How to Meal Prep: Healthy Gourmet with Rita Catolino

I have seen the scenario many times before: women using extreme methods and bland food to get to their "fitness" goals. (I use the word fitness here loosely, as extreme dieting does not equal "FIT".) Generally speaking, ANYONE can eat white fish and vegetables for a few weeks, but what happens afterward? Usually a total avoidance of the extreme diet and a need to make their taste buds happy again with FLAVOR, which leads to a "gone off track" and "throw in the towel" attitude. So why embark on something that is not sustainable in the long run? You will most likely only make your metabolism sluggish and be miserable for a few weeks. Well, what if I were to tell you that you could still reach your fitness goals while eating amazing, restaurant-style, and healthy gourmet food? And the best part? Your food can stay that way! I will never compromise flavor. I have said it many times before: if it weren't for my fitness career, I would most definitely be in the food industry! Pre-making and prepping a lot of ingredients ahead of time is the secret to healthy gourmet. All great chefs and restaurants have their sous-chefs prepping all day for their nightly dinner options. So why not do the same? Yesterday I oven-roasted some tomatoes, roasted about 10 sweet potatoes, grilled a bunch of peppers, cleaned and prepped an Arctic Char, BBQed some chicken breasts, grilled all of my zucchini, and froze and bagged a load of berries. It is such a joy to open the fridge and see prepped food that can be pulled together in an instant to make healthy gourmet meals that will allow you to live a lifestyle of fitness, energy, health, and vitality. Better yet, you can easily keep your meal management system loaded with any of these meals to stay on track no matter where you are! When you have a fridge that is chock-full of all of these amazing foods, all you have to do on a busy Monday night is combine a few to make a healthy gourmet meal in seconds! I look at myself as a chef in my meal prep, and a line cook during the week nights: simply rearranging, combining, and creating exciting dishes with the prepped food! It took literally five minutes to prepare last night's dinner, posted below. The outcome? A restaurant-style dish made with a fraction of the price, the pride of my own creativeness, and an hour of relaxation and enjoyment with my family. After all, isn't that what life is about?

Your Beauty Fueled Char:

1. Mash your pre-roasted sweet potato with salt and pepper and a spray of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). 2. Spread at the bottom of a "chef ring" (most chef stores sell one, if not, you can create one with any sturdy cylinder ring) and start creating the "layers" of the dish. 3. Next, add the cleaned organic greens mixed with thinly sliced pickled ginger and pan-seared (pre-cooked) green beans. 4. Add a few dollops of the avocado mayonnaise (see below recipe) and julienned roasted yellow pepper. 5. Top with the pan-seared (skin side down) fillet of Arctic Char (or salmon, trout, etc). I like to top with the crispy skin. 6. Sprinkle some toasted sesame seeds and a few drops of sesame oil. Voilà! How to meal prep an indulgent, healthy gourmet dinner in less than 10 minutes with the help of your pre-prepared foods!

Avocado Mayo:

- ½ - 1 whole (depending on size) ripe avocado - 1 tablespoon of mustard of your choice (we used a truffle infused whole grain by Savvy Chef) - 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar - Drops of water as needed to achieve desired consistency. Blend all ingredients in small blender or Magic Bullet. Serve and enjoy!

Rita's Favorite Foods To Pre-Prepare Weekly:

- Oven roasted tomatoes (with fresh basil) - Variety of root vegetables in T-FAL Active Fry multi-cooker - Oven roasted beets, carrots, zucchini chips - Dehydrated mushrooms - Avocado mayo (keeps 3 days in mason jar) - Pre-prep "juicing" baggies with 1/2 apple, greens, 1/2 lemon, 1/2 pair, and ginger - ready to juice! - Mini-meatloaves - Chicken breasts - Cook and mash: sweet potato, squash and/or pumpkin, cauliflower - 1 whole fish baked (Great cold, mashed with the avocado mayo into a "tuna") - Pre-made crepes - Overnight oats The Healthy Gourmet edition of How to Meal Prep is brought to us by Rita Catolino, certified personal trainer, online coach, motivational speaker, fitness writer, and cover model. Phew! Rita also happens to specialize in how to prepare healthy eats in the style of gourmet food, and you can catch her awesome advice and tasty recipes on her show, Your Beauty Fuel. For more info and to find out how you can work with her, check out her website!