Meal Prep: Buffet Style { $25 Visa Gift Card Giveaway!}

Meal prep has become the new freezer cooking. For years everyone was obsessed with adding meals and meal components to their freezers so they could quickly pull out supper each night to thaw and reheat for their families. When moms would have a new baby, we would arm them with tons of meals so they wouldn't have to worry about cooking for a week or longer. I was very much apart of that movement. In a way, I still do some of those things.

Now, all I read and hear about it meal prep. I see magazine worthy photos of fridges stacked with containers upon containers of prepped food ready to go for the week. Simply grabbing one and going about your day. Is this something you've tried to help in simplifying your own busy schedule?

I think it can be an overwhelming thought for sure when it comes to getting started with meal prep. There's so much information out there, and you probably think you need to have a whole week's worth of meals in the fridge ready to go. While, you can certainly do that and maybe that's what works best for you. It's not the only way.

Buffet style is one that I choose to implement in my own house, and one that I've done for several years now. Some weeks are better than others, but I always try to make sure we have a couple things at least ready to go. What on earth do I mean by buffet style meal prep? I'm talking about having foods like hard boiled eggs, cut up veggies and fruits, roasted root veggies, grilled chicken, prepared quinoa and brown rice all prepared and in separate containers in the refrigerator. When it comes time to eat, you can choose from a variety of foods you have prepared to create your lunches, etc. If you're not one that wants to eat the same exact dish for multiple days, then this would definitely give you the potential for more variety.

So, where do I start?

I think it's important to think about your own personal schedule for the week, your family's needs and what you all like. This will help you to determine which foods will be best to have prepped. You can certainly make up some soups, chili's or casseroles/one dish meals so those are ready to be reheated.

Here are just a few ideas for you to consider as you begin your own meal prep:

Protein:
Grilled/Roasted Chicken
Browned ground beef/turkey (seasoned taco meat would be great)
Hard, boiled eggs
Turkey bacon
Cottage cheese
Yogurt

Whole Grains/Carbs:
Roasted sweet potatoes or regular potatoes
Quinoa
Brown rice
Black beans
Oatmeal
Pasta

Veggies/Fruits:
Roasted veggies: Brussels sprouts, broccoli, squash, etc
Spinach/kale, washed and ready to go
Salads
Cauliflower rice: prepackaged is just fine!
Fresh made salsa (makes for a great salad dressing)
A variety of cut up fruits and raw veggies

Healthy Fats:
Mini guacamole cups or homemade
String cheese or any cheese portioned out
Almonds, cashews, pistachios portioned into small containers


If you begin with even a couple of items from each of the categories, you'll be able to put together some really healthy meals for your day. It will help to reduce stress, save you some money and save time.

Let's go over a few meal pairings for you:

Grilled chicken, brown rice, roasted broccoli
Hard boiled egg, oatmeal, fresh fruit
Mini guacamole cup, raw bell pepper strips, apple slices
taco seasoned ground turkey, salad w/salsa, black beans, strawberries

I hope that gives you a better understanding of how buffet style meal prep works. Let me know how it goes for you, especially if this is a whole new concept for you. I'd be interested in hearing what you think.

And now for that Visa gift card giveaway I mentioned in the title. For the past eight weeks I've been participating in the Live Healthy Iowa's ten-week wellness challenge. We're getting down to the end and it's been a great experience.

My team sponsor, Iowa Food and Family Project has sponsored this post and is giving one of my readers a $25 Visa gift card. How great is that?! To enter, head over to the Facebook page to enter. I will have a pinned post at the top, you will answer the question there and be entered.  I will draw one winner on Wednesday, March 21st.  Good luck!


A big thank you again to the Iowa Food and Family Project for another great experience with the Live Healthy Iowa Challenge. I always love being apart of this team!

5 Ways to Improve Your Health This Week

Can we just sit down for a moment and talk about how quickly the beginning of the new year is going? Holy cow. Time needs to slow down for this mama, I'm not ready for graduation to be upon us so soon.

I mentioned a few weeks ago about my teaming up with a handful of other Iowa bloggers for the Live Healthy Iowa wellness challenge. It's my third year participating, representing the Iowa Food and Family Project's team and it's something I always enjoy. If you live here in Iowa, I'm sure you might have heard of this ten week challenge. It's really a fun way to kick off the new year and have a friendly competition while getting a little bit healthier.

