Prep Day Game Plan

For those of you that have sat with me through a prep class you know this is what my weekly menu looks like, except this is neater. I use the back of Charlie's school work sheets and sort it into three sections and write breakfast, lunch, and dinner across the top. 

I've typed in this weeks menu for you so you can see the thought process that goes into meal prep. Please remember in advance that i'm almost 1 1/2 years into this. You need to find what works for ou. I've found that by making a full menu for the week, to include each meal, it enables us to be prepared and not buy too much at the store.

Please also keep in mind that for those of you on Whole30 not all the above meals will / could apply to you. I have 2 boys in the house that eat paleo but not Whole30 (I think they'd move out on me! lol). Most of the breakfast options are for them. Kevin usually has eggs, meat and veggies. I'll eat whatever I find in the fridge. If nothing else then I eat eggs, meat and veggies also. The majority of the lunches this week are the boys as well. The leftovers usually apply to Kevin and I, which you'll see the 'leftover lunch' menu. Dinners apply to everyone.

You'll notice a block in the lower right labeled 'Next Week' and this is literally for next week. Often times as I'm asking for everyones wish list for eating, or I'm browsing through cookbooks / Pinterest I find items that we haven't had in a while or just want again. Those I list on the menu so I don't forget about them next week. 

On the lower left you'll see 'Extra Prep Items'. These are just that, other things that need to be made also , for one reason or another. This week we are having chicken salad and coleslaw and both require paleo mayo, so that's on the list. The boys are also having muffins to go in lunches or after school snack. There are several season mixes that are needed also for different meals as well. I usually keep taco seasoning made but we are running low. I'm slowly adding to my premixed seasonings as our cookbook grows. The newest one is sausage seasoning. We are now purchasing just ground pork and making sausage from scratch. The taste is much better and I control what goes in it. 

The notes in red tell me what can be done in advance for each meal. Today was my prep day and I completed the meatballs, shredding cabbage, making taco meat, made fauxtato salad (not on the list but was a whim at the store), shredded rutabaga, made chili, pre-made the spice mixes, made mayo. We have meals ready now for Sunday through Wednesday of this week. Depending on how it goes (how hungry everyone is) we will make the pulled pork on Wednesday or Thursday. Overall a good day and a good start to the day. 

Tomorrow, since there is a group coming over from the gym for a prep class I held off on making chicken salad until then as it's on their list also. Kevin will grill up all our chicken at the same time. It's all about efficiency. Cook ONCE and eat multiple times :)

Please keep in mind that prep does not mean you have to set aside an entire afternoon to cook until the fridge is full. Although this is my favorite plan of attack it doesn't always work. There are weekends that prep just doesn't happen. However I still create a menu and a plan. It will require is to do a little prep each night in order to prepare for the following day. So perhaps after we come home from the gym and eat (because our meal was ready) then we clean up the dishes and spend 30 minute on a meal for the next day. It can be as little as putting some meat in the oven to cook while we shower. 

Take a look at your schedule and see what will work for you. It may take a bit to get into a routine that works for you. 

I hope this gives you some idea on how to attack your week!

Enjoy,

Yvonne

Weekly Prep Work

I’ve referenced in several posts that I do prep work each week for meals. This is essential for our family. Yours may be different.

Math that shows why we do prep in our house:

4 people to feed for 21 meals each week 

2 of the 4 people also eat a fair amount of snacks (blaming the kids here!)

2 people work full time

2 people are in school full time and don’t cook for themselves

2 people have homework 5 nights each week

4 people work out at the gym 3-5 nights per week

2-4 people have school / church activities

When we have free time in the evenings or on the weekends we like to spend it together, and not always in the kitchen (minus what I spend on Sundays for prep). With the above tasks broken down daily it leaves little time daily for putting good meals on the table and in lunch boxes. On gym nights we may not get home until 7pm and we are hungry by that point. With prep done earlier I can have dinner on the table in 15 minutes which puts a smile on everyone’s face.

