Skip to main content

Veggies, Mushrooms/Onions & Brown Rice Meal Prep

We all know it's important to eat our veggies, but how many of us are actually doing it? I know I wasn't until recently.  The surprise is, I really like it!  I look forward to eating my vegetables, especially a variety, and prepping them is really easy.   

I'm eating a good 2-3 cups of veggies per day and typically prep a big bunch (my husband eats them too) so they are ready to eat right away. On Monday evening, I made a colorful variety of steamed veggies, brown rice, and sautéed onion and mushrooms to add to my lean protein meals.  Be warned, this makes a lot of veggies, so you may want to half it. 

Veggies = appx. 17 cups 
  • broccoli (2 bunches)
  • cauliflower (1 head)
  • squash (2)
  • zucchini (2)
  • carrots (1 cup)
Mushrooms & Onion 
  • mushrooms (16 oz pre-cut) 
  • onion (1)
Brown Rice = appx. 10 (1/3 cup servings)
  • brown rice (1 cup) 
After washing and chopping my veggies, I put them into a large pot with about 2 inches of water.  Put the lid on and let the water come to a boil and steam for a few minutes.  I don't let it boil too long because I don't like mushy veggies and these cook quickly.  Then, I strain the veggies and rinse in cold water to stop them from cooking.  I don't use any salt or seasoning. 

 

 

The mushrooms are pre-sliced, so I just cut up an onion and put it in a skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil and let them sauté, uncovered, until nice and brown.  Just turn every once in a while.  They take a good 10-15 minutes to cook on medium to medium-high heat.  At the end, I poured in about a tablespoon of blackberry balsamic vinegar, but you don't need to.  


For the rice, I don't follow the package directions because I never thought it tasted right, so I found a way of cooking brown rice on the web (I don't recall the site) that recommends rinsing the rice (I use one cup dry rice), then add it to a lot of water (maybe 4 cups) and boil uncovered for about 15-20 minutes- I keep tasting it until it tastes cooked through.  Then drain and rinse again, returning to the pot with the heat off for a few minutes.  I don't use any salt or seasoning. 

I prepped and cooked everything at once.  The picture below is just before I put the lids on the veggies. 


And below is everything all cooked. 


It's really nice to have this prep done so you don't have to think about it for the next few days at least.   It takes a little time on the front end, but then no time later.  :) I haven't made this large a batch before, so I'm not completely sure how long it will be before it's gone (or stays good).  


Here's the food in action the next day at lunch and so you can see how I store them.  I just popped this in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes. 


_________________




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

40 Day Fat Loss Challenge

At the beginning of last year (2014), I challenged myself to get in shape for my first ever NPC bikini contest and reached that goal after 5 months of training (July 2014).  Since then, I'd been pretty much slacking on the diet and workouts, but by October 2014, I was not liking how I felt physically when I had gotten used to being in great shape.  My weight was creeping back up and my muscle was turning into fat.  In November, I started back with my trainer and by December had started embracing my bikini meal plan again, but not nearly as strictly and not without lots of "cheats".  It was the holidays after all.  And I like to eat as much as the next person. Read more »
Post a Comment
Read more

Healthy Meal Prep | Grilled Chicken Salad

Today (Thursday) marks Day 7 of our 40-day Fat Loss Challenge.  I measured in on Day 1 at 24% (calipers) and today was at 22%!  Woo-hoo!  A 2% difference in 1 week is a big deal!  I'll show you some progress pics soon so you can see what it looks like.  I'm also using my heart-rate monitor (twice) and have been surprised at how little amount of calories it says I'm burning during my workouts.  I'll get into more detail on that in another post soon too. Today, I'm sharing one of the meals I've been eating- a Grilled Chicken Salad and I always make multiples at a time so I can just pull the assembled salad out of the fridge and I don't have to spend time reprepping.   Step 1 is to always have grilled chicken on hand or prepare enough for several salads.  If I'm just cooking 4-8 chicken breasts at a time, I use a grill pan.  Spray that pan with cooking spray, and heat to medium-high heat.  I pound my chicken breasts a little so they are thinner and cook eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

40-Day Fat Loss Challenge (Day 14 Update)

It's time to check in and update my progress for the 40-Day Fat Loss Challenge I entered at my gym.  For my body fat percentage, I'll use my trainer's caliper measure since I won't have access to the machine until the 40 days is up.  The machine measured about the same as my trainer anyway.  My goal is to lose at least 1% body fat each week so that at the end of the 40 days (nearly 6 weeks), I'll have gone from 24% down to 17%.  I'm on track for that now, but would love to get closer to 15%.   PROGRESS Day 1:  24% body fat (112.4 pounds) Day 7:  22.4% body fat (110 pounds)  Day 14: 21% body fat (109.4 pounds)  (These numbers reflect what I weigh when I weigh-in at the gym mid-morning.  My weight below I take first thing in the morning when I wake up, so it's slightly lower.)  Below is a picture of where I'm at as of Day 13.  I didn't take a good "Day 1" picture, so the "start" is from December, but it's a good representation o...
Post a Comment
Read more