Food prep doesn't have to take all day

Seriously. I'm someone who genuinely enjoys cooking and could spend the day cooking but who really has that kind of time? Certainly not me and not a week out from Christmas. We only just got a tree yesterday and started our Christmas shopping last night. So you could say we're a little behind the 8-ball here. Last weekend was crazy busy and I didn't have the time to prep for the week and I paid the price for it. We didn't have healthy options to grab, I felt like I was running ragged all week and trying to figure out dinner on the spot meant less healthy dinners cooked.

So this weekend I'm making the time. I have a million other things to be doing but I carved out 45 minutes this morning to do a little cooking. On the menu:

• turkey meatloaf muffins
• muffin tin egg quiches
• pumpkin protein pancakes
• curried cauliflower

All of that was done in 45 minutes start to finish (and that includes clean up!) How you ask? Well, a few tips:

1. Wherever possible, have your food do double duty. Today that means I'm chopping and sautéing the same veggies for the meatloaf muffins and egg quiches and then splitting them between the two.







2. Go in with a game plan of what to cook in what order. I know the meatloaf muffins take longer than the egg quiche so I made the muffins first, set aside the veggies I'd need for the quiche and once the muffins were in the oven, shifted my focus to the eggs.

3. Use the downtime while food is in the oven to prep the next meal. For me that meant muffins in the oven, finish off the egg quiche, pop those in the oven with the muffins. Then mix up the pancake mix and get the first batch on the grill before chopping the cauliflower and making the marinade. Then that goes in the fridge for dinner all in the time that first batch of pancakes are cooking.

4. Do what you can with the time that you have. If you only have 10 minutes, go easy with your snacks. Wash and cut up veggies and bag them for snacks. Chop veggies for dinner during the week or pre-make a marinade for tomorrow night's dinner. You do not have go as elaborate as I did unless you have the time and wherewithall.

It's back to the basics this week with the Insanity Max 30 meal planning system. I want to get the most that I can out of the program so I'm setting myself up for success with a little planning. My meal plan for the week (most recipes are under the Clean Eating Recipes tab but message me if you don't see one that you'd like to try.):