MEAL PREP for WINTER | healthy recipes + PDF guide

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- Hey guys and welcome back. I've got my long awaited winter meal prep video for you and it is packed with ideas to keep you nourished over these cold winter months. If you're new to my channel, this is the fourth meal prep video in a series. So make sure to go back and watch the others to learn more about my approach to meal prep, which is prepping individual ingredients for easy mix and match meals throughout the week. In today's video I'll show you how to meal prep 10 ingredients and give you a few ideas for warm winter meals that you can quickly whip up. But with the creativity in this community, I'm sure that you guys will combine these ingredients in even more delicious ways. And when you do, make sure to tag me on Instagram so I can see it. Now just as I've done on my previous meal prep videos, I've created a downloadable PDF guide of this winter meal prep so that you don't have to worry about taking any notes throughout the video. I'll tell you how to download the PDF at the end of this video. But first, let me show you what I've meal prepped this week. As usual, I'll start with the ingredient that takes the longest. And today that's slow cooker pulled pork. I love using my slow cooker in the winter for easy meals and this pulled pork is so incredibly flavorful. You're gonna love it. I'm starting this recipe early in the morning just because it's hard to film in my kitchen when it's dark at night. But I do recommend you make this recipe the night before. Your slow cooker can work its magic while you're sleeping and you can wake up to lovely pulled pork. I'll start by dicing up one whole onion and then add that to my slow cooker along with four garlic cloves and the juice from one orange. The orange not only adds sweetness to the pulled pork, but it's what helps to make it so fall apart tender. When you grab pork from the market, make sure to grab a boneless pork shoulder, which is sometimes also called a pork butt or a Boston butt. In terms of size, you want four and a half to five pounds. Though my two pieces add up to almost five and a half pounds. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it fits in my slow cooker. Your pork should be well-marbled for that extra boost of flavor, but you don't want too much fat on the edges. So if I see a little too much fat, I'll just trim that off. Next I'll make my pork rub, which is a combination of two tablespoons of paprika, one teaspoon of oregano, one teaspoon of salt, one teaspoon of black pepper, and a half a teaspoon of cumin. Sprinkle this rub very generously over all sides of your pork and rub it in good with your hands. (relaxing music) Place the pork into your slow cooker. And thank goodness mine fits, just barely. Then add the lid. I'm going to move mine out of the way, then turn it on low for eight hours. And you really do want to cook it low and slow as the meat will be so much more tender and flavorful than if you cooked it on high for four hours. For a delicious and healthy snack, I'm going to make some roasted beet hummus this week. I'll preheat my oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and give my beets a good wash using that vegetable scrubber I showed you last week. There's no need to peel the beets with this recipe, and that's always a bonus. Whenever I work with beets, I always lay down parchment paper underneath so I don't have to worry about staining my cutting board. Slice off the stems, leaving about two inches attached, and leave the tails on as well. The green beet leaves are also great and packed with nutrients, so don't throw those away. Just add them to your next salad or green smoothie. I used to cook my beets wrapped in aluminum foil, but as I've tried to get away from using aluminum foil, I now roast them in a cast iron pot. Because my pot is a very white Le Creuset pot that I don't want to ruin, I'm lining it with parchment paper. But if you have a black cast iron pot or a glass baking dish, you could skip this step. Add the beets to your pot, drizzle a little olive oil or avocado oil on top, and make sure they're fully coated. Then add the lid and cook them for about 50 to 60 minutes. (relaxing music) While the beets are cooking, I'll move onto my oranges. Oranges are in abundance during winter and I'm gonna enjoy the entire fruit this week, peel and all. Now I purchase all organic produce because it's important to me. But if you sometimes do and sometimes don't, I'll definitely recommend prioritizing organic when you're eating the outside peel or skin. Once the oranges are washed, I'll take a small knife and cut off the top and bottom, trying not to