Here’s what a weekly menu looks like with what the red being what I prep in advance:

Snacks:

Pumpkin Muffins *Bake muffins and store in fridge

Italian Meatballs *Pre bake and store in fridge; can be eaten cold or hot

Sausage & Carrot Patties *Double this recipe so it can be used for Breakfast Sandwiches below

Breakfast:

Sausage & eggs *Precook the sausage then reheat and add eggs for breakfast

Smoothie w/ hardboiled eggs *Hard boil eggs and store in fridge

Cereal *Prebake and store in fridge

Breakfast Sandwich with Sausage and Egg *Prebake the sausage & carrot patties from above that are used as the ‘bread’ on this recipe. Additionally you can pre cook the sausage patties and reheat in the morning

Lunch:

Apple Squash Hash *Pre bake and reheat

Ham wraps w/ salad & veggies

ABJ sandwiches *Precook the Fluffy Coconut Flour pancakes that are used as the ‘bread’. Then make sandwich the morning of.

Chicken Fried Rice *precook the cauliflower rice and prebake the chicken; combine when you reheat to eat

Steak Salad w/ Cauliflower Salad *Prebake / grill the steak and pre-make the cauliflower salad. At the very least for the salad pre chop the cauliflower if you want to assemble fresh the morning of

Dinner:

Stuffed Winter Squash

Apple Sliders w/ Roasted Sweet Potatoes *Apple sliders you can pre mix and make patties to store in fridge to cook the day of. The sweet potatoes I will peel and dice then assemble recipe day of.

Tuna Cakes w/ Coleslaw *Chop the cabbage then assemble the recipe the day of

Cod w/ baked veggies *Chop all veggies that will be baked

Family Frittata

As you can see there is very little that you can’t do in advance. The above prep would take about 3-4 hours on the weekend. I’ve gotten more efficient over the months. In the beginning this might have taken about 6 hours. 

If for some reason I’m unable to prep on Sunday then I’ll break the prep over several days. Meaning I’ll cook that nights dinner then while Kevin’s doing dishes I’ll do the prep for the next day. Each week is different. We strive to get prep done on Sundays but it doesn’t always work. Planning ahead for the week starts when I make the menu. If it’s an especially busy week then I’ll pick simple meals. If I have the time to do prep on Sunday meals can be more in depth. So when I sit to create a menu I always pull out the family calendar at the same time.

Another thing to note for prep is that you will need containers, both big and small. I try to keep the same brand of containers as they stack better in the fridge. You also may have to move your shelves around to maximize your space in the fridge. The traditional placement of shelves may not work for your new diet and the containers needed for storage.

Here are a few photos of prep:

 

Chicken baked with olive oil, salt and pepper (grill it if it's nice!)

Scotch eggs, sweet potato hash, egg muffins, pancakes, chicken salad, egg salad, hard boiled eggs, mayo, hamburgers pre mixed and formed, and a chicken and sun dried tomato casserole (the picture is months old so i can't tell all that we prepped - below is the same).

The baked chicken turned into chicken salad, cubed chicken for green salads for lunch. In the 9x13 is sweet potato and carrot patties along with squash patties. 

I am the master at making everything fit in the fridge. The first few days after shopping people won't touch it for fear it will tumble :) lol. Prepped food is on the top and middle right shelf, nuts and seeds are on the middle left shelf, then all the other shelfs and drawers are un prepared items. There is a separate, very large bowl, on the counter that holds sweet potatoes, onions, and other fruits and veggies that don't need to be refrigerated.

Give prep a try and see how it works for you!

Enjoy!

Yvonne

The Grocery List & Menu

 I’ve met people that go grocery shopping with no menu and no list. It’s ok if this is you.  However, I have an inability to ‘wing-it’ so you will always find me with a grocery list in the store.

Prior to Paleo I always planned our dinners but not really breakfast and lunches. Those consisted of cereal, eggs and sandwiches for the most part. That is no longer the case, so planning is needed to keep everyone happy and make sure we have everything needed for each meal.

I start each week by asking everyone what they’d like to have for a few of the meals. It is a family effort and everyone is involved. I generally say that a meal needs to be something we haven’t had in a while and most certainly did not have the week before. I also look at our schedule for the week to see if we need quick meals or we can do more involved meals. This is determined by our gym schedule, Scouts or other school and church activities. Additionally I take into consideration how much of each meal can be prepped in advance because this affects the time for cooking the day of.

To start the menu I take a scrap sheet of paper and divide it into 3 simple sections: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. I write down the wanted meals as well as where the recipes are located whether it be on my Pinterest Paleo Board, in my recipe program or a cookbook.  This is helpful for the person preparing the meal, especially when it’s not me. (The list above doesn't show everything that goes with the main dish - i've gotten better at writing this stuff out on the menu. However this is an older one.)

