Meal Prep, Soup.

I used to be really reckless when it came to money and food. I love food and I enjoy eating out and in my early to early-late 20's the majority of my money went to eating out.. It was ridiculous. But now I am wayyyyy more responsible as well as practical. Don't get me wrong I still enjoy eating out, but I enjoy cooking at home as well.

I try to keep a fairly healthy lifestyle. I have a certain rule when it comes to eating, which is 70/30. 70% of the time I will eat healthy and the other 30% I eat whatever I want. I don't want to restrict myself nor have a dumb cheat day. I'll just eat healthy most of the time and indulge in the things I like now and then without feeling guilty.

Anyway! I've been getting much better when it comes to meal prepping for the work week lunches. I bring my own lunch typically 3-4 out of the 5 days. Since this is the new year, I really want to focus on eating 80/20 as well as not spend much money because I'd like to get rid of my student loans. I'm doing this by making simple, cheap and tasty soups.

Soup is SO EASY to make. I just throw whatever vegetables we buy on sale in a pot- throw some seasoning in and VOILA- healthy and cheap soup for the entire week. The soup pictured above is a chicken, kidney beans, and spinach soup and it only costs me about $2.50 for the entire week. People at work buy their lunches at the cafe which is about $5-$8 a day. With my soup I'm only paying 50 cents a day. I understand not everyone can eat the same thing everyday because I'm typically that kind person too.. or I was that person, but because I'm so busy at work, I really don't even notice nor care to eat something different. I just want to eat something while I work at the same time and soup works for me.

Here is the recipe for this soup:

Ingredients:
2-3 Cups of water

1/2 Chicken breast
1 Cup of spinach
1 Can of kidney beans

1/2 Carrot
3 Cloves of garlic (minced)
1/2 Onion (diced)
1/2 Chicken Breast
1 Tablespoon of tomato paste

2 Tablespoon of olive oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

I don't want to bore you with the instructions, but sauté the garlic and onions for about 5 minutes and then dump everything in lol.. cook at medium to high heat for about 20-25 minutes. For the chicken I seasoned it with salt, pepper and garlic powder and baked it. Once it was done, I shredded the chicken and threw it in the soup. And then your'e done.

Bon Appetit!