Bri's Meal plan- June 22nd-26th

My daughter and I did some grocery shopping this morning! Our shopping days are usually Mondays and Fridays. I try to always keep my budget at $30 each trip to the grocery store equaling $60 per week. Today we reached about $35 which I am happy with! ANYWAYS.. I was on my way home and thinking maybe I should share my meal plan with all of you!! <3

NOW, I am not by ANY means perfect at meal planning. I still am trying to figure out exactly what works best for me.. but doing something is better than nothing, right?! I have found that when I do make a STRICT meal plan for the week (writing exactly what I am going to make each day for each meal) I tend to not stick with it 100%. Not that I get off track but I just sometimes don't feel like having a certain meal for dinner even though thats what my meal plan says. SO, here is what I did this week!

I am taking a few recipes for each meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks). I am not writing down exactly which days I am going to make what but simply shopping for those things so that I have them! SO I have tons of healthy meal options and 2-3 choices for each meal, just depends what I feel like making that day! I think it will be great! :)

So here is what I have- If you are going off this plan pick 1 choice from each category, each day this week. I will post the recipes along with it! 

Breakfast options:

- Shakeology (chocolate or vanilla) blended with 8oz. water, 8oz. almond milk, fruit, and ice.

Find it here: Your Shakeology

- Chobani's plain, non fat greek yogurt (blue container) with fruit, honey, flax seeds, and almonds.

Lunch Options:

-Turkey Sandwich (9 grain seed bread, turkey sandwich meat, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, etc) Fruit on the side. String cheese.

-Egg and Avocado toast. (9 grain bread toasted, avocado spread, egg over easy) sided with veggies

Chicken Sausage Salad:

Find the recipe here: Chicken sausage salad






























Dinner Options:

- Chicken Apple Sausage (recipe above)


-Chicken Picatta
Recipe found here: Chicken Picatta





















- Chicken Fajitas (Sautee 1 onion, green pepper, and red pepper in olive oil. Remove and sautee cut up chicken in olive oil until cooked through. Add seasoning- I usually just use a seasoning packet. Use wheat or corn tortillas or make a salad out of it! Add your toppings of choice)



Snack Options:

- Almonds and fruit
- Reduced fat triscuits with Laughing cow cheese (I get white cheddar in the light blue container)
- Greek yogurt like shown in the breakfast options above




As you can see, I like to keep things pretty simple! What I make tonight for dinner just depends on what I am in the mood for- it will most likely be my Chicken sausage salad first!!
Let me know if you are interested in more recipes, tips on getting in shape, etc. I am always happy to talk and help you out. <3

Follow me on my Like Page for lots more inspiration, motivation, recipes, tips on a healthy lifestyle, and to see my fit pregnancy and post baby bounce back. :) Like page here: BrianaCIT.FITfoundation

Ways to Reduce your Grocery Budget

WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR GROCERY BUDGET:

1) Know your wants and needs! 

This is pretty simple.-- do you NEED those cherries at $7.99/lb. ?? Probably not! Go for grapes instead!

2) Only buy what you need.

This goes along with meal planning. After you have meal planned your week, know how many people are eating the meal, and how much left overs there will be, you can figure out exactly how much of everything that you need.

3) Save ALL leftovers.

For me, this meant even the SMALLEST portions since I have  2 year old in the house who eats like a bird! But when I did this I literally could save an entire meal for my daughter with the portions I would have normally thrown in the trash.

4) Plan out meals for the week.

What days are you going grocery shopping for? I usually go Monday and Friday and plan for the days in between. Once you know how many days you are shopping for you can plan your meals. I usually choose 2 dinner options for monday-thursday along with a few very simple lunch ideas. We almost always have the same options for breakfast at our house!

5) How much does each person eat?

This goes along with what I said earlier about my daughter "eating like a bird". I KNOW that her portions are almost always very very small so I don't have to make an entire extra plate for her. My husband on the other hand…!

6) Bargain Brands.

Not always, but sometimes there are definitely certain brands that are less costly than others. BUT make sure when you are doing this that you check the ingredients. ALWAYS ALWAYS check ingredients- the key is to still be eating as healthy as possible! Make sure that their is no artificial flavorings, corn syrup, etc, yuck!

7) Make a grocery list and STICK TO IT.

hahaha this one is important! I was TERRIBLE at this before. I literally just went into the store without a clue of what I was going to make that week, what ingredients I needed, etc. SO what was the outcome? I would leave with $60+ in groceries and get home and have no idea if I had the ingredients I needed to actually make a meal. Sound familiar?? lol
When you need something from the store, jot it down on your grocery list! STICK to that list!

