Hi friends!

Hope you all are doing well and you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!  I know it’s been a while between posts, but I’ve been a busy girl studying for my NASM Personal Trainer test!  Can’t believe I’m finally taking it in two weeks!!

One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve seen and heard out there about meal prepping is that is expensive.  I’m here to tell you that that is so far from the truth!  If you really think about it, eating out multiple times a week at $6-10 a pop minimum quickly adds up!  Although you may not realize it, hitting up drive thrus and restaurants frequently can add up to hundreds of dollars a month.  Shane and I didn’t realize it at the time, but several years ago, both of us ate out for lunch nearly every day of the week.  You figure $15-20 for two people a day times 4-5 days a week, for 4-5 weeks a month, that equates to $250-$500 a month!  Unbelievable!!!  And that’s just lunches out, we’re not even talking dinners yet!  Not only can eating out sabotage your budget, but you have very little control over the nutrition of your food when you’re eating out, so it sabotages your fitness goals too. Here are some easy ways to make meal prepping (or preparing your meals ahead of time) cheap and easy!

• Buy in bulk! Costco, Sam’s Club, or something similar is your friend! These warehouses typically cost $50 a year to join, but it pays for itself in savings!  Personally, I’m a Costco girl!!  You’ll see from my Instagram posts, that we’re huge fans of their chicken and egg whites!  Liquid egg-whites are an excellent source of protein, and they’re safe to drink because they’ve been pasteurized.  Costco sells 6 small cartons for 8 dollars!  That’s super cheap!  You can get chicken for about $3 a pound.  One 7-8 pound package costs about $21 dollars and will feed the two of us for a week, supplemented with maybe turkey, fish, or ground beef to mix things up.  You can catch chicken on sale at your grocery store, but the quality and price of warehouse clubs are hard to beat.  I’ll also buy boiled eggs, almond milk, Greek yogurt, oats, rice and potatoes here too.  All of the staples J  And warehouse clubs are GREAT for cleaning products and household goods too!

• Salsa + Chicken + Crockpot= delicious chicken for days! This recipe could not be easier!  Take a small jar of salsa, about 3-4 pounds of chicken, and cook on low in your Crockpot or slow cooker for about 8 hours.  I use a spicier salsa (Joe T’s Medium is our favorite) and like to add about 4 tablespoons of low sodium taco seasoning.  Once it’s done, you shred up the chicken and you’re ready to go!  The salsa and seasoning don’t change up the macros that much, and this version of chicken is easy to serve over rice or lettuce for an easy meal.  You can also sub out Buffalo sauce for salsa.  It’ll keep in the fridge for 4-5 days.  See—cheap and easy!

• Baked potatoes and rice—carbs are super easy and cheap to prepare ahead of time. I’ll make a cookie sheet of sweet potatoes) and a few baked potatoes (spray them with oil, sprinkle some salt, and roll in foil) and bake them all together at 450 for 90 mins.  Rice is also really simple to make ahead of time.  AND CHEAP.    

• Frozen vegetables—personally I prefer fresh veggies, but from a nutrition standpoint, frozen is just as good! They are really inexpensive too!  Typically you can find pretty much every vegetable for $1-$2 a bag, which has several servings.  I should point out, however, that you want to make sure that you’re getting PLAIN vegetables—there are several brands that add in sauces, cheeses, and seasoning—steer clear of those!  They pack a ton of sodium and fat.  Frozen veggies are also found in bulk at your warehouse clubs!

• Spices—Variety is the spice of life! Spices are really inexpensive—typically $3-5 for a jar—and are probably the easiest way to change up flavor profiles on protein, carbs, and vegetables.  Penzy’s Spices (penzeys.com) has an excellent assortment to choose from, and you can buy them in all different sizes!  Flavor God seasonings (www.flavorgod.com) are also delicious, low sodium options, but they are a little more expensive.  They keep for a long time, and you will get several uses out of one jar.

 I tell my clients all the time that starting out meal prepping isn’t easy.  You have to put some effort into it, and it takes PREPARATION.  You will have to get comfortable and used to eating a lot of the same foods.  It takes some time to adjust and get used to it, but I promised you’ll see the positive payoffs in your waistline, your energy levels, your stress levels, and your pocketbook!

Till next time!

-Mere