• Vietnamese style chicken
• shredded napa cabbage
• Vietnamese – red- basil
• sauteed veggies in soy and sesame- bok choy +yellow + red peppers
• ginger dressing
• edamame, water chestnut, and purple onion salad
• mango + date sesame bars
• mandarin oranges
• vermecelli
• red pepper hummus, again, because I liked it so much!
• black bean burgers with leftover black beans from last week
• 2 pictures below: fresh spring rolls

this chicken above was so simple, delicious, and easy to make! // the chicken was Costco tenderloins first cooked in my instant-pot automatic pressure cooker for 30 minutes total, removed, & then chopped with my nifty food scissors // I then created the “sauce”/marinade via this amazing recipe by Vietnamesefood.com.vn // I added the fresh marinade to the cooked chicken, gave it a good mix,  and then put it away in the fridge! 

 I decided to make fresh spring rolls for dinner on Sunday, because the chicken was SO tasty &we had all the ingredients plus leftover rice paper from October? in the fridge // the fresh spring roll art comes into play when rolling the wet paper- this was my 4th time at it and I finally improved on my last roll of the night! //  I also made a homemade fresh ginger dressing that was incredible with the rolls- each roll was stuffed with the Vietnamese style chicken, red basil, cilantro, napa cabbage, vermecelli, and purple onion // I took one of my leftover spring rolls from dinner to lunch the next day- it held up pretty well. I think if you were to meal prep several rolls for the next day, the key is to not stuff them too much! // btw,  how do you like my cut piece of ginger from the market? I didn’t even notice the shape until I got home 🙂

hello sesame bars! // enjoyed these for breakfast, as a snack, and broken into bits on top of my salad // I incorporated Mango, as it’s a tropical fruit of Vietnam // just $0.21 per square // my sesame bar recipe needs tweaking, so it won’t be posted. but if you have a great sesame bar recipe, I would love to know about it. Please comment on my post below. I will try it &share it!

you can see the fun and variety I had with the lunches above // each meal, on average, was $1.40- that’s pretty darn great in my book! //

National RDN Day was last week and I celebrated with my amazing preceptor, AsktheNutritionist! // I interned for Jenn for 2 years during my undergrad and here I am now in my RD residency back at The Medical Nutrition Center. The MNC is a functional medicine based practice operated by 2 Registered Dietitians (Jenn and Gina!) // I have learned sooo much and look forward to applying the functional nutrition and medicine approach to my future nutrition practices (even in the hospital!) // We celebrated RDN Day at Your Pie in Tampa with gluten-free, vegetarian pizzas- extra mozza, please! // In true dietitian fashion, we also took Zinc Shots! It’s actually a zinc test. You swoosh the zinc in your mouth for 10-15 seconds, then based on what you taste, it may indicate a zinc deficiency is present!  My results indicated yes Zinc deficient! Check it out to find out more 🙂

LOVing wearing my white coat & staying hydrated on the j-o-b with coconut water!  // Now I am off to go get some snuggles and watch jeopardy with my love (I always get the food-related ones…he gets the rest, LOL!)

I hope you enjoyed this Vietnamese cuisine inspired meal prep! next up  for meal prep I took a break from selecting a cultural cuisine and just made my meal prep choices based on what was on sale // stay tuned in next week for what I made!

Happy, Healthful Eating and Prepping!

-the mrs.