Next I walk through each recipe and write down the needed ingredients. I generally have more than one shopping list because we get different items at different stores. Fruit and veggies come from Meijers. Meat and spices come from the meat market. Lastly nuts, coconut water, fish, almond meal and a few other items come from Trader Joes. It will take a few trips for you to figure out what you want to get from what store. You may be lucky in that you get everything from one. I’ve not found this to be the case yet due to cost and variety. Some stores just don’t carry what we need.

When the grocery list is done I review any left over ingredients from the previous week that I might be able to crossed off or reduce the amount that I purchase for the coming week. I also will check the spice list against what we have in stock so I don’t buy anything not needed.

It will take a little while to build up a good spice collection. We started with just the normal size jars because we were unsure of how much we’d use of a spice. As we empty a jar we evaluate if we need to keep it in a small container or move to a large container.  Spices are a very necessary part of Paleo and they are an investment.  The photos below you’ll see our main spice cabinet as well as our spice drawer with the red-topped containers. The red-topped containers are our large containers that we move to purchasing if we are using enough of a spice. These save so much money. In many cases the large container from the meat market is the same price as the tiny container at the grocery store. (Our large spices have grown since I originally wrote this blog. We are at 2 full rows.)

 

Making a menu and grocery list takes 30-45 minutes each week but saves so much time in the long run. There’s no guessing what we will be having or if we have all the ingredients. By planning ahead and being prepared it also helps you with the transition to Paleo and to stick with it. Additionally planning helps you with not over buying and having food go bad.

Give menu planning a try and see if it works for you!

Enjoy!

Yvonne

Kitchen Tools

This week we are going to review what tools / gadgets I find most important to keep my Paleo Kitchen running. Everyone’s needs are going to be a little different so adjust accordingly.

ITEM (What it’s used for / Notes)

• -       Blender (smoothies, blending soups, making mayonnaise and other sauces)
  -       Food processor (used for everything under the sun!)
  -       Vegetable peeler (seems simple but it’s a powerful tool!)
  -       Cutting boards (we’ve acquired 5 over the years and use every single one)
  -       Knives
  -       Measuring cups
  -       Measuring spoons
  -       Food storage containers
  -       Cookie sheet (making cereal, baking meats and veggies)
  -       Muffin tin (making egg cupcakes, muffins, etc)
  -       Tea kettle (heating water for thermoses’)
  -       Thermoses’ for everyone (to take leftovers for meals away from home)
  -       Lunch boxes for everyone (to carry your containers for meals)
  -       Containers to fit in the lunchboxes (this is very important and makes life easier)
  -       Tin foil (used in kids lunches when a container won’t fit, or a ‘sack’ lunch is needed for field trips)
  -       Re usable water bottles (so the kids have drinks at lunch time with their meal)
  -       Olive oil sprayer (you can find at Bed Bath & Beyond- saves on olive oil consumption)
  -       Parchment paper (used for some baking items because they can be awful to clean up after)
  -       Juicer (manual cheap brand from Meijer’s at about $5)
  -       Ice packs (for lunches)

Most of the items above may seem like no brainers if you are going to cook. However you’d be surprised how un-prepared you might be. Prior to Paleo my husband and I did cook from scratch. We had a great deal of tools but I was without a food processor and a juicer. The food processor is one of the top, if not the top, cherished item in my kitchen now.

The food processor is used for: making cauliflower rice, chopping large amounts of vegetables, chopping chicken, making mayo, blending baking ingredients, etc. On prep days (which we’ll get into in a coming post) it easily gets used / washed 4-6 times in one afternoon.

Measuring cups and spoons you need at least one set, however if you have two sets that is awesome! Again on prep days or if two of you are cooking it just makes life easier than sharing or re washing.

Another top item is everyone’s thermoses’ and lunch boxes. We’ve always been a family that packed our lunches. Being able to pack things in the right sized container that fits in your lunch is a must for me. Also being able to send along things whether they are hot or cold is also important in using leftovers or pre prepped food. In our house anything is game for going in your lunch!

Again these are just my suggestions for what we have in our kitchen and use on a daily basis to make meals happen.