Let's start out with honesty here. I don't mind cooking. I'm not some great chef or anything, but I'm able to cook a meal that we can actually eat. However, I HATE thawing out meat and then going back later and cooking it. If I could instantly cook it when its frozen without the in-between time I'd probably cook more.
Which brings me to meal planning and meal prep. I've heard so much about this and decided since I have a 5 month old baby that wants all of my attention all of the time and a hard working husband that shouldn't have to come home and cook every night (although, he is perfectly capable helping out and cooking some nights- don't get me wrong), that maybe it's time to give this a shot. If I completely suck at it then what have I lost? Not a thing, my friends!
So here is what I did Saturday afternoon, while Lakelyn was napping and the husband was working his 6th 10 hour day in a row. Meal planning. I didn't have time to go through pinterest and read everything I found, so I winged it!
I googled a
"meal planning chart" and then wrote down quickly all the meals I could think of off the top of my head. I also included a few of my pinterest meal ideas to the list. Beside each meal I would write down the main ingredients that I would need. (By the way, after I finished I forgot SO many meals, but I will just throw them in the next rotation).
Then I printed 4 of the meal planning charts and went right to the dinners and wrote them down, trying to mix them up so that we didn't have chicken every night of the week ;) I only did 5 nights of the week because we typically eat at his parents house at least once a week and plus I figured we should have a free night of no cooking at least once a week (pizza?) I also write down some sides to go with that meal and hallelujah, thank the lord some of those meals didn't need sides, like spaghetti (besides garlic bread), soups, casseroles, ya know the "easy stuff".
As for the breakfast column, I only did a breakfast for Sundays because every other day we eat something quick like cereal, toast, pop-tarts and Saturday's are consumed by hunting season so no big breakfasts there either! But I did write those quick breakfast in the other days, but who is to say we'll actually go by that? For lunch, Tyler takes leftovers or a sandwich and I eat (whenever I find time) something quick like a sandwich or pizza rolls in 30 seconds flat! And for snack, I basically skipped, but did decide that once a week I will try to make a dessert. Maybe a cake, cookies, ice-cream. Whatever the heart desires (and is easy to make since I'm no Betty Crocker).
Anyway, so on Saturday or Sunday whenever I feel like doing it, I cook the meats that can be cooked. Like this week we are having spaghetti and
loaded baked potato and chicken casserole so I went ahead and cooked the hamburger meat and added the sauce and then poured into a Ziploc bag and put it in the freezer and for the chicken I just boiled it, shredded it and put it in a bag and into the freezer. Now when the day comes for these meals I just pull it out, let it thaw (or throw in a pan) and then finish it up. For some meals you could probably cook the entire thing and freeze it, but I try to keep it somewhat fresh!
Hope this helps! And of course I couldn't leave without a picture of this cutie and her spit bubbles!
