Stone Soup for Five: Meal pre-prep for the week

Meal pre-prep for the week

Because I REALLY don't enjoy cooking that much, and because I save a LOT of money the less I'm in a store; I go shopping once every two weeks (except for stuff like lettuce, fruit, and milk--that is weekly... because teens).  So Saturday is my meal pre-prep time.  I try to get as much of the work done Saturday mornings as I can, because I don't have the time or desire to cook from scratch every. single. night.  Doing it this way helps me take care of Future Me and is kinda like having a cook for the rest of the week.  This week I did a few meals from 5dinners1hour.com and a few of our family favorites.

I plan meals and clean out the fridge on Thursday, so Future Me can shop on Friday (and have a place to put the groceries), so Future Future Me can prep them on Saturday.





Meal plan for March 8-21

Week 1:
I made some quick and easy granola with no oil.  It turned out really good!  I added slivered almonds and coconut flakes because I had them on hand.

Easy Tilapia--I did not pre-prep anything for this recipe as it comes together quickly on the day we eat it.

Fabulous Chunky Chili--(A friend of mine said this is the best chili she's ever put in her face.  It's not spicy, but very rich and meaty.  Our family FAVORITE.  AND, this makes over 3 gallons, so plenty to freeze and/or share.)  I browned all the meat, stirred in all ingredients and froze half, stored the other half in the fridge.  We will simmer the day we are ready to eat it.

Taco Chicken Legs--Skinned chicken legs, prepped up to the point of putting them in the oven.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs--made the sauce and froze with peppers and pineapple.  Will add meatballs the day of cooking.

Leftover buffet

Homemade pizza--no pre-prep but I will make the dough in my bread machine (basic French bread recipe) Friday morning and store it in the fridge as we run to classes and errands.

Chicken lettuce wraps--didn't use the rotisserie chicken because I had frozen chicken breasts instead.  Prepped recipe as written and stored in fridge.



Week 2:

Taco night--browned hamburger, drained and froze.  Will dump frozen meat into pan on night of and mix in seasoning.

Chili dogs--will use one of the frozen bags of chili with hotdogs and buns.

Burger bean biscuit bake--no recipe here, just a can or two (depending on the size of your crowd) of baked beans, mix in a pound of browned burger, (add diced bacon too if you have it, or whatever else sounds good like Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce).  Top with quartered canned biscuits and sprinkle with cheese.  Bake at 350 for about 30 min.  The only prep I did on this one was brown the burger.

Apple Glazed Pork Chops--made this as directed, but made two pans.  One to freeze to give to someone in need or eat on a rushed night, and one to eat now.

Jer's Pork Verde--Family recipe.  Pork loin browned and put in crockpot with a big can of green enchilada sauce, a small can of green salsa, and a sliced jalapeno or two.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours and shred and serve in burritos.  Didn't pre-prep anything as it's really easy to add to the crockpot and go (I don't brown the pork first, don't tell Jeremiah!)

Homemade pizza

Leftover buffet


You don't have to have any special recipes to do this either.  Use the recipes you have. What can you do ahead of time (brown hamburger, dice veggies, wash and chop lettuce) to make life easier for Future You?




*links to 5dinners1hour are referral links.

4 comments:

  1. I do something similar to you. Saves so much time and stress!
    Sara

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does! So thankful I was able to do it this weekend because I'm sick right now and it's so nice to just toss in the oven and heat!

      Delete
  2. 1. You are brilliant.

    2. Do you have a recipe for pizza sauce you really like?

    3. Suck it, google comments, no soup for you.

    4. I can comment again, hurray!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ok, I tried to reply to you once, but it didn't work... I feel that my blog is really fragile right now, after the Google+ removal surgery, so I'll try again. For the pizza sauce I usually grab a jar of whatever pizza sauce is on sale and add a tsp or so of Penzy's pizza seasoning. Penzy's makes everything amazing!

      Delete

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