My Weekly Meal Prep

Monica Salafia RDN
May 24, 2017
5 min read

Heyyyyy guys! I'm glad you stopped by to take a peek at my weekly meal prep! I'm a little late posting this ...typical but it's only because I have had a lot going on this week!

Launching Mind on Nutrition Podcast
Going on TV for the first time
Booking a trip to San Fransisco! (after cancelling Mexico, bummer)

and just other things I gotta do to keep my sh*t together like meal prepping aka bulk cooking, batch cooking..whatever you want to call making food ahead of time! That's why to me meal prepping is sooooo important to me. If I wasn't making these foods that means I wouldn't be cooking and that's sad because I love to cook. Also, I wouldn't have healthy ready-to-go meals for myself and I'd probably end up eating all of Zack's Clif bars... he wouldn't like that very much and my tummy probably wouldn't either.

This week I made 3 different recipes. I made...

Falafel which is a Mediterranean-inspired dish made up of a mixture of chickpeas, fresh herbs, and spices that are baked into little biscuit-like rounds. Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside!

Pico de Gallo Fried Cauliflower "Rice" a flavorful way to increase your veggie intake that tastes lighter than your average fried rice but still so delicious you'll want to go for seconds (and it wouldn't be a terrible idea!).

Crispy Smashed Chickpeas which are more like a snack or a topper than a full side dish but they make a great adornment for a green leafy salad for added crunch!

Breakfast was my ultimate go to for a wholesome, hearty filler-upper, fast-breaker meal, brain-fueling meal oatmeal & eggs with fruits & veggies. I always keep these basic food groups but change the types to keep my body happy and the nutrients varied. In this meal I had Oatmeal with chia seeds, orange zest, cinnamon, and almond extract. In the eggs I had simple spinach. Thats it!

Mid AM Snack Attack was brought to me by these amazing falafel! I looked up a few recipes just to get the gist of what the ingredients were to keep the integrity of the recipe but then I made it my own!

I used

1 can of chick peas

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1 tsp cumin

2 cloves (BIG cloves) of garlic, minced

1/4 tsp red pepper

a few shakes of nutmeg

1/2 white onion chopped

3 tbsp. brown rice flour

Then I put everything into a food processor, gave it a few pulses until I got a coarse crumbs that are still sticky enough to form into a ball.

I placed the mix (still int he processor) in the fridge for over 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Measure 2 tbsp and roll into a falafel until you're out of the mixture.

Bake in oven for 30 minutes

The recipe made 9 falafel

Lunch was where the Crispy Smashed Chickpeas made their appearance. I used 1 can of chickpeas here and rinsed them and then dried them realllllllly good. The most important part. I layered paper towels on a baking sheet, poured the chickpeas on them and then layered more paper towels on top. I'll admit, not the most earth friendly practice...but I made used of the paper towels to wipe up somethings here n there.

Once they were dry and still under the paper towel, I smashed them with my hand (and maybe Tito helped when he stepped on them). Then i sprayed olive oil cooking spray o them and some 21 Seasoning, the one from Trader Joe's.

I roasted the chickpeas in the oven for 35+ minutes in a 375 oven. I think next time I'll try a hotter oven to really get them roasted. If you try hotter, or know the perfect temp/time combo, let me know in the comments :D!

So I used these on a salad I put together. Now if you saw my post about Chocolate Cherry Almond Clusters, you may have seen I used dried cherries and cranberries. Since I had these leftover, I added these to cruciferous mixed greens, some chopped Roma tomatoes, cucumbers, and everything bagel seasoning. Yup! Pretty random, but it was so good! I used canned tuna for protein. Yummy , yummy lunch!

Mid PM Snack was Turkey Muffins with baby carrots. It was not the prettiest but it's not always going to be and that's okay! But I didn't take a picture of it solo. These are a high-protein snack option for any poultry-eating readers.

Dinner was BOMBTASTIC even Zack was excited to eat. I bought a pound of salmon that day so it was fresh as could be. I stripped it of its skin (gettin' the hands dirty here!) then cut it up and strung it on some skewers. I placed them in a baking pan, poured white vinegar, paprika, and garlic powder on the salmon. I added fresh parkley after I let them bake in a 375 F degree oven for 8 minutes.

To make the Pico de Gallo Cauliflower rice I used these ingredients:

1/2 bag riced cauliflower, frozen

1/2 cup plus extra pico de gallo

Turmeric

Sesame Oil

a touch of salt

garlic powder

I got all of this cooking in a pan at medium heat for maybe 10 minutes. Just enough so all of the flavors could blend together but still keep the fresh vibrancy of the pico de gallo.

It's so good and so fresh tasting! Really a much lighter version than traditional fried rice. Not that there is anything wrong with rice! I just like experimenting with different whole foods wherever I can and cauliflower is a underrated superstar of a vegetable so why not make it a star side dish!?

Lastly, for a late PM sweet I mixed chocolate whey protein and strawberries. I'll be honest, I am a food first kind of girl, but I got into the habit of using whey protein and it's not the most nutritious item and its far from a whole foods but it tastes good and my stomach has no issue digesting this whey protein.

I'll record a podcast on the topic of protein powder soon!

So what I do is I let the strawberries that just a little bit and add dry whey protein powder and begin to mix. I add the tiniest splash of water or almond milk and stir until it's the consistency of frosting. So satisfying. And another excuse to get in healthy fruits :)!