Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. In today's video I'm going to be sharing
with you a healthy meal prep for the week. It's January and if you're anything like me,
I really overindulged in November and December, so meal prepping is a great way to get me back
on track. If I have healthy food ready to go in the fridge I'm more likely to make
good choices. Today I'm going to spend a couple of hours preparing some breakfasts,
lunches, and dinners, and a lot of the recipes that I'm going to show you today are also
suitable for families. And if you're new to my channel please consider subscribing. I make so
many meal prep videos, I'll link some previous ones down below so you can go and check them out.
I've done fussy eater meals for kids, family meals, healthy meals like this,
so I would love to have you as a viewer. And I've got a little plan here today of
what I'm going to be making, so I'll just share that with you. So the plan is to make some pecan
granola that I can have at breakfast, some cacao and almond energy balls. I'm also going to slow
cook some chicken to have on hand for salads. I'm going to make a butternut squash and ginger soup.
I'm going to make my favorite veggie chili for the whole family. I'm also going to make
a simple mudras curry, and I'm going to prepare some snacks. I'm going to cut up
some veggies and some fruit, and I'm going to hard boil some eggs as well to have for snacks
and egg salad sandwiches and stuff like that. So I'm going to take you through how I do it,
and I hope you really enjoy this video. So with all that said, let's get into this meal prep.
Whenever I meal prep I try to get any slow cooker recipes on first because they take the longest,
and then they can be cooking away while I'm doing everything else. So today I'm just going to very
simply slow cook some chicken breast that I can then use in salads and sandwiches as well. So
I've just chucked in for chicken breasts, I'm going to season them with some salt and pepper,
and then I've added in about a third of a cup of chicken stock, and I'm just going to put my slow
cooker on low for six or seven hours. I'll just check it at the end. And then we can have these
for lunches, or we actually the other night hadn't organized dinner, so I ended up giving
the boys some chicken, chips and veg, and it was really simple, but they really liked it.
Next up I'm just going to prepare some fruit and veg for the week. This doesn't take very long,
but you would be amazed at how much time it can actually save you. So I'm just going to
wash off our grapes and our blueberries in a strainer. But when it comes to strawberries,
when I wash them, I actually soak them in a bowl of water for a good five minutes.
We love strawberries in this house but they are one of the worst fruits for pesticides.
And once I watched a video saying that this is like a good way to wash them so that's what
I'm going to do. I'm not going to cut them up or anything because I find they go bad quicker, but
at least they're washed and ready in the fridge. And then I can just... It's so quick to prepare.
I'm also going to chop up some red peppers and some carrots. I buy the carrots that don't need
to be peeled, and I'm also going to cut up some cucumber as well. Then before I start chopping
my veg I'm actually going to put some eggs on to boil for 10 minutes to make some hard-boiled
eggs. These are a great quick protein snack. I really like them with a little bit of salt,
and they're also great for egg salad sandwiches as well. Then I'm going to put my fruit into some
glass Tupperware that I have. I will link it below in the description because it has been really good
for meal prepping. And I'm actually going to take all of the grapes off of the vine because
that will save me so much time during the week. And then I'm just going to cut up the carrots and
the peppers and the cucumbers into these little veggie sticks. These are great as a snack with
hummus, or my boys really like raw vegetables so sometimes at dinner I would just make them a
normal dinner and then put some raw veggies on the side. Or if they're starving before dinner
I'll just give them some of those to have while they're waiting. So yeah,
just really handy. Also for me as well if I fancy crisps sometimes crunchy veg can tide
you over when you're trying to be good. So that is all the fruit and veg except for the strawberries.
I'm now just going to go over and rinse the strawberries off. We go through strawberries
so quickly in this house so washing all of them like this really works for our family,
but if you don't go through them in two to three days obviously you could just wash as you go.
But a lot of us have them at breakfast. Matt has them on protein pancakes, I have them on porridge,
and the boys really like them as well, so this actually works really well for our family.
