Meal prep

I've been doing a lot of meal planning as of lately. We have some changes with Geoff's schedule coming up shortly which will require more flexibility on my part (what part of airline life doesn't require that though?). I've been working on compiling all of my easy, healthy and  favorite recipes into a Meal Binder for easy access.

I've also been trying to cut down on prep time each individual night so I've been working on prepping as much as I can for the week on one day (usually during afternoon naptime). It's definitely a learning process to see how much we eat, how often we stay on schedule and if everything stays good through the week before we eat it. I also have to plan out extra's for Logan with foods that I know he is touchy with. I always offer what we are eating but I like to have healthy nutritious options if tilapia ends up on the floor again. ;)

Logan and myself traveled to Cincinnati this past week so I'll be talking about two weeks ago.

Our menu plan looked like this...

Monday- Tofu, Sweet Potato and Quinoa

Tuesday- Steak on Kale Salad

Wednesday- Leftover Taco's from playdate on salad

Thursday- Chicken, Brussels Sprouts w Bacon.

Friday- Pork Loin with steamed Broccoli

Saturday- Pad Thai

Sunday- Out to eat for Mothers Day.

I washed and chopped all of the veggies one afternoon. Our fridge was filled with carrots- both for the pad thai and sticks for hummus, sliced peppers- also for cooking and dipping in hummus, Brussels sprouts- halved to mix with leftover bacon crumbles, broccoli- ready to be streamed, sweet potato- peeled and cubed for roasting.

I also had 3 different kinds of lettuce/salads ready, washed and cut up for my afternoon salads.

I found that I cut up way too much sweet potato and that Logan prefers it baked (not roasted) and that we definitely need two nights a week to eat leftovers at this point. I'm sure that will change down the road with a growing boy in the house. :)

I'm really bad at eyeballing amounts of food and found that with tracking calories (hello myfitnesspal that I have been ignoring)- this makes it hard to accurately see how much I am eating vs. how much I think I am eating.

I was given the opportunity to test out this kitchen scale through Tomoson.

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

This past week, I found I used it mainly for my lunches. While I was ok with portions for dinner, I am scrambling to get lunch on the table for myself as soon as I put Logan down for his nap. I am starving! I used it to measure out cut up sweet potato for a quinoa, sweet potato, tofu and black bean bowl one day and also to measure out chicken and steak that top my salads the rest of the week.

It has given me a better idea of what a normal sized portion looks like so I can track my hunger and see if I need a mid morning snack or a small treat after lunch. (My go-to's are to snack on almonds or make myself a small latte with our Nespresso machine or a small green smoothie in between meals).

The scale can weigh in ounces, grams or pounds with an LCD touchscreen that is so easy to use. It is super lightweight and small and I can not believe I have not invested in a kitchen scale before.

After using it, I loved that you can zero out the container weight and we found it to be really accurate. I'm hoping this gets a lot more use in the coming months.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using href="http://www.tomoson.com/code=BOTTOM6205293d381b6b46d6aa9790d2b0ab1f" rel="nofollow">Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

I am so excited for farmer's markets to start back up around here. I am itching to fill our plates with locally grown veggies this summer- especially looking forward to corn on the cob!

Anyways, as I get more and more recipes down pat, I'll start sharing some of our favorite!

As always, feel free to tell me some of your prep work secrets or link up a favorite easy meal or two!