MEAL PREP | 9 ingredients for flexible, healthy recipes + PDF guide

hey guys and welcome back to my channel  or if you're new i'm lisa and today we  are talking meal prep now i'm a big fan  of meal prep because when it comes to  healthy eating there's one strategy that  works time and again and that's planning  ahead but i probably do meal prep a  little bit different than most because  instead of prepping the same meal for  five days of the week i prep individual  ingredients  this still saves me heaps of time in the  kitchen but gives me far more variety in  my meals throughout the week and i don't  know about you but i'd get a little  bored eating the same thing for five  days in a row so today i'm going to show  you nine ingredients that you can meal  prep in under two hours on a sunday with  plenty of ingredients prepped in your  fridge all it takes is a little  creativity to combine them with fresh  produce or items that you have in your  pantry for healthy meals that take less  than five minutes to make and if you do  meal prep this way you'll have greater  nutrient variety your tummy will be  happy and you'll still save time in the  kitchen  and i think that's a winning combination  so let's dive in and i'll show you what  i've meal prepped this week  to make meal prep as efficient as  possible i always recommend a little  planning before you get started  this includes getting all of your  ingredients out and ready and jotting  down a few notes like what you plan to  make any appliances you'll need and how  long it will take to prepare or cook  once you've written your notes you'll be  able to see which items take the longest  or which you can work on simultaneously  roasted vegetables are one of my  favorite meal prep ingredients because  it's so easy to toss a bunch of veggies  onto a baking tray and cook them  today i'm roasting broccoli brussels  sprouts and red onion with a little bit  of fresh garlic but it's so easy to  change up the veggies based on what's in  season  my tip when it comes to roasting  vegetables is to choose those that take  about the same amount of time to cook  broccoli cauliflower brussels sprouts  and mushrooms all take about 25 minutes  in a 425 degree fahrenheit oven  and carrots beets potatoes and butternut  squash all take about 45 minutes so  you'd want to keep those vegetables on  different trays  once everything is sliced into evenly  sized pieces drizzle with a little olive  oil or avocado oil and season with salt  and pepper and give it a good toss  you could do this in a bowl or directly  on the baking tray  just make sure that once the veggies are  on the tray they're in a flat single  layer with no overlap and then set them  aside  next we're going to make some sweet  potato toast and while sweet potato  toast got a bunch of buzz a few years  ago i still haven't stopped making it  not only is it a great gluten-free toast  alternative but it's a great way to  sneak more veggies into your diet which  i'm always a fan of  to make the toast slices you can use  either a mandolin or a chef's knife a  mandolin will keep the slices even at  about a quarter of an inch while if you  use the chef's knife you can make them a  little bit thicker it's just personal  preference  once you've got all of your sweet potato  slices add them to a parchment-lined  baking tray  you can cook these dry or with a little  bit of olive oil or avocado oil and i  personally like them with a little bit  of oil so that's what i'm doing today  and once you've got both sides coated  just set this tray aside as well  i always have some type of protein every  week and this week i'm making my baked  chicken with herbs  i'd say this is one of my go-to's when  it comes to an easy chicken recipe and i  make it a few times a month  now i'm just baking two chicken breasts  as i'm one person but you can of course  double or triple this for a family so  you'll coat both sides of the chicken  with avocado oil and season with salt  and pepper  sprinkle on your favorite herbs and  spices and i'm using a mix of basil  parsley thyme rosemary and garlic powder  but feel free to get creative and if you  need a little spice inspiration make  sure to watch my spice drawer  organization video where you can see all  of my spices  while those items are cooking i'll begin  the stovetop ingredients and that  includes the white rice and hard boiled  eggs or in my case slightly soft boiled  eggs  in terms of a starch or grain i'm making  white rice today because that always  does better with my digestion but you  could also make brown rice quinoa  lentils or really any other pulses or  grains and the great thing is that you  can switch it up every single week  at the same time my rice is cooking i'll  heat up another pot of water to boil  some eggs  but before i do that i'll check on the  items in the oven and give my sweet  potato toast a flip  the chicken should be done by now and  i'll use an instant read thermometer to  double check  if it is i'll remove it and let it rest  and add the tray of broccoli and  brussels sprouts  so the way i cook eggs is to boil the  water first then place the eggs in and  set a timer immediately when they've  entered the water i find this method  always produces the most consistently  perfect eggs rather than bringing a cold  pot of water to a boil with the eggs  already in the water  my favorite eggs are six and a half  minute eggs or what you might call jammy  eggs but if you like them harder or  softer feel free to adjust the time  the key with meal prepping eggs though  is to have a bowl of ice water nearby so  that once you remove the eggs from the  pot you can submerge them in the ice  water to instantly stop them from  cooking  at this point my rice is just about done  so i'll turn off the heat fluff it up  and let it cool down a bit  when the eggs are done transfer them to  the ice water bath and let them cool as  well  [Music]  for the chicken you can leave it whole  or cut it up into slices or cubes  since i have an idea of what meals i  want to make this week i'll slice it up  right