Meal Prep Made Easy

I never thought I would be a meal prep person. I don't enjoy cooking, and I didn't grow up in a house where either parent cooked a lot. Apart from grilled cheese sandwich lunches on Sundays, the occasional chicken and rice casserole for dinner, and lasagna if anyone died (my mother is the master of lasagna, and if she was going to deliver one to a family in need, she always made one for our family too)...I'm not entirely sure how I was an overweight child because I don't exactly recall what I lived on (apart from ramen and canned soup).

Cooking wasn't an event in my house, and I never found the appeal of working so hard on something that could be so quickly consumed....with nothing but more work (dirty dishes) to show for it. 

So I never thought I'd be a meal prep person.
 But when you are trying to save on expenses, you do things you didn't plan on doing. Kevin and I had a month recently where I realized we had spent almost $600 on groceries. There were a number of factors that went into that number, we hadn't grocery shopped for a month (remember that no-spend month?... well this was the month following) we were struggling with what to feed Lorelai, and we had a lot of guests over for meals that month. 

I looked at our otherwise pretty slim budget, and realized that is where we needed to cut back. I've been dragging my feet on learning to meal prep. Not just because I don't like cooking, but I don't need one more thing on my plate to plan for. 

It wasn't until I was listening to a Rachel Cruze (daughter of Dave Ramsey) where she said you could really watch your grocery budget by online grocery shopping. At that time, we were online grocery shopping (I absolutely love it), but we were also going to the store in between. That was what got us spending over budget, the "in-betweens" of $50 grocery stops every now and again. 

Now I have friends (you know who you are, and you are awesome) that plan out literally every single meal for their family. I mean down to breakfast, and snack...7 days a week. They have this down to a science. For me, that was not a reality. 

What was a reality is planning 3 meals, and always having 1-2 backups on hand each week. With those meals, we would have at least 3 leftover meals from each serving that we could eat as a lunch or dinner on the off days. 

That leaves some leftovers for me to bring for a few lunches, Kevin fixes his lunches at home, and that is where are every-day staples come in. Maybe we fix another meal, or do sandwiches. Kevin has a go to of mac and cheese, we may go out to eat once.....but cooking just 3 meals that would feed 5 or more is an easy way for us to monitor our grocery budget. 

Note, I am not counting Lorelai in any of this. First because she eats so little, but second because she is incredibly picky. We keep her food pretty separate or feed her from our meals while we are eating. As she grows up, this would certainly change. 

So each week we are trying a new meal prep method, where we online grocery shop on Sunday night for a Monday pickup. Weekly pickup lets us get plenty of fresh fruits/veggies and at times we do go to a local store for better produce selection) and allows me to plan just 3 meals each time I grocery shop. Easy, low effort and cost-effective...our favorite things!

Here are some examples of what we pickup for easy meals: 

Go To Meals: 

Teriyaki stir fry (chicken, frozen veggies, teriayki sauce, rice)

Pulled Pork (Pork, hamburger buns, bbq sauce)

Lemon chicken orzo soup (chicken, orzo, broth, lemon juice, celery, carrots) 

Pasta (with meat sauce or meatballs or shrimp with EVOO)

Chili (canned foods and meat in a crockpot)

BBQ Shredded chicken (chicken breast, bbq sauce, brown sugar)

Backups:
Pasta
Frozen Pizza
Frozen Tilapia/Salmon
Mixes: Muffin Mix, Dessert Mixes (brownies, cookies etc.), Mashed Potato Mix
Mac and Cheese w/ canned Tuna

Staples:
Bread
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Fruits
Cereal and Milk
Chips and Salsa
Eggs
String Cheese