Hi all — I skipped last week’s meal plan to kind of do a little housecleaning in the kitchen and with our prep routine. It’s a work in progress. Maybe it’s my profession, but I’m always in the process of evaluating and re-evaluating the way we do things to make sure it still works and is right for us.
It’s no secret that before having a baby, our “Sunday prep” was a little more actual prep. I did quite a bit more stuff in advance of the week, and it was great. I also prepared many more foods from scratch. That isn’t something I’ve been able to get back to since having KK. The reality is just keeping my house sufficiently clean and Kaitlan safe as she crawls around at relative light speed is pretty time-intensive. But at the same time, we still need healthy eats, prepared as efficiently as possible, especially now that KK is moving away from purees and wanting to exclusively feed herself.
The good news is that I think we’re getting to a point now that, with a little planning, we can hopefully slowly start to resume some better prep habits. And I think as Kaitlan grows, this can be something to look forward to every week. I know she’ll be cooking and baking at grandma and grandpa’s as well. Such a lucky kid.
So this week we prepped tacos to get us through Wednesday (today) and we also prepped a bunch of fruit and veggies for KK. Since we were out-of-town until Sunday afternoon, that was about all we could do. This weekend, I’m going to do some quick breads, breakfast egg muffins, and sandwich bread. My goal is to double up to freeze 1/2 of what I bake so I’m doing 2 weeks of baking at a time. Here are a few recipes I’ve pinned for inspiration/use:
- Homemade Multigrain Bread (via The Woks of Life)
- Paleo Breakfast Muffins (Gal on a Mission)
- Freezer-friendly Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes (via $5 Dinners)
- English Muffins (via us, haha)
- Banana Bread (via us)
This weekend I’d like to do some pizza on the grill. I don’t know why, but I’ve been craving it like woah. I think it’s because we made it for the 4th of July two years ago (when life was super stressful) and I want a much better do-over.
Do you have staple prep recipes?
We’ve been doing “sensory play” while we prep/cook, which gives us a bit more time. Our little one really likes to play with flour/oatmeal/etc on her tray. She now eschews all but the thickest purees, so we do a lot of tablefood too.
I’d like to start prepping in advance over the weekend at some point. Once school starts back up, we don’t have much time after school before we need to eat dinner and get ready for bed. I’d like to not default to eating in the dining hall every night (read: freshman 15 risk, for sure). What are your favorite resources for learning how to do this?
I think for me (and the way my brain works), it took conducting almost a needs assessment on our schedule and goals, and identifying pain points, conflicts and resolutions. I really sat down and ironed out what our goals were as far as diet, how our weeks looked as far as high and low periods and what we could manage.
There are tons of resources out there, but I find that they are all extremes. It’s either monthly freezer crockpot prep sessions (which aren’t very healthy — so much cheese or sour cream) or bikini competitors living out of tupperware (not enough kcal). For us needs/desires, we try to stay mostly paleo, minimal prep (crockpot) or assembly (ie tacos), and it has to be things that we can also feed her in some way (so much easier). We also keep food on hand for her. She goes through a chicken breast every three days, and then we always try to have a fruit, vegetable, and yogurt side option on hand at all time.
As far as organization goes, we typically prep some things to last the week, but then end up having to do another mini session mid-week.
I’ve started building a Pinterest of some different options. I’ve got some crockpot/freezer stuff here:
https://www.pinterest.com/jessicak/make-ahead-healthy-freezer-meals/
And I’ve got some more fitness-oriented meal planning here:
https://www.pinterest.com/jessicak/crossfit-fitness/