I have had so many random things going on the last few weeks which has meant not prioritizing meal prepping on Sundays. So today, I was back at it. What else am I going to do on a snowy day in March in Indiana!
Maybe you don’t think you will ever have the margin to do meal prep on the weekend. I think many people feel that way, so I decided to track my prep time. I ended up at the end of my prep with 3 dinners, 3 lunches, 3 breakfast and snacks for the week. Each meal was for 2 people so if you are single, double my meal numbers!
In total, it only took about an hour, and the food cooks while I am prepping. I love that I have only one mess to clean up (actually my husband graciously cleans up), but it makes him happy to have less dish messes to clean during the week. I also feel like we eat a lot healthier during the week when it is already ready to eat. So we should add points for improving our health, right?
Okay, on to the prep. In the morning, I threw chicken in the crockpot according to this recipe I found on Pinterest (Cool Ranch Chicken Tacos). At around 4pm, I pulled the chicken out and shredded it for dinner that night and my mason jar salads.
Next I prepped muffins for breakfast. I wanted something really healthy and full of quality nutrients, so I followed Dashing Dish’s Morning Glory Muffin recipe. I think it is a membership only recipe, so you won’t be able to view the ingredients unless you sign up. The membership is well worth the $5/month. I am happy to support Katie in her online endeavors!
While the muffins were cooking, I made some baked chicken for another meal during the week. I decided to try another Dashing Dish recipe, The World’s Best Baked Chicken. It was so easy to make! Tuesdays are a day I usually don’t feel like cooking, so I am excited to have something so delicious already made. We will eat it with a couple of microwaved baked potatoes and a side salad.
The biggest amount of time prepping went on my next item, my mason jar salads. I have come to really enjoy these and missed eating them the last few weeks. Like I mentioned above, I used some of the shredded cool ranch chicken. Other than cutting up the squash, all my ingredients were already prepped. I assembled 6 mason jar lunches and two side salads to go with the Tuesday dinner.
Last thing I did was prep some snacks. Most of my snacks are prepped already (Go Squeeze applesauce, yogurt, grapefruit cups, cheese sticks, and Naked juice), but I throw them in our snack bowl and make sure they are all on the same shelf in the fridge. The only thing I had to prep was cottage cheese. I bought the large container from Costco and put snack size versions into mini-containers.
Here is how the time played out:
- Cool Ranch Chicken for dinner & salads (5 minutes of prep, 5 minutes shredding)
- Muffins (15 minutes of prep)
- Baked Chicken (5 minutes of prep)
- Salads (20 minutes of prep)
- Snacks (5 minutes of prep)
Total time: 55 minutes for 9 meals (and our snacks for the week)
Leave a reply with any of your prep ideas…
Fit Busy Lizzie 