Air Fried Jerk Chicken Breast/Sauteed Shrimp, Loaded Broccoli, Butter Cookies

Now that the meetings are done and my classroom is ready, this is my first week back to school and I know the little ones are going to wear me out! As I transition back into teacher mode, I’m going to have my meals and snacks prepped so that there is never a question about my food. Today is a holiday so I’m only prepping for four days this week.

Recap from last week’s experience

Last week’s menu seemed so simple that it couldn’t go wrong.

But it did.

By the third day I was sick of salads, but did not want to waste any food and definitely didn’t want to prepare anything else. I overcame this by using sugar free BBQ sauce and ranch dressing instead of just oil and vinegar. This gave my salad a different taste and helped me enjoy it a little more.

I ended up doing a 36 hour fast in the middle of the week so one of the salads was in the fridge too long and got mushy. Soooo, I had to throw that one away.

It may be a while before I prep such a large salad for a whole week.

Learning from this experience, I chose my vegetable for this week and two different proteins so that I did not have the opportunity to get bored with my food.

This weeks menu

• Morning: Coffee/Water/Tea (Intermittent Fasting)
• Dinner: Air Fried Jerk Chicken Breast/Sauteed Shrimp, Loaded Broccoli
• Snack: Butter Cookies

My Shopping List|Ingredients

• Chicken Breast
• Frozen Shrimp
• Frozen Broccoli
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese
• Butter
• Real Bacon Pieces
• Sour Cream
• Almond Flour
• Vanilla Extract
• Egg
• Salt
• Monkfruit

Recipes

Air Fried Jerk Chicken Breast

Here I go with the air fryer again! It’s just SO convenient. To make this chicken I followed the following steps:

1. Clean and season about four chicken breasts. I used seasoning salt and this Jerk Seasoning. (I found it at my grocery store, but it can also be purchased online.
2. Place chicken in one layer in the air fryer basket.
3. Set air fryer to 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Flip chicken breasts after 10 minutes.
4. I measured 4oz of chicken for two of my meals.

Sauteed Shrimp

I bought this shrimp from Walmart. It is already cooked, but I wanted to add my own seasoning to it. This was very simple. First, saute the shrimp in a pan with butter, Old Bay seasoning, and cayenne pepper until it starts to sizzle.

That’s it.

I measured two servings for two of my meals which was about 20 shrimp.

Since it is Labor Day weekend, I made some jalapeno poppers for a barbecue. There was some left over cheese filling that I decided to add to my shrimp meals. I mixed together cream cheese, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and garlic powder with the butter sauce from the pan after sauteing the shrimp. (Pictured in the small blue container in the completed meal prep picture.)

Loaded Broccoli

Southern Keto Butter Cookies

These cookies are AMAZING! They are rich and buttery and do not require too many ingredients. This is not my recipe, so I am not able to share it. However, it can be found in the Southern Keto Cookbook by Natasha Newton. This cookbook is filled with many great recipes that will keep your keto kitchen buzzing with great smells and flavors.

Although I cannot share the recipe, I want to share why I included cookies in my meal prep.

Typically whenever I make these cookies, I’ll eat them at my leisure. Whether that’s one at a time or six in one sitting.

I know that I am an emotional eater and this is triggered by stress. Complete avoidance can lead to binge eating. So, because I know that this first week of school has the potential to be very overwhelming, I wanted to be proactive rather than reactive.

This way, I also have to show some restraint. I have two cookies tracked and packed for each day. If I eat too many on Tuesday, besides throwing off my macros, that means that I won’t have any for another day this week.

I would rather plan to succeed than get home, decide that I am overwhelmed and snack on anything in sight. I could also just drink some water and go to bed, but like I said, these cookies are amazing!

Check Your Mental

At the end of the week, check in with yourself about how this week of meal prepping went. It is important to take a moment and reflect as you prepare for the next week. Ask yourself the following questions as you prepare for next week’s meals:

1. Did I stick to my meal plan?
2. If I ate foods outside of my prepared meals, what triggered this act?
   • Was I hungry? Thirsty? Bored? Was there an unexpected outing/celebration?
3. How do I feel after this week of meal prepping?
   • Am I glad that all went well? Feeling accomplished? Sick of eating the same foods? Anxious about next week’s meal?
4. What do I need to incorporate in my meal prep to make myself more likely to stay on plan?
   • Simpler meals? Include/remove something sweet? Increase my fat intake next week so I feel more full? Change my eating times?