Favorite Breakfast Meal Prep

One important thing I have found when it come to staying healthy and maintaining, increasing ,or decreasing body weight is doing some type of meal prep. I don’t track my calories or macros consistently, but I do spend a period of time every year where I keep a close eye on things. I developed over the years a good eye for what I should be eating. I am not saying that I have completely conquered food in my life and I still eat fast food, candy, and ice cream. I especially slip up on the weekends. During the work week, I have developed a very consistent routine for meal preparation.

I am not a chef or an amazing cook.  But being that I have a degree in chemistry, I can follow a recipe very well.  I troll Pinterest weekly, searching for things I can make for my breakfasts and lunches.

 I like to find meals that are very balanced and can be made very easily. I want meals that have a lot of protein and ideally a lot of veggies. I like to snack on fruit throughout the day, so I get plenty of fruit. If I don’t plan my veggies then I will come up short. Since I have a body weight of 195#, then I like to get at least 160-195 grams of protein a day.  Protein at every meal is very important so I don’t have to supplement large amounts of protein everyday.

 Three things  that I look for in recipes to be considered for my weekly meal prep:

1) Ease of making (Casserole, Crock pot, InstantPot, One pot Meals)
2) The amount of protein in the meal.
3) Can I easily modify to make it faster to prep and increase the nutritional content by adding protein or veggies?

So this week I am making my favorite breakfast casserole. This will cover my Monday-Friday for breakfast.  I believe my wife found this one and now I make it quite often.

Here is the Pinterest link if you are interested in the original recipe.  My version is modified to make it easier and get the nutrition I want, which I will cover below. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/60376451238766220/ 

This is not the most manly recipe but it tastes delicious, and is super easy. It is Spinach Feta, Artichoke breakfast bake. Some might think it is quiche, but I would rather think of it as a Man Scramble.

In almost everything I make I turn it into 5 servings. I think about how to get a decent serving of protein and vegetables in each of those servings. For example, this recipe only called for ½ cup of chopped red pepper, but I increased it to two whole red peppers to give me more peppers per serving. It called for 10 oz of spinach, but I put in about 5-6 cups. I get two servings of veggies in every breakfast with my modification. It also only called for 8 eggs. I increased it to 20 eggs which gives me 4 eggs a day, which is 24 grams of protein just from the eggs. If you worry about the cholesterol from the yokes; I think you should read up on the actual research related to dietary cholesterol. It has little to no effect on your actual cholesterol levels and can be very anabolic, which can help build muscle. You better start eating more eggs with the yokes if you want to get yoked yourself. A lot of people are allergic to eggs, but this is normally due to the egg whites. If you have a food sensitivity with eggs try just eating the yokes. A great book to read if you want the research boiled down is “Deep Nutrition” by Catherine Shanahan. http://drcate.com/ ( Honestly, I think everyone should read this book.)

I use all full fat milk and cheese.  A lot of recipes will call for lowfat this or that. Using full fat in the meal along, with high protein, will help with satiety, so you won’t be hungry an hour later. Fat is your friend, not the enemy.

Let me explain how to make this meal the simple way.

Ingredients

• 2 Reds peppers chopped 
• 2 Cans of Artichokes in water ( No Vegetable oils) 
• 5 cups of fresh spinach. 
•  6 oz full fat feta cheese 
• A few cloves of garlic
•  20 eggs 
• ⅓ cup of whole milk 
• 4 tablespoons of avocado oil 
• 4 tablespoons of parmesan cheese.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. 
2. Open can of artichokes, drain water and dump in a large mixing bowl. Throw chopped pepper and 5 cups of spinach in the same bowl. Add garlic, salt and pepper and 2 tablespoons of Avocado oil and  mix everything together. 
3. Crack 20 eggs into another large bowl.  Dump the cheese, milk and salt and pepper in the same bowl as the eggs and beat everything together. 
4. Grab a 9x13 baking dish and dump the mixed veggies on the bottom. Pour the egg/cheese mixture over the top and bake for about an hour. 

Now you have breakfast for 5 days. Now a more important question is what is the macro break down.

 

Eat your breakfast with a cup of coffee with half and half and the calorie count increases to 700 with 40 grams of protein , 30 grams of carb, and 35 grams of fat. If you are having a heavy training day, I might add a couple slices of whole wheat sprouted bread with some butter to increase the protein and carbs to about 50 grams and fats to 40 grams with a total calorie count to 855.

This is a simple recipe that I will make on the weekend and just microwave every morning before work.