Let’s look at a few easy injury recovery meals that can be helpful!
In this blog:
- Best foods for injury recovery
- What not to eat when injured
- Meal prep services for athletes
- 8 easy athlete meal prep ideas
Check out the full meal prep episode!
Best Foods for Injury Recovery
While recovering from a sports injury, focus on building a performance plate (including carbs, protein, and color)! On your plate, include lean protein, at least a “fist-sized” portion of carbohydrate or two, especially whole grains, like oats, beans and lentils, sweet potatoes, and whole grain bread, and lots of color! The “color” section can be any fruit or veg, but particularly berries and cherries, pineapple, and dark leafy greens are great. Nuts and seeds are also fantastic foods to include.
What Not To Eat When Injured
Instead, I like to focus on what you CAN include that feels helpful. Then, use pieces of your performance plate to satisfy cravings. Itching for some pizza? That can fulfill the “carb” section of your plate, then make sure to also ADD protein and color somehow.
Meal Prep Services for Athletes
If you’re not feeling cooking, a few meal prep services I like are:
- CookUnity.com
- Choose the high protein option, and you’ll likely have to add some extra carbs. Grab some sourdough to have toast on the side.
- Factor75.com
- Choose the protein+ option, and again, have an easy carb to add to the side, like a microwave potato or sourdough toast.
- Dinnerly
- The cheapest option I’ve seen, at as low as $5 per serving.
8 Easy Meal Prep Ideas
- Frozen Egg Sandwiches
Try the muffin tin trick. Bake your eggs for about 20 minutes at 350 F. You can also scramble and add cheese, bacon, chopped pico de gallo, etc! Add a few pieces of spinach, cheese if you’d like, an english muffin, wrap in foil and freeze! You can either microwave the sandwich to reheat, or throw it (in the foil) in the oven at 350 F for about 10 minutes.
- Frozen Breakfast Burritos
Same idea with breakfast burritos. Scramble some eggs (the oven trick works here, too!), chop in some spinach, maybe add cheese or breakfast sausage or pico de gallo, roll into a burrito, wrap in foil, and keep it in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Super Easy Jambalaya
Maybe use some of that leftover breakfast sausage with a jambalaya rice mix. (Typically, you’re putting rice, water, and seasoning in a pan and letting it cook down.) Thaw out a bit of frozen shrimp, and you have a meal.
- Same, same, but different
Cook a few chicken breasts, and grab buns for a sandwich, but instead of having the same sandwich every day, mix it up with new sauces. You could also do this with wraps by using your chicken and various salad kits like caesar, buffalo ranch, strawberry balsamic, etc.
- Frozen Burritos
Whip up some taco meat and make a large mixture with the ingredients you love: salsa, cheese, beans, guacamole, pico, corn, etc. Then spoon into a tortilla (flour will freeze and reheat much better than corn!), and freeze in individual aluminum foil. You can then put a burrito into the fridge to thaw overnight, and reheat in the microwave for lunch. Or from frozen, cook for about 20 minutes at 350 F.
- Sheet Pan Recipes!
I love this sheet pan sausage and sweet potatoes from Bowl of Delicious. Perfect for injured athletes, because sheet pans are a “throw it in the oven and forget it” type of thing. Especially if you are buying pre-chopped options!
- Simmer Sauces
Simmer sauces can be another easy, “leave it and forget it for a bit” option. I really like this butter chicken skillet sauce option. I’ve done it with broccoli and chickpeas and squash a lot, but it could be easy to do with a more traditional chicken and rice. (Don’t forget the veg!)
- Zhuzh up something pre-made
Take something simple, and microwavable, and make it a little fresher. I love microwave rice, a salad kit, and a rotisserie chicken. By adding some pineapple and a bit more teriyaki sauce, this meal feels more exciting.
Want more creative meal ideas, plus more info on HOW MUCH you need to eat right now?
Check out The Menu Challenge!
