Meal Prep weeks 3 and 4...

Still at it!  Thought I'd drop in and give an update.

Week Three:

Back at T's place.

This time we decided (per a suggestion from Margaret - Thanks lady!) to each to a Crock Pot dish the day before our prep day.  This way we could get a couple of yummy dishes in the mix and save us from making 2 proteins!  T went for this recipe - Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps.  I decided I'd be safe with meatballs since I haven't had a successful Crockpot dish yet.  I wanted to use fresh ground beef (or ground chix or turkey) but everyone told me to stick to frozen for my 1st attempt out.  Plus all the recipes I saw called for Frozen  - so - frozen it is.  Just found some with not other crap much added.  Here's the recipe I used - Honey Garlic Meatballs.

Sunday 8am there I was with giant bowl of meatballs!  I made a bit too many but I figured I'd just make the whole bag.

This weeks recipes along with our crockpot contraptions were:
 - Honey Garlic Chicken - I picked this out.  Do you see a pattern here with me?
 - Basic Teriyaki Chicken
 - Sauteed Spinach
 - Mashed Cauliflower
 - Vegetable Tian which looks like this:

 - White Rice
 - Zucchini Pesto Noodles

So. Terri bought a Spiralizer.  This thing is RAD!  You can take anything and make a noodle!  She used it to slice up the carrots for her Asian Chix dish and we used it to turn Zucchini into noodles which we lovingly called Zoodles!  Then we made our own Pesto sauce.  Just threw some stuff in a blender and BAM - Pesto.  It was delish!  This cooking day took a bit longer than we anticipated but we both think it was due to the fact that we had more recipe based stuff.  But I have to say - this was my favorite week so far food wise!  Check it out!

Everything was tasty!  I was also surprised how well stuff held up.  I swore the spinach would be nasty after a few days but nope!

We ended up taking a week off since T was traveling so the week off I decided to still make a couple of things for myself.  I have found that I love having food just ready to heat and eat.  So I decided to try this recipe - Slow Cooker Pork.  I also made some mashed cauliflower.  At 1st I didn't think the pork came out well because it didn't fall off the bone like I hoped but actually it tasted really good!  I made sliders for a couple meals but found myself just eating the meat and cauliflower for another and it was fantastic!  So yea me for my little mini meal prep!

And now we are currently on Week 4.  This week was back and my place and we are still having that godamn heat wave.  I have to say - this was the hottest week yet.  I was pouring with sweat.  I mean POURING.  It got so fucking hot in my house that the cats actually peaced out and stayed in the back part.  It was a bit brutal but we powered through!

Neither T or I came very prepared this time (just too much going on with both of us) so we got a bit of a late start since we spent some time figuring out what to make.  We opted for just chicken this week but would make three different recipes of it.  We did three of what we've done in the past so - this week:

 - Teriyaki Chicken
 - Italian Dressing Chicken
 - Honey Garlic Chicken
 - Sauteed Spinach
 - Mashed Cauliflower
 - Green Beans
 - Rice made with chicken broth
 - Zoodles 
 - Sweet Potato Noodles - Another one I had found that sounded pretty good!

I'm in love with the fact that we can make noodle things and I was assigned noodle maker this time.

Oodles of Sweet Potato Noodles

Again - T does most of the actually cooking.  I'm more the side kick.  We always do the same snack and breakfast.  Smoothie makings and the snack being an egg and grapes.  I always cut up the fruit!

Yummy Fruit Prep!

Now I thought I'd share a bit of the random things to expect when doing this.  If we're at my place I lack containers.  As you make all your stuff you need to have things to put them in before you separate.  So we get creative at my pad.  T got a huge kick out of our giant cup 'o chicken.

Tell me she is not adorable

Basically you make everything trying to be strategic, for example - make something that bakes in the oven while you can cook on the stove.  I'm usually cutting and preparing for the next upcoming cooking thing.  We're becoming a pretty good little team.  It's also a good idea (and necessary in my small space) to keep doing dishes as you go.  It's also handy to have more than a few dish towels around.   Once everything is made you pull out all the containers.

Here's just a few of our finished products!

Then we just start mixing and matching and deciding what should go where in 20 plastic containers.

What you can't see here is how drenched with sweat I am

And then you end up with this!

Or as in T's photo all artsy in the fridge:

If you notice the bagged spinach - that also goes in our smoothies.  We do the fruit and spinach (or Kale as we did in week 3).

I'm not as excited for the food this week and am worried I may get sick of chicken by tomorrow but we'll see.  I have to say the Sweet Potato Noodle dish is super yum though!!

So here we are part way through my 4th week and he's what I've learned.

 - I love having food ready to eat.  I throw together my lunch in seconds, make my smoothie in minutes and can eat dinner in a flash.
 - The afternoon snack helps me not be starving by dinner and gives me a bit more energy if I have a work out that night.  (Although make sure you get seedless grapes!  We goofed this week and it sucks!)
 - Unfortunately I'm not noticing much of a difference in my gut. A few have said it could be the fact that I didn't really eat all that unhealthy before.  Others have also mentioned that vegetables can get ya if you're not used to eating them (which I'm so not).  And it also may be the fact that the McCoy's just have temperamental tummies. 
 - I prefer the more flavorful dishes but better be prepared for more time in the kitchen.
 - I'm not burning out on this concept like I was worried I might.
 - Terri is noticing a huge difference.  She doesn't crash in the afternoons anymore and says she's feeling a lot better!
 - I totally love getting to see one of my besties once a week!
 - T and I make a pretty good team, but this comes as no surprise.  Team TJ is still in effect!

This picture was about the time Team TJ was formed

I plan on sticking to this as best I can.  Of course life may throw curve balls but right now this seems to be working out pretty well!  It's also a money saver!  This week T and I only spent a total of about $65 each!  That's meals for 5 days!  I easily will drop $100 or more at the grocery store when I'm shopping for myself.  That's huge for me.  I've got to start cutting where I can.

I think I'll post every few weeks or so with the recipes unless we don't change it up all that much.  I'm digging all the interest from other people!  I'm certainly finding this to be pretty cool so far!

That's what we're doing!