We went camping this spring to visit my sister-in-law and her family in Colorado. To save money, we cooked our own food at the tent site on a portable propane stove. It was the EASIEST week of cooking that I’ve ever had, even though I was away from home, living in a tent, and water was a hike away.
It was easy, because before we left, I spent 2 hours prepping all our meals. I premixed pancake batter into a gallon bag and froze it. Mixed up casseroles, combined meat with herbs and spices, all ready to dump and reheat.
I figured out some things that didn’t work so well, like putting dry pasta into liquid and freezing it (mush city.) But most of the meals were fantastic. I thought to myself, why not prep like this every week? 2 hours of work is worth a calm and organized week. Right?
Once you have your meal plan and shopping list, generating a prep ahead guide just takes a few minutes.
Scroll through your ingredient list and action steps in your recipes. Highlight anything that could be done ahead. Here are some suggestions:
1. Cook Rice
2. Boil pasta (Bag and refrigerate)
3. Peel and Chop veggies (except potatoes or sweet potatoes which turn dark.)
4. Cook and chop chicken
5. Brown hamburger or similar
6. Combine dry ingredients for quick breads or yeast breads. (pizza dough, muffins, pancakes, cornbread etc.)
7. Marinate Meats
8. Combine crock pot dishes into baggies, ready to dump and heat.
9. Boil Eggs
10. Fry bacon
Remember, not everything that can be done ahead HAS to be done ahead. Focus on the tasks that would have needed to be done on your busiest days. And tasks, like batch cooking rice, that cover more than one day. As you get used to the prep ahead sessions, you can add more tasks a bit at a time to prevent overwhelm.
Great ideas! We just went “camping” (we were in a modern cabin – didn’t realize it would be so nice!) and didn’t do a lot of prep. I’m going to start meal planning with intention in the Fall instead of doing a mental list. Visiting from Home Linky
Thanks for visiting, Angela! Cabin camping is such a nice getaway. I’m glad you guys got to go.
What is the best way to reheat rice? Mine always ends up wet (too much water added to reheat) or crusty.
Thanks!
Kristin, Freeze or refrigerate it in a FREEZER bag (they are heavier duty.) Then you can drop the bag into water right after it has begun to boil. Cover with a lid and turn off the heat. Let stand for about 5 minutes. I usually just put it in a boil and microwave for a few minutes though.
I am just beginning a crazy fall season (16 week semester of teaching 11 college credit hours, plus homeschooling my 3 boys!), and this is a great encouraging reminder to just plan and prep! Thanks for these posts…
That is a crazy fall season! I’m going to go take a nap for you.
I love this post, Angela. I think this might be the one thing that makes meal planning go from unlikely to very likely! Makes so much sense. Also, on those nights when I’d rather just order a pizza because I’m too tired to cook- if the rice is already cooked and the meat is prepped, it would possibly be easier and faster just to finish up the job and eat a nice home cooked meal than it would be to order out!
A lot of these are things that happen early in the day in a restaurant to make the rest of the day run smoothly and quickly. Marinating meats, pre-cooking pasta, chopping TONS of vegetables. My home kitchen resembles a restaurant kitchen in a lot of ways so it makes sense that I’d run it more like one. Now I need to think about the other things I did when I got paid to be a kitchen wench 😉
Oh! When I buy ground beef I almost always cook it all and bag it for the freezer. Just having that cooked meat ready to quick thaw and throw in a pan is often the difference between delicious home-cooked food and take out pizza.
That’s awesome! It makes sense that restaurants would do things that way, but I didn’t know.
Oh wow these are great! Thanks!
XO Ellen from Ask Away
http://www.askawayblog.com