Then just using the same bowl, I've just rinsed it out, I'm going to fill it up with some cold water
and then I'm going to put those hard-boiled eggs straight into cold water to cool them down. This
stops the yolk bit from going green, sometimes it goes a bit green. If you stick them in cold water
straight away you hopefully won't get that. So then I'm just going to store it in a glass
Tupperware as well with a little bit of what's it called, a paper towel, so it doesn't break.
And then I'm actually just going to peel them when I eat them, I don't peel them before. And I'm also
going to put the strawberries in the fridge and then we have all of these beautiful fruits and
veggies that are ready to go throughout the week. Now I'm just going to chop up some sweet potatoes,
just two sweet potatoes, into little cubes, and I'm going to put them onto a baking tray and add
some spices. So I'm adding some cinnamon, some cayenne pepper, and some cumin as well, just
about a teaspoon of each. And then I'm also going to add a little bit of olive oil. You can also
add some salt and pepper if you want to. This is actually part of the veggie chili that I'm making,
I will link the recipe in the description. It's one that I've made many times before. We just
really like chili and chili's a great meal that you can have veggie or vegan. We try to eat veggie
at least three to four times per week. And so, yeah, I'm just going to stick these sweet potatoes
into the oven and then they can be cooking away while I'm going to make a soup for the week.
And this soup is so good, I would highly recommend it. My friend actually recommended this recipe
to me. It is a butternut squash and ginger soup, and it's very easy to do.
All I do is I put a tiny bit of butter into a big pot like this, then I've added in one
chopped onion. I'm also going to add in an entire butternut squash, I just cut up the whole thing,
then I added a vegetable stock cube and some garlic and ginger as well. And I'm really lazy,
I like to cook with garlic paste and ginger paste as well. So I'm just eyeballing it, but I reckon
that's three cloves of garlic worth, and then I'm going to put in about a teaspoon of ginger paste
as well, which gives it a really lovely flavor. And to give it a bit of kick, I'm adding in about
a teaspoon of chili flakes. And then when I eat it I tend to put chili flakes on top of it as well
with a bit of coriander. Then I'm adding in about a liter of boiling water,
and then all you have to do is let that simmer for about 15 minutes. And once it's
all soft I'll just whiz it up with my handheld blender, and then I add in a can of coconut milk
to make it really creamy. And I'm using lighter coconut milk so that's a tiny bit more healthy,
and then I actually return this to the hub for five minutes and that is it. A healthy,
delicious soup that is full of goodness and we can have this throughout the week for lunch.
So on the day that I made this we actually had it immediately because it smells so good. And
when we have it we add a few more chili flakes on top and coriander if we have it in, and then
with the remaining soup I actually have these handy Ziploc bags that you can rewash and reuse,
and they're great for storing things like soup and chili in. I can either put it into the fridge
or into the freezer and they're really easy to stack, and they're just great. So I'm putting in
portions for me and Matt tomorrow, and then portions for me and Matt the next day.
And yeah, that's our healthy lunches sorted. While the soup was simmering away I made my
favorite energy balls. These are a deliciously recipe. I've shown them before on my channel
and I just love them. Whenever I'm trying to be really healthy these are a real treat for
me. So the first thing that I'm doing is adding in some almonds into a Vitamix, then I'm adding
in some mature dates, making sure to take the pit out before I put them in because I didn't buy the
pitted version. But the mature dates make these so sweets, they kind of hold it all together,
and they're really nice as a treat with a cup of tea in the afternoon. Then I'm also going
to add in some coconut oil and I will link the recipe in the description so that you can see
all of the exact measurements. And I'm just going to whiz that
up with the coconut oil before adding in some cacao powder, this gives them a lovely color
and it actually makes them taste chocolatey. And then I'm also going to add in some almond butter,
and that is literally it. You basically just chuck all of that into a mixer, and that is how you make
the energy balls. And all that's left to do is to roll up the mixture. So I take about a tablespoon
of it and just roll it up in my hands, put it into Tupperware, and then once I've done
all of the mixture I'll put them into the freezer for about an hour so that they really keep their
shape, and then I transfer them to the fridge. And these keep in my fridge for two to three weeks,
but they really don't tend to last very long. I'll have one a day, the kids like them as well,
and as I said they're really good quick snack, they're full of protein. Obviously
they're very sweet so if you're ever having a afternoon lull they're perfect for that.
