We are here! The final week of the meal prepping and planning series.
We have covered:
- Week one: How to stop feeling frustrated with meal planning. A post that helps you start and create your own plan.
- Week two: Meal prep made easy with simple kitchen tools
- Week three: The recipes I love using that will help you master meal prepping.
While these kinds of generic posts will help you start your own plan and process, I also understand the desire to learn how someone else does it start to finish. That’s exactly what I hope to show you here. SO, if you like to learn from others like me, I think you will like this post.
First things first!
I look through my fridge and pantry. I am working so hard on trying to shop smarter and spend less money. I see if I have the main components of a meal and plan from there.
Sometimes I just grab a piece of scratch paper and write it out, or sometimes I go all out and plan breakfast, lunch, and dinner ideas and write them out on this:
When I write out the dinners, I see what makes enough for lunch leftovers and if one recipe can turn into the next dinner.
For example, If I have Sunday night planned for bean burritos (I will cook my own beans on Sunday), use leftover beans in my lunch on Monday and then plan to use a cup or two on Tuesday night for enchiladas. The rest can go into the freezer.
Another example is on Monday night, I will make stir-fry veggies with rice but cook enough for leftovers on Wednesday and possibly have enough leftover rice for buddha bowls on Thursday. I like to space out some ingredients by a day so I don’t get bored with them.
Does that make sense?
After the plan is made. I will make up my shopping list. Remember to check out your fridge and pantry.
When I get home from the store, everything gets taken care of fast.
Dry stuff gets sorted. Kid snacks get put in the snack area. Fruit gets cut if needed (like watermelon). Some of the veggies get washed and cut right away while others don’t (they’ll be used later in the week.)
All this usually happens Thursday or Friday. Then, my actual prep day happens on Sunday afternoons. That is just what I like to do, you do what works best for you.
Where to start?
- Anything going in the crockpot? I start that in the morning so it can cook all day long.
- If I am making a quinoa salad, I’ll start by cooking quinoa. Tip: Always make a bit extra and save it for green salads during the week. When it is done cooking, let cool.
- Meanwhile, start chopping some veggies. Tip: if raw veggies are chopped already, I am more likely to eat them! At this point, I will also roast some veggies. Keep half for dinner that night and a half for the green salads we eat during the week for lunches.
- While the veggies roast, I will make falafel or veggie patties to go in lunch. I have also been making lentil meatballs (recipe coming soon!!) that are perfect. Tip: Once the veggies are done roasting, these go into the oven.
- The last thing I will make is some kind of dip or sauce. It depends on what I am in the mood for honestly. Either cashew cream (if I have remembered to soak cashews earlier in the day), or I will make pesto, salsa, or hummus if I don’t have any on hand.
- Once everything has cooled down I will start to divide food into containers.
It is important for me to not spend more than 1.5 – 2 hours on this whole process.
I am just about finished here, are you still with me?!
Here is a really general idea of what our meals would look like during the week planned out and how I would use ingredients over for leftovers or the next meal:
That is about it. Over time this process has gotten much easier than when I started so if you take one thing from this post, let this be it:
Be consistent and keep trying your best if you want to master this. Keep it easy and manageable.
You’ve got this!
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