- Think meal prep has to take an entire Sunday?
Well, think again.
I'm going to be showing you my game-changer
of a food prep routine that you can get done
in as little as one hour each week.
Hey guys, welcome back to my channel.
It's Taylor from The Girl on Bloor.
Each week I give you meal prep tips and tricks
and share easy healthy recipes
so that you can live your best life.
Now, whether you're new here
or have watched a few of my videos before,
you'll know that I am not about spending
a million hours in the kitchen.
I just really don't think that healthy eating
has to be complicated.
So I'm all about simplifying the process,
making it as easy as possible.
Now, one great tool
to make healthy eating sustainable for the long-term
is meal prep.
I know you probably have all kinds of misconceptions
about meal prepping,
but the biggest thing I want to emphasize
is that it doesn't have to take an entire day
and you don't have to eat leftovers all week long either.
Now, my strategy is just a little bit different
and I call it food prep as opposed to meal prep,
because you'll essentially just be prepping ingredients only
instead of the full meals.
So the idea here
is to take just one hour on a Sunday morning,
chop your veggies, cook your proteins and grains,
and mix up some sauces
so that when you do go to cook fresh each night,
half of the work has already been taken care of.
In most cases,
when you've prepped your ingredients ahead of time,
you can get your cooking time down
to just 15 or 20 minutes each night,
because all you have to do is dump and cook.
Trust me, this is such a life-changing process
because you get all of your weekend back,
but you end up feeling so organized and motivated
to stick to a healthy diet during the week.
It's this small gift that you can give yourself
to reduce so much stress.
And I'm sure you'll also be surprised
by how much money on groceries and takeout you'll save
because you're only buying what you need
and reducing your food waste.
It takes time to build the habits, keep that in mind.
I'm going to walk you through the process step-by-step,
so that it's as easy and straightforward as possible.
Now, I've even got a special gift for you.
Head on over to the description of this video
for a link to download a free seven day meal plan
that will have all of the recipes
I'm prepping ingredients for today in this video.
It's also got a step-by-step checklist
of everything I'll be showing you how to do in this video
so that you can do the prep on your own as well.
Be sure to download that.
And without further ado, let's get started.
Now, the very first step in meal prepping
is to craft a solid meal plan
with recipes picked out ahead of time
because it'll make the process that much easier.
I've seen a few people
who just pick a bunch of random ingredients to prepare,
and then they spend the whole week
mixing and matching those ingredients
to make different bowls,
and wraps and sandwiches and all of that.
And don't get me wrong, if that works for you it's all good.
But I wholeheartedly believe
that the very first thing you need to do is plan.
And the easiest way to do that
is by making an actual menu for the week
with either recipes or quick meals
that you already know how to make super easily.
I'll have a meal planning video tutorial
up on my channel very soon,
or maybe it'll already be published
by the time you're watching this,
so be on the lookout for that.
So when you first download your meal plan below,
you'll see that we are making the following five recipes.
On Monday, we'll be eating portobello pizza mushrooms.
And then Tuesday is Olive Garden chicken scampi.
Wednesday is a bibimbap inspired stir fry.
Thursday is chicken kale Caesar wraps.
And then Friday is a delicious jalapeno popper chicken.
Best menu ever, if I do say so myself.
From here, it's just about identifying
which ingredients can be prepped ahead.
I have a checklist in the description of this video
and in your free meal plan
so that you can follow along as I do my prep here.
I usually write this out ahead of time on my computer
or on a notepad so that I can stay organized
during my food prep session
and move through the steps
as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Step number one, and usually the very first thing I will do,
is to cook the grains for all of the recipes.
I usually batch my tasks by ingredient
because you don't end up cross contaminating with raw meat
and it's just easiest this way.
Starting with the ingredients that will take the longest
to cook and cool before refrigerating
is the smartest way to go about this, so grains it is.
For this particular menu
we're working with here today,
we're just going to be cooking rice
for the grains section of our prep.
So take one cup of white rice,
and then two cups of water
and cook with a bit of butter and a pinch of salt
in a rice cooker.
Once that's going, you can now move on to your proteins.
These take the second longest to cook.
We'll take one pound of chicken breasts
and cook them for about 20 minutes
in a large pot of boiling water
for the chicken kale Caesar wraps.
The breasts will take the longest to cook
out of all the proteins,
so that that's why they'll go first.
Once the chicken is cooked through,
you'll then shred it and transfer to a container with a lid.
And all you'll have to do is add it to your wraps
when ready to enjoy.
