Meal Prep

This is what my Sunday afternoons consist of:

From left to right: chicken broth quinoa, wilted garlic kale, baja fish taco, lemon roasted brussel sprouts, lemon basil salmon, pumpkin pancakes.

Making food for the week. And this is only for breakfast and lunch for two days!
 

Chicken Broth Quinoa:

Rinse 1 cup quinoa and boil  in two cups of chicken broth with some salt and a drop of olive oil until all moisture absorbed. Top with sliced green onions.

Wilted Garlic Kale:

Put a drizzle of olive oil in a pan on medium, add a clove of crushed garlic and a dash of red chili peppers then a couple handfuls of baby kale. Move around for a bit, then add a tsp of water and cover with a lid to steam the kale.

Baja Fish Tacos:

For the fish: heat up a pan with coconut oil, add the Baja fillet, season with del orbo chili, chili powder, salt, pepper and lime juice. Cook until you can break it up. Top with sliced green onions. Eat with tortilla and guacamole.

Roasted Lemon Brussel Sprouts:

Cut the brussel sprouts into quarters and rinse well. Heat your oven to 350 F. Put brussel sprouts onto a cookie sheet preferably with a non-stick slip mat or parchment paper. Drizzle sprouts with olive oil, season with salt, pepper, lemon and herb spice mix, zest of 1 lemon, and lemon juice. Mix with your hands. Bake for about 20 minutes, moving the sprouts around a couple times, until the sprouts are soft and some of the loose leaves are roasty.

 

Lemon Basil Roasted Salmon:

Line a pie tin or something similar with a large piece of parchment paper. Place a salmon fillet in the centre. Drizzle fillet with olive oil, season with salt, pepper,  bit of lemon zest, and chopped basil leaves (4 or so), and some lemon juice. Wrap up with salmon in the parchment paper so that it creates a totally sealed packet. The fish will steam inside and keep the basil leaves moist instead of charred in the oven. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or less, depending on the thickness. I did this at the same time as the sprouts above.

Weight Watchers Pumpkin Pancakes:

 

For 1 serving: mix together 1/3 cup rolled oats, ½  cup egg whites, ¼ cup pumpkin, cinnamon to taste. I put sooooo much cinnamon in mine. I also let it sit for a bit so that the oats swell up and absorb the egg whites. This creates a more solid texture more similar to ‘real’ pancakes instead of feeling the oaty texture. Then you just bake them like normal pancakes with some coconut oil. Then serve them with a bit (as little as possible) maple syrup, mixed berries and fat free cottage cheese.

Wheat Free Blackberry Milk and White Chocolate Muffins

Blackberries and white chocolate just go soooo well together, but you can't forget about the milk stuff too! This recipe combines both!

Ingredients

Makes 12 muffins

1/4 coconut oil, melted
1 cup coconut flour
6 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup white chocolate chips or 50g chopped cubes of chocolate
1/2 cup honey
6 oz container blackberries, washed and chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Mix all the ingredients except for the white chocolate into a mixing bowl.
3. Divide batter into the liners.
4. Bake for a total of 20-25 minutes but half way divide the white chocolate on top of the muffins and put back into the oven to finish cooking.
5. Enjoy! With butter if you feel naughty ;-)

Sweet Potato Egg-in-a-Hole

 

This is one of your basic no fuss breakfasts. I got the idea from my cousin who used to make "egg in a hole" when we were kids with toast instead of sweet potato. If you're avoiding wheat this is a good alternative.

 

Ingredients

serves 1

 

1 sweet potato, grate

1 egg

1 tsp fat of choice (I used coconut oil)

salt and pepper

 

 

Instructions

1. Pre-heat a small frying pan to medium heat.

2. Grate your sweet potato and add fat to pan.

3. Add grated potato to the pan. Cook about two minutes. Mix up, then re-arrage to have a whole in the middle.

4. Crack egg into the whole. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook egg until done to your preference.



1 Dish, 2 Meals - Roasted Sweet and Yellow Potato with Zucchini and Dill

 

 

Notice the small portion in the picture. This actually makes and entire pan, which I ate all by myself hehe.

Matt grilled a veggie meadly for me with our new veggie griller and then I made the leftovers for breakfast.

Grilled Sweet and Yellow Potato with Zucchini and Dill

Ingredients

1 sweet potato, fine sliced

1 big yellow potato, fine sliced

2 zucchinis, sliced into 2" medallions

1/4 red onion, sliced

1/2 lemon zest

small bunch of fresh dill, ripped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Instructions

1. Preheat your BBQ to medium heat.

2. Slice your potatoes in half, then slice them into fine half medallions. I'm not going to lie - the sweet potato will be a b*tch to slice. Slice your zucchini into 2" medallions on an angle. This will allow all the veggies to cook at the same rate. Slice red onion

3. Add your lemon zest, dill, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic to the veggie meadly and mix well. Take it to the BBQ on medium heat and pour into a veggie griller, and grill for 20 minutes, moving around the veggies every few minutes so that they do not burn.