Are you one that made some goals or resolutions in the new year? If you're like most Americans, then maybe you've already long forgotten about those and fell off the wagon a bit. Or maybe you're still cruising along, crushing them each week. I hope so!

It's easy to get overwhelmed when trying to create a healthier lifestyle. Everyone wants to overhaul their life in one day. And then they wonder why they get frustrated and quit. Begin by taking small steps, little changes at a time and then build upon those each week. Today I want to share with you five simple things you can be doing to really drastically improve your own health. No, you don't need to implement all of them right away. Maybe you already do most of these and then, I applaud you. Keep going!

1. Move your body most days of the week: Exercise, it's that simple. Maybe that means attending a group fitness class or joining a gym. At home fitness might work best for you. Walks in the evening with the family. Doing a few squats and push-ups when you have five spare minutes. Whatever you can fit into your schedule, just do it. You'll feel better and have more energy when you do.

2. Add at least one serving of vegetables and fruits to your meal plan each day: No, it's really not a lot in comparison to what you should be eating each day. But, it's a start. And it might be the only fresh produce that some get. Start slow and then build upon that each week. There's bound to be at least one veggie and fruit that you like.

3. Drink your water! You should be aiming to drink half of your body weight in ounces of water each day. So, if you weigh 140 pounds, then you should be drinking at least 70 ounces of water every day. And I'm going to say that's water only. I'm not counting coffee, tea or other beverages in that amount. Water is really the cheapest way for you to improve your health and even lose weight. It helps to keep you hydrated of course, flushes out toxins in your body, regulates your digestion and improves the quality of your skin.

4. Practice a little self-care: This will look different for everyone. Think about what you love to do, and simply do more of it. Give yourself some time to read before bedtime. Take an afternoon nap. Relax in the bathtub with some Epsom salts. Little things like that. Take care of yourself so you can be at your very best for your family and those around you.

5. Get enough sleep each night: I realize everyone is in different seasons in their lives. But it's so important to your health to be getting a good amount of sleep. Have you ever paid attention to your eating habits when you're really tired? You end up craving more junk and not making very good food choices. If you're exercising, sleep is important so that your muscles can rest and recover. Plus we are able to function better in our day when we've had an adequate amount of rest.

These are really not rocket science or anything new. I know you've heard them all. Hopefully they are things you are practicing on most days, but I also know there's always room for improvement. We should strive to be a little bit better each day!

Being apart of the 10-week challenge, these are really things that we're all working on right now. As team members we are all working together to cheer each other on as we document our daily activity minutes, weight loss and just overall physical wellness. My team sponsor, Iowa Food and Family Project has so graciously offered to give three of my readers each a $10 gift certificate towards any fresh beef or pork purchase of their choice!

I'm going to make this super simple for you to enter: simply leave me a comment below and let me know which healthy task you are going to work on executing in your own life? I can't wait to read all of your responses! I will leave the giveaway open until Sunday, March 4th. At that time I will draw three winners at random and notify them of their winnings.

Lastly, a big thank you to Iowa Food and Family for sponsoring our team again this year and also for the pork and beef certificates. I truly appreciate the opportunity to gift these to my readers!

Mini Meatloaves + Fresh Pork or Beef Giveaway!

We're already a whole month into the new year, how are you doing on your 2017 goals? I'm still committed to my current program, Insanity. While it's definitely intense and crazy, I'm finding I love it and keep coming back for more. In fact, I just finished my fourth week yesterday. Only five more to go!

In addition to working out six days a week, I'm focused on truly living out a healthy lifestyle when it comes to my nutrition. Of course, there are some splurges, like the dinner out last night with the hubby. But most days we're committed to eating healthy. Meal prepping is becoming a must to stay on track each week. If I can at least have our dinners mapped out for the week and my lunches ready to go in the fridge, then half the battle is already won.

Leftovers are generally what I like to bring to work throughout the week, but there are days where there either aren't any left, or I just feel like having something else. I try to pick one recipe to prepare each week just for lunches. It might be a new salad, or maybe a soup, and last week I finally tried a mini version of my mom's meatloaf. Minus her ketchup-brown sugar glaze. It's quite delicious, but I don't want the extra sugar in my diet at the moment.

A standard muffin tin works fantastic for cooking these and they're the perfect size for taking in the lunch and especially for kids. I paired two of these mini loaves with a generous serving of mixed greens and fresh berries and it was a healthy, filling lunch each day.

