Speaker 1: So, it's a new year and you want to learn how to meal prep and make more meals at home but you really just don't know where to start and you're overwhelmed with all of the videos on the internet because when you think meal prep, you think of this and this and this and this. But have no fear, I am in fact not a gym bro and I am not going to teach you how to make chicken, broccoli, and rice five days a week. We're actually going to spice it up and make meals that you actually enjoy, that you're actually going to want to eat by the time you get to that day in the week and we're going to walk through all of my tips, tricks, and things that have made me successful when I have meal prepped in the past and made my own meals from home. So first, let's start with the grocery store. I want to first talk about something I think that you should avoid when you go to the grocery store. You should avoid those pre-packaged, pre-sliced, pre-chopped vegetables and ingredients. Unless you are so insanely busy, you quite literally have no time to cook for yourself at home, unless you need like the utmost convenience, I recommend avoiding it. Again, you might have kids, a super busy life, you have no time, maybe you have 30 minutes to eat dinner before you like end work and go to your next thing or maybe you have some kind of physical limitation or illness or disability that prevents you from standing in the kitchen, cooking, chopping, prepping. If any of that applies to you, go for it. Get the pre-sliced zucchini, the pre-chopped sweet potatoes, go for it. But I feel like if you're anybody else and you have the time and you have the energy and you don't want to spend a lot of money, I recommend just buying the produce, the ingredients and things as they are. I recommend this for a few reasons. One, it's going to teach you how to cook, how to chop vegetables, how to prepare them, how to set them up. Two, it's a lot more cost effective and especially with prices these days, I don't like to always pay for convenience unless I absolutely have to. And three, I feel like the times I have bought those pre-chopped items before, I feel like they go bad a lot quicker. So that's just my opinion. Something that I like to do when I grocery shop, which has made me very successful, is following a 5-4-3-2-1 sort of pattern when I'm shopping, starting with five, five fruits and veggies. Because I want to really fill up that meal prep, that plate, that whatever with fruits and veggies. And I'm sorry if you're someone that doesn't like fruits and veggies, sorry, you're an adult now. You got to start liking something. Now you can do five fruits, five veggies, or you can do like a mix of everything. You can do just five vegetables, you can do four veggies, one fruit, whatever you want to do, but at least, at least five. And these are things I typically go for when I'm going to the grocery store. And also, I don't know if anybody's told you, but it is totally fine and I think sometimes even better to opt for frozen and canned items. That's why a lot of people don't like to meal prep or they don't like to do things like this because they're eating the same thing all the time and it's just like really, really boring and nobody wants to eat broccoli every single day. They just, they just don't, okay, unless you're a rabbit or something. Four is going to be our protein. So I'm kind of speaking specifically to those that eat meat. I want you to pick four proteins, at least, that you really, really like. So for me personally, my four go-to proteins are chicken, ground turkey, salmon, and then that fourth one is usually something like tuna or, I usually do like tuna or cod or something. Again, you're welcome to do whatever you want with those four. If you prefer plant-based proteins, do that. If you prefer to substitute for some kind of bean or legume or tofu, totally go for that as well. Whatever works for you and your lifestyle. I'm just going to get a t-shirt that says whatever works for you. My biggest and best tip when it comes to buying proteins is sort of buying them in bulk. Ever since I started following this little routine and this tip, I buy meat maybe like four, if not five times a year. That might sound really weird, but hear me out. So every so often I'll go to the store and I will just kind of stock up on meat. So if you have a membership to like Costco's, BJ's, whatever it is, this is your chance to shine. But also I get a lot of my meat from just like regular grocery stores, Harris Teeter, the Fresh Market, Whole Foods, whatever. I will buy a big pack of chicken breast. I will buy several packages of ground turkey. I will buy like a handful of canned tuna from the store. I will go to the meat counter and get a couple pounds of salmon and I dedicate like an hour of time to cutting it, splitting it, separating it, storing it, and freezing it. This has helped so much I cannot express it. I'm no food safety expert. I don't know how long certain things can last in the freezer. In my eyes, if it's in the freezer, the longevity is as long as I want it to be. Okay. I have eaten meats and vegetables and popsicles that have