March 26, 2020 By Karen Durbin Leave a Comment

Easy Weeknight Meals for Your Family

5 Easy Weeknight Meals

Since when did feeding our families weeknight meals become so tough?

It seems like in a blink of an eye we went from freely moving about, hitting up the grocery store whenever we needed to, and never doubting the things we need the most–like toilet paper and ground beef–would always be readily available.

Need For Easy Meals

In the grocery store several weeks ago, I saw the hoarding begin.

People were loading their carts with boxes of ramen noodles, cases of chicken noodle soup, lots of soda and chips, and many rolls of toilet paper.

I get it.

That stuff lasts. The expiration date is forever far away unlike the fresh products. And, if we are going to be stuck in our homes with no way to get more food, we NEED stuff that lasts.

But I could barely resist the urge to stand on something tall and yell, “Hey people!! None of that stuff you are buying is going to help you fight off the flu!!”

Even today, several weeks after the onset of our social distancing, I can still find the produce aisle stuffed full everything nutritious, while the boxed goods/ramen noodles/canned soups aisles are like ghost towns.

(Speaking of ghost towns, have you ever wondered what it must have been like for the last person to leave the town?? No? Just me? lol)

But, if you aren’t used to cooking so much, you might not know exactly what weeknight meals to make.

Or, if the ideas had the first week and maybe even the second week have run their course…

You might need help.

We have a super useable resource for you for just $1.99!

Easy Weeknight Meals

eBook Contents:

This downloadable eBook of weeknight meals contains:

5 easy meals you can make this week for your family
printable grocery shopping list
meal prepping tips

Weeknight Meals included are:

Paleo Italian Meatballs in Marinara Sauce

These weeknight meals have been family favorites for us, and we are pretty sure your family will love them too!

You can get your copy HERE.

January 20, 2019 By Karen Durbin Leave a Comment

Eat Healthy at Every Meal

I started Prepped Girl because whenever I would talk about eating healthy with people, especially moms, I would be met with some version of this: “I would love to eat like that, but I just don’t have the time.”

I distinctly remember the day the idea came to me.

I was standing in our bedroom, talking to my husband, and I said to him, “There has to be a way to help people eat healthy,” and it was like BAM! The idea downloaded instantly.

And the business was born.

www.preppedgirl.com

But it wasn’t too long ago that someone said to me, “You should think about servicing the WHOLE mom.”

You see, as a mom myself, I know that we will always make sure our families are taken care of. We will make sure they have the food and stuff they need to thrive.

But we don’t always do the same for ourselves. That’s why I started the business by focusing on healthy breakfasts and lunches.

But sometimes, we moms are so busy, that getting take out or eating dinners that are high in processed ingredients is all we can really do.

So this week, we are introducing a new section to the menu: Family-Sized Freezer Meals.

These meals are intended to be frozen and then prepared in the Instant Pot from frozen.

Our idea is that all you have to do is to take the frozen meal out of the freezer, place it directly into your Instant Pot, and pressure cook until done (following the included directions).

Healthy meals ready for you and your family without having to spend time gathering or prepping ingredients.

You can go to the practices and games, take care of your homes, tend to all your other obligations, AND still feed your family nutritious, wholesome food.

You CAN eat healthy at EVERY meal!

Check out this week’s menu to see the family-sized freezer meals AND the healthy breakfasts and lunches we are offering, and while you are there, order yourself some food for next week!

www.preppedgirl.com

July 5, 2018 By Karen Durbin Leave a Comment

Turmeric: The Natural Inflammation Fighter

Turmeric.

If you have ever eaten curry, you can thank turmeric for it’s yellow color.

But did you know that turmeric is actually quite good for you because it contains compounds with medicinal properties?

Yep!

Turmeric contains curcumin, a substance shown to have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

It seems that our modern society is plagued with chronic inflammation. And it seems that we just generally accept aches and pains to come with aging. But research is showing that those “signs” of aging are symptoms of chronic inflammation rather than symptoms of getting older.

According to healthline.com:

**Curcumin, according to some research, can inhibit many molecules known to play major roles in inflammation.

**Curcumin has powerful antioxidant effects. It neutralizes free radicals on its own, then stimulates the body’s own antioxidant enzymes.

**Curcumin boosts levels of the brain hormone BDNF, which increases the growth of new neurons and fights various degenerative processes in the brain.

**Curcumin has beneficial effects on several factors known to play a role in heart disease. It improves the function of the endothelium and is a potent anti-inflammatory agent and antioxidant.

