How to prep meals for the week

Let's face it we all are busy and the last thing on our minds at the end of the workday is going home and making a four course meal. Usually the evening consists of homework, sports practices, laundry and other things. What do a majority of us turn to for dinner?? Take out and that teaches are children at a very young age how to eat unhealthy and can lead to obesity at a very young age. We as parents don't want to see that happen to our children.

So how can busy families eat healthy at home but still have time for everything else. It is very simple, schedule a day in your week (usually Sundays because that is when a new week of sales start) to spend a few hours meal prepping for the week.

Well what the hell does meal prep mean?? Simply, you spend this day prepping meals for the week. For example this week boneless chicken breast is on sale for $1.99lb so I picked some up and that will be 4 nights worth of meals, another night will be a pasta night, one night a leftovers night and then the 7th night is what I call in my house "free night". Free night consists of either grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, cereal, breakfast food or whatever the kids want (within reason lol).

4 nights of chicken sounds like it would get old after the first two nights but with food prep you are making different recipes. So on Sunday you would cook your chicken. My 4 recipes are: Chicken noodle soup, a balsamic grilled chicken, lemon pepper chicken and a healthy chicken parm. So on Sunday I boiled all the chicken just plain to cook it. I like to boil my chicken because it pulls apart nicely and it stays moist. But you would cook it based on your recipes you are going to use in the upcoming week.

Once the chicken is cooked I will place it in 4 separate containers and store in the fridge. I will prep anything else for the week that I will want such as plain rice and maybe a cake, cookies or brownies for an afternoon snack thru out the week for the kids. I will add marinades to the chicken if that is what I plan to do and also this week because I am making chicken parm. I will make a homemade sauce at the same time the chicken is prepping.

Alright so I did all this prep stuff on Sunday and now Monday night is here what the heck do I do??
Monday night is balsamic grilled chicken so light the grill and throw the chicken on until it is the likeness your family likes. Remember it is already cooked so it is basically to heat it up and crisp it up. Make up a quick salad or cook a veggie and boom in under 15 minutes dinner is on the table. How long does it take you to drive to mcdonalds?

Tuesday night is pasta night. While doing home work with the children boil and cook a box of pasta, heat up the sauce that was prepped on sunday, pull out some bread or rolls, salad or veggie and there it is done again.

Wednesday Night lemon pepper chicken, rice and veggies. Add seasoning to your prepped chicken and throw it in the oven until heated. Heat up the rice and make some mixed veggies. Pretty meal in absolutely no time at all.

Thursday night is leftovers night

Friday night is homemade chicken noodle soup. Take your prepped chicken and chop it up, throw it pot, throw in some frozen carrots, celery, corn etc whatever you like in your soup, a cartoon or two of stock, a little pepper, celery salt and bring to a boil. Serve with some dinner rolls and enjoy!

Saturday night is chicken parm night. Myself and my 2 children cant eat breaded things so I will throw the prepped chicken under the broiler to get a little crunch, then add sauce and some cheese and put back under the broiler until melted. This can be served with pasta, salad whatever your family prefers. Again super simple right??

Ok so  you really just don't want to do the same meat like the way I did. So instead of making 4 nights of chicken make 2 nights worth of chicken and two nights of ground turkey. Make and prep a turkey meatloaf and then cook some ground turkey for taco night, then do two nights of chicken.

I highly recommend never making more than two types of meat because you will end up having more than a weeks worth of food and have to throw it away. Keep it simple, the elaborate meals are for the holidays lol

Crock Pot meals are amazing. Say tomorrow night I want to make chilli. So tonight after my children go to bed I will throw my already cooked from sunday ground turkey into the crock pot with all the other ingredients, throw in my fridge over night. Then in the morning pull out and turn on low for the day. When you come home dinner will be waiting and just serve with rolls or bread.

I am not a fan of freezer meals but lots of people like them. They are something that you could do on your prep day.

Meal prep isn't rocket science and really isn't all that complicated. It just takes a few hours on a not so hectic day off. Here are some links for more ideas:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/2111131050323249/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/70791025366861162/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/117726977729837124/

On Sundays I will also go out and buy fresh fruit and other things that I may need. I love to have snacks ready to go for the week. The kids can grab a snack while working on their homework. I always have apples, bananas, yogurt, baby carrots, crackers etc on hand. School and work lunches are made in the morning while my youngest daughter is eating breakfast. Breakfast in my house is usually waffles, fresh fruit and yogurt, bagels or cereal. On Sundays when I am prepping dinners I will make breakfast sandwiches or burritos and freeze them. That way during the week if one of the kids want one I will just microwave it and it is great. No fuss and little time. My house is up at 5:30 am during the week, my husband is out the door before 6:00, 2 of my kids are out the door by 7:00 and my other kid is out the door at 8:00 so there is no time for much lol

Please lets ask some questions or comment anything that has worked for your family. Eating better for us will work a lot better if we can make it work with the whole families schedule. I use to be one of those moms that would make 2-3 different meals a night because my kids refused to even try it based on what it looked like. I don't have time for that anymore and I am not a short order cook. They try everything that I make and if they don't like it they can have a sandwich, soup, cereal etc. Children adjust extremely well if we just don't give in and they wont starve. They actually find that they like a lot of things this way.

I hope this post helps! Have a GREAT day!!!

Jamie <3