This week I have been gearing up for back-to-school.
Or back-to-homeschool.
Can we call it back-to-school if school is at home and we never left?
Either way, we have been slowly easing back into morning routines and rough schedules and my oldest child has started some of her lessons already. We have big goals this year for her schooling and she is feeling very motivated right now!
As I have been thinking about those routines and schedules and preparing our school materials and supplies, I also wanted to think about meals during the school day.
As many stay-at-home moms know, if you allow it to happen, you can spend entire days without ever leaving your kitchen except to use the bathroom.
Kids have endless appetites – or at least mine do – and I have learned that unless I define mealtimes and snack times, I will live in an endless cycle of cooking, serving, cleaning, and repeating the process again until I die or my kids all move out…whichever comes first.
To minimize the meal prepping and clean-up on school days, I decided to try out some make-ahead and freezer meals that could work for breakfasts and lunches.
The Meals
I opted for some tried-and-true favorites and a new recipe.
- Paleo blueberry muffins
- Sous vide egg bites (new)
- Gluten-free waffles
- Regular waffles
- Mini meatballs
The Cooking
I ended up bringing all my ingredients over to Robyn’s house because cooking mass quantities of food is always more fun with friends.
Here was the final product:
In typical fashion, we deviated from the plan a bit and added in some impulse dishes.
The sous vide eggs took quite a while, so we worked on batches of egg bites and waffles while also preparing the other dishes.
The Final Product (and quantities)
- Two dozen paleo blueberry muffins
- 1 batch bacon sous vide egg bites
- 1 batch dairy-free chive cream cheese and bacon egg bites
- 6 batches gluten-free waffles
- 2 batches regular waffles
- 2 lbs of mini meatballs
- And the impulse items: guacamole and jalapeno poppers
In Retrospect…
There are a few things I will do differently next time.
- 2 lbs of ground meat was not nearly enough; the mini meatballs were only enough for one meal in my family, really, and it would be simpler to increase the quantities to make more at one time.
- The sous vide egg bites were amazingly delicious but they did take a really long time to cook. Since I can’t eat the store-bought versions (which always seem to contain dairy), it was worth it to me to make them (especially since I could just pop them in the Pampered Chef Instant Pot and carry on making other dishes in the meantime). I could see this being too tedious for most people, however.
- The waffles are always a hit and so simple to prepare while meal prepping a ton of food.
I am definitely planning to keep meal prepping through the school year. We’ll see if I can stick to it!