On Monday night, after getting my massage and being relatively useless throughout the day, I decided to meal-prep. I knew I wanted to make protein muffins for breakfast #2 at work (breakfast #1 before work is always a “smoothie” with spinach/kale, frozen fruit, protein powder, and chia seeds) but when I was at the grocery store earlier in the day, it was the ingredients I found freshest and cheapest that inspired my meal. I did what I often do and googled those ingredients and a general idea of what I wanted to make. This time it what “sweet potato chicken sheet pan bake.”
And the first result was a winner!
One-Pan Sweet Potato Broccoli Chicken Bake from The Real Food Dietitians is Whole 30-compliant, but more importantly, it’s easy and healthy. I hate broccoli (these days) so I skipped that and instead added a whole red bell pepper and a green pepper. I had it for lunch on Tuesday at work and have enough left for Wednesday and Thursday, and possibly even Friday. It was delicious! I never think to add dried fruit or nuts to recipes, but this one works.
And my go-to protein muffin recipe requires a little tweaking as well. Banana Bread Protein Muffins from Dashing Dish are super easy to make, but like any baked good with bananas, require a little advance notice so you can have overripe bananas (or in my case, very old, possibly not-good-anymore bananas). Like my brother, I became allergic to raw bananas a few years ago but I still love any banana bread recipe.
The swaps I make with this one are: 2 whole eggs instead of liquid egg whites; no Stevia or any added sugar at all (trust me, you don’t need it); and I always add a half-cup of peanut butter. I’ve also added chocolate chips before (you could even do carob chips). This time around I forgot the cinnamon and didn’t have any yogurt, so I added whole milk until everything was just wet enough to resemble muffin batter. I use a silicone muffin pan so there isn’t any waste from foil or paper liners, just a little bit of elbow grease required for cleaning up afterward (and if you’re really doing it my way, you leave that to soak for 24 hours in the sink). And because Boston is still hot & humid, I keep them in the freezer and take out what I need in the morning before work, and they’re ready to eat at my desk a few hours later and don’t go moldy within 48 hours like they otherwise would.
Dinners have been easy because I usually don’t have much of an appetite after workouts, especially the ones later in the evening. I try to do fish twice a week (I always keep frozen salmon as well as some shrimp, tilapia, or cod in the freezer) and it’s easy to pair a some stir-fry or fresh vegetables, and brown rice if I’m in the mood. But more often than not, my dinner is cereal or an English muffin – not the healthiest, but also better than going all evening without food.
Snacks are almost always dark chocolate (82% cacao or higher – these bars are my favorite and are sold everywhere), clementines, and RX Bars. I found a DIY recipe for RX Bars, which is awesome because they are so dang expensive, so that may be a weekend project for me soon. And then yes, I do end most days with a Skinny Cow Salted Caramel Pretzel ice cream bar. It’s my one indulgence. Each one is 160 calories, which is fine, but the sugar, carbs, and fat content is pretty scary. Those nutritional facts + my addiction to ice cream are why I almost always give up ice cream for Lent!
Plain Kelly 