Essentials to meal prepping:
1. Carve out 3ish hours per week to plan and prep: This does not include grocery shopping - this is simply planning around foods you need to use up, foods you need to get and prepping said food (we will get into more details later). This may seem like a lot, but these 3 hours will save you a significant amount of time and brain energy during the work-week grind. I fit these 3 hours in whenever I can - Saturday afternoons/evenings (when we don't have plans to be social), before church (it's amazing what you can accomplish before 10:30 am), but mainly it has been Sunday afternoons usually between 1:00-4:00.
2. Get a notebook: This can be any old notebook you have lying around your house or to motivate yourself, buy a cute notebook just for meal prepping. I will talk through my template below, but I find it helpful to use 1 notebook for meal prepping. When I am feeling stuck on meal ideas, I can flip back and revisit another week's plan. Don't recreate the wheel, people.
3. Breathe and charge your laptop to binge your favorite Netflix show: Seriously, my husband is amazed at how quickly I plow through Netflix series, but honestly, I usually only watch these solo series when I am meal prepping or cooking throughout the week. I thoroughly enjoy working with food, but I feel like I am also staying current by having OITNB on in the background.
The planning phase and template: You will create 3 different lists!
List 1: Foods that need to be used. This can be meat or poultry that has been thawed for one too many days and needs to be cooked ASAP or the produce that is on its last leg, because we all have produce that gets forgotten. Force yourself to figure out a meal to use these! Roast the produce as a side with a chicken breast or throw the meat in a crockpot or in a casserole. By taking a couple minutes to sort through your fridge, this not only minimizes food waste, but also saves you time and money at the grocery store. One action item that we are trying out is setting up a small whiteboard near our fridge to list out what is in the fridge. I swear Mr. Lukas is a human garbage disposal, but if he had to find food in the fridge himself, he would starve to death. This was actually his idea to help minimize food waste (swoon!), but seriously, he gets really annoyed when we have to throw meat loaf or shredded beef simply because he didn't know it was in there.
List 2: Meal ideas. Obviously, these meal ideas should include the foods that need to be used up. Also, incorporate some favorite meals that you will want to eat as well as quick meals for the nights where you can't imagine cooking or worked late because those are going to happen. One of our favorite meals are steaks with sautéed mushrooms and onions, a roasted sweet potato and broccoli - with a glass of deep red wine. This meal will stop us from going out to eat or ordering DoorDash. Quick meals for us include spaghetti with red lentil noodles (Trader Joe's gets us), a frozen pizza (gasp!), breakfast for dinner (think over easy eggs with toast and avocado) or leftovers. Give yourself a buffer because if your week turns into a serious grind, you are ready for it. Also, be sure to plan snacks and desserts! Are you going to have apples with almond butter, a couple yogurts throughout the week, beef jerky, hardboiled eggs? I know that I am not the only one who doesn't stick to just 3 meals/day so by planning ahead, you will avoid hanger and driving through a silly drive through or gas station for an overpriced and most likely, an unhealthy tie-over snack. Also, desserts - we throughly enjoy Trader Joe's cookie ice cream sandwiches as well as Ben and Jerry's. It is what it is and I am not about to try to be someone that I am not.
List 3: What you need to get from the grocery store. Connect the dots between what you have and what meals you plan to make. Hopefully, you can minimize this list by using up what you have leftover from the week before.
Once you have your lists, on another sheet of paper (or I use the backside the lists), plan out your meals throughout the week! What nights do you know you are going to need something quick or maybe a crockpot meal that is ready to go when you get home from work or events? These nights for us are often when Drew has a soccer game or I plan to meet a friend for a workout. Are there any nights where you may be going out to dinner with friends or family? Some evenings, I have Beautycounter meet-ups or Board of Directors meetings, where I will be out for dinner, but Drew is on his own. Plan for a leftovers night or two! We often filter in leftovers as either a quick meal or solo meals because we are independent people. I can't say it enough, set yourself up for success by filtering in a couple quick meals or leftover nights.
