My adventures in meal planning – Day one

Today’s meals

Breakfast: PB + J smoothie bowl

Lunch: Taco Salad

Dinner: Zoodles with meat sauce

Snack: apple and peanut butter

Not being familiar with how to cook turkey for the taco salad and zoodles dishes I decided to make them the night before. It is such a time saver and being able to take out a lunchbox from the fridge brings me back so many positive school memories  It took me about one hour and 15 minutes to cook lunch and dinner in advance which for my first time using some of the ingredients was not bad.

Breakfast

This was as quick as it gets – I put all of the ingredients into the blender: banana, frozen berries and then almond milk and almond butter. One minute later I poured it into a bowl and was good to go. I did find it had an interesting smell from the almond butter. I am not a big fan of certain nut butters – almond butter being one of them but I wanted to follow the plan and see how my body reacted to it. I found the almond butter a bit of a strong taste but the berries made it sweeter and easier to drink. I also added a cup of water to add more liquid. I think next time when I make it I will add more water and try a different nut butter like peanut or coconut.

Lunch

This was also easy being a cold salad of turkey with taco seasoning and avocado, tomato, lettuce and salsa. It was a delicious combination and one that I am now adding to my collection of favourite “recipes”. I’ve not made many salads before and this just looks and tastes really fresh whilst also being substantial enough to feel full.

It was like I was eating at my favourite Mexican restaurant.

I don’t know if I used too much turkey, or if I was just super full from the breakfast smoothie, but I didn’t finish the whole salad. I decided to tweak tomorrow’s plan and keep the leftover taco salad for tomorrow’s dinner. Another meal sorted!! Meal prep for the win!

Dinner

Now having already made it along with lunch all I had to do was open the box, take a fork and dig in. This was my first ever time making zoodles (zucchini noodles) and they were super light. I was worried that I wouldn’t like the taste or that it would be too healthy as a substitute for pasta or spaghetti. Having sprialised the vegetable I then sautéed the zoodles in oil for 2 minutes before transferring them to meal prep box (after they cooled). I did help myself to a few zoodles before they went in the box and I was surprised by how good they tasted. Then with the turkey and pasta sauce it really did taste like a much healthier version of spaghetti Bolognese. I can see myself eating these as a regular meal.

Snack time

I got hungry around 4pm and normally would reach for chocolate or biscuits. Instead of those I had an apple and it kept me full for about half an hour and then I started to feel hungry again. This is when I realised that I had only had one litre of water so I kept on drinking water in small amounts to feel full. I have decided to have 6pm as a cut off for drinking water or I end up not being able to sleep comfortably.

Day one has gone quite well so far minus not liking almond butter. I feel like more energetic and. I skipped my morning coffee. I definitely feel lighter and my stomach has stayed flat all day. Maybe this meal plan thing really does work. Hmmmm let’s see how tomorrow goes!