Eat Hard Work Hard: Meal Prep Monday

Hope everyone had a good weekend! I didn't go anywhere or play in any tournaments so I had some extra free time to do a slightly more involved (well for me, anyways) meal prep.

Breakfast

For some reason I had a big urge to bake something this weekend. Sometimes the urge doesn't outlast the laziness long enough for me to actually get to baking, but this time I really wanted some muffins. And of course they had to have pumpkin in them. October = all pumpkin all the time. I started with Eating Bird Food's Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal Cups and then tweaked the recipe a lot because ~~I am bad at following directions~~ I was feeling creative.

Gluten Free Zucchini Pumpkin Muffins

Recipe:
(one muffin)

1 1/2 cup gluten free oats

2 tbsp coconut flour

3 tbsp chia seeds

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1 tbsp cinnamon

2 tsp ginger

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 small zucchini, grated

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/4 cup non fat Greek yogurt

6 tbsp egg whites

1 egg

1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix dry ingredients

Mix in wet ingredients, then fold in raisins

Pour batter evenly into greased muffin tins

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the center of muffins is firm

Makes 18 muffins

These muffins may be the best thing I've baked for the blog yet. There is a lot of great texture thanks to the oats, chia seeds, and walnuts, and I am a big fan of the pumpkin, zucchini, raisin combo. Plus they are gluten free and just under 100 calories a muffin! Two muffins topped with your favorite nut butter makes the perfect grab and go breakfast. Seriously, go make these ASAP!

Protein

For this week's protein, the bf requested red meat. I listened, but made sure to pair that meat with a lot of vegetables by making Skinny Taste's Skinny Italian Spinach Meatballs.

I pretty much followed her recipe, except for throwing in a carrot, celery stalk, and onion just to get in even more veggies. The recipe was a little time consuming since it made a LOT of meatballs (I ended up with about 40!), but it was worth it. We ate them for dinner Sunday over last week's spaghetti squash with peas and zucchini and it was so good! The bf definitely approved.

Sides

I still have a couple sweet potatoes left from last week and Harris Teeter was out of spaghetti squash, so I switched up the sides a little. I cooked up a big pot of bulgar wheat for my starch, boiled some dried black beans for some protein on meatless Monday, and made some frozen peas.

Workouts

I really want to make sure I ~~don't embarrass myself~~ make a strong showing at my first 5K this weekend, so I'm focusing on running and resting my legs on non-run days this week.

Monday: Blogilates VS Abs, Muffintop Massacre, and BB3 Abs

Tuesday: 5K Trail Run

Wednesday: FitnessBlender Toned Lean Arms, Blogilates VS Arms

Thursday: Coed Rec League Volleyball, 5K Run

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Anthem Great Pumpkin 5K!

Sunday: FitnessBlender Goodbye Stress Calming Stretching Workout