I don’t know about your family, but we can get in a rut and basically quit cooking at home in the evenings and just drop by and pick up a pizza or some sort of fast food. All of which is expensive and unhealthy. A few years ago we starting meal prepping on Sunday afternoons and now it has become a weekly ritual.
For Several Reasons:
1. It helps us eat healthier.
2. It saves us money.
3. It allows me to spend an amazing afternoon with my son. (could be used for great family time too!)
4. It saves us time in the evenings when we have alot going on and don’t want to take the time to cook and clean.
I’ve been asked how we go about doing this so thought I would share!
We use basically three types of containers depending on what we are making. The 3 section containers we use the most. We bought them off Amazon, they are fairly inexpensive, and do great in the microwave and dishwasher. We have been doing this for a few years now and have only had to replace one or two of them due to cracking.
We use flat single containers when we are making something like spaghetti that we doesn’t require the three separate compartments.
We use bowl type containers when we make something like gumbo, chili, or soup. These are also good for salad to take for lunches.
We usually prep four meals for each of us. Mitch and I eat them for dinner, and Cody and Morgan eat them for lunch. During the summer we will also make 3-4 salads with grilled chicken that we eat for lunch.
Basically, here is how our week goes:
I research many new recipes throughout the week. We try to stick to just one or two new recipes and stay with a couple of standard ones – we have learned the hard way that when you attempt all new recipes, you end up scrambling to get it all done as it takes longer to read the recipes and figure out what you are doing. A lot of texting and sending links occurs to gain input from the four of us to make sure we are all game for the new recipes. But then again, sometimes we just surprise them.
Then I make a grocery list, and we shop together. When we have time, we will try to save money by shopping at multiple places, like our local Aldi’s, Winco, Crest and Wal-Mart, instead of just going to one store for everything. Some weeks that is just not possible, so then Crest is usually our go to store for all of the ingredients.
We take turns paying for the bill and also keep a running tab on the refrigerator as to who owes who, which never differs by more than $30, so it works for us. We try to buy the meat in bulk (sometimes hitting our local Sam’s Club), so we may have an expensive week occasionally. We then use PayPal to pay each other if we get a very large bill. It may sound like a mess to buy all the food together, but I really think it saves us money in the long run and it really isn’t that big of a deal to keep track of.
Finally, we make all the meals, package them up, and we are done! The kitchen looks like you just made a Thanksgiving dinner for 12, but after a couple of loads in the dishwasher you are done for the week. It makes life easier especially with a family, everyone can eat whatever they want each evening. They are fast to cook and clean up, and they are much healthier and less expensive than running by fast food.