been in the freezer for quite a long time. So this is only just a mere explanation of an experience. I'm not telling you to eat six month old frozen meat. Do what you want, whatever works for you. Again, the t-shirt, whatever works for you. Do what you feel comfortable with. Google it if you want, see how long certain things can last in the freezer. For me, I freeze everything and eat it whenever. And for me, as long as it's not frostbitten and has a ton of like the white ice on it, I'm going to eat it. I don't care. Number three are your carbs. You can pick whatever three you want. Surprise, surprise. For me, typically I like to go for some kind of bean or potato. The second one is brown rice and the third one is typically like an oatmeal or a protein pasta or something. I still, I'm not, I'm no longer keto. If you have followed my videos from kind of like the start of my YouTube channel, but I still just am not like huge on eating a lot of carbs all the time. You can do white rice, potatoes, beans, pasta, quinoa, some kind of carb to give you energy and to add a little sustenance to your meal. For two, I recommend some kind of healthy fat slash something that you can cook with. So for me, my go-to two fats I feel like all the time are avocados and olive oil. You could easily do something like cheese, ghee, coconut oil, whatever it is. For me personally, I love to use olive oil for cooking. I know it has like a lot of natural healthy benefits to it and I feel like avocado I can put on anything. I can put on a ground turkey bowl, I can put on eggs for breakfast, I can put in a salad and lastly for one, I wonder if you can guess it, but it is in fact a little some sweet. All right. And maybe you're not somebody that is into sweets. Maybe that's just me. For one, I recommend whatever it is, sweet, savory, indulgent, whatever it is, the thing that you like. Keep that in your routine. Okay. Don't quit your favorite snacks, desserts, indulgences, whatever that one thing is. Keep it in moderation. Keep that one thing in your routine so you don't lose the joy of eating the things that you like and enjoying the things that you love. Welcome back to my kitchen. I have so many videos on my channel of grocery hauls, of meal prep videos, of recipe videos. So I can link those all below if you want to check those out. Just if you need a little inspiration, if like this video isn't enough and you need more inspo, I got you. I want to share with you a few of my pantry staples. These are things I feel like I always have on hand because if I have absolutely nothing to eat, I can at least make something from one of these things. Again, I talked about the canned stuff. I feel like I always have black beans on hand. The things you can make with black beans are endless. Okay. Burritos, ground turkey bowls, add them to a salad. You can make a little black bean burgers if you want. Options are endless. One of the many canned vegetables that I have, I feel like green beans are just an easy go-to. They go on the side of everything. They're easy to eat. You can season them up. You can spice them up any way that you want. And I always typically have some kind of tomato something in my pantry because I can blend this down and make a red sauce out of it. I can use the diced tomatoes to make something like a chili. I can add this, I can strain it, add it to a salad, like some kind of tomato something, tomato paste, whole tomatoes, diced tomatoes, can make something out of it. And the haters can hate all they want, but I am a fan of tuna. Okay. Will this kill me in 50 years? I don't know. Do I eat it every day? Definitely not. I like the pouch tunas. I add these to salads. I can eat right out of this little pouch and then I have my protein and a little snack, a little lunch. I also liked canned tuna if I'm making like tuna salad or if I'm doing something with like hard boiled eggs. Tuna is like a great go-to. It lasts forever in your pantry. You can eat it once in a while, do whatever you want, but I always, I always got tuna. When it comes to snacking, I feel like I'm always switching it up and I always go through different phases of things that I love and things that I hate and things that I hyper fixate on for a long time. So my snacks are constantly changing. I'll get into the more like fresh produce and like veggie dip and things that we'll get to that in a second. Let's talk about the package stuff first. So two of my favorite go-to like salty snacks that I have recently fallen in love with and I feel like these are definitely healthier options when it comes to something, if you're going to have like a package snack. Um, for me, typically I like to look at the ingredients and I just try to opt for things with less oils, less artificial flavors, less additives, things like that. Do whatever you want though. If you don't want to read the ingredients of the label, girl, don't. Okay. I just, for me, for like my lifestyle, I try to do the best that I can. So one of my newest favorites I'm obsessed is this lesser evil popcorn and then I get the one that is the Himalayan gold. It is, I think it's vegan. Yes, it is vegan stamped, but