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Let's talk about meal prepping. I used to think that meal prepping would take a lot of extra time, but coincidentally, it SAVES you time.
Being prepared is always a blessing as a busy wife, mom, and homemaker. Meal planning, and prepping truly helps to relieve a lot of stress on top of being time-saving. I truly can't think of one reason not to meal plan and prep for the week.
Let's dive in to my tips, and systems to help you save time in the kitchen!
1.) Pick a Day
Most people do their weekly meal plan, and prep on Sundays. However, if you're a work from home parent, or stay at home parent like myself, then you'll have more flexibility. For me personally, I like to do my weekly grocery run, and meal prep the day of garbage day. Why? The day before garbage day. I go through our entire fridge. So it's basically empty, and it's ready to be filled again with fresh produce! *This is a great system that works incredibly well for our home.
2.) Look at your Calendar Do you have day(s) that are busier then others? Most likely. What day(s) are you working late, or are the kiddos in sports / extra curricular activities? If those things are not already in your calendar, you need to add it in. Those are the perfect nights to whip out your crockpot, or prep/cook ahead, or use a freezer meal!
3.) Have a list of "go-to" dinners
I am not cooking 100 meals / day for each person in the house. #sorrynotsorry When it comes to cooking for my family, what I make is what we eat! My only exception to that rule is if I'm cooking something spicy for Aaron and I. I will cook the girls a plain chicken breast, as I'm usually making butter chicken.. It's truly not much extra work. It maybe takes me and extra 2 minutes to season the chicken, and pop it in the oven.
Now that we've been through that mess, it's time to start the planning process. Depending if you're planning snacks, lunches, suppers, etc will obviously depend how long it takes you. For our family, I only plan our Dinners, and I only plan one week at a time. I constantly have a freezer full of food, and basically a "grocery" store in my basement - check out this post for stocking up.
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I have some GO-TO lunches that I rotate through as well, so I don't have to *think* about what to make.
Here are some easy ways to come up with meals for those "busy" nights.
Often times, I just cook chicken, and figure out what to do with it later that evening. It's so versatile.. from salads, to pastas, to just adding in a potato, and a veg. You can easily come up with a variety of meals from chicken alone.
4.) Batch Cook / Freezer Meals
Another thing I like to do is what I call "batch" cooking. So about once a month, or even bi-monthly, I'll cook up some freezer meals. I often go to pinterest (yes, I still use pinterest), and search "freezer friendly meals" and pick some to try out. I'll often make breakfast burritos, chimichangas, soups, etc.
To take it to the next level, my favourite way to batch cook if you will, is when I'm making supper, I'll double it. One for supper, one for the freezer. Some of my favourites to do this are: lasagnas (or pasta in general I find freezes well!), butter chicken, taco meat, even just plain chicken breast!
5.) Food/Veggie Prep
Prep a veggie tray every week. This has been life-changing for me. It's a quick, easy snack option for those busy days. Some days I'll take some veggies from the veggie tray, and add them to the girls' snack boxes for a quick snack when we're out and about - which is 5x a week. It's also super handy to not have to chop up your veg for supper. T I P: I buy a head of cauliflower once a week. We very rarely eat cauliflower raw, but I'll cut it up, and prep it, so that come supper time it's ready to cook! Whether that be for my half mashed potato/half cauliflower recipe, or for my favourite buffalo cauliflower side dish - I'm not spending loads of time in the kitchen prepping supper.
6.) Make a snack once a week or bi-weekly
I like to whip up a batch of protein balls for the week. This is incredibly handy when you get hungry, or for us and my hubby works night shifts. The girls love them, and as part of our homeschooling, we will whip up a double batch of this recipe, and it lasts us for about a week and a half. They're learning in the kitchen, and our tummies are full - it's a win-win!
You can also whip up some muffins, for another healthy snack. One of our favourites is banana muffins, I haven't found a fantastic carrot muffin recipe, and SOME TIMES I'll even splurge and buy some at the store.
You will notice I try to make everything from scratch at home. This ensures I know what's going in our foods that we're consuming, and I can limit our sugar intake. I LOVE finding recipes that use honey, or maple syrup to sweeten instead of sugar. T I P: Making little changes like switching to honey / maple syrup to sweeten things up instead of using granulated sugar is a great step to eating healthier. We notice an IMMEDIATE change in behavioural issues when we allow processed foods/sugars, which is why I try to limit it. *This is what works in our home, for our family. If you choose to do things differently: THAT'S OKAY! You do you!
There's TONS of recipes out there! Of course, I often share recipes over on my instagram that I've found from pinterest. I don't often make my own recipes (especially when it comes to baking). I will find a recipe, and tweak it to make it my own, or adjust to my families likings.. so follow me over there for more recipe inspo.
So while I'm definitely not a professional chef, I do have systems in place that help me to enjoy cooking in my kitchen. I can't wait to share more tips/tricks and systems with y'all in the future. For now, I hope that you enjoyed these 6 tips to help you meal prep!
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I hope you have a wonderful day! xoBW
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