Making Life Easier and Healthier With Meal Prep

On Tuesday, March 21, 2023 I will be hosting two free Zoom Chats about meal planning and meal prep (12:00 PM PST time and 5:30 PM PST). If you are interested click here to sign up: https://www.marciasiveknutrition.com/booking-calendar/free-monthly-zoom-chats?referral=service_list_widget .

The topic for these talks this month is how to start thinking about balanced eating, what that balanced eating means, and how to prep and think ahead to make life easier and healthier. In the above photo, I am showing the veggies I prepped in 30 minutes. I cleaned, cut and put the veggies in containers that I can easily just grab and go. If you are like me, the hardest part of getting veggies in is hating to have to cut them up and prep them for cooking. So I set aside a morning, usually on Sunday while my husband is cooking breakfast, and I do prep. Along with prepping the veggies, I throw in 2-3 pounds of chicken thighs in the slow cooker so I have protein to go with the veggies. Sometimes I also hard boil a dozen eggs because they are the perfect grab and go snack.

In the picture below I am slow roasting chicken in bone broth to make a delicious version of a tortilla soup I make almost every week. This will provide several days of lunches or dinners for my husband and I. I also sometimes eat a cup for breakfast! I posted the recipe below for your convenience!

slow cooking chicken for soup

No Tortilla "Tortilla" Soup

2-2.5 lbs of chicken thighs bone in and skin on

~64 oz chicken broth - I either use 2 Pacific Foods broth or 2 Bonafide Bone Broth + water)

1 med to large yellow onion

2 jalapeno peppers

1 bunch of cilantro

2-3 clove of garlic

5-6 med tomatoes

2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

2 TBS olive oil

Avocado

Lime

Cooking Directions:

• Add chicken thighs and broth to slow cooker or large pot

• Add 1/2 onion, 1 jalapeño pepper and half the bunch of cilantro cut in chunks - they don't need to be cut up finely, they are there for flavor and will be removed after cooking. If using a slow cooker, cook chicken on LOW for 4.5 to 5 hours or on HIGH for 3-4 hours.

• When chicken is cooked, take chicken and vegetables out of broth with slotted spoon. Pour broth into a large pot and turn stove to med-high. When chicken is cooled, peel the skin and remove chicken from bone and add chicken to broth. Salt and pepper to taste.

• While broth and chicken are warming up. Mix the tomatoes, 1/2 onion, 1 jalapeño pepper, remaining cilantro and chipotle peppers with adobo sauce in a food processor until blended well ( it will look like a fine salsa)

• Pour tomato mixture into a saute pan with olive oil. Cook the mixture for about 8 minutes to brown a little. It will get aromatic. You can add salt and pepper to taste.

• When tomato mix is done, add to the chicken and broth. Warm up enough to eat.

• In a soup bowl add 1/4 fresh avocado cut up into pieces and squeeze in a wedge of lime, add soup on top of lime and avocado and enjoy.

• The original recipe recommends crumbled up tortillas and sprinkled cheddar cheese on top. I cannot do this with my food sensitivities but you can try those as toppers.

This makes a huge batch of soup. So I eat a few meals and can still pour some into storage container and freeze for a lunch or dinner in the future.