Time Saving Meal Plans

As a busy and health conscious family woman, I like the idea of food prep and having healthy meals ready to go without putting in much effort. I can put things together when I have the energy available, and pull out a healthy meal already prepared to hit the stove or slow cooker, instead of going for choices that are easy and less healthy, because I feel too worn out to consider fixing a meal for my family. I like to dedicate one day per week to prepare as much in the way of food as I can for several days. This practice helps my family stay on track in following a nutritious way of eating, as well as saving me time and brain power. This practice helps me and my family maintain our dietary goals for physical health, as well as supporting an active lifestyle. It also frees up my time to use toward the things I want, like writing and hanging out with my horses, by spending only a couple of days per week planning and prepping instead of trying to make the decision every afternoon about “What’s for dinner?”, having to make it and then do the heavy clean-up. I’d rather do a major cleaning of the kitchen once per week, than every day. I have better things to do. Don’t we all?

I already discovered the benefits of chopping a bunch of onions at once to store and have on-hand, ready to use, instead of dreading chopping one onion at a time as needed in a recipe, (you can read about that in my story here.). I also keep Overnight Oats in my fridge for a quick and healthy breakfast (you can see the benefits and recipe here), and I keep salad ingredients on hand so I can throw together a fresh salad every day or two to add to our meals. I keep a large container of the homemade vinaigrette dressing for our salads, also. I often freeze single-serving portions of soup to add to my husband’s lunchbox for work.

Now I have discovered freezer meals! Basically, they are meal kits made ahead of time to store in the freezer and cook quickly. Most can be tossed into a slow cooker in the morning to cook and be ready for dinner. And as I get better at making and preparing freezer meals, I look forward to the ability to customize them more for us. I have recipes for a bunch, and many options are gluten-free, sugar-free, lactose-free, vegan or vegetarian. That excites me! But you do you. The meals are so flexible, you can make them to contain pretty much any nutritional value you desire. Today, I have a meatless and dairy-free loaded potato soup in the crock pot. It’s my first freezer meal, so we’ll see how that turns out.

I started with four freezer meals. I prepared my shopping list from the recipes so I would have all the necessary ingredients to put them together. For the meals that required meat, I used venison (instead of beef) and organic chicken breasts. I also substituted blackstrap molasses or raw honey for brown sugar, and swapped tamari for soy sauce, as it is gluten-free. I made my own chicken stock from the carcass of a whole organic chicken prepared for a prior meal.

I really hope this tastes good and works out well. I am in love with the idea of preparing freezer meals.

Thanks for reading! I will report on my luck with freezer meals after I have tried a few. Do you have any suggestions for meals to try, or tips for prep?