Meal Prep Using a Convection Oven · 3 min read

Save time with this portable convection oven.

I’ve been a competitive athlete for the majority of my life. I started playing football and wrestling in the 4th grade. I continued to wrestle through college. After school, I began my professional MMA fighting career. Sixteen and a half years later and I’m still grinding it out daily. 

Throughout those years I have run the gambit of diets and eating habits. Everything from carb loading, counting calories and even going vegan for a short time. None of those things seemed to make that much of a difference or they flat out hurt my ability to compete. 

I finally found something that worked back in 2016. I linked up with a diet coach, Manny Torres, to help me prepare for my WSOF world title fight. I was a bit skeptical at first because of the increase in the amount of food I was going to have to eat. Plus the addition of 3 more meals per day. 6 meals a day is a lot of food. I wasn’t sure I could even eat that much.

Manny had me adopt more of a bodybuilding type diet. I was going to eat every few hours in order to keep adding nutrients to my body so it could more easily repair itself after training. This also has the side effect of keeping me from ever getting hungry and snacking on empty calories. My energy levels went up and I stopped having “flat” days.

To save time preparing my food for every meal I started to meal prep. As a bonus, I found that Meal Prepping made life so much easier. I could get all my food cooked and ready for the week on Sunday. Then during the week all I had to do was weigh out my portions and eat. If I was traveling or stuck at the gym I could easily bring my meal with me in Tupperware. 

Life was made even easier when I discovered I could prepare my chicken breast using a portable convection oven. I got the oven as a gift and I didn’t think I’d ever really use it. Boy was I wrong. I could cook my chicken breast/thighs, salmon and bacon perfectly every time with no fuss, easy cleanup and no burnt meat.    

Cooking with a Convection Oven: Here is a video of me using the oven

In my portable convection oven, electric elements heat the air while a high-speed fan blows it around the food. Since the heated air is moving and not static, the food cooks faster and at lower temperatures. This gives you less shrinkage of your food and much juicier chicken breast than traditional ovens. It also keeps my salmon from getting dry. 

Conventional ovens create a heat exchange between the hot air and cold meat. The evaporation of moisture from the meat creates a layer of insulation around it. This insulation barrier slows down the cooking process. The convection oven prevents this by blowing and circulating the air around the chicken breast. 

The blowing of air serves to amplify the temperature as well. In the same way, the wind chill can make those cold winter days even more frigid. The convection oven uses hot air currents to more efficiently cook your food. 

Since you have an air current cooking your food in a convection oven the temperature is consistent for the whole oven. Unlike the conventional oven where the top and bottom racks can be much hotter since they are closer to the heat source.  

You can live a healthier life, free up more time for things you enjoy and reduce body fat by using meal planning and meal prep. Add in the use of a convection oven and you’ll level up even more. 

You won’t have to choke down dry or burnt chicken ever again. You’ll save time and money all while being healthier. Clean up time is greatly reduced and no more sweltering hot kitchens because the oven is on.    

If you are ready to upgrade your life then meal planning is for you. If you want more free time but still want to eat delicious moist chicken breast then you should get yourself a convection oven. You don’t even have to fork out a ton of cash to get your hands on one. I use a portable one that is easy to clean and store when I’m not using it.

Start getting your life to the next level and get on a meal plan and definitely use a convection oven to help with the meal prep. You can have all your food for the week prepped in under an hour on Sunday. You’ll free up loads of time and you won't ever have to worry about what you are having for your next meal. 

You can’t go wrong with a solid meal plan and I’m sure you will find the convection oven as useful as I do. If you are wondering “where can I get My own convection oven?”, look no further.

Here is a link to the one that I use: The Oyama Convection Oven