**Curcumin leads to several changes on the molecular level that may help prevent and perhaps even treat cancer.

**Curcumin can cross the blood-brain barrier and has been shown to lead to various improvements in the pathological process of Alzheimer’s disease.

**Arthritis is a common disorder characterized by joint inflammation. Many studies show that curcumin can help treat symptoms of arthritis and is in some cases more effective than anti-inflammatory drugs.

**A study in 60 depressed patients showed that curcumin was as effective as prozac in alleviating the symptoms of depression.

(check out healthline.com to see the sources of their research/information)

Here is a recipe we found on 40 Aprons for an Iced Golden Milk Turmeric Latte that we found (because we have tried this recipe!!) to be refreshing and delicious!!!

Iced Golden Milk Turmeric Latte

Ingredients–Serves 2

1 1/2 cups coconut milk from carton vanilla or plain is fine
1 1/2 cups unsweetened plain almond milk
3 Tbsp. maple syrup divided if you’d prefer an “ombré” look
1 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
Pinch ground black pepper
Pinch ground cardamom
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well. Pour over ice and enjoy!
If you’d like to pour the “golden milk” part over plain milk, like in my photos, combine the almond milk with 1/2 tablespoon maple syrup and stir well. Pour over two glasses filled with ice. In a cocktail shake, combine the coconut milk, all the spices, 2 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup, and plenty of ice. Shake well and pour over cups filled with ice and sweetened almond milk. Enjoy!

If you give this recipe a try, stop by our Facebook page and tell us what you think!!!

Oh, and leave Cheryl at 40 Aprons some love!

Looking for an easy way to fit healthy eating into your busy lifestyle? We can help! We make healthy breakfasts and lunches and deliver them to your door Sunday morning. All the meals are made with wholesome ingredients and are prepped and portioned in BPA-free, microwave safe containers. All you have to do each day, is decide which meal you are going to eat, grab it, and GO!!

www.preppedgirl.com

February 21, 2018 By Karen Durbin Leave a Comment

How to RE-MOTIVATE yourself to stick to your goals!

The need to re-motivate yourself

Do you need to re-motivate yourself? Let’s see if this sounds familiar…

It’s New Year’s Day…the start of a BRAND NEW year…a blank slate…and you are oh-so-excited to make THIS year YOUR year. You set some goals…probably some health and fitness goals like losing weight and getting in shape. You tell yourself that nothing is going to stop you this time. This time you mean it.

You start off strong…eating right and getting in some exercise…and you’re still pretty excited.

But then the end of January rolls around and the weather is pretty yucky and life just keeps happening. Perhaps you even got sick or suffered from a cold or your family has been sick and you missed some workouts and ran out of time to prep your meals.

And now it’s February and all that excitement from 50 something days ago has waned. You find yourself still wanting to achieve those same goals, but you are way less motivated to do so.

Sound familiar? Yeah, we thought so. But how do we re-motivate ourselves to get back on track? We have 4 easy tips to help you reignite that fire.

4 Ways to Re-Motivate Yourself

1.Start small. Let’s say your ultimate goal is to lose 20 or more pounds. Although a great goal to have, it may seem daunting right now. Instead of shooting for 20 pounds, how about shooting for 10 or even 5 or maybe even just 1 pound in the next week. Breaking a larger goal down into smaller goals sets us up for success. We feel more accomplished when we can check items off of our to-do list. Imagine how great it would feel if each week you checked off “Lose 1 pound”. In less than 5 months, you will have achieved your goal of losing 20 pounds…just in time for summer!

2. Reward yourself. All too often we punish ourselves for not doing something. We won’t buy ourselves that new outfit or those new shoes or go to that nice restaurant because we haven’t lost the weight we wanted to lose. But punishing ourselves doesn’t exactly make us feel very good (remember how you used to feel when your parents would ground you or you got those detentions in school?), and we aren’t exactly motivated to do ANYTHING if we don’t feel so good. Instead of punishing yourself, REWARD yourself. Did you follow your meal plan all week? How about a manicure or a new lipstick? Did you workout like you said you would this week? How about a new book to read or some new running socks? Your rewards don’t even have to cost money. How about rewarding yourself with 30 minutes of alone time at the park? You will feel more motivated to reach your goals when you have something to work toward…something tangible that is not food related (or related to the scale).

3. Get accountability. The more other people know about your goal, the more accountable you will feel. If you know that people are going to be “watching,” you will more likely stick to your plan. Join a Facebook group or share your journey on social media. Get a coach or join a workout club or hire a trainer. The more visible you make your goal, the more likely you won’t drop it. Plus, it helps to have the encouragement of others working on their health and fitness too. You can share struggles and successes and tips.