8) Add up your groceries as you shop. $$

This one is important as well. If you don't add up your groceries as you shop you will have no idea what to expect when you check out! $$$
SO as you throw things in your cart, put the price next to the item on your list. If that means weighing produce- do so. Then about halfway through add them up to see where you are at! Take "unnecessary" items out as needed to keep you on track for you dollar amount!


These are a few simple things that you can start to think about as you shop! In our group we will be putting them all together and actually writing out our budgets, making meal plans and grocery lists, and GO shopping!!

Chocolate Shakeology Energy Bites

Straight and to the point- these are DELISH. And just posting this makes me want to go make more! They taste like a dessert (puppy chow in my opinion) but are still healthy and extremely filling!! They take almost no time to make either!

You will need:
- 1 cup oats
- 1/2 cup natural peanut butter (or other choice of nut butter)
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 1 scoop Chocolate shakeology
- 1 tsp. vanilla

Mix it and mash it together! Form 2 inch balls and refrigerate or freeze. Delicious!!

I recommend putting them in the freezer. when you eat them they last longer that way! ;) You can munch them down so fast and by the time I finished just one I felt pretty satisfied :)

Let me know what you think- leave a comment! Share away!!! 

Hawaiian Grilled Chicken Burger

I have been meaning to put this recipe up, as well as many other posts for a long while now. I want to apologize for sort of falling off the earth briefly. But I promise- I am still here!!!! lol You can actually follow me more and get first dibs on the recipes, tips, etc when I post them on my like page! 

https://www.facebook.com/fitnhappymommy

Feel free to follow me! I usually update my blog last, but give my like pagers these recipes ASAP… like same day. lol

In the past month I have been to Cancun and back through Beachbody!! Nothing to do with this post I know.. But I realized I haven't shared my experience with any of you! I will for sure be posting something soon on that!! It was an incredible experience and I can't wait to go to Nashville this coming July with my team! Oh how coaching has opened doors that I thought were nailed shut in my life.

Anyways.. So a few weekends ago it was beautiful!! Many weekends have been lately so we have been grilling A LOT. We do a lot a lot of grilling in the summer! … when we grill, my husband does the cooking, not me! ;) BONUS! Plus the food is awesome. I usually go for some chicken, then potatoes or sweet corn, with veggies of some sort. But I felt like mixing it up a bit! I tried this recipe for "hawaiian grilled chicken burger" and it sounded delicious! You know- those pregnancy random starvation modes.. THIS is what I want. And I want it now. lol So I went to the grocery store and gathered up the ingredients!

You will need:

- chicken breast

-choice of buns (I did whole wheat)

-roamine lettuce

-tomatoes

-pineapple slices

-provolone cheese

-Hawaiian Marinade (I used carribean jerk marinade)

-Thousand Island dressing (optional)

1. Marinate Chicken according to the directions- about 1 hour.

2. Heat Grill on medium-high heat

3. cook Chicken until cooked through- about 10 minutes, flipping half way.

4. When chicken is almost done, put the pineapple slices on the grill and cook for only a few minutes on each side.

5. Put the pineapple on top of the chicken and add the slice of cheese to each, let cook for a few minutes so the cheese can melt a little.

6. Serve with your toppings of choice!

Tip!! I made the leftovers the next day in a wrap. That is another option if you would rather try that then as a sandwich.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did! It was delicious and makes enough leftovers to have throughout the week!! Leave a comment and let me know what you think and feel free to share!

Beachbody brings out the best in me!

One of the things that I love most about coaching is that everyone and everything brings out the best in you. Together we are striving to improve ourselves as individuals. And from there passing it on to others!

Right now I am taking part in a 6 week training with about 600 other coaches who have similar goals as me and want to improve themselves and their business. This was our assignment for yesterday- to write down all your fears and things that are holding you back from being the best you. And then tear it UP!! 😈🚫

I am SO so thankful for this business, for the people that I have the privilege to work along side every day, and for YOU as my followers. 

I want to help more people experience this and help them become successful with it also! If you think just Maybeee this coaching thing could be for you- message me! I would love to chat with you! 

Reduce your grocery budget

Hey all! Recently (about 2 months ago now) I had a WAKE UP CALL. Hello Briana- you are spending way to much on unnecessary groceries! Here is what I was doing- going into the story hungry, with NO budget or price target, NO list, and NO destination or meal plan. What was I thinking?! I checked out every week without knowing how much the total was going to be.. AND I was going to the store WAY to frequently- we are talking at least every other day for certain things I "needed". And you know how that goes when you step into a store planning on buying 2 items.. suddenly you spot 5 other things you "need" and your spending and extra $30 on a  trip that was unplanned. No, this needed to stop.