cut into the flesh. Then I'll score the orange from top to bottom four times, essentially dividing the peel into quarters, and slide my fingers under the peel to gently remove it. Slice each peel into quarter inch wide strips and then add them to a pot. Because orange peel and especially that white pith can be bitter, we'll remove some of that bitterness by boiling the orange peel in water. While I'm waiting on the water to boil, I'll slice up my orange flesh and add it to a storage container. I've now got an easy no fuss snack for the next few days or I can easily throw these oranges into smoothies. So, back to our orange peel. Once the water is boiling, drain it over a colander. Then fill the pot back up with water and repeat the same process one more time. I know it seems a bit tedious, but it really does help to remove some of that bitterness. After you've drained it a second time, we'll be more measured and add two cups of water and one cup of sugar. This is essentially a thin simple syrup and you can also use any sugar you'd like. I'm using organic cane sugar, but you could also use coconut sugar, maple syrup, monk fruit, other low carb sugars, or whichever sugar is your preference. Stir the sugar and water together, bring it to a simmer, and set your timer for 30 minutes. At this point our roasted beets should be done, so remove those from the oven. Use tongs to carefully transfer them to a cutting board. And you'll notice I'm using parchment paper again to keep my cutting board clean because I'm all about making my life easier in the kitchen. Slice off the stem and tail on each beet. And for this recipe, I'll only need two beets. So I'll save that third one to pop in a smoothie or top on a salad throughout the week. And one last bonus point for parchment paper. Look at how clean it kept the inside of my pot. If you've watched my hummus video, you know how easy it is to make creamy and smooth homemade hummus in your Vitamix. I'll add two cans of chickpeas to my blender along with one third cup of aquafaba, which is the liquid from the chickpea cans. To this I'll add a half a cup of tahini, a quarter cup of olive oil, the juice from one lemon, one or two garlic cloves, a half a teaspoon of salt, and two of my roasted beets. I'll add the lid to my blender, get my tamper ready, and turn it on. And within seconds, my regular hummus turns the most beautiful and vibrant shade of pink thanks to those lovely beets. (relaxing music) Once it's done blending, I'll use my under blade scraper to get it all out, transfer it to a storage container, and place it in the fridge. My orange peel should be just about done. And you'll notice that most of the simple syrup has evaporated. Lay down a piece of parchment paper on your countertop and place a cooling rack on top. Then use tongs to remove the orange peel slices and lay them on the cooling rack. These need to dry at least eight hours, though I prefer to let them sit overnight. So we'll come back to these a little bit later. (relaxing music) In the meantime, I'll make my ultimate seed crackers, which is a boosted version of flaxseed crackers and only takes a handful of ingredients. That includes one cup of ground flaxseed, one third cup of sesame seeds, a quarter cup of chia seeds, and a half a cup of pumpkin seeds, which are also know as pepitas. Now because pepitas are big and whole, we'll need to grind them up. And the easiest way to do that is in a food processor. If you have a mini food processor like this one, it's perfect for the job. Just add the pepitas and pulse a few times or until the texture resembles course sand. Add the ground pepitas back to the bowl with the other seeds along with one teaspoon of salt and one and a quarter cups of water and give it a stir. The mixture will be really liquidy at the beginning. But as soon as the chia seeds start absorbing water in that first minute, it will thicken up. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a low temperature. But that's because our goal is to dehydrate the crackers and make them crunchy. Lay out a piece of parchment paper on your countertop and scoop half of the mixture into the middle. Add another piece of parchment paper on top, squish it down a bit, then use a rolling pin to flatten it out. You want the dough to be about a quarter inch thick or slightly thinner. Remove the top piece of parchment paper and use a knife to score the dough. You can make squares or diamonds or whatever shape you'd like. And this just makes it easier to break the crackers up once they've cooked and cooled. Carefully transfer this to a baking sheet and repeat the same process with the other half of dough. And then bake them for two and a half to three hours. I've