Meals We Prepped #7

Saturday morning I went to Winco to pick up fresh produce and a few other odds and ends for the week ahead.  I pulled all the meats I needed out of the freezer to thaw.

My meal plan was a bit more ambitious last week and to be honest I was concerned about how long it was going to take me to get the prepping done.  So I timed myself and was thrilled when I came in just under two hours and that included cleaning up the kitchen, washing two sink loads of dishes and mopping the floor.  I'd say that is entirely doable!

Pretty much like my meat loaf recipe

I started out by preparing a cooking up a large pot of rice.  While that finished on the back burner of the stove I finely chopped up some onions.  I placed one of the packages of ground beef and the package of ground pork into a large bowl.  I added an egg, some oatmeal, ketchup, worcestershire, ketchup, dried parsley, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper.  The youngest mixed that all up and we got busy forming meatballs.

In the slow cooker with a cup of beef broth

Next we placed all the meatballs in the bottom of my largest slow cooker with a cup of beef broth I mixed up using a sodium free bouillon packet and let them cook on high.  I like doing the meatballs this way because they hold their shape and no additional oil in the meal like you'd use for frying.

Ground beef, onions & a container for homemade refried beans

Add a little bit of shredded cheese

All rolled up and ready to go!

Next I moved onto burritos.  I cooked up the other package of ground beef with chopped onions and then drained off the fat before adding a container of homemade refried beans.  My oldest took over rolling a dozen tortillas with the bean and beef filling and some grated cheese while I got busy on the next meal.

Some linguine pasta cooked and drained

Sliced mushrooms, red bell pepper, chicken

Added the stir fry veggies and the sauce pouch along with a little asian seasoning sauce

I sliced up the thawed chicken breast and got it in the pan to cook while my youngest put on a pot to boil up a pound of linguine.  While the chicken was cooking I sliced mushrooms and some onion.  I added half the mushrooms and the onion to the chicken followed by the package of stir fry veggies I had bought on markdown the week before, the sauce packet that came with it and some seasoning sauce I had in the refrigerator.  I transferred that to a covered casserole to cool, drained the pasta and put that in another casserole to cool and moved on.

Sliced mushrooms added to the meat balls

Water mixed with cornstarch, dried parsley & milk

Oh my goodness, this was so good

Everything ready for the week ahead

I mixed a cup of water with a brown gravy packet and added that to the cooking meatballs along with the rest of the sliced mushrooms and gave everything a nice stir.  An hour later I added a cup of cold water I'd mixed two heaping tablespoons of cornstarch into and a cup of whole milk.  I let that continue to cook for another hour and it was done!  And oh my gosh was it good!

Sunday - The Swedish Meatballs were served over rice.  I steamed a bag of frozen broccoli in a dish in the microwave for five minutes as our side dish.  I put the leftovers into the refrigerator to serve again on Wednesday.

Monday - We heated up the burritos in the microwave for about a minute each.  I served them with salsa and sour cream on the side and made a nice garden salad to go with our super quick and easy to prepare supper.

Looks like oil, but it water with a little Asian seasoning sauce

Tuesday - I placed two cups of water and the chicken mixture into our wok.  Once the chicken was heated through with the water it had also made a nice sauce.  I added the dish of precooked pasta and tossed it well to combine and until everything was heated through.

Wednesday - Leftover Sunday dinner was reheated in the microwave and served up super quick.  I had just enough left over for my lunch the next day too.  Yay!

Thursday - We reheated the leftover pan "fried" noodles in the microwave.  Another super quick meal on the table in minutes.

Friday - My oldest had to march at the football game so we took a pizza that was prepared several weeks ago out of the freezer the night before and allowed it to thaw in the refrigerator.  I baked that in the convection oven for about 15 minutes and served it up with some leftover salad.  With a short window of time this worked out fantastic!

The tomato was huge and covered up the whole burger!

Saturday - We had prepared and consumed pretty much everything on the list except for the veggie burgers so we decided to have that for our Saturday supper.  I had a partial bag of tater tots and a partial bag of seasoned fries leftover in the freezer.  We combined those on a baking sheet along with some onion rings and baked them in the convection oven.  I fried the veggie burgers in a skillet and we enjoyed those with some lettuce leaves, sliced tomato, some thinly sliced onion, mayonnaise and dill pickle.

Awesome helper #1

Awesome helper #2!

Leftover burritos, meatballs and panfried noodles allowed us not only our suppers but several lunches as well.  By the time Saturday rolled around there were no leftovers in the refrigerator and it was pretty much cleared out and ready to be restocked on Sunday.  It worked out beautifully.  Sunday morning I was ready to hit it again and be prepared for the week ahead.  Love this!