving to use turkey, but some days that might be important. 😉

ITALIAN MEAT
Since the taco meat worked so well, I decided to make Italian ground beef too. My husband likes to use this on his homemade pizza, and we also use it when making Four Cheese Wonton Lasagna (recipe coming soon). I use 3 teaspoons of Italian seasoning for every pound of meat. After the meat is cooked, I separate it into individual portions and freeze those portions. All I have to do is thaw it and it’s ready to use!

IMPORTANT NOTE ON GROUND MEAT

The portion & nutrition stats on the package are based on raw meat, but the weight changes as it is cooked and loses moisture.

For example, ground beef lists a serving size of 4 ounces. This means that I should get 4 servings out of 1 pound of meat (1 pound = 16 ounces). If I try to weigh 4 ounce servings after it is cooked, I will not have enough for 4 servings because each cooked portion is no longer 4 ounces.

However, there is a simple solution. I simply weigh the entire cooked batch and divide it by the number of servings I want. If I cook 1 pound of ground meat and want 4 servings, I just divide the total weight by 4. That tells me the weight per serving. Then I can weigh out each serving before putting it in the freezer.

BURGERS
Making hamburger patties seems pretty quick and easy, but it still takes extra time at meal time that’s not necessary! I’ve seen pre-made patties more and more often at the store because it makes it more convenient! Most of the pre-frozen burgers I see at the store are super high in points. I like to make my own burgers in order to make them more affordable for my points budget.

My husband is very particular about his burgers. It has taken a long time to figure out exactly what to do to get him to be happy with the homemade burger patties, but we finally did. I usually buy 96/4 or 93/7 ground beef. He is okay with that for most things, but for burgers her prefers 90/10 or 85/15. I also use a burger press to avoid handling the meat too much. I weigh out 4 oz servings and freeze them individually. They can be cooked from frozen, but we usually thaw them overnight so they cook faster.

MEATLOAF
Making meatloaf in advance might take meal prep a step further into “freezer cooking,” but it’s still worth mentioning. I have started making my meatloaf in jumbo muffin tins so I actually make 6 mini meatloaves (or meatloaf “cupcakes”) instead of one large meatloaf.

This helps with portion control and also reduces waste because I only thaw out what I’m going to use. My husband doesn’t really care for meatloaf, so I typically have it for lunch at work. I used to love Lean Cuisine meatloaf until I started making my homemade meatloaf in advance. Taking a homemade meatloaf for lunch is SO much better than the store-bought meals!

Even if this is a meal that your entire family will eat, having it made in advance means you could have this on a busy weeknight. Although meatloaf isn’t complicated, it is time consuming. Most of us just don’t have time or energy to make this after working all day!

The two recipes I make the most are my Mom’s meatloaf and a Mexican meatloaf. I have another recipe I’m still playing with that I’ll post once it’s finalized. I usually thaw my meatloaf overnight and reheat it in the microwave. I also usually cut the meatloaf up so it heats quicker AND because it looks like more food all spread out than it does compacted into a cupcake shape. 😉

MEATBALLS
Frozen meatballs are everywhere in the store these days. I’ve seen traditional meatballs, turkey meatballs, and even chicken teriyaki meatballs! If you use like meatball subs, meatballs in your spaghetti, or even meatball appetizers, this is another great time saver. I made a huge batch of these before I realized that my husband isn’t a big fan of meatballs either. While I don’t make these very often anymore, I still appreciate the convenience of having them pre-made in freezer when I do want them.

I plan to experiment with new types of meatballs when I find the time! 😀 For now, my go to recipe is a beef version of the turkey meatball recipe from Organize Yourself Skinny. She shares right in her recipe how to freeze them, but there’s nothing to it!

Allow the meatballs to cool and then freeze them! As with everything else, I split mine in individual portions (usually 3 or 4 meatballs per serving) first. Then I put the individual servings into a large (gallon size) freezer bag before putting them in the freezer.

FREEZER INVENTORY
Once you have all these things in your freezer, you may be wondering how to keep track of it all. I have personally struggled with remembering what I have without digging through the entire freezer. I am NOT a fan of the cold, so standing in the cold breezeway sorting through an even colder freezer just won’t work for me. There are two options I use and recommend.

