It can be daunting to get organized with meal prep and planning. For all of us. Throw in additional family members and busy weeknights filled with activities, and it can be even more challenging to stay the course. Having support, a plan of action and a clear tie back to your goals and values can help to stay on track. The other night a friend (who is trained as a professional chef!) was telling me how she struggles to organize her family meals throughout the week, and she inspired me to share a few of my tips and tricks for keeping us on track with our goal of eating minimally processed, scratch-made meals (and not loose our minds).
My scratch cooking journey started many years ago, and to be fair, it was forced upon me. Our oldest was found to be allergic to corn and at that time, nearly all processed foods had some sort of corn in them. What I learned when I started making all of our bread, snacks, etc. was that once you get used to making things, you memorize the recipe. The hardest part about scratch cooking is making things you’ve never made before.
I apply this same principal to meal prep. Making new recipes is much more time consuming than preparing meals you’re familiar with. For me, for our family, I am willing to trade in variety for home cooked meals. Which leads me to tip #1.
Anchor nights
Certain nights of each week get a specific item. Each week. We’ve found that Sunday and Friday nights are great night to have pre-planned. Our anchor nights have shifted over the years as our family needs have ebbed and flowed with commitments and schedules. As our schedules demand more and more flexibility, we’ve moved into a phase where we have seasonal and specific meals that we know we’ll make each week. But we likely go into the week with only a rough idea of where each anchor meal will fall.
In the winter season, Sunday night is turkey meatloaf and roasted veggies. While Jeremy is making the Sunday meatloaf, he makes a second that goes in the fridge for Monday night. I cut twice the veggies, and Monday comes together really easily. Which is always welcome!
Which brings me to a really important part of meal prep: staying organized. And, The List.
Your list
We’ve had several different systems over the years, but the sentiment remains the same: keep track of what you need as you know you need it so you’re prepared when it’s shopping day and there isn’t so much pressure to remember everything. Right now we’re using a good old fashions chalk board in the kitchen that keeps track of things we need from the different places we shop: Costco, Trader Joe’s, New Seasons, Amazon.
Pre-pandemic, we networked our grocery lists via Google docs. This allowed both Jeremy and I to keep track of needed staples each week. In the heart of the pandemic, Instacart was our main source of grocery shopping outside of our seasonal CSA, ButcherBox.com and Trader Joes.
Shop on a schedule
One of my favorite changes in the past year has been shopping each week, together. Jeremy and I do a Costco run every other weekend, and mostly fill in with Trader Joe’s in between. These two stores fit our season of life and carry large selections of organic choices at competitive prices. We adjust our lists accordingly and by limiting how often we go, it really has helped to curb our grocery expenses.
Easy freezy
Be it frozen chicken breasts, a spare loaf of bread, or leftover protein from a meal, having some basics on hand in the freezer is really helpful to fill in meals for the week. When I make our slow-cooker chicken thighs, or Jeremy does a large cook on the green egg, we easily have several more nights of meat ready to freeze and then thaw on demand. This really helps to lighten the planning load when I have one less night to think of for a couple weeks.
Plan a break
One of the biggest curbs I’ve found for the weeknight take-out splurge/exhausted panic is to have a night set aside as part of the plan to eat out or get takeout. If the splurge (both financially and nutritionally) is already planned, we’re less likely to loose focus on other nights. Because eating out can be so expensive, we’ve been toying with different breaks and honestly, really love to pick up the taco platter from Costco on shopping days. Our kids “make dinner” that night and it’s a welcome easy break.
Saucy Sunday
One of the very first things I learned in my very first cooking class was that dressings and sauces should be made from scratch whenever possible. Shelf stable items almost always have extra stabilizers and unnecessary ingredients. I love to have pre-made, home-cooked sauces ready in my fridge and making them on Sundays gives me a leg up on the week. Peanut, carrot ginger and lemon tahini are our favorites. Most can double as a salad dressing or add some interest bento with grilled chicken and broccoli. Having a sauce or two on hand makes getting protein and veggies to the table quick and easy.
Prep before 5, hopefully on Sunday
Having protein in a marinade before 5 p.m. is absolutely key to eating scratch cooking on the regular. When Jeremy started making Sunday meatloaf(s), it soon morphed into him prepping protein for the week. This has been a game changer for our whole family. What’s for dinner? We like to say “chicken and something”. In truth, it might also be turkey and something. And the best part is that we usually have 5 nights of protein ready to roll when we go to bed on Sunday. Jeremy preps the meats and I plan out the veggie component of dinner each night. It’s working really well for us right now.
Ask for help, from your favorite AI
Like all big undertakings, it’s more fun with a friend. As dynamics in our family have shifted with kids’ schedules Jeremy and I have been able to spend more time in the kitchen together, which is really nice. We’re also leaning into AI for inspiration on recipes and macro tracking.
Be realistic
Aside from our anchor nights, the list of meals that all four of us will eat and that can be prepared easily is not really all that large, and it changes seasonally. We have a select list of curated options that we work through on a regular basis. Different seasons hold different challenges and opportunities, and I find making seasonal updates to our weekly options really helps to keep us eating with the seasons and not burned out. Our meals are decidedly simple. But they’re homemade, and for us that’s important. You can find some of our favorite seasonal recipes here.
Author Lee Carson is a writer, health advocate, principal and co-founder at both Hyatt Strength + Wellness and Florasophy. She believes in a minimally processed whole-foods approach to nutrition, and loves sharing ways to use food and movement as catalysts and tools for optimal health. Learn more about Lee, or get in touch with her by emailing us at Go@HyattGym.com.
Hyatt Strength + Wellness is a team of certified, enthusiastic and innovative personal trainers in NW Portland, Oregon. To read more nutrition-related posts like this one, follow this link.
