Tag: mealprep

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Birthday Week

During the Pandemic

And so begins my birthday week during the pandemic. I honestly don’t mind celebrating quietly. We did that for my husband’s birthday in April when things were really shut down. It’s more about missing celebrating with my dear lifelong friends who also have birthdays this month. One good thing – my local pool is finally reopening this week. I swim on Tuesday afternoon for the first time since mid March. I just cannot wait. My poor sore, orthopedically challenged body is ready for the water! Happy Birthday week to me!

I kept it simple this week again for my lunch prep. I was inspired by a meal prep I found on my new favorite culinary blog, https://www.flavcity.com/. Here is the link to the prep that inspired me: https://www.flavcity.com/low-fat-meal-prep. I made marinara turkey meatballs and a zucchini, summer squash, and tomato saute to accompany them. I realized that if you start any saute with good olive oil, onions, and garlic you can add any vegetable you want and it will turn out yummy. I seasoned the veggie mixture liberally with kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. The main dish is Trader Joe’s Frozen Fully Cooked Turkey Meatballs, and my new favorite marinara sauce. Silver Palate Low Sodium Marinara (found at Ralph’s) is 60 calories/ 3 points for a 1/2 cup serving. But it is just 6% sodium, and has 0 added sugars. The ingredients are clean and pure. No preservatives. And it’s delicious. The turkey meatballs are processed, but still fairly clean, and of course convenient to prepare, and delicious to eat. They are 100 calories/ 3 points for a serving of 2. I am having 3 meatballs per serving for lunch for 4 points.

**The fixings for this week’s lunch prep.**

**And the finished products. The Parmesan cheese mix will top my lunch plate.**

I am switching it up just a little for breakfast this week too. I have been having non fat Greek yogurt bowls with bananas, blueberries, flax meal, and chia seeds, along with a hard boiled egg each morning, along with my mock chai tea latte (Trader Joe’s chai spiced tea bags with unsweetened vanilla almond milk). It’s good, but it’s getting boring (not the tea; must have my chai tea in the morning). I got inspired by this egg stuffed peppers idea I found on Pinterest: https://skinnyms.com/egg-stuffed-peppers. I substituted the cheese for Nutritional Yeast (https://www.marthastewart.com/7796957/nutritional-yeast-explained). Less fat and calories, but a nice cheesy flavor. I will still have my yogurt bowl in the morning, in a smaller portion, and one of these.

**Super simple, healthy veggie and egg prep for the morning**

Make it a great week my friends. Stay safe, stay healthy, wear your mask, and wash your hands. Thanks so much for stopping by. Any critiques, questions, and comments are always welcome.

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We are All in this Together – All Lives Matter

I had a full blog planned to publish yesterday, but in light of the protests turned riots, I decided it would not be appropriate. I feel the same way today, but a girl has to eat, so I am just going to share my meal prep with you today.

Summer produce is my favorite, and I wanted to celebrate it this week with this easy summer squash salad I saw prepared on the Food Network show, The Kitchen: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/grilled-shrimp-and-summer-squash-salad-7241083. This is a beautiful summer salad. I made changes, Baby Boomer Mermaid style, but the original recipe is beautiful. If I was cooking for company, I would make this as written. Since I am cooking for my weekly lunch meal prep, I made the changes that work for me, and you should do the same.

**Summer Squash Salad Baby Boomer Mermaid style**

The corn was replaced by celery in my prep. I love a corn on the cob as a treat, but corn is not really my friend, so I hesitated to use it in a meal I plan to eat for a few days. I used celery instead for the fresh crunch. I also subbed the sunflower seeds for toasted almond slices. Just because. I also needed a dark green leafy base for my salad so I combined fresh basil with arugula. I have plenty of my classic vinaigrette dressing left over from last week, so am using that instead of making a new dressing that is actually pretty similar. Other than that, I followed the prep instructions in the recipe – I lightly roasted the seeded summer squash, and blanched the snow peas. My proteins of choice this week will be left over roasted chicken breast, Trader Joe’s shrimp burgers, or Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian Sausage. All delicious, all low calories/ points.

**One more quick share – it’s cherry season! I pitted these and added them to my yogurt bowl this morning. So sweet and delicious.**

Thank you so much for checking in. Please take care. Sending you all much love and big hugs.

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Smelling the Roses Again

The city is slowly coming back to life. Santa Monica finally reopened their parks and beaches (for swimming and exercise only). My favorite is Palisades Park, which spans the cliffs just above the ocean. There is the most lovely rose garden there. I missed this little piece of paradise. I am gradually starting to feel whole again.

Last week I started going back to the office to begin prep for the economy reopening. My groceries served me well. I had good, healthy lunches each day. It is indeed all about the groceries. That said, I did want to meal plan for this coming week in the office, so I went to my well stocked freezer. There I found Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Gnocchi (4 pts/ 140 cal per 1 cup serving), their Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Dip (2 pts/ 45 cal per 2 tbsp serving), frozen spinach, and frozen broccoli florets. The light bulb in my Baby Boomer Mermaid head went off, and I decided to combine all of this deliciousness into one veggie forward dish for myself. I will pair this with Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage (3 points/ 110 calories per 1 sausage serving). This gives me 4 servings, so all things considered, it will be healthy, filling, and really satisfying for the week.

**Cauliflower Gnocchi with Creamy Spinach Artichoke dip, spinach, and broccoli**

Last weekend, after I published the blog, I got the baking bug. I had a can of pureed pumpkin in the house, along with all of the other ingredients needed, so I made this muffin recipe from Drizzle Me Skinny. No alterations. They came out amazing: https://drizzlemeskinny.com/pumpkin-spice-cream-cheese-muffins/. I highly recommend you give this a try. 2 pts/ 88 cal per muffin. Almost everything I make is inspired by recipes I find on the interwebs, either from Instagram, Pinterest, FB, the WW website, or just by randomly searching.