The action phase:
1. Go grocery shopping! Hit up the farmers market, co-op, Trader Joe's or wherever you shop. This week, I happened to get groceries from 4 different places: the farmers market, Trader Joe's, Mississippi Market and Whole Foods. This is not a regular thing for me nor is this me bragging because I felt like I was losing my mind - truth be told, I was on the hunt for figs (long story). My usual weekly trips include the farmers market and Trader Joe's. Pro tip: eat before you go grocery shopping! Do not fall into that trap - you are more likely to stick to your list on a full stomach.
2. Prep! What can you do ahead of time to set yourself up for success? Most Sundays, I make a sweet potato hash to throw in with eggs for breakfast throughout the week (some weeks I tell Mr. Lukas this exists, but not all weeks because I want to hoard it for myself). Historically, I have also made 5 salads on Sunday - one for every day of the week and yes, they stay good, if you store them in glass containers. I also try to cut up and portion out fruits and vegetables as well as hummus, nuts, and other snacks - again, try to store these in glass containers as they are less likely to oxidize. I also put the meat/poultry that we will use throughout the week in a bowl. This will allow them to thaw and be ready to cook! It also makes you commit to using that meat before it goes back (aka skip going out to eat).
To help get your lists started, here are foods that are on my list every week and mainly because they are versatile staples:
- sweet potatoes: great for breakfast hash or as a side to meat for dinner
- peppers: used for the breakfast hash and snacking with hummus
- meat, mainly chicken or pork: for the past few years, we have been buying red meat in bulk, direct from a farmer, so we are usually just filling in the gaps with either chicken or pork. Typically, I plan out something with ground beef, a roast and a lean meat throughout the week.
- butter: organic, grassfed salted butter
- milk/almond milk: organic whole milk for Drew and almond milk for me
- apples: super great snack on the go, ideally with almond butter or a cheese stick
- avocados: no explanation needed here
- shredded cheese: again, no explanation needed
- natural almond butter or peanut butter: we go through a lot of nut butters around here
- spinach: can be used for salads, in scrambled eggs or smoothies
- cruciferous veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts - all of these are great raw on salads or roasted as a side dish for dinner
- other veggies: think carrots, cucumbers, snap peas, tomatoes - great on salads, but also great for snacking with hummus or roasting for dinner
- yogurt: I realllllly like Sigg's 4% yogurt, it is pricey, but I usually only get 3 or 4 as an optional snack throughout the week.
- Sprouted whole wheat bread: Yes, we eat bread, minimally and almost always sprouted.
Ok ya'll, do you get that I take my food very serious? When I was really stressed out during grad school, Drew tried to take over grocery shopping and meal prepping and I actually lost my mind. This dude was going to by 3 different types of bread in one week (hot dog bugs, hamburger buns and sourdough) - I almost lost my damn mind thinking of how we would never use all of that bread before it went to waste and I wasn't sure how I could have married someone so inefficient. Kidding....kinda.
I would love to hear how meal planning is going for you! I am also working on a downloadable template for my readers to download and use on a weekly basis for meal planning (stay tuned!).
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| Here is our new "What's in the fridge" whiteboard. Also pictured, is a cute notepad, found in the $1 aisle at Target that is a Monday-Friday Menu. It magnets to our fridge and is where I plan out our dinners. Easy peasy! |
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| I tried to make this as big as possible to make it legible. The top list says foods that need to be used, to the right of that are meals and the bottom is a checkable grocery list. Yes, I do bring my notebook with me to the grocery and yes, sometimes, I do cross it off. Also, the check items in the top right corner are reminders for me to check stock on items. There is nothing worse that assuming you don't have something and unnecessarily buying it or assuming you have it and don't buy it. |
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| This was my most recent list. Surprisingly. I didn't have anything that needed to be used up! Again, you see the check items in the middle to check stock. |
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| This my friends is my meal prep station. Here I was making the vanilla date turmeric energy bites while eating come chips and guac for a snack and watching OITNB on Netflix. This is real life, people. |
Much love ya'll
XOXO,
Dee
