Meal Prep - Week #3

Week 3!  I know!  Let's get to it.

Saturday morning I didn't shop and I didn't meal prep.  What?!!!

That's right.  I didn't need to, so how about that?  I had plenty of food in the house and I had stopped at Albertsons that prior Thursday to pick up something for a friend so I grabbed a few extra produce items while I was at it and called it good!

Sunday morning I put two cups of washed, rinsed and soaked pinto beans onto cook.  I put them in my slow cooker on high for four hours.  Then I put the girls to work.  The youngest browned and drained a pound of lean ground beef I had taken out of the freezer earlier to thaw.  Added a can of tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and a packet of chili seasoning mix.  Then the oldest put the cooked beans in.  There was a cup leftover and she put those in the freezer for a future batch of taco soup.  Yum!

I removed the pork verde I had made in week one and put it in the refrigerator to thaw and made a batch of rice which also went into the refrigerator.  Then I took out two good sized frozen cod portions and transferred those to a quart sized Ziploc bag.  I didn't want to open a new bottle of marinade so I used Roasted Red Pepper salad dressing.  I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not.  That went back into the freezer, I did not allow the cod to thaw.

That was pretty much it for the meal prepping for the weekend.  Not much work there.

Sunday - The oldest made a batch of cornbread from scratch and we had that with butter and honey.  We served it alongside the chili topped with a little grated cheddar.

Monday - We heated up the pork verde and the rice in the microwave.  My oldest made a quick garden salad with romaine, tomato, black olives croutons and dressing.  Dinner was on the table in 15 minutes, which was a good thing because cheerleader practice was ran late and my youngest was starving.

Tuesday - Leftover chili and cornbread.  Dinner was on the table in less than 10 minutes.  Again a good thing as the oldest had band practice until 5:30 and the youngest had a football game to cheer at until after 6:00.

Turns out the salad dressing was a great idea.  It turned out delicious!

Wednesday - I had removed the fish to thaw and marinade the day before.  I boiled a 7oz. package of pasta and cooked the fish in a cast iron skilled with some olive oil.  The pasta was drained and tossed with pesto and a touch of butter.  I also made a quick salad of lettuce and tomato.

Thursday - Leftover pork verde and rice became burritos.  Served with sour cream and salsa as well as leftover salad.  Total prep time was less than 10 minutes.

Friday - Nothing beats a grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of tomato soup to dunk it in.  I added whole milk to a can of tomato sauce and a teaspoon of dried basil.  Then grilled up some sliced colby jack cheese on whole wheat bread.  This meal was truly a lifesaver as I was an hour late getting home from work and my oldest needed to be back at the high school by 5:45 to march at the football game.

Saturday - So Saturday was my birthday and the beginning of Labor Day weekend.  I pulled steaks and a large handful of shrimp from the freezer to thaw that morning.  I made garlic mashed potatoes and a nice big salad to go with our grilled steaks and shrimp.  Ice cream was my dessert of choice.  The girls did the clean up.

We had plenty of leftovers each day for lunches and once again everything flowed smoothly.  Getting dinner on the table each night was a snap and I didn't worry or stress at all about what we were having or if I have everything I needed because I already knew.

The girls love that dinner is delicious, it hits the table fast, and there aren't a lot of dishes to wash up afterward either.  I'd say between fixing a meal, eating it and then clean up we are spending about an hour, maybe less.  And that includes preparing our lunches for the next day too!

At the end of each week we discuss how it went, what we enjoyed the most and take a vote as to whether to continue.  It has been unanimous each week.  We will continue.