Meal Prepping for the Week of March 1, 2021

It’s Monday! That means I become my sous chef by preparing for the week. I do this because meals come together quickly in my household. We are a family of 3 consisting of me, my husband and my son, who is 19. My son will only be with us for a bit longer as he is scheduled to transfer to a university out of town in the Fall. We are taking that as it comes due to the COVID-19 virus, which has so many college students schooling from home.

In any event, we rotate kitchen duties around here daily. Each day, one of us cooks, while another cleans up, and another puts leftovers away and cleans the table. It works for us, but it is invaluable to my son, who needs to learn how to cook and clean up when he leaves the nest.

I usually plan the meals, so I try to assign meals to my husband and son that I know they will enjoy making and are not too difficult. Here’s what is on the schedule for this week:

Menus

Meal Prepping

Again, I gather my recipes and inventory all the ingredients to ensure I have everything. If I am missing something, I can always pick up the missing ingredient at the store later. If it is an item that needs prepping, I cannot prep it today because I do not want to take up my prep time by going to the store. The idea here is to reduce the stress of meals and make them easier throughout the week. The ability to be flexible makes you powerful!

Now that I have gathered my recipes, I will gather any meats from the freezer to thaw. When I make my list, it helps me to write the recipes that require that item next to it, so I know how much I need to take out of the freezer and what type; for example, boneless chicken breast versus bone-in chicken. This week, I need to prep:

Thawing

Chopping

Chopping/Slicing/Cutting

Now that the meat is out, I can begin thawing those meats that need marinating. I use the microwave to thaw my meats safely. Meanwhile, I chop, dice, trim, slice, halve, cut and cube. This part of my plan is what makes meals come together faster during the week. Let’s do it!

Preparing

Most of the meat I need to marinate has thawed by the time I have chopped everything I can. I have quite a few meals that require marinating this week.

• Marinate chicken thighs for Greek Rice Bowls and Thai Peanut Chicken Bites
• Marinate wings and drums with buffalo sauce
• Marinate bone-in chicken with Chipotle Lime Marinade

Making Ahead

Now that I have everything prepped, some menu items can be made ahead. Sometimes, I do not have enough time in the day to do this. If so, I will make some fresh items on Tuesday. Remember that flexibility is power!

Due to our Keto diet preference, I had to modify the following recipes to make them keto-friendly. You, too, can be adventurous when trying out new recipes if you are dieting. All you have to do is read through the entire recipe and think a little bit about how you can tweak it to fit your diet.

• Ultimate Chicken Pot Pie – I used an almond flour crust instead of a flour crust.
• Greek Calzones – I used a keto-friendly fathead dough recipe instead of flour crus.t
• Curry Chicken Broccoli Salad – Used cubed keto bread cubes instead of stuffing mix
• Grilled Chicken Sandwiches – Used keto bread instead of regular bread
• Hot Shrimp Dip – The recipe called for crawfish, but I used shrimp because that is what I had on hand.

I have prepped my meals for about nine months now. It has changed my life for my family. Not scrambling for ingredients each night is a huge time-saver and reduces stress. The bonus is that it saves money—no plan and scrambling for dinner results in eating out, which significantly costs money. The hardest part was setting my mind to do it and figuring out how to manage my time. Once you put your mind to it and get into some routine, you will see how helpful meal prepping is. You can do it alone or get your family in the kitchen to help. Either way, it is beneficial.