Welcome to Week #3 of the Outside the Box Challenge!

This week, it’s time to do a little healthy pre-planning. After all, how many times are our healthiest intentions dashed due to our busy schedules? You buy healthy food, but then you come home after a long day, hungry enough to chew through your own arm, and, well…suddenly you’re dialing for delivery while your pint of strawberries grows mold in the fridge.

So what’s a girl to do? Be prepared! This week’s challenge is sponsored by Culinista Kitchen, which is all about that very thing. It’s the once a week cooking technique! The Culinista bundle comes with instructional DVDs featuring chefs from from The Dish’s Dish, a weekly home chef service in NYC & LA. Each of the three videos covers 6-8 dishes and walks you through the process of menu planning, shopping, cooking, preparation, and instructions for reheating.

Outside the Box Challenge #3: The Culinista Test. Using a make-ahead approach saves time and money and helps you eat healthier, so this week, we want you to do just that! For this challenge you must prepare a meal ahead of time that you can get at least three meals out of (so the meal on day you make it, and then two more meals). It might be a big pot of soup, it might be veggies and tofu pre-diced and ready to roll for stir-fry, or it might be a double batch of healthy lasagna that you’ll reheat at work all week for lunch. And the very cool ladies at Culinista Kitchen are happily giving an entire Culinista Bundle to one of the entrants this week. The bundle includes three instructional DVDs, plus recipes, a grocery list, an eco-tote, food labels, and iPod-ready video files, which mean you can watch the entertaining vids on your morning commute and then hit the grocery store on your way home, armed with enough make-ahead knowledge to make the trip much more pleasant.

The Culinistas teach you how to menu plan, cook better, and not waste food (huge!), plus there are a lot of other great lessons that are fabulous for anyone with a busy life…i.e. everyone! Rachel actually has the bundle and has used it and is very excited one of you will soon have one too!

Everyone who enters this week will be eligible to win the Culinista Bundle, even if you’ve never entered before. And those of you who have entered for the past two weeks, this keeps you right on track to the fabulous Grand Prize! To enter, you must submit your post about what you did to prepare your healthy meal x 3 in advance by March 21 at 11:59 PM PST.

We’re loving all your challenge entries so far and can’t wait to see what you come up with for one!