NaNo Prep: Food Prep: What to eat and the easiest way to do so.

Food Prep

One of the important things to keep in mind is to eat healthy. Yes, you’re going to try to convince yourself that you need all this sugar and caffeine to keep up or that you don’t have the time to eat healthy, but that’s just not the case. Of course you can eat some left over Halloween candy here and there, but don’t make it your diet for the next month. With healthy foods, you’ll actually have more energy without the crash and your mind will be working much better.

I have a group of close knit friends for the month of November, their names are: fridge, crockpot, and blender. Here’s some of the simple things you can do to make your life easier with meals as well as healthy.

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Prep your fridge with good foods! Pick a day, any day! I’m going to go with Sunday because that’s the easiest for me. I do all my shopping and take the time to prep for the week. I chop fruits and vegetables, grill up chicken and other meats, and put them all in nice little containers. This helps you grab and go when you need to. You get it all done on one day of the week and you’re set. I know you’re thinking, yes, yes, people have said this before–but really, it works wonderfully if you can just take the time to do it.

Crockpots are great. You can throw everything in one of them at the start of the day, come back later and dinner is complete and waiting for you. One of the best things about the crockpot, is that you can easily prep and freeze/refrigerate the ingredients for a meal in a single ziplock bag. Go ahead and prep these bags the same day you prep the rest of the fridge foods and get it all done in one shot. There’s a ton of websites with recipes for pre-made crockpot meals. Here’s one of the first I found: 20 meals in 2 hours.

If you don’t want to do that, you can stick a few chicken breasts or even a whole chicken in the crockpot. In a few hours you’ll have shredded chicken to which you can use to put a quick meal together: chicken tacos, chicken salad, chicken and rice, just the shredded chicken, etc. The same can be done with pork or beef.

Blenders are my happy friends. When I need sugar, I go for the fruits. Throw some grapes, ice, and a lime in the blender, you have a happy slushy of pure goodness that will fill you up and satisfy your sugar need. You can even make ice cream this way by using frozen fruits, a liquid (half and half, coconut milk, juice), and sugar (if you want). I‘ll post a recipe before this week is over.

Berry Gelato :Click for recipe!

Watermelon Lime Slush!

For caffeine, go for teas. Good for you and filled with antioxidants, they won’t give you the same crash you get from soda or coffee. I like to make a huge jug of iced green tea to have available at any time. Kirkland, Costco’s brand, had a great green tea that comes in a box that lasts me a month (probably would last longer if only one person was drinking the tea). It looks like this: