A few people have asked me how I plan and prep meals in advance each month so I decided to share in a blog so it shows up on my wall lol if you are interested.
I pick the meals I want to make from a binder of recipes I have collected over the last couple of years. Many
recipes come from the books “don’t panic, dinner’s in the freezer” and
“more don’t panic dinner’s in the freezer”. I also have many Skinnytaste
by Gina recipes as well as some from magazines or cookbooks or that I
have found online….
I
typically need 4-5 meals depending on the week. Thursdays are always
Chinese takeout and Fridays and Saturdays are usually TBD with kids
eating free choice and Mike and I eating leftovers, burgers or
sandwiches depending on our plans. One Tuesday a month, the kids and I
do kids eat free at Applebee's and Mike has a meeting. I know what my
workouts are supposed to be for each day/night so I try not to plan
heavy meals for those nights but instead Mondays which are my rest
nights. Having a schedule has been the key to this working well in our
house. Also having a hubby who works from home who is able to pop stuff
in the oven has helped too. He might be moving to a job out of the house
soon so we may have to adjust and have showers and pjs before dinner if
one of us has to start dinner when we walk in at 6. But we'll cross
that bridge later if we have to.
Every
other month I do a day of menu planning, grocery list, shopping &
meal prep. I shop at bjs first for all the meats and whatever else I
need in bulk from there. Then I hit up Publix for my other groceries
including fruit, veggies and dairy plus whatever is b1g1. I end up
shopping at Publix about every 10 days or so for milk, fruit and fresh
veggies to replenish the fridge or if there are great b1g1 sales on
snacks or staple pantry items.
I
come home and unload and leave all my meat in a big cooler in my
kitchen. I make each type of meat together and clean up in between to
avoid cross contamination (pork with chix with beef). I'll typically make 3-4 chix dishes, 2-3 pork dishes, 2-4 meatloaves and then marinate 2-4 steaks. I bag each meal up and stick in our garage freezer after labeling the bags with the date and the recipe name.
I
sometimes make a big batch of chili on that day too for individual
lunch portions for the freezer. That is the only thing I cook though.
All the meals I make are just seasoned or marinated meat that freeze
then thaw and are cooked on the day they are on the calendar. I usually
take out all the meat from the freezer for the week on Sunday night to
thaw during the week based on the menu.
The 2nd month I plan based on what meals I have leftover in the freezer plus whatever "plain" meats I have in there.
I
try to only do one crockpot meal per month because my kids don't like
"mixed" dishes. I always have fresh veggies and fruit for each meal. I
buy extra chix and pork chops to cook plain as nick is fussy about
sauces. So even though I'm making "2" things it's really the same. We
eat seasoned chix, he eats plain - but it's all chicken.
Hope that helps….please ask if you have any questions
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