OUT OF MILK
Out of Milk is a FREE website and mobile app (for iPhone & Android) that I use to keep track of my inventory. You can create multiple categories (beef, turkey, veggies, etc.) and locations (pantry, freezer, chest freezer, etc.). You can also use this as a to-do list and shopping list. There’s even a barcode scanner and a place to include prices of store-bought items if you want to get really specific with your inventory.

Right now I only use it to keep track of things that I have portioned out or made myself, but it can do so much more. Another great feature is that it will sync across devices so you can view it on your phone, tablet, or computer in a web browser.

PLAN TO EAT
Plan to Eat is an amazing website that offers recipe organization and storage as well as meal planning, shopping lists, and even tracking of freezer cooking! I signed up for this service with the Black Friday sale, and I haven’t dedicated the time to fully utilize all the tools available to me, but I really WANT to!

The service is web based, and they have a mobile version of the site that makes it easy to use anywhere, anytime, on any device. You can easily access your recipes and shopping lists from your phone, tablet, or computer!

There is an awesome feature that allows you to input your freezer meals. When you use one of those meals on a meal plan, it will automatically deduct that item from your freezer inventory. It’s GENIUS! The meal planning options really sold me on this site. I just KNOW that it will make my meal planning process easier. I just need to finish putting in my recipes! 😉

I think both options are fantastic, so you might just need to play around and see which one works best for you. Out of Milk is free for the basic version, and Plan to Eat has a free trial. The great thing with Plan To Eat is being able to create shopping lists from your recipes and easily sharing recipes with friends and community members.

If you want just an inventory/shopping list of kitchen ingredients, Out of Milk might work better. If you want to create an inventory/shopping list from the recipes you plan to cook, Plan to Eat might work better. If you try them out, let me know your thoughts!

BENEFITS
Having things frozen in individual portions helps prevent overeating AND waste.

If you have a skillet full of meat, perhaps you will be tempted not to figure out what your “portion” should be. Perhaps you will go back for seconds because it’s sitting right there. If you have only thawed out your individual servings, you can’t go back for seconds without going through the process of pulling it out of the freezer and defrosting another serving. Typically those extra steps dissuade me from having seconds because I realize that I don’t really “need” any more food and I don’t want to put the effort to get another serving ready. 🙂

It may seem like extra work to divide the meat into portions before you freeze it, but it can save you money! If you cook and freeze an entire pound of meat in one container, you will most likely have to thaw the entire pound of meat before you use it. Will you then take the time to figure out what your portion is? What if you are only feeding 1 or 2? Once the meat is thawed, it is not recommended to re-freeze it. What will you do with the leftovers then? I absolutely LOVE being able to thaw out just what I need.

I hope this glimpse into my meal prep process has been helpful. I plan to post more meal prep ideas in the coming weeks, so let me know if there is anything you want to learn about! My Meal Prep Mania post will have links to all the different meal prep posts as they are finished. If you do any meal prep with ground meat, please share it in the comments. I know that my ideas are probably just the tip of the iceberg!!

Meal Prep Mania

01/02/2015

One of the biggest obstacles to healthy eating is time. After working 8-9 hours, we still have errands to run, kids to pick up, activities to attend, homework, chores, etc, etc, etc. There are days when I think if I have to make another decision my head might explode.

Eating should not stress us out, but so often it does. When we are rushed and don’t have a plan, ordering a pizza or grabbing fast food feels like the only option. Before I joined Weight Watchers (this last time) in 2009, we didn’t each much of anything that was fresh. We ate foods from a box, the freezer, or take out (pizza/burgers/chinese etc). We didn’t really love what we were eating, but I didn’t know any other way.

A lot has changed in 5 years, but let’s keep it real. I still don’t want to spend hours each night cooking. Dinner still needs to be quick and easy. I’m still tired when I get home from work. Having the same conversation every night about what to have for dinner was making me crazy. It’s taken me a long time to figure it out, but I’ve learned ways to eat at home more. We are eating healthier. The best part is that I’ve learned ways to make eating at home easy enough that I don’t want fast food anymore!

I’m no expert, but I can tell you things that have worked for us. The key is to identify things that you do over and over and find a way to make them easier. I think it would be overwhelming to try to tell you everything I do all in one post, so I’m going to break it up in categories. Here are some of the posts you’ll see in the near future:

Meal Prep with Meat – Ground Beef/Turkey
Meal Prep with Meat – Chicken
Prep that Produce
Meal Kits
Pack those Snacks
Bread, Bagels, & Buns, Oh My!
Breakfast Like a Boss
Make-Ahead Meals

I’d love to hear from you! What is your favorite way to make your meal prep easier?

