I haven’t made a Meal Prep video in a long time. For my first one back, I decided to share the recipe I’m asked about the most; how I cook White Rice.
It may seem like a very simple recipe, and that’s because it is a simple recipe! The point is, that people have asked how I make it because they’ve struggled with cooking rice on their own in the past.
Thankfully, 100% of the people who have asked me for this and given it a shot have said it worked perfectly for them. I hope that if you give it a try, it works for you, too.
Here’s last week’s recap and my goals for the upcoming week.
Last week:
Fitness
Week four of the 2018 CrossFit Games Open is over.
For workout 18.4, I retested and got nine more reps. I’m usually scared of handstand push-ups, but surprisingly did a really good job breaking them up in Diane. Here’s a video of my first attempt. I am happy with the way this workout went, and even happier to have improved so much on literally two hours of sleep the night before.
This week for 18.5, I predicted what the workout would be exactly. Since I’ve been doing CrossFit since before there was an “Open,” I’ve done this workout four times. My PR was 115 going into this Friday. I really don’t like thrusters, and chest-to-bar pull-ups are a movement I don’t practice very often. Bottom line, even though this workout is “only” seven minutes long, it hurts a LOT. I’m not sure if I’ll attempt it again tomorrow, but if I do, it’ll be just to try to pay a quick little visit to the pain cave. I “paced” my 118 a little bit too much on Friday. Here’s attempt number one.
Health
Food prep has been effective lately, so it’s great to always have an easy meal prepared in the fridge. This week, I’m hoping to introduce a few more vegetables into my preparations.
This week:
Need. More. Sleep. Recording my “CrossFit Games Open” videos has meant that Thursday nights, I’d typically get less than 4 hours of sleep. Now that the Open is over, I’m hoping to at least pick up a few hours then! I also put a hold on my Tuesday morning swim lessons, so I won’t even need to set an alarm on Tuesday morning for a few weeks. Hoping I can notice a difference in energy and performance with these two changes!
It’s going to be a cold end of the week, so my goal is to complete my taxes by next Sunday. That’s the one chore that has been looming over me, so it’ll feel nice to take that off of the “to-do” list.
I bought a table for the basement where I set up my DJ gear. It feels so silly to share that I’m getting into that as a hobby, but I’m really excited to get to start playing with music soon! First, taxes. Then, playtime!
Alright, your turn. What’s going on with all of you?
The pic of the week comes from Sleep Cycle app I use (when I remember) to track my sleep. Last week I didn’t have to set an alarm on Tuesday morning, so I slept for eight whole hours Monday night! That’s a big deal for me!
Here’s last week’s recap and my goals for the upcoming week.
Last week:
Fitness- Thursday we hit a Sumo deadlift for the first time in months. I hit 420lbs for a triple. Other than that, had some decent workouts, but nothing to write home about.
Missed one goal AGAIN from last week, and STILL didn’t make time to finish the book I’ve been reading. I did, however, read 50 more pages. That makes more than I’ve read in the last few months. So progress, but still not where I want to be. The good news is that I haven’t been reading because I’ve been getting to sleep earlier every night!
Went grocery shopping, grilled, and prepped food for a few hours tonight. So between making some salads and rice bowls, I should be good to go on most meals!
Spent almost 3 hours working in the garage with Em and put up a good chunk of our drywall. Two more weekends where we decide to work, and the walls of the garage should be done!
Go on a run ONE day this week. The goal is at least 3 miles, and I’m not going to sprint. Just get back outside as the weather starts to warm up a bit again.
I’d love to write a post talking about the Swim Lessons I give, why they’re so rewarding for me, and why you should let me know if you’d like some!
I started posting meal prep videos on my blog years ago as a resource for athletes on how to eat cleaner. I never claimed to make the healthiest meals, but my goal was to offer a few new ideas and show how easy it can be make better choices, inspire those who are intimidated by the kitchen, and occasionally demonstrate how economical “cleaner” eating can be for anyone!
Today’s prep was a throwback to two of my most commonly made meals:
Breakfast Scramble (eggs, green and red pepper, onion, and a bit of chicken and steak)
Salad (spinach, carrots, steak and chicken, blue cheese crumbles, candied pecans)
All in, the groceries for this prep ran just over $50 and I estimated that it produced around 11 meals for me. For context, that comes out to around $4.50 per meal. If I were to run to Chipotle, my usual burrito costs me $13.67. So yeah, it’s a lot cheaper for me to take a few hours and make food that’s better for me anyways!
There are still times where I won’t feel like cooking, didn’t have time to make a grocery run, or just craved a Motomaki Sushi Burrito. The point of posts like this, though, is to show that eating well doesn’t have to be intimidating. I’ve said this many times on my blog before that since people in our community by and large share the goal of wanting to get in better shape: “You can’t out-train a bad diet.” Nutrition is the base of the pyramid of success that CrossFit created, so if I can help at least one person feel more confident and equipped with some simple ideas, I’ll be a happy guy.
DISCLAIMER: The thoughts featured in the post and video are mine and mine alone!
For the past few months, I’ve been trying to make myself cook new things to keep Meal Prep interesting. This is the first week, however, that I actually video-taped an experimental dish for the blog. The first victim: A Breakfast Quiche!
The ingredients for this are simple- Pie Crust (gluten free this week!), eggs, elk and pork bratwurst, spinach, some sweet peppers, and a little bit of salt and pepper
I’m aware that eggs are a solid protein source, but by now, most of you know that I usually eat a lot of protein with my meals. To make this particular dish lower protein and/or higher carb, a few very simple changes could be made. First, instead of whole eggs, use egg whites only! Also, when cooking eggs, don’t be afraid to add a little water while whisking. It can add quite a bit of “fluff” to the eggs you do have! Also, there is no need to add any additional bratwurst, like I did. I just got suckered into buying them while walking around in Costco (free samples)! Finally, quiche are awesome to make because you can basically add any number of items. For this one in particular, I could see adding in onions or mushrooms for a higher veggie/carb count!
I’m not quite sure what the next experimental dish is going to be, but I am open to suggestions! Hopefully this post was helpful, and I’ll chat with you guys next time.
AND – Congrats to CrossFit Omnia for qualifying for the 2016 CrossFit Games by finishing in Third Place for the South Region! We’re so proud of you guys!
DISCLAIMER: The thoughts featured in the post and video are mine and mine alone!
Usually I post meal prep videos to try and give viewers ideas of healthy and delicious food options that are fairly easy to make. The goal of today’s video, however, is to show you guys the entire process of how long it takes me to make 8 steak salads! The recipe is fairly similar to what I’ve posted in the past, but for the serving portion, I leave the camera running through it all.
The prep phase today ran around 30-40 minutes. Seasoning and grilling the steak took me 10-15 minutes, the hard-boiling and peeling for the eggs took 15-20, and washing and cutting fruit probably took 15 minutes. Some of those tasks were happening at the same time, so I’m just sharing total time figures in case any of you decide to do something similar for yourselves!
As always, feel free to substitute any portion of the meal for food options that are more in-line with your fitness/health/nutritional goals. I just wanted to show that once things are ready to go, it takes less than 4 minutes to combine ingredients and make enough meals to last over half of the week!
To the viewer who challenged me to cook something without peppers…. Boom! 🙂
Next “Smashby’s Meal Prep” video will feature a meal I’ve never made myself. Get ready for some kitchen shenanigans! I hope you guys like this video. Have a great week, friends.
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