So, in addition to all of this, I've joined The Iowa Food and Family Project's blogger team for the Live Healthy Iowa ten week challenge again this year. Last year, I'll admit I didn't really work hard at any fitness goals during that challenge, but a lot has changed in my life since then. I'm excited to see what we can accomplish as a team. It's fun having a group of people with like minded goals to help hold you accountable. Of course, there's even a little competition each week to see who can achieve the most minutes when it comes to activity.

With that said, courtesy of The Iowa Food and Family Project I am giving away three certificates each valued at $10 towards any fresh pork or beef purchase! I'm keeping it super simple to enter, just leave a comment below telling me any health or fitness goal you've set for yourself this year. You have until Friday, February 17th to enter. At that time, I'll pick three winners at random.


Mini Meatloaves

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds ground beef, thawed

2 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg

6 saltines, crushed

2 tbsp. ketchup

1 tsp ground mustard

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp thyme

pinch of salt

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, or clean hands, mix all ingredients together very well.

Spoon meat mixture into a muffin pan using a large cookie or ice cream scoop. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until meat is completely cooked through.

Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack that has been placed over a baking sheet. This will allow any sort of grease from the meat to drip, so they are not sitting in it while they cool.

You may serve meatloaves right away, or once cooled place in containers of choice if using for food prep. Store in fridge until ready to enjoy, they will keep for up to four days.

Will also freeze well, just allow to cool completely and then place in a freezer friendly container. They will keep in the freezer for up to three months. You'll then just need to simply thaw and reheat when ready to serve.

Makes 12 mini loaves

Spice Rubbed Pork Loin BLT Sliders

I'm really excited about today's post as it's been awhile since I've offered you all a giveaway! I have recently teamed up with the Iowa Pork Producers Association for their first ever Iowa Blogger Pork Partnership.

 The Iowa Pork Producers is an organization that works within the community to educate and promote for a sustainable, socially responsible, profitable and globally competitive pork industry. They've got a ton of great information and tools on their website, including recipes, so make sure you check those out.

I was given a chance to look through all of their recipes and choose one to prepare and share with my readers. Let me tell you, this was hard. Everything looked wonderful. In the end, I decided on these sliders. I knew it was something the whole family would like and they seemed fun.

I love little sandwiches like these, especially for parties and get togethers. I started the pork loin right away for dinner that night; I know this won't be your go-to quick and easy weeknight meal but perhaps prepare the pork loin ahead of time or save for the weekend when you're not as rushed While that was roasting in the oven, I was able to get everything else prepared and ready for assembly. Nothing complicated all, I like that.

The sauce is really key to this slider, it really makes the whole thing in my opinion. Honestly, I was the only one in the family that even tried it. I didn't push it with the others because I know how they are. However, it's very simple to throw together and would be great on so many other dishes. Perhaps throwing on other burgers, dipping french fries or chips in or maybe even some veggies.

Spice Rubbed Pork Loin BLT Sliders w/Dijon Remoulade

Ingredients:
For the Dijon remoulade:
1 cup mayo
3 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp dill pickle relish
3/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp black pepper

For the pork:
2 lb. boneless pork-loin roast
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

24 small dinner rolls, King's Hawaiian
2 cups baby arugula or lettuce
3 plum or Roma tomatoes, sliced thinly
12 slices bacon, cooked, each cut into quarters to make 48 pieces

Directions:
For the remoulade, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and chill in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all spices for the pork loin together and generously rub all over the pork loin. Place on a rack of a roasting pan and let cook in the oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and continue to roast for another 60 minutes. Using a meat thermometer, inserted into the middle of the loin, the temp should read 145 degrees. Let meat stand for 10 minutes.

To serve, carve roast crosswise into thin slices. Divide meat into 24 portions, probably about 2 slices for each slider. Top each bun with remoulade, pork, arugula, tomato and finish with two small pieces of bacon. Sliders are best served warm.
____________________________________________________________________

Now, I know you want to make these, don't you? How fun would they be served up this summer at a barbecue? To get you started, I've got a pretty sweet giveaway, courtesy of the Iowa Pork Producers Association. One lucky winner will receive the following:

$50 in pork coupons

A 3-piece grilling tool set

Bottle of a local BBQ sauce

Pork Be Inspired apron

Meat thermometer

You may enter the giveaway via the Rafflecopter widget below, you'll have two chances to win. You have until June 20th at midnight to enter, then I will have Rafflecoptor pick a winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A big thanks to the Iowa Pork Producers Association! They provided me with $20 in pork coupons, an apron and meat thermometer in order to help bring this post to you. 

