It’s like the first half week of 2020… would everyone else call it that? Honestly, I feel personally victimized by this new year starting on a Wednesday and the fact that I had to work for a day and a half, got a random day off where most places are closed, and then had to return to work for two days before getting a weekend. What’s my name again? Who am I? Where am I? What day is it? I mean honestly, on Wednesday I was like- shoooooooooooooot I need to get to the grocery store and meal prep. Luckily I meal prepped the weekend before so here we are.

It’s been a while since I posted about breakfast. I’ve been reading this book about grocery stores lately and part of the book reflects on American breakfast choices (cereal anyone?) and it really made me think about how we need to revamp our breakfast choices and get people to make different choices on what they put in their bowls.

So this week I made a savory cream of wheat. Now I make this every morning fresh, what I meal prepped here were the vegetables. I cut them up to make it easier to cook in the morning. It’s simple breakfast really. It’s about a half cup of cream of wheat, prosciutto, red and yellow bell peppers, baby tomatoes, kale, butter and an egg. What makes it great is that it’s nutrient dense and very filling and satisfying and I don’t get the sugar crash about an hour later. It’s something I wouldn’t mind adding into my regular rotation of breakfast meals.

Next up is dinner: Shrimp Gumbo. Now this took a bit of labor to make. Who knew that would could stir a roux for 30-45 minutes to get it to a dark chocolate brown? This is a dish from the cookbook: Binging with Babish, which I will be giving away a copy of at the end of the month. Now I modified it a bit, getting little baby shrimp instead of large-medium sized shrimp. It worked out though because now I get shrimp in just about every bite.

Now Haris decided to make a different dinner this week and eat on that, until he tried this gumbo. He then had a nice size helping of the gumbo each night. When I asked him if he liked it he said: “It’s the kind of food the reinvigorates your hunger.” I guess that means it’s really good! I love this dish too. I mean it’s been pretty cold here lately (we still have snow on the ground from last weekend’s snowstorm), and this dish is great to help warm you up right before settling in for the night.

Last up is lunch: Mushroom Chicken Rice Bake and broccoli. This is a variation of a dish my mom used to make in my childhood. It was one of my favorite dishes and one that I crave when I need comfort food. And it’s a dish that I will be blogging the recipe to in about two weeks so be on the lookout!

One more thing before we sign off on this weird half week of 2020. Something I want to start sharing with you all on meal prep blogs is the price of the ingredients I picked up from the grocery store. I think this is important because one of the biggest barriers for a lot of people to start eating well and cooking for themselves is the cost, but honestly, I find that a lot of time the cost is lower than we think, so make sure to check this section out on all meal prep blogs this year!

Breakfast- Total: $16.86 ($3.37 per meal- 5 meals)

• Cream of Wheat- $0 (already had)
• Eggs-$0 (already had)
• Prosciutto- $4.49
• Kale (organic)- $1.99
• Yellow Bell Pepper (organic)- $2.69
• Red Bell Pepper (organic)- $2.69
• Tomatoes- $5.00

Lunch- Total: $11.35 ($2.84 per meal- 4 meals)

• Chicken- $0 (already had from Butcher Box)
• Cremini Mushrooms- $2.49
• Whipping Cream- $4.99
• Milk- $0 (already had)
• Rice- $2.49
• Broccoli- $1.38

Dinner- Total: $20.74 ($2.30 per meal- 9 meals)

• Shrimp- $8.99
• Sausage- $4.99
• Okra- $1.00
• Celery- $1.99
• Onion- $0.79
• Parsley- $0.99
• Bay Leaves- $1.99
• Rice- $0 (already had)
• Flour and Oil- $0 (already had)

Total for week: $48.89 spent for 18 meals (average of $2.72 per meal)