The last two weeks, since getting back from Peru, have been difficult. I was sick for a good portion of them and exhausted constantly. It’s also been stressful applying for jobs and not feeling like I’m getting anywhere. All of these factors meant that I wasn’t being very diligent about cooking at home and eating healthy. In an effort to prevent that this week, I did some massive meal prepping today!
Meal Prepping: Cooking for the Lazy…
I really enjoy cooking. What I don’t enjoy is doing all that work at 5pm on a weekday when I’m starving and tired. Especially when I then have to deal with clean-up afterwards. In fact, side-note—I love cooking for others, as long as the bargain is I cook and someone else cleans! Any local #DCMoneyNerds want to take me up on that??
On those weeknights, it’s hard to get motivated, even when I have great ingredients in my fridge. And if I wait to cook until the evening after a full day of work, I’m much more likely to convince myself that I “deserve” to order delivery. Which isn’t good for me or for my wallet.
My solution to this struggle is meal prepping and batch cooking. If I get everything ready for my lunches and dinners all week, then I have no excuse. And I cook things that I enjoy. It means a solid 2-3 hours in the kitchen on the weekend, depending on what I’m cooking, but if I’m not feeling up to that, then I make something less labor-intensive (anything I can do in the crock-pot or Instant Pot). I can’t wait for fall, when I can go back to cooking soups, stews, and chili!
My meals this week are trying to rectify some of my recent bad eating habits…with lots of veggies and whole grains. Here’s the breakdown:
- Breakfast: Banana and peanut butter roll-ups (with FlatOut wraps, which are awesome). This has plenty of fiber and protein, so I’m not hungry by 9am. It’s also delicious. And of course, I make coffee.
- Lunch: Garlic sautéed kale with balsamic vinegar drizzle. Three Bean Salad with basil.
- Dinn
er: brown rice, tofu, yu choy, and mushroom bowl with spicy peanut sauce. And maybe kimchi if I’m feeling wild. Boxed wine, which I officially triedfor the first time this weekend! $15 for 4 bottles worth, and it lasts for ages, so I don’t need to worry about drinkingit quickly like I do with a regular bottle. So excited about this. - Snacks: mangoes, bananas, and cotton candy grapes. I also bought some vanilla yoghurt for if I’m feeling fancy. I figure I should get in as much delicious fruit as I can now, before it goes out of season. And I finally found cotton candy grapes again, which are the best thing ever created. I ate them all summer last year, but they were really hard to find this year for some reason.
The side benefit of meal prepping on Sunday? I only need to clean the kitchen once! And I basically just throw everything in the dishwasher. Told you I’m lazy.
Puppy Paddle!
Sunday was also the highlight of the last week because the condo association where I rent closed the pool for the season. On the last day it’s open (Sunday), they have a “puppy paddle” where all the neighborhood dogs can come and swim. StarDog doesn’t swim, but he loves running around and seeing all his friends! He’s very sociable.
I pushed him in last year to see if he’d like it once he was actually in the water, and oh man was he unhappy. The look of betrayal in his eyes still haunts me…but it was pretty funny too! I pushed him in twice this year. It builds character.
Tracking Daily Moments of Gratitude
I’ve written about tracking my progress on good habits, and I’m definitely still working on that. The other thing I’ve been trying to do is track things I’m that make me happy every day, or things I’m grateful for. I was doing this in my journal for a while, but I’ve decided to add it as a section on my weekly updates—my grateful/happy moments for the past week. Here it goes:
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Grateful for SunCat’s improvement! Monday: A successful follow-up appointment for SunCat! We’re not out of the woods, but so far, she’s responding really well to treatment.
- Tuesday: A great conversation with a career coach about how to successfully transition careers. Her rates are pretty expensive, but it was nice to know that she didn’t think my goals were unrealistic. I might think about saving up money to work with her more.
- Wednesday: Making $175 in a focus group
- Thursday: Happy Hour with co-workers and finishing my latest knitting project!
- Friday: Taking the first two hours of work off and sleeping in
- Saturday: A lovely 4-mile walk with StarDog
- Sunday: Puppy paddle with StarDog and dinner with friends
I’ve also designed a Gratitude calendar in my Etsy shop, similar to my habit tracker. There’s a lovely rainbow design and a lemon design, to track small things you’re grateful for throughout the month. Let me know what you think!
Ok, your turn. Any meal prep recommendations? Funny dog swimming photos? Gratitude routines? Let me know! Follow me on Instagram for photos of meal prepping, pets, and randomness. Follow me on Twitter for witty tweets about everything.