I thought I would do another post with some lunch prep ideas, hopefully this is interesting and inspires you on your healthy eating journey.

Please remember that I am NOT a nutritionist and I cannot tell you what you should eat, this is just what I’ve been eating lately.

Chicken Breast with Green Beans and Butternut Squash

I made a variation of this meal several times over the last few months. It’s incredibly easy and insanely filling. I will say that I ended up reducing the chicken to half a chicken breast because this was just a lot of food for mid day.

1 cup of green beans from a frozen packet (approximately 30 calories and 27% of your daily value for vitamin C)

1/4 of a butternut squash cubed. I coat the squash in two tablespoons of coconut oil then sprinkle in whatever spices I fancy. I’m a big fan of salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and a dash of cinnamon. I love the spiciness of the cayenne and I would put that on everything if The Boy would let me. I then bake it at 375 for around 45 minutes. I like to cook it until it starts to get almost a tad burned on the edges because it begins to caramelize and it adds a nice sweetness. (For the squash at 400g per serving which is roughly what I ended up with here: 180 calories 8g of fiber and more than your daily value of vitamin A. The coconut oil adds around 60 calories)

1 chicken breast grilled on the George Foreman with lemon pepper and salt (For a full chicken breast it’s roughly 160 calories and 34g of protein)

Total calories: 430

The bulk of the prep time is just cubing the squash but that still only takes a few minutes. Total cook time is 45 minutes and you can grill your chicken in a few minutes or bake it along with your squash and it will be roughly the same cook time. Overall, this is a pretty fast meal prep which is the main reason that it’s been my go to meal so often.

Spaghetti Squash Spaghetti

One of my favorite foods in the whole world is spaghetti. I just love it. I love it equally when prepared with pasta or with spaghetti squash and the squash has a bit more added nutrients and fewer calories so that’s an awesome option if you’re counting calories.

Use one large spaghetti squash or two small squashes. Just cut them in half, clean out the seeds and bake them at 350 for around 45 minutes or microwave them on a plate with a bit of water in the bottom for around 15 minutes per half a squash (here I’ve used what ends up being roughly 270g of squash per meal which comes out to around 83 calories and around 3g of fiber)

For the spaghetti sauce I use about the easiest sauce recipe possible (I hesitate to even call it a recipe).

Brown 1lb of ground lean turkey with a half an onion and a heaping tablespoon of garlic and a tablespoon of coconut oil. Once the meat is browned add:

1 x 14oz can of diced tomatoes

1 x 14oz can of whole stewed tomatoes

1 x small can (I think they are around 6-8oz) of sliced mushrooms

Then I add a dash of salt, pepper, oregano, a bay leaf and any other spices I fancy and just let it simmer for a while.

The sauce ends up being 250 calories per serving with 21g of protein and I add a tablespoon of parmesan which bumps it up by a measly 20 calories.

Total: 375 calories

Prep time is a little bit longer on this meal just because you have to keep stirring the meat and onion while it’s browning. You can let the whole mix simmer for as little or as long as you like. I’m clearly not a chef, I’m all about the ease of preparation factor.

Turkey Meatballs with Butternut Squash and Broccoli

I don’t normally like to let my squash get quite as done as I did for this meal prep. I’m easily distracted though and I forgot to keep an eye on it.

For the meatballs:

mix 1lb of lean ground turkey, 1 large egg, 2 Tbs of parmesan cheese and 1 tsp. of ground nutmeg. Form into 8 meatballs and place on a greased cookie sheet or in a greased 8×8 baking pan and cook for around 30 minutes. (2 meatballs ends up being 192 calories and 22g protein)

Same squash “recipe” as listed above (180 calories 8g of fiber and more than your daily value of vitamin A. The coconut oil adds around 60 calories)

1 cup of broccoli florets from frozen (30 calories, 2g of fiber and all of your daily value of vitamin C)

Total calories: 402

Prep time is around five minutes and the only real time commitment here is baking the meatballs which doesn’t really take all that long.

I’m not sure when I will post this but I’m writing it on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and I’m full of stuffing and gravy and pecan pie so I feel a little weird writing about healthy food. What I CAN say is that on a day to day basis I feel so much better when my lunches are smaller and healthier and I’m making sure to get the nutrients that I need but man do I love some holiday binge eating as well.

I hope you found this helpful or at least interesting and I’d love to hear what healthy meals are your favorites. Do you meal prep for your week? I’m always looking for new ideas so feel free to share in the comments! Also, would you have any interest in an occasional post about my workout routine? I think it would be a fun way to kind of keep track of my own progress and I’d love to bond with you over some exercise chit chat!

Tidbits:

• My brother finally convinced me to binge watch The IT Crowd on Netflix and it is definitely one of the better decisions I’ve made in life. 
• I need to go for a run but I’m covered in cute snugly cats and I’m finding very little motivation to move off of the couch.