really come to love lentils over the last few years. And while they're generally easy to cook, I do have a few tips. Add one cup of lentils to a strainer and give them a rinse. But while you're doing this, make sure to remove any bad lentils or small stones, which can sometimes sneak in. Pour them into a pot and add four cups of water. While lentils do expand like rice, you don't want them mushing together. So more water is necessary. Then add one bay leaf and one piece of kombu. Kombu is edible seaweed. And not only does it add a wonderful umami flavor to the lentils along with some trace minerals, but the enzymes in kombu break down the phytic acid in the lentils, making them easier to digest. And when I buy kombu at the store, I just transfer it to one of my storage containers. Bring the lentils to a simmer, then reduce the heat so there's only a few small bubbles and add the lid. I'm moving my pot to a smaller burner so that the simmer can stay really low and I'll set the timer for 20 minutes. Sweet potatoes are great in the winter months as they're hearty and nourishing and there's just so many ways to cook them. But you know how much I love my spiralizer. So today I'm spiralizing my sweet potato. You can remove the skin or leave it on. It's up to you. But I've found that when using the small spiral blade on my spiralizer, the skin can sometimes clog up the blades. So that's why I'm removing it. Then just spiralize away. I have a whole video all about spiralizing. So if you'd like more info about the veggies you can spiralize, make sure to check that out. Spiralized noodles are always extremely long, so it's best to take some kitchen scissors to your noodles and trim them up before storing them in the fridge. Next I've got another easy veggie, and that's cabbage. I have a half of a cabbage left over from earlier in the week wrapped in beeswax. So today I thought I'd slice up the rest of it. You can take a large knife to the cabbage and slice it up, then chop those slices into smaller pieces. But since I've got my spiralizer out, I figured I might as well use that to slice up the remainder of my cabbage. To do that, I'll swap out the small spiral blade for the flat blade and give it a twirl. About 10 seconds later the rest of my cabbage is sliced up into perfectly thin pieces. And then all I have to do is place this in the fridge to be used throughout the week. My lentils should be done cooking now, so I'll drain them in the sink. Remove the piece of kombu, which as you can see, rehydrated. Let them cool a few minutes, then transfer them to a storage container. And don't forget to remove the bay leaf as well. I'm a big fan of Swiss chard when it's in season. So when I see it in the market, I always grab a few bunches. To prep the Swiss chard, I'll start by washing the individual leaves under the faucet though you could do this in a large bowl of water as well. When it comes to storing Swiss chard, I'll show you two methods. But first I'll slice off some of the stem that's a little bit dried out. To store the chard whole, I'll place several leaves on a tea towel and wrap them up. The tea towel gets a little wet from the leaves, but that's good as the moisture helps keep them fresh. You can also place a rubber band around the towel to keep it together. Then place this in the crisper drawer in your fridge. For chard that I plan to eat within the first couple of days, I'll pat it dry with a paper towel or tea towel, roll the leaves up together, and slice them across. Then I'll line a storage container with a paper towel and add the sliced chard. Because I'm adding the lid in this method and the leaves won't air dry, I want the paper towel to absorb any excess moisture. And then I'll place the chard in the fridge. Alright, onto dressings. I have got two new vinaigrette recipes, which will help jazz up some of my meals this week. The first is a creamy and flavorful Dijon vinaigrette. And to make that, I'll add one third cup of olive oil to a bowl along with the juice of one lemon, one tablespoon white wine vinegar, two teaspoons of Dijon mustard, one clove of garlic, salt, and pepper. Then I'll whisk it up and pour it into a storage container. The second vinaigrette is a citrus lime vinaigrette that's got a spicy kick to it. I'll add a quarter cup of olive oil to a bowl along with the juice from one orange and three limes and about two teaspoons of finely diced jalapeno pepper. I'll also add a quarter cup of finely chopped cilantro, salt, and pepper, and whisk this together before storing it in another jar. To finish off the meal prep this week, I have just got to put away a few of the other ingredients which are now cooked and done. And that includes the seed