Good Monday morning! I'm getting back on the sharing-my-meal-plan-wagon, because according to blog views, it's what you all want to see! Note: I'm calling this meal plan week 2 because it's the second full week of January, so if you're looking for week 1.... you won't find one, oops! So here is my meal plan document screenshot for this week:

• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts. When we were at Sam's over the weekend, their chicken breasts were only $1.77/lb. I can't buy them for that price at my grocery store, and when I can, I stock up. So we bought 2 large packages of chicken breasts, each were around $9. Not too shabby since we go through a LOT of chicken at our house. I bake one whole package of chicken during my Sunday meal prep and then repackage the other into foil packs of 2 breasts each. These chicken breasts are HUGE so when they're thawed and I'm ready to cook with them, I'll fillet them so that I have 4 pieces of chicken. 
• Sweet potatoes. Sam's sells 8 lb bags of sweet potatoes for only $6.48. I know that at our grocery store, they sell individual sweet potatoes and they're huge! So when I pay a certain amount per pound, the price can really get up there. I love buying them in a bag like this, because just like chicken, we use a lot of sweet potatoes. For this week, I roasted 4 sweet potatoes and that was just for our lunches, and I'll most likely have to make some more. We'll also have them for a couple of our dinners this week. And what we don't use this week, will just add to my pantry inventory for next week. 
• Avocados. I eat avocado every single morning with my egg for breakfast. And I love having them around as a good healthy fat to add to any meal or snack. They're great on sandwiches in place of mayo, and even add a great creaminess to smoothies. My local grocery stores sell avocados for a touch cheaper than Sam's, but every time I look through them, they are well past their peak ripeness so I don't like to buy them. The avocados that I buy in a bag from Sam's are only $4.97 for 6, and they are usually still pretty green so I don't feel like I have to use them all in 1-2 days.
• Ground turkey. I love to use ground turkey in place of ground beef, so I like to buy it in bulk at Sam's because it's more cost effective. The packages at Sam's come in 2 containers of 2.5 lbs each, so a total of 5 lbs. I split each of those packages into 2 (so about 1 1/4 lbs each) and wrap them in foil and freeze them. 
• Turkey bacon. My husband has turkey bacon every single day with his breakfast so buying one small package each week just doesn't make sense to me. I buy Oscar Mayer brand turkey bacon at Sam's Club and it comes with 3 packages and costs me only $5.98. My Hy-Vee has Jennie-O (which is honestly the brand I'd rather buy) but it's usually $3 per package. We leave one of the packages in the fridge and freeze the other two. These will usually last 2ish weeks. Sweet!
• Whole wheat tortillas. My husband likes these little snack wraps I make him that have hummus and diced green chilies in them, so I've started buying tortillas at Sam's Club because I figure if I'm going to be using at least 5 tortillas right off the bat during my Sunday meal prep, it doesn't really make much sense to buy the smaller expensive packages from my grocery store. This last trip to Sam's, in addition to the little bitty snack size low-carb tortillas, I also bought soft taco size whole wheat tortillas. These tortillas actually had ground flax seed in them and they have 5 grams of fiber and 8 grams of protein per tortilla! That's awesome!

1. Roast chicken breasts. I brush extra-virgin olive oil on both sides of each piece of chicken and then sprinkle on a seasoning mix I made of salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder and paprika. I don't want to season them too much because of sodium content, but also because I keep some of this chicken in the fridge to add to recipes during the week. If I season them a certain way then it would change the flavor of my recipes. I then roast the chicken in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until my meat thermometer reads at least 160, and yes I do use a thermometer. I let the chicken rest for at least 5-10 minutes after they come out of the oven so that when I cut into them the juices don't just run out.
2. Cook brown rice. I don't use instant rice so this takes a bit more time, but to me it's worth it! Minute rice has been processed in order to cook quicker than regular rice, and this processing takes out a lot of nutrients and especially fiber. The rice takes just a bit longer to cook, but it's really not an inconvenience, and I think it's worth it for the nutrients we're getting. 
3. Roast sweet potatoes. I cube the sweet potatoes and then toss them with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. I roast them in the same temperature oven with the chicken until they're fork tender.
4. Mix up chocolate peanut butter protein balls. I mix these up a little early in my process because they need to be refrigerated for about 30 minutes. You need to try these, they're an awesome sweet snack! Click here for the link to my post with the recipe. 
5. Mix up granola. I like to have a jar of homemade granola to put in my yogurt. You could buy granola but I like to make it myself so that I can customize it to what we like, and I can also control the sugar content. I'll post my recipe in the next day or 2. The recipe I make needs to bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes, so I wait for the chicken and potatoes to be done before I decrease the oven temp for the granola. 
6. Chop up veggies. I cut up a bunch of broccoli and bell peppers for the week and we'll use them for both snacks and in recipes. 
7. Prep snacks. After being refrigerated, I formed the protein balls and put them in an airtight container. I also make up hummus wraps. These are made with small whole wheat tortillas, then I spread about a tablespoon of whatever hummus I have on hand and sprinkle some diced green chilies over that, roll them up and wrap them in plastic wrap. I've also made them with chopped jalapeno or roasted red peppers. They sound kind of odd but they are good and my husband really likes them. 
8. Put meals together! This week I put together our lunches and snacks. For my lunches, I measured out chicken, sweet potatoes, brown rice and broccoli. I have either sweet potatoes or brown rice with my chicken and broccoli, and alternate the days I eat them so I don't get bored. My husband takes his lunches to work too, but he has a fancy new meal prep lunch bag with containers. I measure out his chicken into individual containers and then he refills his own carb and veggie containers every night. He does this because his lunch bag didn't come with enough containers for us to measure out every single day for him. 

Here's everything....it's a thing of beauty!!

And done! This week it took about an hour and a half. Having this done makes me feel so much more prepared for the week. I know that we'll be eating nourishing healthy foods and bonus, I don't have to worry about what we're going to be eating everyday! It's done!