Iowa Food Blogger Giveaway {$225 Visa Gift Card!}

I'm so excited to share this awesome giveaway with you today! In the past several months or so a group of us Iowa food and lifestyle bloggers have formed this little tight knit group. Many of us were able to meet back in November and since then we've developed great friendships.

I love that we can share tips, bounce new ideas off one another and even promote each other's current recipes or posts. But you see it's much more than that. We can also come to each other with a prayer request, share amazing things that are happening in our everyday lives and just be real with one another.

Today you not only have the chance to win quite an amazing prize if I do say so myself, but also to meet some of my wonderful new friends. These ten other individuals are great at what they do, unique in their own way. I encourage you to visit their pages and check them out!

Michelle @ Simplify, Live, Love

Ally @ Ally's Sweet and Savory Eats

Kristen @ Make the Best of Everything

Val @ Corn, Beans, Pigs and Kids

Kelli @ The Sustainable Couple

Jenny @ In the Kitchen with Jenny

Kristin @ Iowa Girl Eats

Monica @ City Girl, Country Life

Jeni @ Jeni Eats

Diana @ My Humble Kitchen

About a month ago we all tossed around the idea of together hosting a big giveaway for our readers. Just as a way to say thank you and let you know how much we really do value each and every one of you! So many ideas were mentioned, lots of fantastic prizes but we all came back to cash. Who couldn't use extra money? $225 to be exact! I'm sure we could all find some sort of bill to use it towards, new clothes for the kids or whatever else needs fixed around the house. But come on, wouldn't it be fun to spend that money on yourself?! I would love to have the chance to splurge on some new things for the kitchen and of course, new books.  So I have to ask, if you won the $225 Visa gift card, what would you buy?

You've got one week to get entered and many chances to win! Enter via the rafflecopter form below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Fun Holiday Giveaway

I'm officially in holiday mode, how about you? We got a good head start on our shopping and planning on finishing up this weekend. Christmas cards are all ready to go out next week and I'm trying to finalize my baking list.

I'm definitely a big baker around the holidays. Between planning for my annual cookie exchange and baking several varieties of cookies and candies to deliver to friends and family, I stay pretty busy. These are two things I love to do before Christmas! With that being said, I spend some time beforehand thumbing through cookbooks, old magazines and the Internet for new inspiration.

I have quite the collection of Taste of Home magazines. I've subscribed for as long as I can remember and keep them all nicely organized in magazine holders. I love to take them out from time to time to get new inspiration. Unfortunately I'm running out of room and I've decided I really need to try parting with some of these. That's where my giveaway comes in.

I've got a brand new cookbook I picked up filled with fun cookie ideas for the holidays that I'd like to send to one of my readers. I'm also throwing in a couple of Christmas magazines that I've held onto, one is filled with yummy looking cookie and candy recipes and another has a little bit of everything. You'll find not only ideas for holiday desserts but also recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.

Would you like a chance to win? It's pretty easy and I'm giving you 4 chances.

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me about one of your favorite holiday traditions, it doesn't have to be cooking/baking related.
2. Follow Been There Baked That on google reader (over on the right side of the page)
3. Follow Been There Baked That on Facebook
4. Follow me on Pinterest

There you go, 4 chances to win. Please leave a separate comment for each entry. I will choose a winner via random.org on Thursday evening and post the winner on Friday. Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

Weekly Menu 8/13 and Giveaway!

Hubs and I are thoroughly enjoying our weekend without the girls but I'm so ready for them to come home now! I joked yesterday about how boring our life would be without kids.

This week the kiddos head back to school, Thursday to be exact. Besides preparing for that, we have lots of extra activities filling our evenings along with some cake orders. Some of our meals this week will be more simple since we'll be going from one thing to the next.

Breakfast:
Toast
Blueberry Muffins
HM French Toast Sticks
Oatmeal
Cereal

Lunch:
Grilled Cheese
Snack-y Lunch (think hm lunchables)
Crunchy Lemon Garlic Chicken   (I think we'll make these into strips for the kids)
Leftovers x2 (it will only be the little one and I so no use in making a big lunch for 2)

Dinner:
Buffalo Chicken Enchiladas
Sloppy Joes (We never did make these last week)
Ribeyes
Meatloaf Burgers
Grilled bbq chicken drumsticks

Snacks:
Fruit- Watermelon, Strawberries, Kiwi, Bananas
Veggies w/dip
Chex Mix
English Muffin bread w/strawberry jam
Cheese and Crackers

Now for the fun stuff!