Five minutes of change

09/29/2014

Five side salads ready in five minutes!

Can you take five minutes to do something positive for yourself? Yes you can!!

Do something different tomorrow for Transformation Tuesday. Small changes add up. There is no right time. Start now. Start with one small step.

Mason Jar Salads

07/13/2014

Mason Jar salads seem to be all the rage lately. I’ve been thinking about trying them for awhile now, but I just wasn’t sure I wanted to invest the time and energy into it. I was also hesitant to spend money on jars when I have plenty of other containers already.

My issue with salads is that I couldn’t keep my lettuce fresh. I admit that I do not chop it myself. I prefer to think of it as prioritizing other things rather than being lazy. Regardless, within days of the bag being opened, the lettuce looked gross! My husband doesn’t eat much salad, so I never seemed to get through a bag before it would go to waste. After a friend of mine told me she tried the mason jar thing and that it kept the lettuce fresh, I finally decided to just go for it!

I used the quart size (32oz) wide mouth jars. I found mine at Wal-Mart, but I’ve also seen them at Target, Giant Eagle, and Acme! If you can’t find them locally, Amazon has a huge selection. Click here to see the jars that I am using.

I found it difficult to get some of the toppings in without spilling them, even with the wide mouth jar. I can’t imagine trying to fill a standard size jar, so wide mouth jars are critical! You can also buy a collapsible funnel to make filling easier. I love my funnel. It makes assembly and clean up much easier.

I spent HOURS reading about different options and variations on Pinterest and other blogs. The possibilities are endless, but the one thing I heard over and over was how important it is to put the ingredients in the jar in a specific order. You want to keep the moisture away from your lettuce to help it stay fresh as long as possible. Regardless of what type of salad you make, you’ll want to follow the same basic order of assembly.

ORDER OF ASSEMBLY:

DRESSING in the bottom of the jar
HEARTY VEGGIES (tomato, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, carrots, peppers, etc.)
BEANS/OTHER VEGGIES (any type of beans, mushrooms, zucchini, sprouts, corn, etc.)
PASTA & GRAINS
MEAT, EGGS, & CHEESE
FRUITS & AVOCADO
NUTS & SEEDS
LETTUCE

As you can see, the dressing goes in FIRST, which puts it in the bottom of the jar. The lettuce goes in last, which puts it in the top of the jar. You want to keep the dressing and any other moisture rich vegetables as far away from the lettuce as possible.

If you don’t like putting the dressing in the jar, there are little cups you can get to set in the top of the mason jar. I would like to try them, but I am concerned about spilling or that the cups might take up too much space in the jar. In the picture it doesn’t look like it hogs the space, but I’m not totally convinced. I’ll need to try it out and let you know. You can always carry your dressing separate as well, but one of the main selling points of a mason jar salad is that everything is in one container. You decide what’s most important to you!

Important Notes:

When you are ready to eat your salad, shake it up to distribute the dressing and then dump the salad out into a bowl or on a paper plate. I haven’t found any good way to eat the salad from the jar. I just love the convenience of storage and transport along with the fact that the ingredients stay fresh and taste great even after 4-5 days.

I haven’t tried nuts or seeds yet, but croutons do NOT retain their crunch. Let me know how nuts or seeds hold up if you try it. I do have some pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, so maybe I’ll experiment. I usually pack any crunchy toppings on the side, but I have a tendency to forget them if they are not IN the jar…

Recipes you might like:

A couple salads that I have made are the Italian Pasta Mason Jar Salad and the Chinese Chicken Mason Jar Salad. I also love Mason Jar Chef Salads and southwest chicken salads!

For more details on mason jar salads, check out the Mason Jar Salad Tutorial over at Organize Yourself Skinny. This site also has tons of mason jar salad recipes.

MEAL PREP

Mason Jar Chef Salads

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

How can you make it easier?

What I do:

** IMPORTANT NOTE ON GROUND MEAT **

ORDER OF ASSEMBLY:

Important Notes:

Recipes you might like:

IMPORTANT NOTE ON GROUND MEAT