This Is This Week

This week, I’m sharing a glimpse into my weekly meal prep.

I have four children and a husband who all love to eat.

We tend to eat most of our meals at home, avoid processed food, and have a few food allergies and preferences in the family.

Two of my children are gluten- and dairy-free and were entirely nut-free because of a digestive intolerance until we started gradually reintroducing small quantities of nuts recently.

We also are a homeschooling family, so on most school days, we are home for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You might think that this would make meal times easier, but if I don’t plan ahead, I can easily spend all day every day cooking and cleaning up; when school is underway, I need to have a plan to avoid exactly that.

My husband, JM, works outside the home and has been working with a trainer for the last few years; he has a pretty intense gym routine – which requires him to consume a lot of calories. He eats five meals a day on average, so I try to meal prep all of his food for work hours (3-4 meals/day) to make weekday mornings run smoothly.

This means that for JM alone, I prepare 18 meals/week on average.

I used to spend my entire meal prep timeframe on Sundays planning and preparing just his meals, but then I often fizzled when it came to my own meal prep or planning ahead for the kids.

Now, I try to add in a few things for the kids and me while I make his food.

What I Prepped

For JM’s meals, I prepared:

• Overnight oats with berries
• Breakfast casserole with shredded potatoes, ham, and salsa
• Buffalo chicken over roasted sweet potatoes
• Spaghetti with breaded chicken and eggplant

I tend to keep it simple for the kids and me so I have some staple items in my fridge that I can easily use to build our meals.

This week, I prepped for us:

• Vegan ranch
• Cut veggies
• Cut watermelon
• Roasted beets
• Two salad dressings: chipotle-lime vinaigrette and a basic vinaigrette

I used some of the veggies and ranch dip for JM’s meals too.

As usual, I managed to cover every available surface in my kitchen:

Tips for Meal Prep

Sometimes I grocery shop on the same days that I meal prep.

I do not recommend this.

It’s exhausting and takes all day.

My number one tip for meal prep is to break it up!

It’s also good to make a few staple items that you can use in multiple ways.

Because I meal prepped on Monday this week, for example, I used ended up with extra breaded and buffalo chicken from JM’s meals that I could serve the kids for an easy lunch addition or dinner option.

I’ll probably need to fill the cut veggies by Wednesday. Sometimes I feel like my family eats way more than average.

Does your family eat a lot?