This post has been sponsored by Del Monte®. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Del Monte® Fruit & Oats™ are the best part of my weekly meal prep meals!
Okay, show of hands, who all loves the concept of weekly meal prep? Wow! Lots of hands! Awesome! I seriously love this as it allows us to cook once and have a delicious meal every day, albeit breakfast, lunch or dinner. It’s such a time saver and honestly a great way for us to keep our budget (and waistband) in check. No more running to the drive-thru or vending machine.
Let’s be real for a minute. Life is hard. Being an adult is hard. We have obligations, work, kids, school, errands, house work and that’s all before dinner usually. Then we have laundry, dishes, after-school activities for the kids, gym, more errands, helping them with their homework, and then maybe, maybe, we can have 25 minutes to ourselves before we have to go to bed only to start all over again the next day. See anything missing? Yeah — food? I didn’t even mention healthy food either. When are you supposed to cook and eat? What about snacks, dessert, and treats? Well, I have you covered today. Okay, Del Monte Fruit & Oats has you covered with their new snack solutions, found in the fruit snack aisle of your local retailer.
I’d like to think my Mom was one of the early adopters/inventors of weekly meal prep. Every Sunday morning, she’d get up and make the bread for the week and enough food not only for dinner but also enough for lunches for both my father and siblings to take to lunch. She always said “Cook once, spread it out throughout the week!”. Mom often included some type of homemade dessert. While that was awesome, we’ve changed a bit in our thinking of what weekly meal prep is as well as our snacks. No longer are there heavy, fattening foods and the slices of chocolate cake, but rather we have containers of grains, roasted veggies, protein, fruit or wholesome oats.
This is where Del Monte Fruit & Oats comes in and saves the day. Just look at how luscious and delicious their Apple Cinnamon Fruit & Oats cup looks! And the best part…you can eat it cold, hot or room temperature! They are honestly, AMAZING! This fruit cup is loaded with super tender, cinnamon kissed oats and melt-in-your-mouth chunks of apples. And we’re not talking like 2 pieces either! It’s loaded with apples! So with every spoonful you get the perfectly balanced amount of oats and apples! Starting my day with a wholesome, good-for-me breakfast like Del Monte Fruit & Oats just makes every morning that much happier! Then to keep myself on the happiness-train when the midday snack attack happens I simply reach for another Del Monte Fruit & Oats or perhaps a Del Monte® Fruit Refreshers®!
Del Monte have a few different varieties for you guys to choose from:
- Fruit & Oats – Apple Cinnamon, Peach Cinnamon Spice, and Pear Maple (seriously, I can’t pick a favorite here!)
- Del Monte® Fruit & Chia™ – Peaches in Strawberry Dragon Fruit Flavored Chia (FYI – this is AMAZING!!!), Mixed Fruit in Tropical Flavored Chia, Mangos in Pineapple Flavored Chia, Pears in Blackberry Flavored Chia.
- Del Monte® Fruit Refreshers® Peaches in Mango Flavored Fruit Water, Pineapple in Passion Fruit Flavored Coconut Water, Red Grapefruit in Guava Flavored Fruit Water, Mandarin Oranges in Coconut Water, and Grapefruit & Oranges in Pomegranate Flavored Fruit Water (these are all so light and refreshing!)
As you can see, you have a lots of choices, but if I’m being totally honest, GET ONE OF EACH FLAVOR! They’re unbelievable and a must-have in your weekly meal prep! They are truly the perfect snack solution! They are healthy, portable, convenient (just add a spoon!), and taste AMAZING! Make your day happier with Del Monte!
As I was prepping our weekly meals, I decided to do a ‘dinner’ for breakfast if you will. What looks like all dinner or lunch foods are actually the makings of a killer breakfast! I went with a sheet pan of asparagus, baby potatoes and turkey sausage. Hey, having eggs is not a requirement for breakfast. And if you really wanted eggs, you could easily chop it all up, add a beaten egg and microwave it in your container for a minute or 2. Instant omelet!
I don’t know about you, but I’m a snacker and often need to eat on the go. These Del Monte Fruit & Oats provide just the right amount of fruit and grains I need in a snack!
The Del Monte® Fruit & Chia™ are unbelievable! Seriously, that Peaches in Strawberry Dragon Fruit Flavored Chia is crazy delicious! Mr. Fantabulous and I fought over it. Good thing they come in packs of 2! LOL! But check it out! Each cup provides a whole serving of fruit* with an added boost of chia seeds to give you a cup full of flavor, fiber, and 800mg of Omega-3s! Chia seeds are the bomb people! They are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, rich in antioxidants, and they provide fiber, iron, and calcium.
Because the Del Monte Fruit & Oats come in various flavors, you can mix it up! Add in the Del Monte® Fruit Refreshers® as your snack! You get unexpected flavors and exciting combinations in refreshing fruit waters. Plus each cup provides a full serving of fruit* and all are 100 calories or less!
And if you’re like me, you love oats as your snack. They are filling, a great source of whole grains, and—thanks to how Del Monte created the Del Monte Fruit & Oats cups—convenient! They are the first ready-eat oatmeal with one full serving of fruit* and 20g of whole grains per serving! *Each container has 1 serving (1/2 cup) of fruit per USDA Nutrient Data. That’s huge! No longer do you have to wait for your oats to cook, soak up the liquid and then cool down to add your fruit. OR worse, wait for your cold olds to sit in the fridge overnight taking up precious fridge space. Plus, hello, those have to stay refrigerated! You can’t exactly pop them into your purse or gym bag for a snack later during the day.
So how do I incorporate these into my weekly meal prep? Just like you see above (and below). I package our meals into separate containers (fyi – these are actually take-out Chinese containers that are perfect for single servings!). I then include one of the Del Monte Fruit & Oats in our meal to balance it out. He typically eats his as his ‘dessert’, yes, there is such a thing as breakfast dessert in his world. I tend to save mine when I’m in-between meetings or when that mid-morning/mid-afternoon craving hits. It’s the perfect go-to snack that I don’t have to feel guilty about eating. I’m telling you, Del Monte Fruit & Oats are an instant boost of happy for my mornings that I can feel good about eating!
Plus, it’s perfect to include in your kids’ lunches, their backpacks for an after-sport snack, and the gym bag (I LOVE the Del Monte Fruit & Oats as part of my post-workout replenish meal). The whole grains really helps with my feeling so depleted from my workout. With summer winding down, maybe you’re thinking about that final road trip of the summer with the family. Skip packing the car up with bags of junk food and candy. Instead, load up the cooler with a bunch of these! Feel good about what you’re serving your family!
Now that the kids are back to school let’s look at what’s in their lunch bags! They want delicious and you want easy snacks! Forget the cupcakes, candy or cookies, and give them this. I know I would have loved these in my lunch as a kid! And to help you out (I’m so excited about this!!), here’s a coupon for you to Save $0.75 on a one-pack of Del Monte Fruit & Oats Cups!!! I’m so happy about this as I need to stock up on more of these as we’re both so in love with these flavors!
I mean, seriously, LOOK (see below) just how amazing the Del Monte Fruit & Oats Cups (Apple Cinnamon) looks!!! Those oats are so tender and creamy. The apples still have a bit of bite to them which adds the perfect balance of texture. The hints of sweetness and cinnamon seriously make this one of my all-time favorite go-to snacks!
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