Meal Prep Monday - Blueberry Pancake Bread and Baked Tempeh

Can't believe it's Monday already! This weekend went by way too fast. On the plus side, I started exercising again after a week off with a sprained ankle. And I got to celebrate my return to exercise with a little beach volleyball on Saturday. On the actual beach! In February! I could get used to this :) 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm traveling internationally for my new job already (1 month after my first day!). Everything finally got settled and we booked my ticket on Friday, so I'm happy to announce that I'M GOING TO INDIA! THIS SATURDAY!

I've never been before, and even though I'll be super busy with work I'm really looking forward to the trip. I'm excited to learn more about our programs on the ground and (of course) to eating tons of delicious food.

So, in anticipation of the increased eating hard/decreased working hard I'll be doing for two weeks in India, I kept this week's meal prep light and vegetarian again. I still love meat (especially bacon) but I've found it easier and cheaper to go vegetarian since I've been meal prepping for one. And you know I'm all about cheap and easy. I may get sick of it at any moment because I'm fickle like that, but so far so good. 

Breakfast

I saw this yummy pancake loaf recipe on  a recent Diary of an ExSloth post and had to interrupt my baked oatmeal chain to try it out immediately. 

I was planning to stay close to the original recipe, but then Trader Joe's had multigrain pancake mix on sale, I had leftover blueberries from a fruit salad I made for volleyball on Saturday and, as usual, I ended up changing everything. Here's what I came up with.

Baked Blueberry Pancake Bread

Calories: 247 | Fat: 7 g | Cholest: 35 mg | Sodium: 317 mg | Carbs: 37 g | Fiber: 7 g | Sugars: 14 g | Protein: 10 g

1 cup wholegrain pancake mix
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 ripe banana, mashed
1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
3 liquid egg whites
1 egg
1/3 cup Greek yogurt
1/4 cup almond milk
2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup slivered almonds
3 tbsp chia seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix ingredients through almond milk together until smooth. 
Stir in the blueberries, almonds, and chia seeds.
Poor into a greased rectangular oven safe baking dish (mine was 8 x 6).
Bake for 60 minutes or until bread is firm in the center.
Makes 6 servings.

I'm a fan of this recipe, especially when topped with nut butter or Greek yogurt. It does taste kind of like pancakes, but the texture is a lot more dense and moist. Think zucchini bread. It's not too sweet, so feel free to enjoy it with some maple syrup too to really get that whole pancake feeling. Go crazy with it.

Protein

I know not everyone (including the bf) agrees, but I'm a big fan of tempeh. I love the nutty texture and flavor. I've made baked tempeh a couple times and always marinated it. This time, I kept it simple with just a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and popped it into the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes to crisp it up a little.

Sides

I love Brussels sprouts but they are kind of a pain to make. All that cleaning and removing the outer leaves of each little tiny cabbage takes forever, so I've never made them for just me before. But, lucky for lazy people like me, Trader Joe's sells shaved Brussels sprouts which totally removes all the prep work. They were delicious tossed with a little lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted in the oven at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes. Along with the sprouts, I also roasted some spaghetti squash and broccoli, and cooked up some peas.

Workouts

I'm still taking it a little easy on the running to make sure my ankle fully heals, and I'll be spending the weekend on a plane, so this week's workout schedule is a little lighter than usual. Oh well.

Monday: Fitness Blender Total Body Boot Camp, rec league volleyball
Tuesday: Easy 5K run
Wednesday: Zumba? Or maybe spin depending how the ankle feels
Thursday: Easy 4 mile run
Friday: Yoga Sculpt at Corepower Yoga
Saturday: Travel to India
Sunday: On the plane

Q: Have any travel plans coming up? Any ideas for exercising on the plane? Just kidding, I plan to binge watch TV dramas until I fall asleep :)