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Carrie Usmar

How to Prepare Meals


I'm beginning month two of Hammer and Chisel. I am LOVING it. I'm not your average meal prepper. I often struggle to do it, but end up okay because I usually have eggs on hand. I eat a lot of eggs and turkey. I don't do pretty meal prep photos. I can do it. But its a lot of work to make something the way I want it to look. (Perfect) So I'm gonna give you REAL. I'm not dressed up. My hair is a mess. Its been a long day. And there is mess everywhere. The lighting is not ideal. BUT I want to share this meal prep with you in hopes it will help some people out there struggling with how to even begin..

First you take a selfie..

This is the face of.... a strong determined brave mama.

Then put some chicken in the slow cooker, we did this around lunchtime. Making a bulk of chicken is helpful.

1. You can put it on salads, wraps, sandwich, quinoa, vegetables.

Here is the recipe I used.

http://skinnyms.com/slow-cooker-balsamic-chicken/

One recipe I am going to try is Chicken with water up half way but not covering the chicken, and hot sauce on top, then shred it.

Winner winner chicken dinner...

Later, I baked some sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes are a GREAT carb, and for my 21 day fixers, 1/2 sweet potato is 1 yellow. I could go on about the benefits of sweet potatoes but I'd like you to keep reading.

Directions

Heat oven to 350

Poke holes in sweet potatoes with fork

Put in for 30 minutes.

Flip them

And do another 30 minutes.

Check out dem taters...

While the sweet potatoes are cooking. Steam your broccoli.. I LOVE steamed broccoli.. I Don't love the smell. Don't do it when company is coming over. It will stink up the house. But its always worth it and super easy.

Do you know how to steam veggies? I was always scared to even try it and usually went in the freezer aisle and got the steam bags you microwave. I knew better, but never believed I could actually steam broccoli.

What kind of pan do you need? How do you do it?

Well I use a pan and a little steamer thingy. You can see it in the photo below. I don't know why it looks like an alien ship and Hugo likes to break it.

You put that in the pan filled with water 1 inch up from the bottom

when water is boiling put your broccoli in

Put lid on!!! Don't forget that step

Steam for 7ish minutes.

YUMMMM.

Broccoli in the space ship.. mmmmm

While the sweet potatoes AND broccoli are going, Chop some veggies. I chopped onions and peppers. I'll use this for an egg breakfast and definitely for my turkey chilli I'm making for dinner on Tuesday.

Vegetables...

Then everything gets a little crazy and food comes out at all different times, kids running around you with balloon strings your tripping on asking you to peel an orange, eat an apple, have some cherrios, help me on the potty,

Its a GREAT idea to get the kids involved if you can. We had them help prepare the chicken, and I gave Celia the sweet potatoes to poke with a fork and had them help me throw away parts of the veggies I didn't need. It can be frustrating but it makes them so happy to help.

Then when all is said and done.. You try and take an awesome picture of all the food you prepped and #cocosmealprep

These are some lunches for the hub. 1 red, 1 green, 2 yellow.

And after you make this pretty picture and pretend there is not a gigantic mess in the kitchen and want to just go to bed and hide. You snap a photo for evidence you worked hard, kicked some booty, and are food prepped for a few days.

I don't know about you but its pretty satisfying not having to make my lunch. I stress to make the kids lunch a lot and used to just not get any food till 3 in the afternoon. That doesn't work for me I end up eating tons of junk food because I am starving. I'm slightly ahead for the week and plan to prep some more food Wednesday. And I love the way I feel when I'm eating well and taking care of my body. So eventhough it can be stressful and overwhelming its worth it. I'm worth it. My family is worth it.

If you have any questions comment here, or send me an email. Love to you all. Thanks for reading.

mamadaringgreatly@gmail.com

xoxo

Carrie

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