Meal Planning

Prepping your meals is a great way to not only save time but money.  By taking the time (30 - 120 mins) to prep your snacks and meals for the week to come you are: cutting down on your time in the kitchen after a long day of work, making it more likely that you'll eat your food, and saving money because you know how much food you'll need to get you through the week.  

This practice is something that I took up in my later years of college, when I was spending a lot of time commuting to and from work, school, and home.  It is something that I have carried into my marriage and is something that I now do at the beginning of each week.  While I enjoy cooking it is not always my favorite thing to do, especially when I'm tired and hungry.  Being more of a grazer than a big-meal kind of a person, I appreciate having some meals and snacks readily available, so that I don't always have to take the time out my schedule to whip something up or worse, to order out.  

Below is a snapshot of what my weekly meal prep looks like.  For storage, I love using clear plastic containers such as pyrex and mason jars so that I can see what food I have and how much I have left of it.  In our refrigerator, I store our sauces, beverages and next-day lunches on the top shelf; the eggs and produce on the second shelf; and the bases (potatoes, rice, lentils, etc.) on the bottom/third shelf.  In our two drawers below that we have our cheese and butter and extra, more hearty produce.  On the door of the fridge there is a shelf where I love to store our cut-up produce that I'll use throughout the week for snacks and adding to dishes (i.e. zucchini, onion, garlic, celery, and lemon).  Each fridge and family is different however this works quite well for us.

My Weekly Meal Prep:

• Wash, dry, and cut-up any fruits and veggies that we plan on eating throughout the week.

• Cook our 1 grain of the week (we alternate between rice, couscous, and quinoa)

• Cook black beans or lentils

• Chop up, season and roast 2-4 potatoes (these are a great base for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love eating them with beans and/or other veggies such as beets, squash, zucchini, and asparagus)

• Cook 1 pre-packaged side dish (i.e. wantons, taquitos, or ravioli)