I figured yesterday was as good a day as any to prep our food for the week. I’m waiting on a baby and what better way to offer up a nice distraction than to hit the kitchen.
With Fannie as my sidekick, we chopped, diced, blended, mixed, stirred, poured, bagged, contained (and ate) enough food for my family for the week.
My husband and our oldest daughter were out of town until today, and I teach two nights this week and have an event the third night, so I needed quick, nutritious meals that could reheat easily. What I also love when doing meal prep is to have a salad or two ready to grab for lunch or a quick snack. This ensures that, along with juicing, I’m getting my veggies in. Thankfully my family is typically on board for these as well. It’s also a good idea for me to make a snack or two that will go into lunches or that can be pulled out for after school snacks, so I thought about that while shopping on Saturday afternoon for this Kitchen Fun Fest.
On the Menu for the Week:
- Sloppy Joes-from my new favorite cookbook, Nourishing Meals, Healthy Gluten-Free Recipes for the Whole Family
- Slow Cook Beef Stew from Nourishing Meals
- Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers
- Shredded Chicken Salad with mayonnaise, dijon mustard, cherry tomatoes and broccoli florets with a splash of wine (with credit to a Bradley student for the great recipe)
- Wild Rice Kale Salad from Nourishing Meals
- Picnic Coleslaw from Nourishing Meals
- Maple Baked Beans
- Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Healthy Reeses Quinoa Crispy Treats
- Paleo Brownies
Other helpful tasks:
- cleaned and prepped carrot sticks and sun butter in containers for easy lunch packing
- boiled a dozen eggs for snacking or to include in lunches
- peeled and sliced into coins a bunch of bananas to use for smoothies in the next couple of weeks
Tonight Fannie and I had a scoop of each salad and a sloppy joe on a piece of Udi’s gluten free bread. Tomorrow night my husband and Sunny will join us and we’ll have that for dinner as well.
The Slow Cook Beef Stew and Turkey Stuffed Bell Peppers will get pulled out and popped into the slow cooker as needed. The maple baked beans aren’t done as I started in on soaking the beans today and will complete them tomorrow. The meals are all conducive to plugging in any one or two of the baked beans and side salads or mashed potatoes as we see fit.
The chicken salad can be made into a quick dinner wrapped in romaine lettuce leaves with a salad on the side or for me to dip into over lunch.
This will buy me so much time this week so I can enjoy the rest of my day after we pick up Chad and Sunny from the airport this afternoon!
What are your favorite go-to plan ahead meals?