After sitting down and going over our budget for the month with a new vehicle payment in mind, we decided on a weekly price range that we thought would work well for us. I decided that going to the store one time a week wouldn't cut it because produce goes bad to fast for that! So I would go to the story Mondays and Fridays at $30 each trip. And this is on a CLEAN eating meal plan :) Here are some of the things I had to take into consideration when I was making these changes with out grocery budget.


1) Know your WANTS and NEEDS. Simple right? 
What do you NEED in your house? What are things that you want and would be nice to have around, but you could live without? Example- we need chicken breast, milk, and eggs. Wants- Buying all natural peanut butter whenever I wanted, extra frozen fruit that is costly, and buying produce that was expensive for the time of year.
Step 1: Write out things that you normally buy at the store and write next to them- want or need.

2) Only buy what will be used.
This is KEY. Go into the store with a meal plan in mind and a list. Keep in mind how much food is usually consumed in your household. Do certain meals last 2 days? Some only last one meal? Maybe you could make twice as much and have leftovers for day 2- saving yourself time cooking and probably some money! Having a toddler at home it is easy to throw away servings that she doesn't finish. I have learned to start her off with smaller portions and if she finishes that she can have more! Otherwise SO much food goes to waste. ONE serving of an adult meal could be 3 servings for your toddler.

3) PLAN meals.
At the beginning of each week decide on what you are going to make that week and stick with it. I usually go with something simple for lunch since it is just me and my daughter (something like sandwiches, eggs, egg and avocado toast with veggies) and then have something more specific planned for dinner. Make sure you stick with it when you are shopping and keep it in mind through out the week so that you don't end up short at the end of the week!

4) Decide on a budget amount $ and track it while you are shopping.
Figure out a price that you want to start with. You might end up needing to go more or being able to cut it back even more. But you have to start with something. And maybe that price is based off of your entire budget- meaning you have X amount of dollars to spend on groceries each month and that is that. No going over or you are cutting into savings, etc. 
Start with that amount, meal plan, write out your grocery list, and head to the store. As you are shopping write down the price of EVERYTHING that you put in your cart on your shopping list. I mean down to the cents. If its produce, make sure you weigh it! Seems ridiculous but everything adds up fast. As you are going add everything up using a calculator on your phone etc so you know how much wiggle room you have with the rest of your shopping list. Some trips you may have to cut certain things. I know before I have put back my all natural peanut butter and opted for some PB2 (protein peanut butter) at 1/2 the cost. I have put back the asparagus at $4.99/pound and picked up a bundle of broccoli for $2.99 instead. 

5) Bargain Brands and Sales
Like I said earlier, depending on what types of foods are on sale and which are expensive due to the time of year, your list might change a bit. If you are looking at buying asparagus at $4.99/pound or an entire bundle of broccoli for $2.99 than I am going for the broccoli! NOW, when asparagus goes on sale for $2/pound I am all over that! Another example would be blueberries. They are crazy expensive this time of year! I am talking about $5 in my local store. When they go on sale to $2.99 I usually pick some up! Same with strawberries. In the winter I am always buying bananas, apples, oranges, etc. Things that are less expensive. The same goes for brands! There are certain brands that are 1/2 the price and have the same ingredients. An example of this would be buying salsa. My local store has their own brand of salsa at $1.99 for a jar verses the other brand at $3.49 a jar. Same ounces. So keep those things in mind! 

6) Organization.
Of course being organized is a game changer,  and of course it is not the easiest thing for everyone to do! BUT going into this like anything else, with a goal to hit, and making darn sure you are not going to fail at that budget, and you will do just fine! 


Remember- Pick a budget amount $, write down your meals for the week or the days you plan on shopping for, write out the groceries you need, and calculate the price of everything AS your shop- Not at the checkout when you are most likely to just throw it up on the counter!

Happy Budgeting and Happy Shopping!! I plan on making a video of my do's and do not's of shopping AS I am shopping! So be sure to check that out :) 

xo 
Briana

Buffalo Chicken Wraps

Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wraps

You will need:

- Chicken breast- 1.5 pounds Cut into chunks

- Plain Panko bread crumbs- about 2 cups

- 1/2 cup buffalo sauce

- Romaine lettuce

- 1 cup cooked Quinoa

- Diced Tomatoes

- Diced Avocadoes

- Ranch or bleu cheese (optional)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 and lightly grease a baking sheet.

2) Toss your chicken in Buffalo sauce using a ziploc bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3) Using a bowl, toss the buffalo chicken in your Panko bread crumbs just to cover the outside.

4) Bake the chicken at 375 for 30 minutes.

5) While the chicken in baking prepare your tomatoes, avocado, cheese if you want, and lettuce for your wrap.

6) Fill the leaf of lettuce with quinoa, chicken, and other toppings. You could also put more hot sauce on top if you wish :)

Happy Healthy eating! 

xo

Briana