**More scenes from Palisades Park, Santa Monica, Saturday, May 16**

Just a reminder that I am still selling hospital grade disposable masks. Masks will be a part of our “new normal” for the foreseeable future. Please contact me privately if you are interested in purchasing some for your home and/ or office: marshaleeg@verizon.net.

Thank you for joining me this week! Stay safe. Be well. Take care of yourselves.

Feel free to send me comments, critiques, questions, or meal prep ideas 🙂

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It’s About the Groceries

For me, staying home has become more about the groceries than the meal prep. I don’t want to feel obligated to one or 2 choices for the week during this time, so I have filled my freezer, pantry, and refrigerator with clean, healthy, and mostly “safe” food options…. There has definitely been a little splurging on comfort foods and sweets over the course of the last 6 weeks of quarantine, though. Not gonna lie.

Today I made a broccoli slaw. Super easy with Bolthouse Farms Yogurt Coleslaw Dressing (50 cal for 2 tbsp/ 2 pts). I added a little celery, red onion, and celery seed to bump up the flavors. I put about 1/4 cup of dressing in the entire dish, which will be 3 – 4 servings. Slaw needs to marinate a little, so it’s in the refrigerator getting delicious.

**Broccoli Slaw dressed with Bolthouse Farms Coleslaw Dressing**

From a couple of weeks ago – Macaroni Salad made with chickpea elbows, roasted red peppers out of the jar, celery, red onions, and a little sweet pickle relish. It is dressed with about 1/4 cup of light mayo, and seasoned with salt & pepper. This prep was inspired by this WW 4 pt recipe – https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/recipe/classic-macaroni-salad-1/5626a5f74236657004995d9c

My hearty breakfast was scrambled eggs with caramelized onions and nutritional yeast. Nutritional yeast is a solid resource of protein and fiber. Besides the health benefits, it has a cheesy flavor, so mimics that in eggs without the fat, calories, and points of cheese. It is 20 calories a tablespoon (0 pts). Here is a cooking note on scrambled eggs (learned from The Barefoot Contessa, and who doesn’t love her ?) – cook them on low, slowly. You will get a fluffier more uncious finished product. I topped the egg mixture with my favorite jarred salsa, and wrapped it up on an Ole Extreme Whole Wheat Tortilla (50 cal/ 1pt).

**Hearty breakfast – scrambled eggs and onions flavored with nutritional yeast, topped with salsa, wrapped in a tortilla 🙂**
**The tea is my mock chai latte made with Spiced Chai Tea from Trader Joe’s and unsweetened vanilla almond milk.**

Yesterday’s lunch – Trader Joe’s shrimp burger topped with creamy srircha sauce and a salad made of baby lettuce, broccoli slaw, and grape tomatoes, dressed with Trader Joe’s Green Goddess dressing (from the refrigerator section). Calling this 4 points total.
**The tea is my home brewed ginger/ tumeric iced tea (also Trader Joe’s)**

So it is all about the groceries right now. Here are a few tips to make grocery shopping a little easier during these challenging times:

*Make a list (best if you can do it in the order of the aisles in the store)

*Read the labels (and/ or keep your WW scanner handy) to be sure you are making healthy choices

*Buy seasonal produce and proteins on sale to help adhere to your budget

Just a reminder, I am selling hospital grade disposable masks. Find the details on the previous blog from last week (scroll down). Masks are an essential part of the “new normal” as business start to reopen.

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Thanks so much for stopping by. Please send me any comments, critiques, or questions. I would love to hear from you. Stay safe. Be well.

Coping with Quarantine

Recipe Schmecipe Recap – A Review of A Few of My Best, EASY Meal Preps

Not gonna lie. Although grateful for my overall good health, and the love and companionship of my husband, who’s health I am also grateful for, other than losing my parents, this is the hardest thing I have ever been through. I have lost my way the last few weeks, and in the meantime, tore a muscle in my back while stretching, which has temporarily taken away my ability to get outdoors to walk or to do anything else that resembles being productive. I am healing, taking it a day at a time. Locked up. Chin up. Putting on my big girl pants and moving forward.

Since we all are cooking most of our own meals these days, I thought I would offer you a recap of a few of my favorite past meal preps and tips in the hopes of inspiring you to make something new and fun. If you are new to the blog, my meal prep philosophy has always been budget conscious, pantry based, WW friendly, delicious, and EASY. This will also allow for you to peruse past blogs at the same time, in the hopes that you will find renewed inspiration, and get a few handy tips along the way. Let’s Go!

Pantry tips: https://babyboomermermaid.com/2019/02/10/your-pantry-is-it-safe-is-it-ready-for-any-emergency/

Cabbage Roll Soup (fan favorite): https://babyboomermermaid.com/2019/02/18/balancing-act-self-care-vs-obligations/

Slow Cooker Chicken Schwarma (personal favorite): https://babyboomermermaid.com/2019/04/14/recipe-schmecipe/

Creamy Broccoli Salad (fan favorite): https://babyboomermermaid.com/2019/06/16/celebrating-the-fruits-of-summer/

Favorite Low Point Gazpacho: https://babyboomermermaid.com/2019/06/23/tomato-tomahto/

Snacks: https://babyboomermermaid.com/2019/07/28/routine-vs-yolo/

**Scenes from Home, the last couple of weeks**

Thank you for stopping by. Feel free to send me your comments, critiques, and questions.

Stay safe, and healthy, my friends.

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