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Hey y'all! Last week, I shared my Food Prep Essentials. Check it out here. As part of my food prep essentials, I usually prep a dip or sauce to eat throughout the week. This hummus is on the top of the list.  Hummus is a dip made out of chickpeas or garbanzo beans. It is pureed until creamy with just a few additional ingredients. One of the main ingredients in hummus is tahini. Tahini is sesame seed paste. Think peanut butter, but made out of sesame seeds instead of peanut butter. Tahini is now available in most grocery stores. You can find it in the peanut butter aisle or the international aisle. This hummus is a recipe that you can make in under 10 minutes using minimal kitchen equipment - all you need is a blender (easy cleanup!) You may just find that making your own is more delicious and cheaper than the store bought kind. 5-INGREDIENT* EASY HOMEMADE HUMMUSINGREDIENTS:
*Water, salt and pepper are not include in the ingredient count since they are common to have in most households. **May need to add more water to get the consistency you like. ***1 whole garlic clove makes this quite garlicky. If you don't love garlic, cut back to 1/2 clove or omit. DIRECTIONS:
 What are some of your favorite hummus flavors? Comment below or share by using the hashtag #MealPlanningMethod.
christy
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Hey y'all! Is it just me or does it seem like there is just not enough time in the day? One way I make more time in my day is to dedicate some time one day a week to meal prep. Yep - to make more time, I have to take some time.  Food or meal prep is one of our essentials to eating more healthfully. It is most often overlooked, but it shouldn't be. It creates more time throughout your week (trust me), alleviates stress from the question of "What's for dinner?" and brings dinner (lunches, snacks) together in no time. Try it out. Look at your schedule. Find a place where you have 30 minutes of free time. Take this 30 minutes and meal prep for your week. Now, what we mean here at The Meal Planning Method when we say meal prep is not making your dinners in their entirety during this 30 minutes; but rather to prep the more time consuming components to these meals. Today, I am sharing a list of the 5 foods I meal prepped this week. I am including how I plan to use them plus some tips to prepping them. CHOPPED VEGGIES If you don't have time for anything else - this is the one I recommend to do. Chopping vegetables is an easy task. But, let's be honest, it can be time consuming. We can have the best of intentions to create a healthful meal after work, but it is easy to change that plan real fast if all of sudden it is 7:00 (or later!) and we still have to chop, cook, bake, eat, clean. By pre-chopping the vegetables you will need throughout the week. It cuts the recipe prep time by a lot! Plus, it makes adding vegetables even easier to your meals throughout the week such as in scrambled eggs, salads, chicken or tuna salad, pasta, etc. This week, I chopped
HARDBOILED EGGS Hardboiled eggs are always on my meal prep list. They are a quick and nutritious boost of protein to any meal or snack. I will slice these up and put on top of avocado toast, have as a snack with a piece of fruit or chop up and make an egg salad for lunch. How to make perfect hardboiled eggs:
* Did you know the gray ring around the egg yolk is a sign that the egg is over cooked? This method will create perfect hardboiled eggs every time. FREEZER OATMEAL MUFFINS I've talked about these before on here, but they truly have been a breakfast game changer for me. I'll be honest - I don't always give myself tons of time in the morning to make an elaborate breakfast + get ready for work. (Continuously working on my morning routine - it's a work in progress). These freezer oatmeal muffins allow me to have a filling and nutritious breakfast with minimal cooking and time in the morning. Check this post and this post for more tips on these amazing oatmeal muffins. My Freezer Oatmeal Muffin Method:
BAKED CHICKEN Baking chicken on my meal prep day is another great way to prep a meal component instead of the complete meal. This gives us options for variety. My husband makes chicken quesadillas and brings them to work for his lunch (would be great for a quick dinner as well). We also will add this chicken to salads or pasta or make a homemade chicken salad. Simply, preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a baking dish add chicken, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake until cooked through, about 20-25 minutes depending on your oven. Store in a glass container. You can also freeze this chicken. (I froze half this week - it was more than what we needed). Tip for freezing foods: Always write on the food: (1) what it is (2) date it was frozen. Trust me on this. Once frozen, everything looks the same and you will know how long it has been in there to make sure it is still safe to eat. HOMEMADE HUMMUS I like to add a dip or sauce to my meal prep day for quick and easy snacks or for lunches. This was was homemade hummus. Other weeks, it may be my cashew veggie dip or cashew cream cheese. Making homemade hummus is super easy and cheaper than the store bought kinds. Next week, I will post my recipe for homemade hummus. :)  How will you incorporate meal prep into your week? Share with us my commenting below or by using the hashtag #MealPlanningMethod.
christy Hey planners! Hope your September is off to an amazing start. Mine has been full of travel which is quite unlike my typical routine. Because of this, I've been having to kick my meal planning into high gear. Meal planning around travel doesn't have to take more time out of your regular routine, just some preparation before you head out of town which may be very different than what you're used to -- aka the phone call to your local take out pizza place and eventual trip to the grocery store several days later. Well no more! Here are 7 foods that you can make ahead of time to enjoy after you return from traveling. (Pst! You're going to want to make room in your freezer.)  1SMOOTHIE PACKSLet's be honest, smoothies can be a simple, sippable meal to-go, but sometimes gathering up all your ingredients and breaking out the blender just takes too many steps! Throw everything you need into a "smoothie pack" so all you have to do is add liquid, blend it up, and you're ready to rock and roll. Try these 3-ingredient smoothie ideas from Hello Glow. 2STEEL CUT OATSTypically, the longer is takes to cook oats, the more wholesome and nutritious they are. So for steel cut oats, the average cook time could clock upwards of 30 minutes. Uhh... no bueno when you need to get going in the morning. The fix? Cook them up ahead of time so you can just heat up & head out the door. Try this awesome technique using a muffin tin from Popsugar.  3SHREDDED CHICKENChicken is undoubtedly on of the most versatile and liked proteins amongst family members. Cut down your cook time to make a meal fast by freezing shredded chicken (like this from Savvy Apron) for later. You'll be asking yourself, "What can't I use this for?!" 4GROUND MEATGround meat is another great protein to keep on hand to make any meal complete. Go for the highest percentage of lean (lowest in fat) that you can find (turkey included). Learn how to cook & freeze ground meat easily from The Krazy Coupon Lady.  5BROWN RICEIf you're like me, you LOVE rice, but loathe the time it takes to cook it. Cook rice once and just heat to eat by freezing. Check out this tutorial on how to freeze brown rice from The Kitchn. 6HUMMUSHummus isn't just a delicious dip for raw veggies. It's also a wonderful sandwich spread! Have hummus on hand at all time by freezing it using this advice from SFGate. 7HOMEMADE PIZZAAnd because I know it's sooo very tempting to pick up the phone and call in a delivery pizza, I'm including tasty alternative the whole family can help with. You gotta try these Homemade Frozen Pizza's from Live Simply when you get home.  Which food will you try to make before your next trip?
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