Monday Meal Prep Day | The first harvest

Lately I've been lacking structure

And it's affecting everything so last weekend I decided to make some instant changes. I started working out again (it was about time!) and also decided to start fasting again to lose a few pounds. Meals have been an issue lately too, having a proper healthy meal wasn't a daily thing anymore and I knew I needed to make it a bit easier on myself to get back into the routine to make that happen. I'm trying to pick a few dishes every Monday to prep for a few weeks so that I have one less day to worry about dinner (or lunch).

Mondays will be Monday Meal Prep days from now on, and I took some pictures of the things I prepped last Monday to share in this post. A week after, simply because I had no time left to create a post about it after being in the kitchen most of the day. I won't make a post every week, but only if I felt like taking some pictures and sharing. Last monday was quite lucrative!

Let's have a look at the food I prepped last Monday

Chia pudding

I wrote about it recently, that I discovered the joy of homemade Chia pudding. So easy and so good! If you never tried it before, please do! You can add any fruit or oat to your liking, I'm sticking with banana or strawberry as oats weren't my cup of tea. Today I used strawberry only as I had plenty of these.

You'd think it's dessert, but it also makes a fabulous breakfast I noticed. I try to cut down on the bread (which is hard as I love love love bread) so instead of eating bread with cheese or something meat or eggs, I try to skip it more and more by replacing this with a smoothie or Chia pudding. I can't say goodbye to bread completely, but at least I found something that stills hunger and also tastes great.

Find the super simple recipe to make Chia Pudding here

Chicken spread

Sunday we made chicken in the oven and deliberately made some extra because I had this craving for chicken spread. It must have been ages since I last made that. I used 3 chicken legs that were cooled in the fridge because yesterday I didn't find the time to make the spread. This was a bit of a pain to prep because of the chicken being all cooled, it's much easier when it's still a bit warm from the oven. But we had a good lunch from it on Monday, so all was worth it.

The good thing is that these chicken legs are super cheap here and by making your own spread you are saving a ton of money compared to buying it in the supermarket plus you can modify it to your own taste. I will share my recipe later this week.

Pea soup with smoked saus

A golden oldie recipe in my life, my grandparents used to make it in the winters and gave everyone some home after joining them on Sunday for lunch.
I didn't make it myself until very recently, simply because I had no idea how to, lol. It was just some food that we ate when being together as a family in the good old days. I didn't really like it as a child and had to learn to eat it, because of the horrible looks (still the same opinion about it).

I do like it when the soup is done and we can enjoy this delicious pea soup! All three of us love it and it's always nice to freeze the rest in a few boxes so we have 2 or 3 extra meals covered which won't take me extra time to prep. It's filled with veggies and it's very rich so you don't need to eat a lot of it to feel full. Last Monday I, unfortunately, forgot the carrots, so it's only missing one ingredient that I normally add, but it was still a good one!

As the recipe included quite a few pictures, I created a separate post about that yesterday. Click on this link to find the recipe and instructions.

Sauerkraut stew

Another winter dish, the difference with this one is that I have loved eating this since I can remember. I could eat this several days without getting sick of it. I have to admit that my grandfather could make this the best, he always waited until the bacon parts were hard and that gave an extra bite to the food. My mother never did but it was still my favorite thing to eat. Especially heating a portion up in the pan the next day. Yum!

It's very simple to make 1:1 potatoes and sauerkraut, baked bacon parts and smoked sausage. Delicous winter food! It's still allowed in March, right? haha.. And I always make enough to fill up the freezer with several portions. Good for a few weeks where I have one less day to think about dinner.

Sausage rolls

This one is a snack, and I actually made it because the minced meat needed to be processed Tuesday tops, so I froze half of it and the rest was used to fill up some puff pastry I still had laying around in the freezer. I have made variations of this snack before, always following a recipe that I found online. Not this time, I just added spices to my liking until the taste of the meat was good and filled the puff pastry before closing them.

As I made these after dinner, I totally forgot to snap a picture of the end result. But here you can see them before they went into the oven:

Use your imagination :) yes they were good!

End of my first Monday Meal Prep

Honestly, I thought it would be a lot less work, so I need to pick just a few meals from now on or I will get annoyed of this quite quickly, I'm afraid :) Next week will be a bit different Monday Prep day because of the preparations for my daughter's birthday. I will share how that went next week!

Thanks for stopping by and if you also have a similar prep day every week and have some tips to make the most out of it, please feel free to share!

Have a wonderful week!