4. Outsource tasks. Research shows that food is 80-90% your results when losing weight or shaping up, and for people who have meal prepped before, food can feel like it sucks up 80-90% of your time. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can hire a meal prep service like Prepped Girl to help you keep your health and fitness goals on track. Prepped Girl makes all of their meals from wholesome, nutritious ingredients and delivers them to your door Sunday morning. That way, you don’t have to spend all your precious free time in the grocery store and the kitchen prepping your food, but you will still be good to go come the start of your work week. You can also outsource household chores (like hiring a house cleaner) to free up some time so you CAN get to the gym or go for that run.

Achieving your health and fitness CAN be doable if you find the right ways to re-motivate yourself!

December 29, 2017 By Karen Durbin Leave a Comment

Cincinnati Kentucky Meal Prep Service Why Fat Is Important

It’s that time of year when we start to think about losing weight. We focus a great deal of our energy on getting rid of fat so we start avoiding anything we deem “fattening” like the plague. But what would you say if we told you that if you want to lose weight you need to EAT fat? Yep, we here at Prepped Girl, a Cincinnati Kentucky meal prep service, are here to tell you to eat some fat!

Getting a bad rap

According to Shalane Flanagan (female winner of 2017’s NYC Marathon) and Elyse Kopecky in their book Run Fast. Eat Slow. fat is important for many reasons. “Fat is a carrier for flavor and nutrients. Many vitamins and minerals cannot be absorbed without it. Fat is also a primary source of energy–viable energy that can fuel your body for endurance endeavors. A meal rich in healthy fats will leave you feeling satisfied, better nourished, and less likely to reach for a sugar fix.”

Some research shows that not enough enough fat in your diet can actually make you fat. When we reduce one macronutrient (i.e. fats, carbs, and protein), we have to make up for the calories somewhere else. Those who eat less fat usually end up eating more carbs–usually simple carbs. These simple carbs can spike your insulin levels. A drop in blood sugar alerts your brain that you’re hungry—again—even though you just ate. Research has found that post-eating blood sugar spikes can also increase inflammation due to your body’s overproduction of inflammatory free radicals called reactive oxygen species (ROS) (http://www.eatthis.com/why-you-should-eat-fat/).

Healthy food has gotten a bad reputation for not tasting so good, and that is because much of what we consider to be “healthy” lacks fat, and that would make sense since fat is what makes food taste good. “We have been programmed to think of fat as bad, but remember that not all [fats] are created equal” (Run Fast. Eat Slow). You can transform your body AND your meals by including healthy fats.

But what fats should you eat?

Research is revealing that eating the right fats can actually lower your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, and improve your cholesterol levels. That’s because all fats are not created equal. It’s not the total amount of fat in your diet that affects how much you weigh or whether you’re at risk for heart disease. What matters is the type of fats you choose (and, when it comes to dropping pounds, the total number of calories you eat) (http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20582466,00.html). Below is a list of some good fats you need to be eating:

coconut (like oil and full-fat milk)
extra virgin olive oil
butter/ghee
avocado
nuts and nut butters (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, peanuts)
salmon

Eat in moderation

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2005 Dietary Guidelines recommend that adults get 20%-35% of their calories from fats. At a minimum, we need at least 10% of our calories to come from fat. The problem is that the typical American diet is higher in fat: Roughly 34% to 40% of our calories come from fat. (https://www.webmd.com/diet/obesity/features/skinny-fat-good-fats-bad-fats#1). Just because these healthy fats are good for us and make our food taste great doesn’t mean we can go overboard in the name of health…a calorie IS a calorie, but cutting fat out completely in an attempt to lose weight is also not a good idea. We need to eat these fats in moderation, like most everything else (except maybe veggies…eating veggies is ALWAYS a good idea), to ensure that we are giving our bodies what they need to function at their best.

How Prepped Girl can help

Prepped Girl is a Cincinnati Kentucky meal prep service where you can order healthy breakfasts and lunches for your work week. We use healthy fats all the time when creating our meals. We cook with extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and ghee–especially ghee for a dairy free alternative to butter.

We include slices of avocado with our meals like with our Turkey Taco Bowl.

And our grain free granola is chock full of healthy fats from seeds, nuts, and coconut flakes and oil!

We make your health a priority when creating all of our meals.

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Need a meal prep service in your life? In the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area? Head over to www.preppedgirl.com and check out our Cincinnati Kentucky meal prep service menu for this week! All orders need placed by noon on Friday and will be delivered to your door Sunday morning (6 meal minimum order required for free delivery). Let Prepped Girl make living your best life that much easier!