meal prep: chicken with baked sweet potatoes and green beans

It's been awhile since I've done any meal prep, and it's showing in my current inability to stick to my eating plan, which of course means the scale isn't moving down like it was a couple weeks ago.  I used to do meal prep just about every week, but I admit I've been lazy about it. I need to get back to it so I can eat better and stick to my plan. And it's especially important now since my husband also needs to eat better.

A meal prep post from a website I enjoy recently popped up in the Facebook feed, so I decided to try it out. It came from Budget Bytes and it's a full meal:  chicken breast, sweet potatoes and green beans.  Aside from the fact that most of her meals are pretty easy, one of the main reasons I chose this recipe was because I'd bought some sweet potatoes...and never used them. Of course. I do that all the time. I buy stuff and then either forget I bought it, or forget what recipe I bought it for, or just get lazy and decide I don't feel like using whatever I bought.I was determined to not do that this time.

The recipe calls for trying the chicken breast; however, I hate the cleanup so I grilled it instead. I baked the sweet potatoes according to the recipe, although I omitted the cayenne pepper. Bob doesn't like a lot of spice, and cayenne tends to be pretty hot even when you use just a tiny dash. I made sure to line the baking sheet with foil, because I hate cleaning baking sheets. It seems like no matter how much you scrub, they never come completely clean. And OMG they smelled so delicious while cooking! I could smell the cinnamon. For the beans I finally used the steamer pan I bought last year. It was so easy and the beans came out perfect! I'd definitely make this again. It was easy and everything tasted great.

Here's the finished product.  And here's the recipe:  Smoky Chicken and Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Look at all that carmelization. No sugar added! Those are the natural sugars in the potatoes.

The beans are nice and bright after steaming. I love this steamer pan. You just set it on top of a pan of boiling water and put the lid on.

The finished beans. Just butter, course salt and ground pepper.

And here's lunch. I made a couple for myself and a few for Bob. Just grab it from the fridge and go to work. Obviously his had a whole chicken breast. This was my portion, which I could just about finish.