crackers, which are really easy to just break up and place in a storage container, as well as my pulled pork. Remove the pulled pork from the slow cooker and use two forks to shred it up. The meat should really just fall apart on its own. And trust me, it'll be hard not to put half of it in your mouth while you're shredding it up because it's so juicy and tender. (relaxing music) Alright. So now that you've got these 10 ingredients prepped, let me give you a few ideas of what you could easily make throughout the week by combining them with ingredients from your fridge or pantry. For breakfast, you probably won't be surprised by this recipe but it's honestly something I make all the time. And that's my spiralized sweet potato egg nest. Just add a little oil, butter, or ghee to a pan and toss in a handful of sweet potato noodles. Once the noodles have cooked for a couple of minutes, use the tongues to form them into a little nest and crack one egg in the middle. Add a lid and cook the egg until the white is cooked through and the yolk has reached your desired level of done. Transfer the egg nest to a plate and garnish with parsley or other fresh herbs, spring onion, salt, and pepper. (relaxing music) For another breakfast idea and one that's simple but packed with deliciously spicy flavor, I'll slice up another spring onion and some jalapeno pepper. I'll melt oil or bacon grease into a pan, swirl that around, and get two eggs ready. My approach when it comes to fried eggs is to cook them low and slow for that perfectly crispy bottom and fully cooked white. And since it will take the eggs about three minutes to cook, I'll toss on some pulled pork to warm up and a few slices of jalapeno. Once the eggs are done, I'll slide them onto a plate, garnish with spring onion, salt, and pepper, and a few shakes of hot sauce for a breakfast that will warm anyone up in the winter. (relaxing music) My pre-pealed and sliced oranges are just asking to be eaten in the fridge, so those always make for the perfect snack. As I mentioned before, they are also great for throwing into smoothies, and I've got a delicious almond orange smoothie recipe on my website. For another healthy snack, my roasted beet hummus is absolutely delicious. To be honest, I usually just scoop it up straight from the container. But if I want to get fancy, I can place it in a bowl, give it a little swoosh, and chop up some fresh parsley. But before garnishing it with the parsley, I've got frozen cubes of my homemade basil pesto from a few months ago, which you might remember. So I'll just thaw one of those cubes and add it to the beet hummus, drizzle a little olive oil, and then sprinkle on the fresh parsley. You can scoop the hummus up with my ultimate seed crackers. Or if you wanted to make this meal prep even easier, you could skip the seed crackers and just slice up some celery, as I showed you on my first meal prep video. (relaxing music) Our next recipe takes a little longer than five minutes to whip up, but it's a great snack you'll love. And that's curly sweet potato fries. So preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, then add some sweet potato noodles to a baking sheet. Now, I usually prefer my curly fries made with the thicker spiral slicing blade, but as I've made a bunch of small noodles this week, that works as well. Drizzle a little olive oil or avocado oil on the noodles, then generously season with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Mix the noodles all together with your hands until they're well coated and bake them for approximately 20 minutes. While the noodles are cooking, I can whip up a quick garlic aioli, which is just a couple of tablespoons of my homemade mayo recipe, one clove of garlic, some lemon juice, salt, and pepper. When the fries come out of the oven, you'll see that they have shrunk down. And baked sweet potatoes noodles don't come out crispy like fried ones do. But I think they're tasty nonetheless. I'll add some curly fries to a plate and dollop on my garlic aioli for a spicy and warm snack to enjoy. (relaxing music) For lunch or dinner you can whip up an easy pulled pork, cabbage, and arugula salad. Depending on your winter climate, you could make this a cold salad or a warm salad. And I'm making it a cold salad today as the weather is quite nice in Southern California. The full salad recipe is on my website, but I'm just going to eyeball a single portion. So I'll add some pulled pork to a bowl along with sliced cabbage and some grated carrot. For greens, I'll add a handful or so of arugula along with fresh cilantro and I'll sprinkle some sliced almonds for a little crunch. For dressing, I'm going to add my citrus lime vinaigrette. The flavors