they use a butter flavored coconut oil and Himalayan salt. This tastes like movie theater popcorn. Like this tastes like it is full of butter, but there's no butter. It's genius. And it has a little bit of fiber. So I feel like it is definitely a healthier snack, at least in my opinion. For every video where I talk about food or nutrition or wellness, health is subjective. My definition of health and healthy foods and health and blah, blah, blah, may not be the same as yours. So take this video with a grain of salt. We do not have to have the exact same opinion and that's okay because if we all had the same opinion, life would be boring. My other favorite go-to kind of salty snack that is more of like the package snack. Recently I've been obsessed with these siete chips. They come in so many delicious flavors. I did just get like the plain sea salt just to have like a regular shmegular potato chip. The barbecue ones are really good and the salt and vinegar. Your girl loves anything with vinegar as long as my tongue is burning. I love it. Same with this. You could buy regular Lay's potato chips if you wanted. For me, I try to opt for like the healthier option on the market. One of the candies I feel like I always have in my pantry over here are smart sweets. I love smart sweets. I feel like they satisfy that sweet tooth craving that I have from time to time and they are more of the fruity sort of type of snacks. So I like to have these. These are great at the end of the day. This little pack, 100 calories, two of probably my favorite packaged bars that exist. Not a big fan of protein bars. I feel like most of them taste like chalk and they're not really good and a lot of things that just don't sit well in my stomach personally. So again, not to sound like a broken record, but I'm not trying to be like, I'm so perfect. I eat organic and little ingredients and all these things all the time. You know, the internet likes to blow things out of proportion, so I'm not trying to sit here and say that I'm perfect because I'm not, because I still like Chick-fil-A and I still like stuff that may be classified as bad or unhealthy. So let's just clear that up right now. But again, if I'm opting for the healthier thing, two of my favorites are that's it bars and Go Macro bars. Again, the ingredients are a little bit cleaner. They have a little bit more health benefits to them. All right, onto the good stuff. Let me give you a little tour of my fridge. If you see some Christmas stuff up, mind your business. Okay? All right, let's open my fridge. It's still a little messy right now, but let me talk you through some of the things I have and why I have them. And yes, Logan and I, as best friends living together, we are two sauce girlies. All right, whatever sauce you need, we've got it. I have rice wine vinegar, coconut aminos. I have the Trader Joe's sweet chili sauce, just things to make your meals less boring. Salsa, always got to have some kind of salsa. You can mix this into literally anything. You know, once in a while we like to save our Chick-fil-A sauce packets too, because if you have some kind of chicken at home, you can use the Chick-fil-A sauce packet or whatever your heart desires. Let's zoom you into the fridge a little bit. All right. This is very zoomed. Okay, maybe not this much. Where should I stand? Let me stand over here. I don't really know. So back to that 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 thing. I went grocery shopping yesterday, got some blueberries, got some strawberries, and I have some bananas over here on the counter. Three fruits, right? And then I got a big thing of lettuce. Now I eat salads all the time. So if you aren't big on salads, don't buy a big thing of mixed greens. It will go bad very, very fast. I eat salads a lot. I add greens to a lot of things. This works for me. I also grabbed a container of dates. I like to have dates just like as a one-off for a little something sweet, a little flam sweet. Or I also like to make those like healthy snicker bar kind of things where you cut them open and you put a little peanut butter and a little chocolate on that. And if I'm not eating something like popcorn or potato chips, what other kind of snacks do I have? I love cucumbers. I like to chop them up, have them with a like yogurt style dressing. Big fan of cucumber. Again, what do we have here? Versatility. You can add them into your salad. Add them into your little bento lunchbox thing. Versatility. Versatility. Big fan of Ollipop. If you're trying to limit your soda intake or maybe your alcohol intake, sugar, highly recommend. There's also a brand called Poppy. I personally like Ollipop a lot better. Delicious. They have helped me curb my craving for soda, diatom pepper, sometimes still have it, but so good. Personal favorite is the ginger, lemon. I love ginger though. Like ginger is so good, but they have like an orange flavor. I also really, really like their strawberry vanilla. So good. Gotta keep the fridge stocked. And also on the Ollipop website, if you are going to order some online, they have a lot of really good discounts. I know they have like a