The idea of meal prep can be daunting, annoying or overwhelming. So I wanted to share with you how my family used our work this past Sunday to create meals for the week.
We spent approximately 3 hours as a family completing all the prep work. If you are saying “3 Hours, No Thanks”, Keep in mind that 3 hours was based on the "additional help" that I had in the kitchen from my 3 little assistants. The upside in this prep work means we had about 5 - 10 minutes to assemble each meal at night.
How we made this work:
We picked 2 proteins (2 meat and 2 vegetarians for me) that I could prep into several meals. The vegetarian options I pick work interchangeably with the meat options we have.
Chicken & Ground Beef
Tofu and Eggplant
We picked recipes we could make with those proteins.
Dinner:
Sunday - Chicken Pot Pie Ring
Monday - Pasta & Meatballs with Salad
Tuesday - Chix / Bean or Veggie / Bean Burritos with Salsa & Rice
Wednesday - Chicken Parmesan or Eggplant Parm Quesadilla
Thursday - Mock Sushi Bowls
Friday - Order or Leftovers
Adult Lunches:
(Based on Dinners)
Farro Bowls with Kale & Feta cheese with shrimp, chicken, or tofu
Mexican Bowls with Chicken or Tofu (with Rice and Stir Fry Veggies)
Asian Bowls (with Rice and Tofu or Shrimp)
Kid Lunches:
(Based on Dinners)
Meatball Subs – (from Monday's dinner)
Chicken and Bean Burritos – (from Tuesday's dinner)
Quesadillas – (from Wednesday's dinner)
Sun butter Sandwiches – (Nut free spread, great substitute for peanut butter)
Snacks
Energy Bites
Fruit & Veggie of choice
Snack from the pantry (chips, crackers, cheese dip or whatever else I bought that week)
3. Then We prepped :
Energy Bites | Crockpot chicken to shredded chicken | Salsa |
Ground Beef into Meatballs (3 lbs = 60 balls) | | Eggplant into "Meat"balls Recipe in my Blog |
Air fried Tofu nuggets (Recipe on Greek Goddess Bowl Blog) | Cooked Veggies (Kale & Pepper, Onion & Mushroom Mix) | Cooked Grains (4 services of Farro & Jasmine Rice) |
4. Now The How We Did it:
For meal prep day, I always pick the things that would take us the longest during the week. To Help you understand the process, below is what we prepped and a schedule of what order we worked in to best utilize our time.
Energy Bites
The kids measured it and mixed it themselves so that took them 1 hour depending on their attention spans, so we let this sit out for a bit.
Add chicken to Crockpot.
Sits for 3 – 4 hours
Heat Oven to 365
Start Farro on stove
Eggplant “Meatballs” PART 1
Chop eggplant & Cook chopped veggies
Ground Beef into Meatballs – PART 1
Mix and Roll - prep while eggplant part 1 is cooking.
Salsa
Mix and Store
Ground Beef into Meatballs – PART 2
Add to over when part 1 eggplant comes out.
Eggplant into "Meat"balls – PART 2
Mix and Roll while meatballs are cooking
Start Rice on stove
Transfer Farro to container to store and use the same pot for rice
Eggplant into "Meat"balls – PART 3
Add to oven after meatballs are done cooking.
Air fried Tofu nuggets
Prep nuggets while eggplant meatballs are in oven
Add to oven after eggplant meatballs come out.
Cook Kale & Stir Fry Veggies (peppers, onions and mushrooms)
Chop Veggies & Prep on stove while nuggets are in the oven
Physical Prep: 70+/- minutes
Total Time:
70 – 90 minutes stovetop ,
2.75 Hours Oven time
Assembly Each Night:
5 – 10 minutes
No planning
No last-minute runs to the store
No processed foods
No fast food.
Enjoy!