My new work schedule sometimes sets me up with an awkward week. I’ve been used to grocery shopping and meal prepping either every Sunday or Monday for months. It can be difficult to do that though when I have to work multiple 12-hour shifts in a row. Needless to say, I recently had a Sunday off, I didn’t feel like grocery shopping, but I definitely had to meal prep because I had to work the next 2 days.
So instead of going to the grocery store, I decided to “shop” through my pantry and refrigerator to see what I can throw together. I’ve never meal prepped this way before, but I was up for the challenge! I was able to make 3 days worth of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even dessert! This saved me some money and time.
Here’s what I found:
Dry Goods
Orzo
Canned chick peas
White rice
Canned crushed tomatoes
Red lentils
Oatmeal
Peanut butter
Many baking goods (cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, etc.)
Frozen foods/Produce
Spinach/mixed greens
Mixed vegetables
Gardein “chicken” scallopini (only 1)
Regular almond milk
Chocolate almond milk
Apples
Syrup
And as always, I use my Fitpacker meal prep containers!!
Here’s what I made:
Breakfast: Overnight oats
In a glass jar I added 1/2 cup of oatmeal, enough almond milk to saturate the oatmeal, chopped apples, a spoonful of peanut butter, and some syrup. Seal the jar and pop it in the fridge. SO easy and delicious. The ingredients all infuse together and in the morning you have oatmeal that’s ready to eat!
Lunch: Orzo with lentil sauce and chopped “chicken”
This meal was so simple! I boiled 3 servings of orzo, simmered 3/4 cup of red lentils in the can of crushed tomatoes (I sprinkled in pepper, himalayan pink salt, crushed red pepper flakes, and garlic salt), and cooked the “chicken” according to the directions on the bag. When everything was done I mixed it all together! The combo was perfect and I would definitely make this again!
Dinner: White rice with sautéed veggies and chick peas
I cooked the rice in water with some olive oil and garlic salt. I sautéed the greens first until they shrank in size then added the mixed vegetables and chick peas to the same pan for a few minutes.
Dessert/Snack: Double chocolate chip cookies
I used the cookie recipe from the blog From My Bowl. I didn’t have gluten free flour so I used regular flour. And instead of sunflower butter I made peanut butter using powdered peanut butter. Honestly I can’t say these were the best tasting cookies or that they had the best flavor, but they still tasted pretty good. The texture was pretty chewy and they weren’t too sweet. I was just excited that I found enough ingredients to make some sort of sweet treat!
In total, this meal prep took me about 2 hours. I also had a whole package of pistachios in the pantry which I had as a snack! This is a great strategy to implement every so often to save some money on groceries and also to prevent wasting the food you already have!