healthcare worker discount, a teacher discount. I think if you are like a fireman or a policeman or anything, they have like really good discounts. So definitely go check that out. If you're any of those or you work in any of those fields, save a little money on your order. Not sponsored. So that brings me to the floor of my kitchen, but more importantly, the freezer. Now, I live in an apartment, so the freezer space is not great. If I am ever able to afford a house in the future, because houses are like really expensive and I don't have that kind of money, I would love to invest in like a deep freezer. That'd be amazing. But for now, we have this bad boy. So let me show you what's in the freezer. And yes, isn't that weird? It opens like this. So everyone that comes over, they try to pull it thinking it comes out this way, but no, it opens to the side. It's very unique. Well, the first thing you see here is my ice riller. This is where we store our ice stuff. So here is how I have the fridge, freezer sort of organized. It's hard to say. We've got tequila and vodka in the back, the essentials. I'll buy bananas, cut them up like this, store them in the freezer, you guessed it, for smoothies, things like that. I'm a big fan of, again, frozen green beans, frozen edamame, I just throw rubber bands around them. More green beans. We've got, I think I probably need to buy some more vegetables, but typically I have like broccoli, things like that in there. I think you guys know by now, I'm a big soup girl. I love making soup and soup is so easy and it's also another thing I highly recommend people meal prep because it lasts forever. It makes a ton of servings. This is how I store my soup. It's actually the easiest thing ever. I take a gallon Ziploc bag and then I portion out like a cup and a half of soup at a time, put it in another Ziploc bag and bam, this is chicken soup I made like last week and this is like one serving. So when I am running out of things to meal prep, I know I have a couple of servings of soup and then I just take this out at the beginning of the day, put it in the fridge to let it defrost and then when I come home from work, it's defrosted, throw it in a pot to heat it up, throw it in the microwave, bam, dinner, piece of cake. This one here is where we kind of keep all the good stuff, all the meats and proteins and things and this is what I'm talking about, the bulk thing at the start of the month. So this for example is all salmon. This is a Ziploc bag full of salmon. I bought like two pounds of salmon. I cut them up in serving sizes and then it's all frozen, portioned out. So if I know I want salmon for dinner, pull this out at the beginning of the day, put it in the fridge, let it defrost and then I can have it for dinner. I buy a bunch of ground turkey, separate them into little bags and then there you go. This is one serving of ground turkey and then I'm like ready to go and again, this has probably lasted me a couple of months because I just like rotate through the proteins that I eat. So it makes it very easy to store, to serve. I don't have to buy meat all of the time. I'm buying meat just a couple times per year because of this like freezing and storing method. I typically think of meal prepping less as prepping the actual meal itself and prepping the ingredients because that is half the battle is just chopping the veggies, cleaning it, getting it ready, putting it together, making things like soup in big batches, um, ripping up a rotisserie chicken, just having chicken with some other sides with it. So much easier than making the same thing five days in a row. If you have cooked rice, cooked pasta, chopped up veggies and things in your fridge, when you come home from work that night, you can just put together a couple of things. You kind of put it on a rotating thing. You grab a little chicken that you made, a little rice with some zucchini and squash or you take your ground turkey with some salad mix and a little dressing and a little tomato and then you can just like mix and match everything and have a different thing every single day. I just think that's where so many people get discouraged and they get overwhelmed with the idea of meal prep is thinking that they have to have all of the meals ready to go for the entire week, like rather than just prepping the ingredients and then you can just mix and match things as you go. And that's when you turn to Pinterest, Tik Tok, YouTube for meal ideas, inspiration, things that you can cook that are easy and quick. Hopefully this video was helpful and gave you a little bit of inspiration and opened up your mind to different ways of meal prepping, prepping your ingredients and getting your life together to just cook more meals at home and maybe eat out less. As always, if you made it this far in the video, thank you so much for watching. If you're not already, please subscribe to my channel. I have 100 K on my vision board for the year and I'm a little over 90,000 subscribers, so I'm really hoping I hit 100 K this year. If you can be a part of it, all you have to do is subscribe. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.