Weekly Meals made EASY

So how does the working mom prep and serve a week's worth of diverse healthy well balanced meals that are easy to whip up and not painful to her wallet? Its a very good question every mom, even the ones who work for hugs and kisses, ask every week. My answer....

1. Shop the meat sales for good chicken, beef, pork, and fish at a reasonable price and stock up!
2. Buy local and in season fruits and vegetables.
3. Purchase a small chest freezer to house any extra food that could not fit in your regular freezer which allows you to stock up and save for later.
4. Use a slow cooker/Crock pot

So do you make the most of your food. When I get home from the grocery store I prep as many meals as possible before I put everything away. This way I have an idea of what is available to me for the week to serve.
Vegetables and fruit- Fresh- clean, cut, and package in Tupperware or Ziploc into portions, individual for lunches and family for breakfasts and dinners for the week. Fruits that tend to brown can be soaked in an acid like orange juice or lemon juice to stall the process. Frozen- I find the steam fresh frozen vegetables taste the best and are the most crunchy and they only take 4 minutes in the microwave. Salads- if you tear rather than cut lettuce it will stay crunchy longer because it tears between cell membranes allowing it to better retain its water. Cut all veggies for salad ahead of time and keep them separate to keep it fresh longer.  Mushy fruit that is not moldy- bake in the oven with skins and some water and cinnamon for a homemade fruit apple sauce or freeze for smoothies or baking.

Proteins
Chicken- I buy chicken thighs in bulk and pre-cook them in the oven with barbecue sauce then freeze dinner portions in Ziploc bags. This way I just defrost and throw on the grill for a quick reheat and char. I also get a bag of individually frozen tenderloins or breasts from the bulk food store. These allow you to take out exactly what you need and they defrost quickly. I cook up a bunch of them at a time plain and cut them up into strips and freeze them in family portions, these are great to add to a salad for protein, in fajitas, or chicken salad.

Whole Chicken-(can yield you 2-3 meals) I cook the chicken as a meal. Take the rest of the easy to get meat off for chicken salad or chicken fajitas as your second meal. The leftovers go in a stock pot with water to make chicken broth and to cook the rest of the meat off the bones. Drain the stock through a colander and pick out the bones and skin. What you have left is the backbone of many different chicken based soups. Depending on my fridge and pantry of vegetables I either make the soup then or freeze broth plus chicken for a later date soup.

Ground beef- precook in batches and season for specific meals. Taco seasoning for tacos, Italian seasoning to make a quick meat sauce with jar sauce, and plain for whatever then freeze in Ziploc bags. Now when you forgot dinner instead of having to thaw raw meat then cook it, you just thaw and reheat.
Pork loins are less expensive than chops and a loin can be cut into chops if you need a meal with less cook time. And an added bonus.. if you go to your small town grocer they will usually cut a loin into chops for no additional cost.

Carbs- those are easy. Pasta and rice take no time at all to prep. Potatoes and sweet potatoes can be easily cooked in the crock pot along with the rest of your meal or pre-cook them in the microwave before popping them in the oven for their final crisp
Easy healthy meal ideas. You can cook almost everything in a slow cooker or crock pot. I use either the Internet or  the fix it and forget it cookbook series for ideas. crock pot chicken, beef, pork cooked with vegetables. Stew or soups. Even lasagna and deserts.

Not every meal is a great meal, nor does it have to be. It just has to be balanced and part of a healthy diet. We typically have 3 to 4 good meals a week, leftovers for lunches, and chicken tenders with sweet potato fries, pizza, cheese burgers and hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, or breakfast dinner the rest of the week.