Next up I'm going to make my veggie chili. So I have made this in the slow cooker before,
but today I'm actually just going to make it on the hub because I obviously have the chicken in
the slow cooker. So it calls for one onion chopped up, but all I had was red onion so that will do.
Then I've also added in two chopped up peppers, some garlic paste, some crushed chilies,
tiny bit of cinnamon, then a tiny bit of cumin and also some cayenne pepper as well. Then I add
in two cans of chopped tomatoes, and then two cans of beans, which I have drained and rinsed. Today
I'm adding a can of cannelloni beans and also a can of kidney beans, but if you had chickpeas or
whatever you have will work. Then I'm just going to give it a stir. And then I tend to fill up one
of the empty cans halfway with cold water. Then I leave that to simmer for 30 minutes, and then
at the very end I add in those sweet potatoes that I've been cooking in the oven for about an hour.
So while that is simmering I'm going to make my favorite pecan granola. This is a Joe wicks recipe
and it makes a big jar of granola like this that I then like to have on top of Greek yogurt with a
little bit of maple syrup. So the first thing I've done is I've grated one entire apple into a bowl.
Then I'm adding in some oats, and then I'm adding in some nuts as well. You can add pretty much any,
but I really liked to add pecan, and I've added in some cashew nuts as well. I also add a big
glug of honey and some cinnamon as well, and then you also put raisins into this recipe,
but at the very end, so you bake it all through and then add the raisins.
So then I'm just going to give it a really good mix and put it onto a roasting pan,
which I've greased with a little bit of coconut oil so it doesn't stick, or you could also use
baking paper or tinfoil if that's easier. But you want to lay it out on the tray in quite a thin
layer so that it all bakes quite well. Then you just pop this into the oven for
25 minutes on quite a low heat, about 160 or gas mark four for me. And then what I do is every 10
minutes or so I just keep checking on it, give it a shake and a stir, just make sure it's toasting,
all the way through. Then I take it out, leave it to cool. And then I add in the raisins. I
just stir up all the raisins and the granola, and then I store it all in an airtight jar like this,
or some Tupperware. It keeps for a good two or three weeks, and I just sprinkle about 40 grams
or so onto Greek yogurt in the morning. It's a really healthy breakfast that keeps me full until
lunchtime. And as I said, doing this, it lasts for quite a long time so I really, really like it.
Before I put the granola in I actually took the sweet potato out that was in the oven,
and then once the chili had simmered through I just pop it in, add it, and then that's all
done. I'm just going to stir it through and then store it in some of those handy storage bags,
which I will link in the description down below because they're great for space-saving if you do
meal prep. You can freeze food in these flat in the freezer, and then once they're frozen you can
stack them upwards, and they're so much more space saving than Tupperware. So that is it. We have
chili for at least two nights and a lunch as well. And then the last recipe that I wanted to show you
today is a very simple six ingredient curry. So for this I've chopped up four chicken breasts,
put it into a bowl with a little bit of olive oil and a tablespoon of the Madras
curry powder, which you can see there. And then if I was really good I would leave that to sit
for half an hour to an hour, but I'm just going to stick it straight into the pan today. You
can also season it with salt and pepper if you want to. And I'm just going to cook the
chicken through and then add in two peppers. I've got a red pepper and a yellow pepper,
and then I'm also adding in a can of coconut milk. And I just leave that to simmer for about seven
to eight minutes and that is all done. And when I come to serve I serve it with brown rice and
I added a little bit of tomato puree for color. And this is so delicious, I really recommend it.
All right, so that is it for this video, I really hope you enjoyed it. I know that
having these meals to hand is going to make my life so much easier, and it's going to help me
to make good choices this week, especially because we've got all three children at home
at the moment. We're homeschooling in our third lockdown here in England, so I know this will be
a huge help. So thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in my next one. Bye guys.