4. Eat! Eat all the zucchini and reserve some of the potatoes for breakfast...

Sweet and Yellow Potato Omlete with Dill

Ingredients

Use the leftover sweet and yellow potatoes from the night before

4 eggs

1 tbsp milk

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp olive oil

 

Instructions

1. Preheat a medium sized frying pan on medium heat, drizzle with olive oil.

2. Place a single layer of sweet potato slices on the bottom, then a single layer of yellow potato slices on top.

3. While the potato layer is getting a head start, whisk your eggs, milk, salt and pepper together.

4. Pour eggs over top of the potatoes and cover the pan with a lid. Reduce the heat to medium-low.

5. Cook for about 10 minutes - until the eggs are cooked through and no longer runny. 

6. Cut into pizza-like slices and garnish with more fresh  dill.





Breakfast Burrito

This is a fast breakfast that you can make on the weekend then have the leftovers during the week. It's low carb, full of protein and of course delicious. At first I thought it would be strange to mix a bratwurst with Mexican flavours like cilantro and tomato in a tortilla, but the bratwurst really just tastes like breakfast sausages in this meal. You can substitute an equal amount of breakfast sausage instead of the wurst in this meal.

Ingredients

Yields 4 servings

3 bratwurst sausages, casings removed
1 tbsp red onion, diced
1/2 cup mozzarella, grated
3-4 ancient grain tortillas
8 eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp chopped tomatoes
small bunch of cilantro, torn
lime slices
1 tsp olive oil

Instructions

1. Put some olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Fry the onion for a minute or so.
2. Remove the sausage from the casings, break up and fry with the onion.
3. As the sausage cooks, keep breaking it up until it is fully browned.
4. Whisk eggs and milk together.
5. Add the eggs to the pan and move around every couple of minutes in order to make a sausage scramble.
6. When the eggs are no longer runny, serve the sausage scramble in the tortillas, topped with the cheese, tomatoes, a bit of lime juice and cilantro.

Pumpkin Apple Spice Pancakes (wheat free)

This isn't really inventive, I just took my favourite things to eat for breakfast and made them into a pancake. But its reallllyyy yum. And healthy, and most importantly: filling.

Ingredients

yields 6 small pancakes, or 2 servings

3/4 cup whole rolled oats
1 cup egg whites
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 apple, grated
1  tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
coconut oil or fat of choice

Instructions

1. Grate the apple - I did this by rotating the apple on a box grater until I reached core and continuing around the apple. Squeeze a bit of the juice out of the apple.
2. Heat your frying pan on medium.
3. Mix the grated apple and all the other ingredients in a small mixing bowl.
4. Add coconut oil or fat of choice to frying pan, spread around.
5. Drop the pancake mix into the grill and cook for 3-4 minutes per side, until golden brown.
6. Eat with maple syrup! Do it.

Sweet Potato Paddies

This meal not only prepared me for the competition but when I ate it again the next day it also cured my hangover from celebrating too much.

Ingredients

1 Sweet Potato or yam, grated
1/4 red onion, grated
2 eggs
1 tsp Tony Chachere's seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
coconut oil or fat of choice

Instructions

1. Heat a frying pan on medium.
2. Grate your onion and sweet potato or yam.
2. Put grated sweet potato and onion into bowl.
3. Crack eggs into the bowl, add your Tony Chachere's seasoning, salt, pepper and mix all together.
4. Oil the frying pan and drop the potato mixture into the pan like you would pancakes. Squish the potato mixture down so that it's an even thickness all around.
5. Cook each side until golden brown.
6. Then eat it with your other breakfast foods! I also think that this would be good as a Thanksgiving side dish.

note: you can use seasoning salt instead of Tony Chachere's if you don't have it.

Wheat Free Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

I seriously need a hearty breakfast to get me through the morning...or at least until 10 AM when I'm starving again. These healthy and hearty pancakes do the trick. They contain protein, good fat (from the almond flour), whole grains and fruit - everything you need for a proper breakfast!

Ingredients:
yields 6 small pancakes

1 cup egg whites
1/4 cup almond flour
2/3 cup whole rolled oats
2 small organic apples, grated
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
Coconut oil for the pan
Maple Syrup for drizzling

Instructions:

1. Heat your frying pan on medium heat.
2. Grate your apples. I did this by just rotating the apple on the box grater until I got close to the core. Once your apples are grated, squeeze 80% of the juice out of the apple before adding to a bowl. You can drink the apple juice if you want!
2. Mix all of the ingredients above into a bowl, except for the coconut oil and maple syrup.
3. Add about a tsp of coconut oil to your pan, let it melt, then drop your pancakes into the pan.
4. Cook each side for approximately 3 minutes until golden brown like the below picture.
5. Serve with maple syrup and butter if you like. You don't need much syrup, the apples provide a nice level of sweetness.