While the chicken is cooking,
you'll take half a pound
of extra lean ground beef or sausage,
and cook that up with some salt and pepper
for your portobello pizza mushrooms.
This should take about seven or eight minutes.
Transfer to a container when it's fully cooked
and let it cool.
The idea here is that when you go to make the mushrooms,
you'll have all of the toppings and meat prepped
so that you can just add them and bake the mushrooms.
While you're cooking the chicken and ground beef,
you'll then take a large bowl
and mix one tablespoon of Italian seasoning
with one cup of flour
and coat one pound of chicken tenders in the mixture
for the Olive Garden chicken scampi.
We're not going to be cooking the chicken tenders
because you want them to be nice and crispy
when you make the pasta fresh.
So just store the raw coated chicken tenders in a container,
and then they will be ready to cook fresh the night of.
We're going to do something similar
with our final protein ingredient.
You'll take one pound of steak, any type we'll do.
I usually just use a strip loin or another cheap cut
and then slice it very thinly across the grain
for the bibimbap inspired stir fry.
Toss it in a large bowl with two teaspoons of baking soda,
as that will tenderize the meat,
and that can sit raw in the fridge
for up to a couple of days.
You'll cook it fresh along with the rest of the stir fry.
Proteins are done and out of the way.
Now you'll get your cheeses.
We'll need two cups of mozzarella cheese
for the pizza mushrooms,
so great that up in store in a container.
You'll also get one cup of Parmesan cheese
on the smaller side of the greater.
You need half a cup for the chicken scampi
and half a cup for the kale Caesar wraps.
Okay, final two steps, our sauces and our veggies,
and then you are done with your prep day.
Take a medium-sized bowl with a lid,
then mix together one cup of light mayo,
half cup of Parmesan cheese you just grated,
two tablespoons of lemon juice,
one tablespoon Worcestershire,
one tablespoon dijon mustard,
one tablespoon of minced capers,
three cloves of minced garlic,
and half a teaspoon each of salt and pepper
for the chicken kale Caesar wrap's dressing.
Then you will microwave half a block
or about four ounces of cream cheese
in another medium size container that comes with a lid.
Just don't microwave the lid,
you'll need it for storing after.
In the meantime,
slice four jalapeno peppers in half and remove the seeds.
You might want to wear gloves for this part
because the seeds can irritate your hands
or burn your face if you touch it after handling the pepper,
so be careful with that.
Once the seeds are removed,
rinse to jalapenos and add them along
with one cup of shredded cheddar cheese
to make the filling for the jalapeno popper chicken,
you'll just need it to add to your chicken the night of.
Okay, final stretch, and that is prepping all the veggies.
Remove the mushroom stems from eight portobellos
and scrape them out
so that they are ready to be stuffed the night of.
Then you will dice one green pepper and one small red onion
for the same recipe,
storing both veggies in the same container.
Now, slice up one red pepper, one yellow pepper,
one green pepper, and one red onion
for the Olive Garden chicken scampi
and store all of that in the same container.
From there,
you'll slice up about one cup of shiitake mushrooms
and cut one carrot and one zucchini into match sticks
for the bibimbap inspired stir fry.
Finally, slice one red onion and wash,
then chop two cups of kale
for the chicken kale Caesar wraps,
and you are done with your weekly prep.
Don't forget to remove your rice
from your rice cooker as well.
I know it might seem like a lot at first,
but you'll be surprised
at how quickly you can work through all of this prep
once you've practiced a few times.
You can also even do just half of this prep
if you only have half an hour over the weekend to do it.
Trust me when I say that you will love having dinner
come together so quickly each night,
and it will be worth a little bit of extra effort
that you put in on a Sunday.
The best part
is that you can switch up whatever you're prepping
depending on the season.
So you can make the most out of fresh produce
or cheaper produce that is in season,
which will save you money on your grocery bill
in the long run.
When you're ready to cook each night,
just take out the applicable ingredients,
follow the rest of each recipe,
and then you'll be eating in no time.
Don't forget to download your free seven day meal plan
in the description of this video
for all of the recipes we prepped ahead for today.
And if you end up trying any of them,
be sure to tag me on Instagram, @thegirlonbloor,
so that I can share your pics.
If you enjoyed today's video
and you'd like to see more meal prep videos in the future,
be sure to leave me a comment
so that I can start giving you more of what you want to see.
Thanks so much for being with me here today.
I hope you get my food prep strategy a try
and see just how life-changing it can be.
Thanks again, and I'll see you in the next video.