Tag: meal planning

My Second Week Giving Up Sugar

Posted on November 2, 2014January 8, 2020 by Lisa Hopp

After two weeks of drastically reducing my sugar intake – I feel awesome! I didn’t lose as much weight this week, but I’ve lost 2 inches around my waist! My clothes feel better, I don’t feel swollen, my energy feels even and I feel free. I wasn’t exercising the last two weeks as I wanted to just focus on what I was eating. However, I decided to start adding exercise back in as I’m starting my third week.

It was very freeing when I started my workout today. Usually, I begin my workout thinking I need to exercise as much as 90 minutes so I can burn off the junk I ate that day. But today, I was able to get onto the treadmill and set a goal of rotating walking and running every five minutes for thirty-five minutes and feel a huge accomplishment.

I was aware there are sugars hiding in nearly everything I eat, but had focused my first two weeks on avoiding pop, juices, and sugary treats. I’ve decided to start tracking all sugar I’m eating this third week. I researched the amount of sugar grams I should consume per day. I have found the American Heart Association has 25-30 grams as the maximum recommended sugar intake. I’ve decided to stay below this daily amount. I’ve also set a daily amount of calories I am allowed to eat. I believe between this plan and exercising five times per week, I will see an average of a 2 lb. weight loss. I will use MyFitnessPal to track my calories and sugar. It is a free app. I especially like clicking on complete entry and seeing my expected weight after five weeks of eating similar to that day.

Are you reducing your sugar in your diet? Share your story with us.

Meal Organizing: Prepping Soups

Posted on October 6, 2014January 8, 2020 by Lisa Hopp

Who is craving warm bowls of soup, but find the time it takes to make not ideal for an evening after work? Not only that, but who else buys the vegetables for soup but finds them rotting in the refrigerator by time you get around to making it? Well, our soup prepping tips may save you time and veggies. The next time you go shopping, plan a little time later that day or one of the next evenings to chop and prep soup. In this post, we share prepping for two soups Red Pepper Soup and Chicken Noodle Soup.

Red Pepper Soup

One of our favorite soups is the Red Pepper Soup. To make it easier to whip up this soup, we chop and freeze the vegetables ahead of time. For this soup, we need red peppers, a yellow pepper, celery and onion. We’ve chopped the first batch of vegetables and are ready to bag. It does take some time to chop up the vegetables, I chose to sit at the kitchen table with a large bowl next to me to capture all the stems, seeds, etc. to throw away after. By chopping these vegetables ahead of time, we are able to pull the bags out of the freezer and place into the refrigerator the day before we make the soup. There are two batches of soup below. We plan on making both in one large batch of soup.

meal-planning-meal-preparation-red-pepper-soup-recipe-bagged

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken noodle soup is a must to have on hand whether it’s for a cold day or someone’s sick – you never know when you will need to whip up a batch! Chopping and freezing the vegetables ahead of time, makes whipping up a batch of soup a breeze! We chopped up carrots, celery and onions ahead of time. Just add chicken, broth and seasonings for a quick homemade batch of chicken noodle soup.

Quiche Breakfast Cupcakes

Posted on August 26, 2014January 8, 2020 by Lisa Hopp

Eating protein at breakfast helps you to feel satisfied longer and keep your blood sugars balanced. This recipe is easy to make ahead for a quick and easy breakfast. Make a batch of these quiches and freeze. In the morning, microwave for about one minute.

Eat these along with a cup of coffee, some fruit, and a slice of toast for a great breakfast.

Make Ahead Recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 Tube Hot Ground Sausage
9 Eggs
1/4 cup Milk
Minced Onion
Cheddar Cheese
1/8 Cup Ranch
2 Tsp. Hot Sauce
4 oz. cheddar cheese
Pie Crust

Make Ahead Step 1:

A day or two before making the quiche, brown up the sausage and place in a container in the refrigerator. This makes it even easier to make these. Make the entire tube and freeze in two separate containers for future quiche or double the batch.

Make Ahead Step 2:

Preheat oven to 350.
Microwave roll of pie crust for about 30 seconds to soften. Pinch off a piece of pie crust and press into the bottoms of a cup cake pan.
Evenly distribute the sausage on top of each pie crust.
Sprinkle each with minced onion.
In a bowl, mix together the eggs and milk. Then add hot sauce, ranch and cheese. Evenly distribute into each cup cake mold.
Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the quiche is firm.
Place into ziploc bags and freeze.