Welcome to the first Meal Prep post in the Exclusive blog!
Before I get into the prep, I just wanted give you all an idea as to what you can expect to see for these posts. My goal is to keep these pretty short and sweet but still give you all the extra information you're looking for to easily make this on your own. This meal prep format isn't quite what I was going for, but it's not too far off. You know what, just check out the prep and and the end I will pick up this conversation. Enjoy the prep!
Groceries
- 12 Large Eggs ($0.69)
- 2% Low Fat Cottage Cheese ($2.39)
- 4% Cottage Cheese ($2.39)
- Top Round Steak - London Broil ($18.99)
- Frozen Tilapia ($7.99)
- Chicken Breasts ($18.56)
- 2 Packages Strawberries ($7.98)
- Blueberries ($3.99)
- Jalapeno Pepper ($0.25)
- Chicken Broth ($1.49)
- 2 Cans Tomato Sauce ($1.18)
- 2 Can Diced Tomatoes ($2.00)
- 1 White Onion ($1.43)
- 1 Green Bell Pepper ($0.99)
- 2 Orange Bell Peppers ($3.00)
- 2 Red Bell Peppers ($3.00)
- Minced Garlic ($1.29)
- 1 Bag Frozen Corn ($1.00)
- 1 Bag Broccoli Florets ($2.99)
- Ground Cumin ($3.69)
Total: $85.29
Below is the YouTube video for this meal prep along with additional instructions to further assist. Enjoy!
Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe
Original recipe I found online http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/amazing-chicken-tortilla-soup-108231
(I scaled up the original recipe and made almost double the amount becuase I wanted to be sure I had enough for the week.)
- 3-4 Tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 - 1 1/2 Medium Onion
- 1/2 - 1 Tbsp. Minced Garlic (Forgot to add this)
- 1 - 1 1/2 Medium Jalapenos (With seeds)
- 1/2 - 1 Medium Green Bell Pepper
- 6 - 8 Chicken Breasts
- 1 1/2 - 2 Cups Frozen Corn
- 2/3 - 1 Cup Water (I added 2 Cups water but it was a little soupy for my liking, I prefer my soups thicker)
- 4 Tsp. Ground Cumin
- 2 Tsp. Six Chili Powder
- 2-3 Tsp. Cajun Seasoning
- 1/2 - 1 Tsp. Cayenne Pepper
- 2 Cups Chicken Broth
- 1 (28 oz. Can) Diced Tomatoes
- 1 (15 oz. Can) Tomatoe Sauce
Cooking Instructions
For this meal prep I used my brand new Cosori multi-cooker. It's amazing, so simple to use and reduces the need for additional pots and pans, makes clean much easier and quicker. I will create additional videos with the cooker but lets just get into the recipe.
If you don't have multi-cooker like the one I'm using, it's not a problem, you can still make this recipe. You will need a cooking skillet and a slow-cooker instead though. Thinking about it, you could probably also use a large cooking pot as well if you wanted... decisions, decisions.
1. Prep the chicken breasts, meaning, trim off any excess fat or skin you can see.
2. After the chicken is trimmed, move it over to a baking dish/pan.
3. Then add some simple seasoning, I just went with salt & pepper. (You can add any additional seasoning you would like.
4. Bake the chicken at 350 degrees for about 20-25 minutes. (There should be no pink when its cut open but you also don't want to over cook it because it will cook a little longer with the rest of the ingredients)
5. Once the chicken is done, let it cool for a few minutes then shred it up in to smaller pieces.
6. After the chicken is done, in a cooking skillet, add the following.
3-4 Tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 - 1 1/2 Medium Onion (Diced)
1 - 1 1/2 Medium Jalapenos (Diced with seeds)
1/2 - 1 Medium Green Bell Pepper (Diced)
Garlic (I forgot to add this)
