Explanation for this post in the form of a life update:
- The Bird is now 16 months and NEVER SITS STILL. She’s exploding with words, energy, and mischief. She’s constantly hungry and/or eating, but is still wearing 12M clothes. She’s in love with Curious George and learning faster than I can teach her.
- The Boy is in the dissertation writing stage of his PhD, so any time he has that he’s not chasing a toddler, he’s writing or reading or researching. He’ll also be teaching this semester and is working on OU’s retention committee part time.
- I’m tutoring two days a week, serving as the nursery coordinator for our church (managing 100+ volunteers), babysitting two days a week, doing Montessori early learning with The Bird, and running A Double Batch (my cookie business) out of the house.
So, you might say we’re kinda busy.
And, since the cooking and cleaning fairies have yet to find
our house, meals around here require a bit of planning so they don’t all end up
being Goldfish crackers, a spoonful of peanut butter, and thrice reheated
coffee at 9 pm.
Meal Planning has become my best friend. I plan out our
meals for the month, make a GIGANTIC shopping list, and spend one weekend
shopping, chopping, slicing, measuring, packing, and prepping. It’s a long
process (and a decent cash outlay up front), but I end up with 30 lunches and
dinners out of it, so it’s worth it. Plus, it’s less thinking on a daily basis,
fewer trips to the store each week, and I can monitor exactly what goes into
our food.
We cook in our slow cooker A LOT (we have this one, and it’s
amazing), but we also have some favorite stovetop or oven recipes. Breakfast is
simple staples (oatmeal, avocados, eggs, toast) and lunch is frequently leftovers
from the night before. For dinner, I keep the sides simple (salads, frozen broccoli, green beans, brown rice). We've learned over time what we love, what works, and what kind of recipes to trust.
I posted the following photo a few nights ago and had quite a few folks express interest in what recipes I use, so I figured I'd share!
This is how it looks at the beginning. Once I’ve shopped and collected ingredients, I outline all of my recipes in a
spreadsheet (I’ll link my file for this month below). I then spend a chunk of
time chopping, slicing, dicing, peeling, etc. so that all I have to do is dump
ingredients into freezer bags or combine in pans.
I usually start with my crock pot bags. I line up my ziplocks,
add the protein to each one, add seasonings next, then veggies, and wrap up
with liquid. A lot of the recipes use similar ingredients, so use the excel
sheet so that I only have to grab each ingredient once (i.e. I add salt to each
bag at the same time, then pepper, then ginger, etc). I’ve found working down
the list like that to save me time. I then put together the meals that require a bit more prep.
We store our meals in our chest freezer, and I get the next
day’s meal out the night before to thaw in the refrigerator.
I’ve adapted many of these recipes to feed a family of 2-3,
but you can easily double them. Most of these we’ve tried before and love, but
a few are new. I’m planning to review each one and do a follow-up post at the
end of the month!
So, without further ado, here are my recipes! Hope they’re
helpful to some of you! I’d love to answer any questions or offer tips, just
let me know!
You are a genius. I'm going to try some of those crock pot meals
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