Many moons ago, my now former husband and I took a trip to Europe. We'd been dating less than a year so a trip across the pond was a wee risk, but we were game to see if we were good travel buddies.

One afternoon in Heidelberg, Germany my blood sugar plummeted. It may have been due to insufficient protein intake that day (I mean really, who would choose a healthy breakfast over a powdery sweet schneeballen?), but I swung from happy to hellacious before you could count to ein, zwei, drei.

Were it not for Bob's steady supply of gummy bears, which he shoved in my mouth to stop the spew of atrocities flying from my lips, it's possible we'd have parted ways on some cobblestone side street.

I'm not sure there was a term for what happened to me that day way back in 2000, but there is now: hangry.

{And dear former husband, I'm sorry for what I said when I was hangry.}

Maybe you've been hangry yourself. It's a pretty awful feeling. If I'm not paying attention, I can slip into hanger quicker than a Hershey bar melts on a 90 degree day.

For me, eating a consistent flow of calories from food groups that don't spike and drop my blood sugar is one way I stay balanced and resilient. In my body, this means adequate protein and healthy fat at each meal paired with mindful consumption of complex carbohydrates.

My #1 hack for staving off hanger is to invest a chunk of time each week for meal prep.

Here's what that looked like recently:

• I slow baked seasoned chick peas and tofu for 60 minutes at 325 degrees and hit the tofu with a squeeze of lime and a shake of sea salt when it was out of the oven.

• While the garbanzos and tofu were baking, I whisked together a tahini maple dressing and packaged it in 2 T servings.

• I prepped salad greens, fresh herbs, leftover roasted rainbow and sweet potatoes, and other veggies into grab-and-go containers (Mason jars are great too!). When the tofu and chick peas had cooled, I divided them among the salads.

• For a healthy sweet treat, I made some no bake energy balls loaded with oats, peanut butter, flax meal, chocolate chips, and a few raisins (I'm one of the 2 people on the planet who like raisins!). They firm up nicely in the freezer in an hour (and always remind me of the "Schweddy Balls SNL skit!").

That's all folks! Hanger staved off for a full work-week thanks to ONE HOUR of time in the kitchen.

No more hanger here!

I LOVE me a good meal prep hack! What's yours?

Almost snack time,

Jennifer (she/her)