7. Saute the veggies for about 5-7 minutes, or until they are soft and have a nice brown on them.
8. Then add the veggies to your crock-pot and mix in the rest of the ingredients.
6 - 8 Chicken Breasts (Shredded)
1 (28 oz. Can) Diced Tomatoes
1 (15 oz. Can) Tomatoe Sauce
2/3 - 1 Cup Water
2 Cups Chicken Broth
1 1/2 - 2 Cups Frozen Corn
4 Tsp. Ground Cumin
2 Tsp. Six Chili Powder
2-3 Tsp. Cajun Seasoning
1/2 - 1 Tsp. Cayenne Pepper
9. Mix all the ingredients together and cook on high for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.
10. That's it!
The other meal I prepared this week was Steak and Fish, with Quinoa and veggies. The video does a pretty good job, in my opinion, covering all of cooking instructions so I won't be repeating them in this post. I'm still figuring out how I want to structure these meal prep blog posts to keep them short and sweet while still ensuring you, as a member, get the extras you deserve. But now let's move on to the real added bonus of being a member, a full breakdown of the macros for each meal and how I calculated them.
*Important Note: When calculating the calories and macros for food, I know there is a bunch of confusion as to how it's done, do you weigh food raw or cooked, how do I konw much I should be putting in each meal, and several other concerns. I'm going to keep it very brief in this post because the ebook I've been working on over this past year, is almost complete and it will cover all those topics and more. It's extremely close to being finished up, probably only another week or so until it comes out. And as a memeber, you will get first accesss to it when it comes out, and I will probably give members a discount code for if you wanted to purchase it. Again, more ifnormation on the ebook will be coming out in the next few day. But anyways, lets circle back around to calculating the calories and macros for this weeks meals.
When calculating macros for the meals, I generally use MyFitnessPal and almost always weigh the food cooked. The most accurate method for weighing out food would be to weigh it raw, but that would be headache for the amount of food I cook. But again, when meat and produce have labels stating the serving size and calories for the serving size, they are basing it off of the raw or uncooked weight of the food. Weighing food coooked is fine in my book as long as you are consistent with the items you use. What do I mean by this? In MyFitnessPal anyone with an account can add food items and make them public. So if you're not careful in reviewing the items you select the calories could be off by quite a bit.
I create another post in the near future with my tips on using MyFitnessPal and determining which items are more accurate than others.
Ok, now I'm done :) Below are the calories and macros for this weeks meal prep.
Chicken Tortilla Soup (5-6 meals)
(Macros for this meal will be calculated by adding up all the ingredients and dividing them by the number of meals, 5-6)
Protein(g):37
Carbs(g):25
Fat(g):5
Total Calories:293
**Optional add-ins for soup: Tortilla Chips, Shredded Cheese, Sour Cream**
Steak and Fish with Quiona and Veggies (5 meals)
- 4-5 oz. Steak
- 4 oz. Fish
- 90 - 105g Quiona
- 1/2 - 3/4 Cup Peppers
- 2/3 - 3/4 Cup Broccoli
- Teriyaki Sauce
Protein(g):58
Carbs(g):57
Fat(g):15
Total Calories:595
I hope you found this information helpful!
Now back to my format talk from earlier, below is a quick outline of what I think would be a decent format for these types of post.
MEAL PREP BLOG POSTS
- INTRO (1-2 sentences about what I'm making/made)
- BODY (talk about how it came out, and if I would make any changes)
- BODY (list all the gorceries, with price, include more weights of the food I bought)
- BODY (list the recipes, (including originals if not my own) where I got them, how I altered them, and ingredients for each recipe
- BODY (cooking instructions, BUT what I might do is create a few different posts with detailed instructions for cooking chicken, steak, broccoli, asparagus, rice, and several other things so I can just link to those instead of repeating myself for each post) Let me know what you think on this one, if it even made sense to you ha.
- CONCLUDE (weighing out food, packaging, any special instructions, and listing the meal break down)
Hmmmm... it seems like a good format to me but I would love to get your feedback. I always value your guys comments, they help in making my content better. Lastly, make sure to give this a like! And you can share it as well, but it will require sign-up before being able to read it.
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