of the vinaigrette really enhance this salad with the orange, lime, and cilantro. And there is a spicy little kick with the jalapeno. Give the salad a stir and then serve it up. (relaxing music) For a warm salad that's also a great meatless option but still hearty and filling, I'll make my warm sweet potato noodles, cabbage, and lentil salad. To make this, I'll heat a little olive oil in a pan and toss in a few slices of onion. Again, I'm just eyeballing a single portion, but the full salad recipe is on my website. To the onion I'll add a good amount of Swiss chard as it will wilt down, and then saute those together for a minute or so. Then I'll add a handful of sweet potato noodles, saute those for another minute or two until they have softened, and add a handful of cabbage. Lastly I'll add some lentils. And because these are already cooked, I don't need to cook them, but I do want them nice and warm. At this point I'll usually turn off the stove and let my salad stay warm while I toast a small amount of pine nuts. Then I'll add the salad to a mixing bowl along with the toasted pine nuts and some freshly chopped herbs. I'm using a combination of parsley and cilantro, but feel free to get creative with the herbs. For dressing on this salad, I'll add my Dijon vinaigrette and give everything a stir before plating it up. (relaxing music) One of the great things about meal prep is that you can start to combine your ingredients in ways that you hadn't originally even thought of. And this meal is a perfect example of that. I don't even have a recipe for this, as it came together on a whim with my leftovers. But I absolutely loved it, so wanted to share it with you. Add a little olive oil to a pan along with one minced garlic clove. Toss in a generous handful of Swiss chard and saute that together until the Swiss chard wilts down. Now this on its own is an easy and simple side dish, but since I have lentils prepped, I'll add a couple spoonfuls of those and warm them up. But let's not forget about our beet hummus. Add a large spoonful of that to a plate and give it a pretty swoosh like all the fancy restaurants do. Then add the garlic sauteed Swiss chard and lentils and some pulled pork. I've heated up my pulled pork in the microwave, but you could use the stove top as well. And for a little more flair and crunch, I'll finish it off with a few sprinkles of white and black sesame seeds. This meal couldn't be easier and it's absolutely delicious. (relaxing music) Now you didn't forget about our orange peel slices, did you? I've let these sit out over night. And I do recommend making both the pulled pork and the orange slices the night before, as there's downtime with both of them. Because the candied orange peel will still be tacky even after it's dried, I'll roll them around in a little sugar, then add them to a jar. On my website I also show how you can dip these in chocolate. But this week I'm keeping them plain. And the great thing about this candied orange peel is that one peel is usually enough to satisfy my sweet cravings. (relaxing music) I hope you enjoyed all of those delicious recipes. And as I mentioned at the beginning, I created a downloadable PDF guide of this winter meal prep video for you. The PDF includes the storage guidelines of all of the ingredients as well as links to the full recipes on downshiftology.com. And hopefully that should make your life a little bit easier in the kitchen. You can find the link the download the PDF in the description box below. But if you're already on my email list from my website, then you will receive this PDF automatically in your email inbox today. If you enjoyed today's video and would like to see more in this meal prep series, make sure to give it a thumbs up, hit that Subscribe button, and let me know in the comments below. Alright, that's it for me today. I hope that you guys stay warm and I will see you again in the next video.
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Channel: Downshiftology
Views: 3,533,169
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Keywords: meal prep, healthy meal prep, meal prepping, how to meal prep, meal prep ideas, meal prepping ideas, meal prep for the week, meal planning, healthy recipes, healthy eating, clean eating, gluten free, healthy, healthy food, easy meal prep, healthy cooking, cooking, ingredients, healthy meals, healthy meal plan, meal prepping for beginners, meal prep recipes, meal prep healthy, meal prep tasty, weekly meal prep, food prep, meal prep for weight loss, downshiftology
Id: 1FrUOqk2btw
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 25min 45sec (1545 seconds)
Published: Mon Feb 04 2019
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