Carolina Women’s Collective co-founder, Booth Parker, has been passionate about meal planning and prepping for years! In her masterclass, she explains why and walks you through prepping for a week in a video. Plus, meal planning templates are attached as well!
WELCOME to How to Meal Prep! I am so passionate about Meal Planning and Prepping because I know how much time and sanity (and money) it has saved me over the last 15+ years! I maintained my corporate job after my son was born. Side note: my commute was an hour each way! The last thing I wanted to do when I rolled in between 6:00 and 6:30 was figure out what to cook for supper, hope I had the ingredients I needed, and then spend the next hour plus in the kitchen instead of spending time with my sweet little boy before bedtime.
I have always been a very organized planner and I knew I was going to have to apply that to our meals. Not only did I immediately see a difference in the stress level of our weeknight meals, the accountant in me also quickly noticed the money savings when doing our monthly spending assessment and budget. All the food I was purchasing had a dedicated plan now and we had practically eliminated food waste. Not only that, we had drastically reduced the number of nights for takeout. We decided to add in a family date night each week and we still saved money because we weren’t getting takeout multiple nights a week.
Since my husband would get home before me, he would start the oven and get casseroles in and things like that. Casseroles and slow cookers are on repeat when you meal prep because you often need supper ready when you get home. While I no longer have a 9-5 with a two hour commute, we still have plenty of crazy nights with practices, games, and all the other activities kids have going on. Walking into a slow cooker meal that is ready or sticking a casserole in the oven to cook while I let the dogs out and start a load of dirty uniforms just makes for more enjoyable evenings. Lower stress means less anxiety and less arguments because the environment is just calmer. And this in turn allows for more pleasant, and productive, dinner time conversation. While I am a huge fan of saving money and decreasing food waste, in all honesty, the decreased stress and anxiety that you achieve by meal prepping is the most life changing. Committing an hour, two max, each week to meal planning and prepping gives you that many hours (or more) back each evening. It is a commitment you make for your family and yourself.
Will it be hard if you are used to eating out or getting take out every night? Maybe so. It’s like a habit and forming new habits usually takes up to 2 months. That’s why this is a commitment to your family. For their health, for your budget, for your stress level and sanity. It’s not just about writing down a menu and prepping a bunch of meals at one time. It’s a lifestyle of family first. I want you to be successful at meal prepping!
When you first begin meal planning, it may seem time intensive but after a few times you will find a groove and knock it out in no time. I typically do my meal plan on Saturday mornings but it doesn’t have to be a weekend thing. Pick a day and time that works for you! When I sit down to meal plan, I get a nice cup of coffee, maybe a recent cooking magazine for ideas, and my menu and list templates. The templates are linked below. I start with the dinner menu and as I list out a meal, I add the ingredients to my grocery list. For example, if I plan Taco Tuesday then I would add ground beef, shredded cheese, a taco kit, and avocado. I go through this process for all meals including breakfast and lunches. Once I have my list prepared, I check both the refrigerator and pantry for things on the list that we already have on hand and I add any items that were put on the running grocery list during the week. Once I have the grocery list complete, I make the online grocery order. If you are going to the grocery store in person, I definitely recommend using the grocery list where items are categorized; it will make your trip more timely.
My tips for planning:
- Keep the pantry and refrigerator organized, preferably with labeled bins, so you can easily visualize items needed and items you have. This helps eliminate duplicates!
- Keep fruits and veggies in clear bins on the refrigerator shelves rather than in the drawers (where they go to die). I have found that we do a much better job eating them when they are “in our face” every time we open the fridge. Plus, it’s pretty.
- Create category bins in the fridge such as “lunch box” that contains the sandwich fixings, yogurts, etc. Lunch box packing goes much quicker when you don’t need constant trips to the fridge. I also have a smoothie bin and breakfast bin.
- When you bring the groceries in, unpack everything on the counter. Categorize items before you put them away such as lunch box bin items and smoothie items. If you are planning to prep at the same time, categorize items by meal.
- Schedule your grocery pick-up/ delivery when you have time to unpack properly and prep. I like Sunday on the way home from church but maybe Wednesday afternoon while the kids have dance classes is better for you. Whatever time works!
- When planning meals, look at your calendar! If you have a meeting on Thursday night and you won’t all sit down together, maybe plan a slow cooker meal that day.
- If you are following a diet different from your family (maybe low carb) plan a variation not a whole other meal. Taco Tuesday? Use romaine lettuce for your shells.
- Create a collection of go-to recipes that you can have on repeat. A binder is an easy way to categorize recipes you print online or tear out of magazines.
Meal planning is the key to not only buying food you plan to consume (which saves money) but also keeps a healthy diet on track! Plus, it saves time from not having to make multiple grocery trips for a few items. Even if you stop here and prep when you make each meal, you’re plan is still helping you alleviate meal time stress (and eating out too much).
Meal prep can be basic or fully preparing meals. If you have time to cook in the evenings, your prep may be doing basic things like chopping vegetables, washing salad, and putting lunch box snacks into individual containers. (I always recommend buying chips and things like that in bulk or the large bags and dividing them up into containers because the individual portion bags are significantly more expensive.)
My tips for prepping:
- Organize ingredients by meal on the counter.
- Start with items that need to be cooked before you can prep such as baking chicken or cooking ground beef for recipes.
- Consider your lunches when prepping. Cook extra chicken or salmon for salads. If you like leftover lunch heat ups then prepare additional servings for dinner. TIP: When putting leftovers away, go ahead and put them into individual serving containers so they are ready to grab and go.
- If you are preparing a slow cooker recipe combine the ingredients and store in a container. All you have to do on it’s day, is pour it in and set it!
- Be sure to check expiration dates, especially on meats. I typically put short life items like fish and seafood at the beginning of the week.
- Fully make casseroles ahead of time, cover with foil, then simply put into the oven to bake when you get home.
- Label all prepared food and if you need your spouse or a child to start it, be sure to add the instructions such as preheat oven to 350 then bake 30 minutes.
Some general rules of thumb to follow while meal planning and prepping:
- Stock up on items in bulk every month or two if you have access to a Costco or similar store
- Saving time is one of the purposes of meal planning and prepping so don’t waste time shopping at multiple stores. Your time spent shopping has a value!
- When I first login to make my order, I always check the “My Specials” which are items on special that I purchase regularly. I stock up on what I can, especially non-perishable items.
- Take advantage of the rewards your grocery store offers! I always qualify for $1 off per gallon of gas each month, saving us at least $100 a month at the pump!
In the video below, Booth preps dinner for the week (and some lunches) in just one hour!!!
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