Meal Planning

Meal planning - seriously one of the best ways to make sure you stay on track.

I know when I don't plan, I tend to stray.... I end up eating out or I binge eat any unhealthy things I can find in my kitchen.

Make sure your kitchen is always stocked with ingredients to make your meals. Make sure you always have quick healthy snacks on hand that you can just grab and munch on. And most importantly (for me at least), make sure you have something to satisfy your serious chocolate cravings... haha. I like to keep a bar of dark chocolate hidden away for absolute emergencies.... If I have a bad chocolate craving and don't have any chocolate, I will end up eating everything in sight and never get full until I have some chocolate..... it's really a problem.

If you're like me and tend to be very busy all the time, plan out your meals in advance! It will help you to stay on track, so you don't have to stress about it when you're hungry. And always have healthy snacks on hand too!

Examples:

I baked a big breakfast fritatta for Rommel and I to slice up and have for breakfast for the next few days.

Frittata (mostly egg whites) with broccoli, onion, jalapeno cheddar, and leftover ham from our NYE dinner

Last night while making dinner and our breakfast frittata, I marinated some chicken, grilled it, chopped it up, then saved it to throw on my salad for lunch today.

Chicken breast marinated in lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, and dill

Salad with heirloom spinach, arugula, grilled chicken, dill, green onion, lemon juice, and pumpkin seed oil

For dinner tonight, we have  lentil soup cooking away in our slow cooker right now :) I prepped everything for the soup last night so it is quick to throw in the slow cooker this morning. All veggies chopped up in a bag with herbs and dried lentils. Tube of tomato paste sitting on top of the bag in the fridge, so I didn't have to search for it. Chicken broth and all seasonings sitting right next to the slow cooker.

All the ingredients ready to go!

Everything thrown in the slow cooker in 1 minute this morning!

Tonight, I will marinate some flank steak, grill it, and chop it up for our lunch salad tomorrow.

Tonight, I will also start to prep dinner for tomorrow night. I will bake a spaghetti squash and get ingredients ready to make make marinara sauce in our slow cooker tomorrow morning. I also saved a little bit of the grilled chicken to mix in there.

Happy New Year! Eat well, plan well, exercise, and meet your health goals!

Egg with Kale

One of my favorite things to eat for breakfast is over easy or sunny-side up eggs and popping the yolk over some rice (filipino style!) or soaking it up with lots of yummy soft bread - both rice and bread are off limits for phase 1.... When I first started dieting, I discovered a new way to eat one of my comfort foods - egg with the yolk popped over sauteed kale!

I like using kale over other leafy greens like spinach or chard because it still holds some nice texture when it's cooked. Popped yolk on soft sauteed spinach or chard just sounds like it would be slimy and less appetizing... I like to sautee the kale with some garlic and top the egg with a little fresh oregano from my yard. I also, like to use just one whole egg with an extra egg white to add more protein and make it more filling without the extra cholesterol you would get from an extra yolk. That's why the egg in the photo looks a little strange... hahaha... the white is really big compared to the yolk because there is an extra egg white cooked with it!