A lot of you have asked questions about clean food prep. It is exactly what it sounds like...you prep all of your food for the week at one time. It may seem overwhelming but it is so worth it (trust me!). It will take a few hours out of your day, but you will not have to worry about any of your meals for the rest of the week (this is the best way to stay on track). Most families could probably get away with one food prep per week, but we do two per week (one on Sunday & a smaller one on Wednesday/Thursday) because both of us eat clean & both of us eat a lot of food (especially Scott)!
Most of you are probably like us...You work full time & you are exhausted when you get home from work. If this describes you then the clean eating lifestyle is what you need! Both Scott & I work full time. We also spend a lot of time in the gym & on this blog. This leaves very little time each day to cook dinner (unless we want to eat dinner at nine each night!). This means that prepping our food in advance is imperative for us to stay on track. When you have your food prepared in advance you have no excuse or reason to drive-thru somewhere or grab that donut at work. Even if your food prep day isn't Sunday, set aside one day per week that is convenient for you to prep your food. In my opinion, this is the MOST IMPORTANT step in eating clean.
All you have to do is pick a breakfast recipe, lunch recipe & dinner recipe that you like & batch cook them all at one time!
Below are a few examples of our food prep. Hopefully this will give you some ideas!
- Boiled Eggs
- Brown Rice
- Tilapia
- Veggies
- Veggies
- Grilled Chicken
- Quinoa
Do you have a friend interested in the clean eating lifestyle? Get together & prep your food! It makes it more fun! The picture above is of me & my friend, Anna, after killing a Sunday food prep! :-)
I hope this helps!
Here is another post about our Sunday Food Prep.
- Whitney
You guys are so inspiring. My only question/comment is, I have heard saving food in plastic bags and containers can be harmful to your food and ultimately your health. Have you heard or do you know anything about this? (Especially if the fod is hot or even warm when it goes into the plastic bag.
ReplyDeleteIt depends on what kind of plastic you're using. I'm a personal chef and I always recommend glass containers for dishes that need to be reheated, that way we don't have to read the plastic code number on every storage item we purchase. For all of your raw foods/cold foods plastic is generally fine. If you're really concerned about it I would google "BPA plastic" and the articles you find will explain more about it.
DeleteI agree with the above comment. I also try to let everything cool down before putting it in bags or containers. We make sure all of our containers are BPA free. We don't even re-heat most of the food we eat. We are both used to eating things cold so we actually prefer it that way now! Hope this helps!
DeleteGREAT idea! I do this in the winter and it really does help. Think I'll be doing this, this Sunday!
ReplyDeleteAwesome Adria! You should totally do it in the Summer too! ;-) Good luck Sunday, I will be doing the same thing!
DeleteThanks! You've almost got me motivated enough to commit to eating clean. Just an FYI, and you may have addressed this in a earlier post. How much do you spend each month to feed your selves?
ReplyDeleteI guess it would be a FMI (for my information) heh
DeleteHello! It really varies. We will be doing a post on this soon. Remember, it will cost a lot less now to eat healthy than to visit your doctor for problems that could have been avoided later on!
DeleteWe also like to freeze meals in smaller batches to be cooked in 2 person serving sizes. Most meals serve at least 4 so we still make the whole thing or more on Sunday's and freeze in two containers for two different meal times.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great tip! Thank you Katie.
DeleteCan't wait to share this with my hubs! We had this exact convo last night. I have been trying to persuade him to join me in eating clean. I hope this will help :)
ReplyDeleteI hope so too Mrs J! Keep up the good work!
DeleteI wish more people would understand how important this is in order to stay on track with your meals during the week! I have been planning and cooking my meals on Sundays for the past 6 months or more. So easy! Thanks for sharing this tip so others can get into it.
ReplyDeleteWay to go! You are inspirational to us! Thank you for sharing.
DeleteDo you have any suggestions for someone who SERIOUSLY struggles with raw vegetables? I just can not get raw broccoli or cauliflower down...
ReplyDeleteDo you dislike all raw veggies? Carrots? Celery?
DeleteYou could try adding some balsamic to your veggies or even baking them for a little while with some sea salt and pepper or fun spices. This will decrease the nutritional value of some veggies, so be careful not to overcook.
This was a joy to read. I am going on 4 weeks of practicing clean eating. The 3rd week I was not as prepared and it was a huge struggle & I didn't eat as well and it was much harder to stay on track. Thanks for sharing your story, you look great!
ReplyDeleteOne or two days of food prep a week is extremely helpful! Not only does it save time, but it takes all the excuses away since the food is ready to go.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I find helpful is making "kits" for recipes I cook often. For example, I love the turkey meatball/muffin recipe you have listed. Since I make them often, I measure out the needed spices and oats into small bags and set store for future use. This way, when I make a batch I have all of the dry ingredients measured and ready to go.
This is a GREAT idea! I think that is the most time consuming part of the whole food prep day. I think I will do this for the protien bars, too.
DeleteIs there detailed instructions to preparing everything on Sunday? Do you have a method you always follow?
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to start eating completely clean, but I agree with the last post. Do you make some of the bigger meals like the monster meatloaf so they are ready to eat multiple times within the week? And in your example of a daily food plan you have eggs/egg whites. How many eggs do you have per setting?
ReplyDeleteI found your blog on Pinterest and glad I did:) My hubby and I started eating clean about 2months ago now; I have lost 23Ibs and have been less sick. Thanks so much for all of your tips and recipes.
ReplyDeleteI'm on week 6 of prepping and cooking everything for the week on Sundays. It makes life so much easier. Thanks for your tips! My husband LOVES monster meatloaf and can't get enough of it. We just got a membership to Costco, too, so I'm ready to stock up like you guys do!
ReplyDeleteHi Whitney! I've starts following you and am really excited to start this journey. I've been looking into doing Jamie Eason's livefit trainer. Does what you all eat match up closely to her plan? I see a lot of similar recipes and what/when you eat seems to match up. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSilly questions...but does an egg boiled on Sunday really last until Friday?? And does the veg go soft in plastic bags over a week? I really want to get into this food prep, as it would make my life so much easier, but I am concerned about wasting food.
ReplyDeleteSo I have been doing really well on doing all my food prep on Sunday. This week was the first time I made fish and brown rice. Will these things still be allright to eat on Friday? Please let me know if you would eat it! haha Thanks and keep up the awesome blog.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Do you feel like the meat and fish you cook stays fresh until the end of the week? Just wondering for my personal reference?
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Brooke
Hi Brooke - Our food is usually gone by Wed or Thurs because 2 of us eat it but I would say it would probably be good until Friday. You could try freezing some as well.
DeleteI am so glad I found your blog. I just decided last week that I wanted to start learning how to cook and eat clean, and rid my fridge and pantry of processed food. I went food shopping today, and surprisingly spent less money than I usually do. I suppose because I wasn't shopping the inside aisles where all the boxes of processed stuff is. I just assumed to eat clean would cost a fortune. Thank you for all your tips and information!
ReplyDeleteHaha, Whitney, we went to highschool together, and I just came across your blog. Iam just learning to eat healthier and I was looking at this blog and I thought "OMG I know her, we went to PHS together!!!" lol
ReplyDeleteI did this and half my food went bad before I ate it! I just threw out so much produce too..any ideas how to preserve them or what should go in the fridge/freezer verses stay out on the counter..?
ReplyDelete