Meal Prep Monday & something exciting!

Happy Memorial Day!!

First of all, please remember what today is all about. Our freedom isn't free, y'all. AMERICA is the land of the free because of our BRAVE! xo

So, I think I meal prepped on Sunday last week. However, since we had this extra day off from life, I waited until today. It really kind of worked out, I had procrastinated and we planned to go swimming today... except its raining so no swimming for us. We went downtown to see the memorial day parade, and then we came home and I got started meal prepping for the week.

Today I prepped breakfast for Andy+the kids for the week, the kids lunches, and dinner for everyone. I'm starting my new J O B so things will be pretty hectic! Between work, school, kids activities, Andy's work events, church, and just trying to have a social life/keep my house semi clean... I'm trying to be prepared!

For breakfasts I made them egg+sausage muffins. These are SO easy. I whisked together 2 dozen eggs, and cooked a container of breakfast sausage (crumbled, like hamburger). Coat your muffin pan with non-stick spray, add the egg mixture (I just used salt and pepper in my eggs this week), add a spoonful of cooked sausage to each muffin cup, bake at 400 until the eggs are done. This made 2.5 dozen egg and sausage muffins.

For the kids lunches, I went with an old favorite. Corndog muffins. Jiffy cornbread mix, and hotdogs. 4 hotdogs per box mix. Bake at 400 and store for later!

For dinners, today I have verde chicken in the crockpot. A double batch so I can use this for my lunches as well as a couple of dinners.

I also made lentil soup. We had a lot of veggies in the fridge that were near extinction. SO, soup was my answer. Its also vegetarian, which is a change for us since meat is the main course every meal every day.

For the soup, I used onion, carrots, fresh green beans, a can of fire roasted tomatoes, fresh celery, garlic powder, a bag of lentils, and fresh mushrooms. I used a bit of olive oil in the soup pot and sautéed the onions and green beans together until the onions were almost clear. Then I added the celery and let it wilt a bit. I then added 2 cups of water, the rest of the fresh green beans, carrots, tomatoes, and then 6 more cups of water. I let it simmer for about an hour and then I added the bag of lentils. Then 2 more cups of water. Once the lentils expanded I turned the soup off to let it cool to room temperature before I put some in containers to freeze and save the rest for dinner this week.

The last thing on our dinner menu this week will be spaghetti. Sophia's pick, and she chose penne noodles. The sauce will be made fresh with orange, red, and yellow bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and garlic. I have to work an event one night this week so Andy will do the sauce. I will pre-dice all the veggies and so all he will have to do is brown the meat, add the veggies to the sauce, and make the noodles. Easy peasy!

Meal Prep SUNDAY

Meal Prep Sunday is something that hasn't happened in a LONG time in my house!

Andy's home every night now and he's off to the office every morning, its so wonderful! School is winding up though and I am NOT a morning person (I'm working on changing that). So breakfast is never a priority for any of us. I always buy easy things for Olivia to eat in the mornings but Sophia usually just wants pretzels on the way to school, sometimes goldfish. And I usually don't even eat until noon. I know that Andy is always starving when he comes home for lunch since he doesn't eat breakfast (we are both heavy coffee drinkers, I will drink an entire pot of coffee every morning if I don't have somewhere to go!).

Today, I prepared his breakfasts for the week and they're easy little egg muffins. Southwest style.

Step one: Cut flour tortillas into small square shapes and line muffin pan with them. Then add greenery (I used baby kale)

Step 2: add your veggies. I diced red and orange bell peppers, and mushrooms.

Step 3: whisk your eggs together with sea salt, pepper, and coriander. Spoon 2-3 tbsp egg mixture onto the veggies, and then add another tortilla square.

Step 4: repeat steps 2 & 3!

Next, add the tortilla bits you cut off the round tortillas to make squares. Brush them with olive oil, and sprinkle with cheese. I used parmesan, because that is one of our favorites and we already had it in the fridge. 

Bake at 350 until the eggs are done.

When they're finished, the tortillas and cheese will be crispy, and your eggs are golden yellow and finished (not runny). 

I am going to prep my own egg muffins tomorrow, with peppers and mushrooms as well. However, I will only use egg whites on mine and I am going to skip the tortillas and cheese. 

They're the perfect grab and go breakfast, they're tasty when they're cold but 30 seconds in the microwave is perfect, too. 

Next Up:

Rainbow Meatloaf Muffins

So basically, this is just a great way to get my kids to eat vegetables. Well, Sophia. She HATES anything called a "vegetable" ... 

This is 93/7 ground beef (about 2 pounds), 3 egg whites, 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 yellow bell pepper, 1c diced mushrooms, and 2 carrots, shredded. 

Mix everything, scoop into a muffin tin, and bake at 350 until the meat is done.

These are another easy grab and go item for lunch. They're also super convenient for late nights (hello, t-ball season). Just steam some vegetables to go alongside or if your house is like my house, your kids are begging for macaroni and cheese. 

I'm also going to do a bit of meal prep tomorrow-- chicken salad is all I have left! 

That is super easy, I'm using canned chicken, a gala apple, crushed almonds, and a bit of olive oil mayo. Serve over a bed of greens and you've got a great, easy lunch! Also good with grapes instead of apples.

Five On Friday

Haven't done this in a while. Haven't blogged in a while....

which leads me to number
ONE ||| domain name. Yeah, I'm so terrible about remembering. Anyway, PPR is up for renewal and I'm just not sure I'll renew it. I don't think I blog enough to really even need my own domain. But then again, I love the name and the # so.. who knows. I'll probably forget after this post and then....


TWO ||| college!! I survived the first week back. oof. I forgot how much reading was involved.

THREE ||| SUMMER VACATION. Summer break, rather. Sophia is done as of today and Olivia has to go until Wednesday. How did the school year fly by so quickly? It seems like school just started. Time is passing so quickly. And, we keep singing the phineas and ferb theme song (Sophia is OBSESSED with that show right now).

FOUR ||| NEKO ATSUME
Sophia is obsessed
I'm obsessed
My friends are obsessed

FIVE ||| meal planning and meal prep.

I'm trying to get myself back on the whole foods healthy eating wagon. I've been sucking lately and I just know my gut flora is out of whack. Everything is out of whack. So, this is me, publicly declaring I've had enough of myself. My skin is blah, my eyes are blah, my pants are too small, my self love is down and out. REVERSE REVERSE!