 In honor of my 100th post I'm giving away this adorable apple kitchen towel and apple cookie cutter. Apple season is right around the corner believe it or not and I have a thing for apples in my kitchen. Almost all of my appliances are red and I love any sort of apple decoration I can get my hands on!

Here's how you can win:

1) Follow Been There Baked That using google reader (over there on right hand side of page)
2) Follow Been There Baked That on Facebook
3) Follow me on Pinterest
4) Tell me what you're most looking forward to this Fall?

That gives you 4 chances to win! Leave a separate comment for each entry. I'll choose a winner at random on Wednesday, August 15th.  Good luck!

Cowgirl Cookies

During Christmas time I made up a few gifts in a jar to hand out, these cookies were one of them. I hadn't ever tried out the recipe, just came across them on Pinterest. They turned out really cute and I substituted red and green M&Ms to make them more festive. Anyways, we got a thank you note last week from my daughter's preschool teacher stating that her family loved the cookies and she was inspired to bake more often now! Of course I had to try them out for myself and I just happened to have a few helpers ready to help me!

My 3 little helpers, being silly of course!

These turned out to be really good cookies and so easy to mix up. I love that you can change the color of the M&Ms to go along with whatever holiday happens to be current. We used red and pink for Valentine's Day coming up. I mixed up my dough like I would normally for any cookie recipe but here is the original recipe so you know how to put these jars together, I wish I would have taken a picture of mine now!

She sure loves to lick the spoons!

I love that you're not left with a bunch of cookies after baking these, I got about 2 dozen. If that's still more than you want laying around the kitchen, package some up and take to work or give to neighbors. Otherwise stick them in a container and pop them in the freezer, cookies freeze so well! You can then just pull out a few at a time for a treat and not feel like you're going to overindulge.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! You have until tomorrow. Good Luck!

Cowgirl Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup quick-cooking oats

3/4 cup M&Ms

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Cream butter and both sugars in a large mixing bowl. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. In a separate medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt and oats, mix well. Slowly add to butter mixture, mix well to combine. Stir in M&Ms, chocolate chips and pecans. Using a medium sized cookie scoop or teaspoon, drop balls of dough onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until slightly browned. Makes 2 dozen cookies

Adapted from: Bakerella 



Easy Pecan Rolls and My 1st Giveaway!

One of my main goals this past weekend was to get in the kitchen and bake something. I haven't done a lot of baking lately and was starting to miss it; it's sort of my own therapy, I instantly feel better once I get started. Now this hardly classifies as baking but I decided to treat my family to these delicious pull apart rolls yesterday for breakfast.

They are so easy, it simply requires you dumping the ingredients in the pan before you go to bed at night and the next morning you have these wonderful rolls ready to bake in the oven!  I'm sure everyone has their own version of this recipe, mine comes from my parents. These are a favorite when I host Easter brunch at my house. I like to use butterscotch pudding mix to add that extra caramel flavor but you certainly can omit it and use more brown sugar instead.

Easy Pecan Rolls

Ingredients:
20 frozen Rhodes dinner rolls
1 (3.4 oz) box butterscotch cook & serve pudding mix
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4-1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 stick melted butter

Directions:

Lightly grease a bundt pan with cooking spray. Layer frozen rolls in pan. Sprinkle dry pudding mix over rolls. In small bowl combine brown sugar and cinnamon and pour evenly over rolls, next add the chopped pecans. Drizzle melted butter evenly over the rolls. Cover and let rise overnight. In the morning, bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately turn over onto a plate or serving platter.


Now for the good stuff!

I'm so happy and thrilled with my blog's new look (thanks again Pam!) that I wanted to host my first giveaway! I picked up this adorable heart shaped cookie pan and just in time for Valentine's Day. So now I'm excited to give this to one lucky winner! Here's how you can win:

I will choose 1 random winner on Thursday, January 12th.  I'm giving you 3 different ways to enter.

1. Leave a comment telling me your favorite dessert to make on Valentine's Day
2. Follow Been There Baked That on your Google Reader (on the right side of this page) and leave a comment saying so.
3. Become a fan of Been There Baked That on Facebook and leave a comment saying so.

Good Luck!