Week 2: Starting to Prep
Sunday - 8:30 PM rolls around – toddler’s asleep, the house is a mess, and meal prepping was the last thing I felt like doing. I had this idea I was going to be up all night cooking and doing dishes. And because I signed myself up to do this whole blog thing, it had to be done!
I was pleasantly surprised at the lack of time it took to get so much done. The pressure cooker is my new best friend. In about an hour I made 3 days-worth of lunches, prepped curly fries for Monday nights dinner, prepped my breakfast sweet potato toast (more on that below – so good), and marinated chicken for another night’s dinner. This hour of productivity also spurred me to do a quick clean of the house, a load of laundry and lay my daughter and I’s clothes out for the next day. BAM. It felt good.
Here's what I did for my lunches:
Quinoa – 1 cup of quinoa with 1 ½ cups of chicken broth (I like the flavor it gives, but water works fine too). Using the manual setting, cook the quinoa on high pressure for 1 minute. I let the pressure release naturally while I prepped for the next part of the meal.
Greek Chicken –
- 3 large chicken thighs
- ½ yellow onion
- 4 cloves garlic – minced
- Juice from ½ a lemon
- ½ cup white or red wine vinegar
- ¼ cup chicken broth or water
- ½ tablespoon oregano
- Dash of allspice
- ½ tablespoon lemon pepper seasoning
Throw all these ingredients in the pressure cooker and cook on medium pressure for 20 minutes. The result was tender chicken that pulls apart easily, but also has some crispiness to it.
While the chicken was cooking I cut some tomatoes and cucumbers and made some tzatziki using greek yogurt, lemon juice, cucumbers and garlic powder.
I was also able to slice some sweet potatoes to make breadless toast in the morning and spiralize a second one to add curly fries to Monday night’s dinner.
In the morning, I used my air fryer to make the sweet potato toast – something I saw in a magazine. You slice up the sweet potatoes into ¼ inch slices. I brushed each side with olive oil, sprinkled salt and pepper and air fried it at 380 degrees for 5 minutes each side. Topped it with an egg and some parsley. Highly recommend it!
I’ll be honest, my sweet potato fries for Monday night’s dinner did not come out as I had hoped, so I will try those differently next time. I tossed my spiralized potatoes with olive oil, paprika, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper. I air fried them for about 10 minutes. They came out kind of small and not as crispy as I wanted. I think next time I will make my fries a little thicker, and perhaps add some kind of breading. Who knows. But they did make a nice topping for my turkey burgers.
I used my marinated chicken to make fajitas a different night. I cooked it on high pressure for about 8 minutes, took it out and shredded it and mixed it with my sautéed peppers, onions and mushrooms. Delicious, easy dinner!
Updates on my weight goals (I want to lose around 5 pounds this month)
Week 1 average weight: 128
Week 2 average weight: 127
1 pound down! Woot woot.
As always, if you have questions about anything I made or have recipe ideas for me, feel free to contact me at britanys@gowiseusa.com . Thanks for reading!
