One of the most important things I preach is how important it is to have a plan in order to achieve your goals. Each Sunday, you should take a couple hours to spend time in the kitchen to plan out your food for the week. The more prepared you are for you nutrition goals, the less likely you will be to make excuses! I have compiled part of my menu for this week and put it below for you to use a cheat sheet! Pick and choose or straight up the copy thing.. Just do it!
Protein Pumpkin Muffins:
Wet stuff: 15 ounces canned organic pumpkin 2 egg whites
Dry stuff: 1 cup oats, ground in food processor 2 scoops vanilla protein powder (this had 23g per scoop!) 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/4 cup splenda (you could certainly use sugar or agave nectar if you don't mind the calories) Handful chopped walnuts
Combine ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 8-10 minutes. I will be enjoying these with my morning coffee or as a post workout snack!
Sirloin Burgers: (I multiplied the amounts to make 6 burgers, plus leftovers that I used in the meatloaf.)
Ingredients (for Sirloin Burger) Ground sirloin or extra lean ground beef (170 g) 6 oz Salt 2 pinches Pepper 1 pinch Chili powder 1 pinch Fresh garlic (minced) 1 tsp Onion (finely chopped) 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp Olive oil cooking spray
Serving Size Serves 1 large or 2 small.
Preparation Time 3 min. Preparation Time 10 min. Cooking Time
Introduction A great-tasting burger is hard to beat. This Sirloin Burger has an excellent texture and flavor and goes great with Coconut Cauliflower Mash or Miso Vegetable Brown Rice.
Instructions Preheat a non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Combine all ingredients except cooking spray together in a mixing bowl and stir until completely combined. Form into a round shape about ¾ inch thick. Lightly coat pan with spray and place the sirloin burger into the pan. Cook the burger until lightly browned and then gently flip and brown the other side. Cook all the way through and serve. Serves 1 large or 2 small.
Variations and Options To add flavor and texture, add finely chopped peppers, corn or herbs to the burger.
Nutritional Information (per serving) large small Calories (k/cal) 232.9 116.4 Fat (g) 8.4 4.2 Saturated (g) 3.8 1.9 Monounsaturated (g) 3.6 1.8 Polyunsaturated (g) 0.4 0.2 omega-3 (g) 0.1 0.0 omega-6 (g) 0.3 0.2 Carbohydrates (g) 3.1 1.6 fiber (g) 0.3 0.2 sugars (g) 1.4 0.7 Protein (g) 36.2 18.1
This recipe is from - http://www.precisionnutrition.com/favorite-gourmet-nutrition-recipes
I will be eating these with some of the oven roasted veggies, and possibly some baked sweet potato fries!
Meatloaf: Kinda winged it on this one, so not too sure on the amounts for each ingredient. I used the remaining beef from my sirloin burgers and added a few extras.. We will see how this actually tastes!
Ingredients: See above in the Sirloin Burgers, then I added 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 2 egg whites and 1/2 cup steel cut oats.
Oven Roasted Vegetables: Super easy one, took cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and onions and sprinkles with salt, pepper and olive oil. Baked for 30-60 minutes until brown.
Along with the recipes above, I will have baked chicken (always a good standby), currently thawing swordfish and a pork loin which I will have the swordfish tomorrow at lunch (cooked fresh) and the pork loin will go in the crock pot tomorrow morning, frozen veggies, greek yogurt, frozen berries, salad mix and fresh fruit ready to eat! I chopped all of veggies for the next couple days, peppers, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc so that I easily make salads and add veggies to my omelets. That may seem like a ton of food to some of you, but remember you're aiming to have a lean protein and a veggie at every meal so there will be plenty of opportunity to eat of all this delicious food!
Make this your Sunday ritual and as I continue to experiment with cooking more often that I have been I will be following up with more of these posts! It's great to have a full kitchen back in working order..
BEFORE:
AFTER:
