Let's Talk About: meal prepping and what a week's worth of food might look like..

Okay, so maybe not a week's worth, but almost!

Sunday nights for me are pretty centered around making my week go as smoothly as possible.  Part of this means cleaning my apartment so I feel like I'm getting a fresh start on Monday, and the other part (very important) is food prep.

So, one of the negative things about living in Bushwick is that I don't have a big organic super market where I can get everything I need for the week in one stop, but what my neighborhood lacks in Wholefood's convenience, it makes up for in the fact that we have some pretty great butcher shops and an awesome food co-op.  So my Sunday afternoons usually include a short bike ride to The Meat Hook where they de-bone and skin three or four chicken breasts for me (around a pound and a half will yield five 4oz servings when cooked), and then a trip to the Bushwick Food Co-op to buy pretty much everything else.  And when all else fails, I can usually go to our little grocery store Brooklyn Natural and pay a little more if I really need something.

Here's what a typical week looks like for me:

I tend to buy the same thing every week when it comes to breakfasts and lunches, and then change it up depending on how I'm feeling for dinner.  My entire food haul today was $55, however, nearly a third of that is for the chicken.  At $15 a pound it's a high price to pay, but oh man, it is the best damn chicken you will ever have.  That being said, if I have time to stop on my ride home from work, or I'm visiting my parents and have access to a market that sells less expensive chicken, I stock up.  It might not be the best chicken ever, but $6.99 a pound for some Murray's chicken cutlets hurts a little less.  Also, you probably can't tell from my photo but some of my produce isn't as pristine as what you might buy at your local market.  This is one of the great things about shopping at the food co-op: produce that is a little less than pretty can be found in the half off bin.  I'll usually turn to the half off bin for things that I know I'm going to use right away, for example, the onion and the peppers I bought today were probably on their way out, but I didn't mind since they were going straight into tonight's dinner as soon as I got home.  I'll definitely be going more in depth about food co-op shopping in a few weeks because it really is a money saver when you eat organic (not to mention more environmentally friendly), and most co-ops have so much more than just produce (like cleaning supplies, grains, nuts, flours, etc, from the bulk bins that you can bring your own jars and shop for a way discounted price by not needing fancy packaging).

My day usually goes something like this:

Breakfast = meusli (not pictured because I keep it at the office) with almond milk and berries
Lunch = salad: romaine lettuce, green onion, cherry tomatoes, feta, grilled chicken, and Annie's Light Goddess dressing
Snacks = two hard boiled eggs, an apple, and then something sweet after dinner like a few pieces of dark chocolate.  There's a chocolate company called Fine & Raw a few blocks from my apartment who have been my go for when I want something sweet but don't feel like making anything (bonus points for the fact that you get to see them making it all right there, and it smells like heaven).
Dinner = some kind of protein and roasted or sauteed vegetables.  Lately, there's been a whole lot of kale and sweet potatoes going on.  Tonight was shrimp fajitas (shrimp, onions, poblano and sweet yellow peppers, sauteed with some butter and salt and pepper) with pico de gallo.
Also not pictured: my morning latte, and my afternoon coffee.. or two.
Also also not pictured: the various snacks the people at my office bring in in an attempt at derailing this lovely healthy food train I'm on.

Okay, so there you have it.  Like I said in the beginning of the post, it's not quite a weeks worth, I do end up stopping at the store here and there during the week for things I end up needing for specific recipes.  Also this does not include the things I already have in my pantry and freezer that go into my weekly meals, but it should give you a decent idea of what to buy!