For my first attempt at meal prepping, the first thing I did was plan my menu. I decided to stick with recipes I was already familiar with and knew Miss E and the hubs liked. No point in bulk cooking something new only to find out it’s not popular. I also decided on a two week menu, which would be rotated weekly. Basically I prep and cook two weeks worth of food, half goes into the fridge to be consumed that week and the other half in the freezer to be consumed in the third week. At the end of the first week I cook and prep another two weeks worth of food, half of which will be consumed that week (week 2) the other half kept in the freezer to be used in the fourth week. This way I only have to prep and bulk cook twice a month. I then only need to buy fresh fruit and veg for snacking each week.
I decided to go with 3 main hot meal options – Beef Chilli, Chicken Peanut Stew and Beef Casserole. I chose 3 carbs to pair with them, brown rice, Moroccan couscous and baked sweet potatoes. For a side dish I chose roasted vegetables. For protein to add to salads throughout the week I decided to roast a whole chicken, which I could then shred, grill some salmon fillets and pre-boil a few eggs.
Menu
Hot Meal Choices
Beef Chilli
Chicken Peanut Stew
Beef Casserole
Carbohydrate Choices
Brown Rice
Couscous
Baked Sweet potato
Vegetable Choices
Roasted vegetable medley
Salad Choices
Shredded Roast Chicken
Grilled Salmon
Boiled Eggs
Fresh Choices
Selection of fruit
Hummus
Tender stem broccoli
Green beans
I chose Saturday as my food prep day and went grocery shopping with Miss E in the morning. Before cooking I laid out all my ingredients on the workspace, grouped according to what it was being used to cook. This helped me track my progress, as things were used up the collection of ingredients decreased. I started with the hot meal choices and whole chicken first as they would take the longest to cool down. Then I cooked the vegetable choices, then carb choice and finished with the grilled salmon. In all, it took me almost 5 hours to cook everything and I admit to being a bit scared when I saw all the food, thinking, how do I pack this lot away?
In the end it was fairly easy to do. Firstly I cleared out the fridge of all out of date, unnecessary or unused items in order to create maximum space. I split each hot meal choice into two containers, one for the fridge and the other for the freezer. Each carb and vegetable choice was packaged and put into the fridge as was the shredded chicken, grilled salmon and boiled eggs. The food lasted about 5 days by which time we were into the dregs and I had to bring the beef chilli in the freezer out. All in all I found the process to be both time and money saving. As a family we ate healthier because I wasn’t having to stress about what to cook only to end up ordering takeout.
