I am a list person.
I make grocery lists, draw out my plans for decorating the kids’ birthday parties, write down every little thing I need to pack for vacations (down to the toothpaste & toothbrush), make lists of Christmas gifts then cross them off as they are delivered, etc. It could be seen as an issue. Lists help me stay on task and gives me a great visual of everything that needs to be completed. I feel more relieved when I see it in writing. I know I’m not going to forget anything, can prioritize and group items to complete, and crossing off items slowly gets the monkey off my back.
I guess it is no surprise that I am the one that does the meal prepping, cooking, and tracks all our food at home. (Side note: Josh usually does the grocery shopping.) I like being in charge of things that will directly effect me, so that I know everything is being done right. I love when Josh gets in the kitchen and helps me cook some of the meals though. It makes meal prepping go a lot faster, but I still need all of that important information to keep track of our food. I need it all written down.
Being a list person, I have found it easiest to keep a pad with me when I am cooking. I section my notepad according to recipes and write down the weight of everything. I used to put it directly in my app as I cooked, but that didn’t work for me. I would forget to grab my phone and type it in or would get half way through the recipe and forget to weigh something out. I am cooking at least 3 or 4 things at once, so I need the list to keep me on track. Having to open the app and search for the recipe in my app is just too bothersome or I am in just too big of a rush or too lazy.
Once I get everything written down and all my food cooked, I weigh it all out to find my servings. If you have a one pot dish, you will weigh the whole pot of food and then divide it into the amount of servings you want, based off of the macros you want/need. Other times, you have to weigh out items separately and put them into your app. One thing that is crucial, is to double check the nutrition information in app, against what the nutritional label actually says. Even though you are scanning the label, it does not always go in correctly or is not stored in the app correctly.
Meals like the cabbage roll ups I cooked last week, are a little different and would be similar to cooking muffins. If you are making a batch of something, you need to make sure your individual servings are the same weight. With the cabbage rolls I mixed up my filling, put a cabbage leaf on the scale, and weighed out equal amounts of the stuffing into each leaf. It is time consuming, but it is better than guessing whether each serving is the same or not. I used to just use a scoop and scoop out what I thought was the same amount. Now I weigh out each scoop to be exactly the same, so I know my servings aren’t just good estimate. I am more precise now.
If you are interested in learning more about tracking or how to put recipes in your app, just let me know! I would love to get a group together and teach people how to properly track and enter food. Maybe even a cooking class one day!
MENU
Chili Lime Chicken and Rice Bowl
Salmon + Balsamic Roasted Mushrooms with Herby Kale Mashed Potatoes (Cauliflower Mash)
Pork Loin Chops + Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Slow Cooker Herbed Chicken and Rice Pilaf
Well the cut starts this week, so here are some healthy cut foods that won’t make you feel like you are depriving yourself.
Chili Lime Chicken and Rice Bowl
This is a new recipe, but equally as simple as any other bowl I have made. I prefer to use jasmine rice when I make a bowl. It is a great sticky rice and doesn’t cost me too many carbohydrates even when I eat a full serving (1 cup cooked) in my bowl. One cup of dry rice is 144 carbohydrates. One cup dry rice makes around 3 cups of cooked rice. So, one cup cooked is around 43 grams of carbohydrates. Not too bad if you are going to eat the whole cup.
A little bit of rice goes a long way though. Typically I will only eat 1/2 a cup, so that I know I have room in my macros for any deviation or extra snacks. I know I will need to back off of the full cup since the cut is starting. I do not want to sacrifice my pre and post-workout foods. I am going to skip the oil in this recipe. It has lime juice, so I will double that and skip out on the wasted calories and fat in olive oil.
Salmon + Balsamic Roasted Mushrooms with Herby Kale Mashed Potatoes(Cauliflower Mash)
Salmon is by far my favorite fish. Of all the fresh salt water fish Josh has brought home, I still prefer salmon. We use lemon zest, lemon slices, garlic powder, onion powder, and Tony Chachere’s seasoning. Rub the fish down with olive oil, season, and wrap in tin foil. We don’t usually put this fish in the oven, but with the cold weather kicking in, we likely will. No one really likes standing in the cold to grill. Make sure you keep a check on your fish so it doesn’t dry out!
I am not a mushroom fan by any means, but Josh loves them. I can’t eat raw mushrooms, but I can handle them when they are cooked down and in a sauce. I am not going to use mashed potatoes, because last week I cooked cauliflower mash and I am never looking back! I mean, they really were great and I even skipped the parmesan! The macros on the cauliflower mash were per serving 71 calories, 3.1 grams of protein, 10.9 grams of carbohydrates, and 0.2 grams of fat! Insane! I think the next family gathering I am going to make “mashed potatoes” and see if they notice that it is actually cauliflower. Stay tuned for that.
Pork Loin Chops + Turmeric Roasted Cauliflower Soup
With the cold weather sticking around this week, I am going to make a few more soups while the weather is right for it. No one wants soup on a hot day. I love this soup for its macro count and taste. Turmeric is a great seasoning to use if you are trying to combat any inflammation and if you workout, chances are you have some inflammation at some point.
I use light coconut milk and very little oil with this recipe. It made 4 servings last time I cooked this meal and each serving had 142 calories, 3.5 grams of protein, 18.8 grams of carbohydrates, and 4.3 grams of fat. I don’t save any cauliflower for topping or add any extra milk or heavy cream either.
My pork chops are basic and I use them about every week. Just like you see every meal prep picture with basic chicken breast, I just have pork instead. I like to get a pork loin for my chops, so I can stuff part of it later on. I cook mine on 425 degrees, until they are to temperature (about 19 minutes depending on thickness) and typically use Tony Chachere’s seasoning. (I should probably buy stock in that seasoning as much as we use it.)
Soups, chili, spaghetti, fajitas, etc. all the one pot/pan meals are the easiest to meal prep. Less mess and less pots/pans on the stove means you can cook more at one time and have half the clean up. The only problem with one pot meals is exact tracking. You can’t be 100% certain that you’re getting the same amount of beans, meat, and vegetables in every serving. You just have to roll with it and take it for what it is.
The last time I made chili it had 7 servings and each serving was 373 calories, 32.9 grams of protein, 27.7 grams of carbohydrates, and 14.6 grams of fat. I might reduce the amount of beans and increase the amount of vegetables for the cut. It is not a lot of carbohydrates, but it is difficult to eat more than one serving when it has almost 30 grams of carbohydrates.
Slow Cooker Herbed Chicken and Rice Pilaf
This meal has become one of my favorites to make and this is one of my go-to bloggers to get recipes from. I have to make adjustments with the amount of oil I am using compared to what she uses, but it always turns out great. I like this recipe because it all goes in the crockpot and I can really tailor it to my macro needs. When I make this recipe in my app, I don’t include the chicken. The chicken is the last thing to go into the crockpot so I take it out first and weigh the rice and vegetables for the recipe after.
The last time I made this dish I used 1 cup of dry rice, 1 Tbsp oil, 3 cups of chicken broth, 8 ounces of mushrooms, and 3.7 ounces of carrots. I will probably use more carrots this time. It gave me 4 equal servings, each at 173 calories, 5.4 grams of protein, 27.8 grams of carbohydrates, and 4.3 grams of fat. The chicken was added to my app separately based on how many grams of protein I needed/wanted.
ENJOY!
