Food prep and favorite recipes

1. How food prep can change your life!

Pictured is a one-pan meal prep ready to go in the oven! The main protein is chicken pesto with a three-cheese shred. The side dish is seasoned zucchini and fresh cherry tomatoes. This one pan is enough portions for 2-3 days and great for people who are on the go! I know when I’m extremely busy I have a habit of buying food that might not be the healthiest for me, but it’s convenient and fast.  Taking the time to meal prep is going to save you time in the long run what I like to do is set aside an hour or two to just meal prep and you’re set for the week. I highly recommend either buying on Amazon or even at Target glass containers that are airtight to seal the food keeping it fresh for a few days. You can take these containers in a lunchbox for work or school and eat it between classes. For the pesto chick in I added a Trader Joe’s pesto sauce that is good on noodles or on chicken with a package cheese that is shredded on top. I also added a drizzle of olive oil salt pepper and you’re good to go. Same for the tomatoes and zucchini but you can add other spices that you see fit. It’s super easy and healthy you can remove the cheese if you’d like and it’s super yummy.

2.

This dish is another one of my go-to dishes. The chicken is chicken breast and I got it from Trader Joe’s. What I like to do to make sure my chicken comes out juicy and cooked throughout is take a meat tenderizer it kind of looks like a hammer and tenderize the meat to around one inch across. You can do this on a cutting board or any flat surface that things will not go flying. Once the chicken breast is evenly mashed down go ahead and add your spices.

I think I use around 20 different spices but whatever you prefer works as well. I like to add salt pepper a few red pepper flakes, Old Bay because I’m from Maryland possibly garlic olive oil, and Italian spices. Then this beautiful salad to the next of it is a Mediterranean style salad. It is mixed greens and Cal so it’s super healthy and delicious. I love to chop up a variety of vegetables to make the salad colorful and fun. I chopped up carrots cucumbers olives and sometimes I even toss in almonds feta cheese and other veggies such as tomatoes but whatever you prefer.

For the dressing, I actually don’t use a typical dressing, but I got this recipe from one of my friends Danielle who showed me how you can have a salad with a simple dressing with a big kick. She adds apple cider vinegar and olive oil which sounds like a weird combination I know but trust me. If you add just a dash of both and then gradually add it if you need more dressing it is so delicious topped off with a little bit of salt and pepper.

3. Avocado toast

Ahhhh the avocado toast. So, I know this dish seems a little bit stereotypical and not that exciting, but as you can see from the picture you can really vamp up your avocado toast to make it something that you want to eat every single day. This avocado toast is made obviously with avocado mashed up with salt and pepper and a little bit of red pepper flakes. Use a hearty bread possibly with seeds if you like it and spread the avocado on top then add seeds and anything else that you see fit to add a little bit of character and texture and crunch. I like to add either a fried egg or a poached egg on top make sure the yolk is a little bit runny but not too much, so it blends well with the avocado toast.

4. Acai bowls

I’m sure you’ve heard of this before but if you haven’t welcome to the dark side. Acai berry is a superfood and what makes this dish delicious and healthy. I’ve eaten this at breakfast lunch and dinner because it’s really good no matter what time it is. If made correctly the acai bowl should have the consistency of sorbet or thicker. If you are trying to make this at home, I highly suggest this pro tip put your bowl in the freezer before you blend the acai berry, banana, and other fruits to create the base. This helps the base not melt once placed into the bowl. After that put granola almonds and other fruits such as banana strawberry and apples on top for extra personality to the dish making this very Instagram worthy.

5. Gelato!

Unfortunately, I have no idea whatsoever how to create this beautiful flower gelato, but this is more of an appreciation post for gelato in general. I highly suggest if you’re looking for a sweet treat to ditch the cookies and regular ice cream for authentic Italian Gelato. If you are local in South Florida, there are tons of places that you can go to find gelato. My favorite flavors are salted caramel, pistachio, and Stracciatella.

What is your favorite dish to make? Leave a comment down below or head over to my Instagram at Heather trials media to let me know. If you would like to see a video of me making any one of these dishes besides the gelato of course leave a comment down below. Also, if you could go any world anywhere in the world right now to get one item of food what would it be and where would you go? I definitely feel like I would make the hard sacrifice to go back to Florence and a gelato shop called my sugar to get another one of these rose-shaped cones. Thank you so much for tuning in any way that you do whether that’s reading my articles or watching my videos or listening to my podcast!