now again saving me time later in  the week  then i'll place the chicken into a glass  lock storage container and these are my  favorite meal prep containers as they're  glass and spill proof  then i'll transfer the white rice to a  container as well  [Music]  you can peel the eggs now or leave them  for later but i'd recommend peeling them  now so all you have to do is grab one  for a quick snack or slice it up into a  recipe and i'm storing these in a round  glass lot container  [Music]  [Music]  by the time all that's done our roasted  veggies and sweet potato are also done  so transfer those items to storage  containers as well  you do want to let the sweet potato  fully cool before transferring to the  container as it will have quite a bit of  moisture and you don't want it to get  too soggy  i add a paper towel to absorb any excess  moisture but the simple fact of the  matter is that these toasts will be soft  when you reheat them and i'm okay with  that  i should also note that my paper towels  are unbleached and don't contain any  dyes inks or fragrances which i think is  important when using them with food  we've prepped veggies protein and a  grain but i think it's also important to  meal prep some spreads snacks and  dressings  so today i'm going to make two items in  my vitamix  homemade almond butter and homemade  hummus and i've shown you both of these  before  for the almond butter it's as easy as  roasting four cups of almonds for 10  minutes letting them cool then blending  on high for one minute  if you do that you'll have ultra creamy  and smooth homemade almond butter  homemade hummus is just as easy as  homemade almond butter and i'm obsessed  with this hummus recipe  it tastes so much better than anything  you can buy in the store and it has a  fresh garlic flavor  both this recipe and the almond butter  recipe have their own videos so if you'd  like to see the process in more detail  make sure to watch those and i'll link  them in the blog post below  one of my favorite things to scoop up  hummus with is celery and carrot sticks  and it's so much more efficient to chop  a bunch of celery and carrots in one  sitting rather than to cut and clean  them as needed throughout the week  the good news is that if you store them  in a jar with fresh cold water they'll  also stay crisp for at least seven days  if not longer and because you can easily  see them in the fridge you'll be more  likely to grab them when you need a  quick healthy snack rather than that  cookie you might be craving  last on our list is an ingredient you  probably know by now is one of my  favorites and that's zucchini noodles  zucchini noodles are so versatile and  can be used as a main dish with a  bolognese sauce or as a salad with a  light cucumber sauce  they'll also stay fresh for up to five  days in a sealed container  and because they are 95 water i line the  bottom of this glass lock container with  a paper towel just to absorb any extra  moisture  alright so now that you have these nine  ingredients prepped let me give you a  few ideas of what you can make in less  than five minutes by combining them with  items you likely already have in your  fridge or pantry  for breakfast or a snack peel one banana  and cut it in half  then slather on some of your homemade  almond butter and top that with any type  of dried fruit nuts or seeds  today i'm adding cranberries slivered  almonds and a sprinkle of chia seeds for  a snack that totally hits the spot  [Music]  next up is sweet potato toast and this  can be breakfast or lunch for me  just pop the sweet potato slices in your  toaster to warm them up and while that's  happening you can slice an avocado and a  radish and grab some baby spinach and  micro greens from your fridge  then just layer it up and top it with a  soft boiled egg  [Music]  [Music]  next up i have a simple and quick  breakfast salad  just add baby spinach to a bowl and top  that with slices of tomato and avocado  one of your soft boiled eggs and a few  slices of prosciutto  you can keep it simple like this or  spruce it up with some nuts hemp seeds  or a variety of other ingredients  and i usually just drizzle it with a  little olive oil and balsamic vinegar  [Music]  when the food munchies strike throughout  the day your jar of fresh carrots and  celery will be staring back at you so  grab those and enjoy your healthy hummus  snack  for lunch or dinner you can make a  chicken macro bowl  just add several of the ingredients  you've already prepped into a bowl  together like the white rice and roasted  vegetables along with some fresh baby  spinach  i'll also take two slices of my sweet  potato toast and quickly dice those up  to add on top of the salad  [Music]  because the chicken is already sliced  you can easily add as much as you'd like  then finish the bowl off with a big  dollop of homemade hummus  [Music]  for a simple dinner idea you could add  the chicken roasted veggies and white  rice to a plate before heating it up  this is your traditional protein veggie  starch meal it is about as easy and no  fuss as it gets but still packed with  flavor  [Music]  for another dinner idea that takes less  than five minutes heat up a little olive  oil in a pan with minced garlic  add a few handfuls of baby spinach and  let that wilt down for a minute or two  then add some zucchini noodles and toss  it all together to warm the noodles up  [Music]  [Music]  you can keep it vegetarian like this or  if you'd like more protein just dice up  some of your chicken and add it to the  saute pan  before serving i like to add a little  sprinkle of fresh parmesan cheese and  cracked black pepper  and just look at how gorgeous this turns  out  [Music]  so that's my step-by-step meal prep  process and what i usually do on sundays  the items i prep do change with the  seasons so if you like to this video and  you'd like to see more meal prep videos  in the future make sure to give this  video a thumbs up and let me know in the  comments below  all right that's it for me this week we  will see you guys again in the next  video  [Music]