First off, meal prepping is the bee's knees.
I started it last week and it made eating lunches at work 100% easier and at least 70% healthier. It was great to just grab my lunch from the freezer and throw it in a lunch bag with an ice pack and fork. Lunch takes about two minutes to heat (depending on if you freeze it or not) and then it's good to go. If I didn't make this I would have eaten fast food or ramen or something along those lines, which is not healthy in the slightest.
Last week I made chicken marsala with zucchini and broccoli. It was DELICIOUS, for the most part.
I boiled the noodles in a salt and oil mix and seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper. I pan-fried the chicken and cut the veggies into quarter-cup servings. I didn't research how many cups of veggies I could put in with the sauce beforehand so I had to guesstimate, and I was a little low on the sauce for my five servings. It worked out, though, because I placed the zucchini (which was practically drowning in the sauce) in the same section as the noodles and chicken, so I made it work.
The sauce I used was a Campbell's Sauce Skillet packet in "Chicken Marsala." It was a great sauce and it mixed well with the vegetables I cooked with it.
Another mishap I had with meal prepping was cooking the chicken for too long, so it dried out a little bit. I'm still new at the whole cooking thing. I haven't had much practice, but I'm getting the job done, and I'm still willing to try new recipes and learn new techniques.
My first meal prepping adventure was definitely a learning experience. I know how to cook chicken without making it dry and I'm learning to multitask different dishes and sides so they all come out at the same time.
One of the great things about meal prepping is that it's typically low calorie, which is easily one of the biggest weight loss goals for anyone. The whole meal was 350 calories. It consisted of 0.2lbs of chicken tenderloins, a quarter-cup of zucchini and a quarter-cup of broccoli, as well as 1.6 ounces of angel hair pasta and a quarter-cup of the marsala sauce. It took a while to measure everything out and to keep it even for all five servings, but it was all around those measurements.
After using measuring cups for my first run at meal prepping, I thought it would be smart to buy a kitchen scale, which I did. I can't express how excited I am to use it this weekend to meal prep for my lunches next week. I've been giddy all day because I get to use it.
This week I am planning on cooking sesame chicken (thanks to the Campbell's Sauce Skillet packets) and I'm still trying to plan another kind of meal. I got tired of the marsala toward the end of the week. I think it'd be a good idea to add some variety to my work week lunches.
Meal prepping is one of the funnest and greatest weight loss experiences I've had. I'm glad I finally got to try it, and I'm glad that my parents are so supportive of my decisions in this difficult and long journey ahead.
