Monday, February 20, 2012

What's for dinner??

I saw a pin on good ol' Pinterest that inspired me to start meal planning for my family. It's pretty simple, really. Crock pot meals that can be put on in the morning before heading out to work, cooking throughout the day, and a fabulous dinner waiting for you when you get home .... but wait! What if you pre-made these meals so there was zero prep time in the mornings? Genius, I tell ya!! You know how the typical morning goes ... making breakfasts, packing lunches, getting kids off to school and getting yourself cleaned up and out the door in time for that daunting thing in life called a job. Did you see any time in there to prepare dinner?
I have decided that every Sunday, I am going to put together 4-5 meals and bag them up in Ziplocks to store in the fridge. This way I can throw them in the crock pot in the morning and not have to worry about the measuring, dicing, chopping, and mixing. Last night, I made up 5 meals in an hour. I found a few recipes online that I thought sounded yummy (we will see if they pass the test with my 3 boys), and they were pretty simple to throw together. I am excited to see how much stress is relieved in my evenings this week, being I am not having to create dinners with my oh-so-tired brain come dinner time.
Have y'all tried this sorta meal planning with your family? What are some of your favorite recipes?? I would love to try out some of your favorites on my own family! If you share, I'll be sure to give you proper kudos here on the bloggity blog!
Have a wonderful week, peeps!! xoxo

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is a great idea! my fav website is skinnytaste.com she has a few crock pot recipes, but her other meals can take a while to make so make sure you got time!

Kelsey said...

I've done this for awhile - a girlfriend and I will make up 20 or so meals (from hotbysix.com) - several of them are crockpot meals - and it's been great! In fact, eating two of the meals this week. It takes about 8 hours of prep, but you end up making almost a months worth of meals in that one day. Let us know how the meals are - always lookingfor somethign new!! :)

Annie Berndt said...

I so need to do this!!! I always feel like I'm rushing too - but I can never find recipes that are different enough... let us know how it goes! My 3 boys would love it too :) :)

Tracy D said...

Pinterest & skinny taste are two great ones, I also use the Food Network recipes. Also I do a Thai stir fry, make ahead some chicken & cut into large pieces, once cooled put in a large ziploc bag & marinate with Kraft's Asian Sesame dressing. Then when I go to make it, I put veggies in the fry pan (even frozen stirfy), cook until almost done, add marinated chicken with the dressing and cook until heated thru, you can add some cashews at the end for extra texture. Serve over coconut rice and you're done. Delish and so easy.

sprinkles said...

Sometimes I wish I had a crock pot. It would be nice to come home to an already prepared dinner.

I've always thought pre-preparing meals was an excellent idea but have never done it. Usually, I eat a lot of Campbell's soup or microwave meals. I tend to have very long days and by the time I come home, I'm too exhausted to think about making dinner.

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