Planning and Prepping for Quick Weeknight Meals

Most of use are in need of a system to make quick weeknight meals. I once heard a speaker saying to always lump similar tasks together to ultimately save time. The best example is laundry. I wait till everything in our house is dirty and only then do I wash clothes. This way I’m not sorting and putting things away multiple times each week. Yes, it takes longer doing it in all in one go, but it saves time and effort cumulatively. I spend a day in “laundry mode” and then I don’t think about it for the rest of the week. And let’s face it, laundry is just a necessary evil, so why in the world would we ever want to waste time on something so, like… not fun.

Shop Only Once

I apply this same concept in the kitchen when it comes to quick weeknight meals. Can you guess how many times I go to the grocery store each week? You got it. Once. I spend some extra time getting organized, which includes putting together a weekly meal plan, and then I do all of my shopping in one go. No wasted time driving back and forth, and no wasted money buying extra little odds and ends that aren’t really necessary.

Prepping for Quick Weeknight Meals

Whenever I know that I have a busy week ahead or if I won’t have time to get in the kitchen, I take it a step further. I chunk out a couple of hours to prep for the week so that meals are MUCH easier and quicker when it comes time to actually cook. Take some time to wash and chop as much as possible in advance and cook in large batches. What I end up with is a refrigerator full of 10 – 20 minute meals for the week. I should add that no, this doesn’t always include cooking time such as unattended time for baking. Baking is one of my go-to cooking methods for extremely busy weeks. I prep for meals that can be thrown together in 10 – 20 minutes, place dinner in the oven and then walk away to spend my valuable time doing things other than standing at the stove.

The Plan

So here’s the plan that I came up with for this past week, including a few of the recipes (sorry, I was busy and didn’t have time to record everything, but you can click on some of the titles below for the full recipes). I’ve also listed what I did for prep during a 2-hour chunk, so that each meal was in fact, 10 – 20 minute meals. Again, this doesn’t include baking time. Hopefully you’ll find this helpful in thinking about your own meal planning and how you can make quick weeknight meals work for your busy life.

Dinner

1. Black Bean, Quinoa and Guacamole Bowls
2. Quinoa & Veggie Stuffed Zucchini Boats with Kale Chips
3. Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Rainbow Chard Saute’
4. Herb Encrusted Roasted Chicken with Quinoa “Pilaf” and a Salad With a Homemade Peanut Sauce Dressing
5. Baked Salmon and a Salad with Homemade Lemon-Herb Vinaigrette

Breakfast

1. Black Bean, Kale and Egg Scramble
2. Green Smoothies – various
3. Blueberry, Mango, Banana Oat Groat Porridge

Lunch/Snacks

1. Varying combinations of leftovers!
2. Hardboiled eggs
3. Fruit
4. Nuts/Seeds & Peanut butter
5. Chocolatey Energy Superfood Bites

The Prep Work

Sounds pretty good, huh? If you were to look at the ingredient lists for each meal, you’d notice that I used many of the same ingredients multiple times throughout the menu (i.e. quinoa, black beans, lettuce, diced red peppers, kale, cabbage, etc.). On my prep day, I simply prepped all of these ingredients all at once and then stored them in the fridge. My prep list looked something like this :

• Wash, dry, chop and shred 2 heads romaine lettuce
• Shred 1 head purple cabbage
• Wash and dry 3 bunches of kale – remove stems and tear into “chip” size pieces. The stems were saved for the Rainbow Chard Saute’
• Wash, dry and chop 1 bunch of rainbow chard
• Finely chop 1 bunch of parsley (Note: I add parsley to my salads)
• Finely chop 1 bunch of cilantro
• Chop 2 red peppers
• Slice 3 orange and yellow bell peppers
• Finely chop 1/2 red onion
• Slice 1/2 red onion
• Mince 8 garlic cloves
• Slice (in halves or quartered) 4 pints grape tomatoes – you can use whole tomatoes instead, but they don’t hold up as well in the fridge
• Finely grate 4 – 6 oz. parmesan cheese
• Cook 2 cups of dry quinoa
• Cook 5 cups oats with berries, banana and mango
• Boil 8 hard boiled eggs
• Mix a peanut sauce to be used as a dressing for salads and for leftover quinoa
• Prepare a lemon-herb vinaigrette to be used for salads and for the Rainbow Saute’
• Prepared a batch of Chocolatey Energy Superfood Bites
• Prepared 8 cups of beans (equivalent of 4-5 cans) with paprika, cumin, chili powder, cinnamon and salt – I pulled these right from the freezer. I cook large batches of dried beans and then freeze for later in 2 cup containers.

The Results

So, that was that. I spent 2-hrs doing all of the prep work listed above, but then I was ready for the week – breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had 5 different dinners, 3 different breakfasts, cooked enough to use leftovers in different combinations for lunch, and even had enough to eat a smorgasbord of leftovers for a sixth night. Now that my friends, is efficient use of one’s time in the kitchen!

Where to Start

If you’re looking at all of this and thinking, “I could never get this organized,” know you’re not alone. It took me a while to get to this point, so start by taking small steps. Some good places to start include:

1. Making a simple meal plan even if it’s just for 3 or 4 days.
2. Make a large pot of oatmeal like this Cherry-Berry-Chia Oatmeal and eat this for the week.
3. Make an enormous salad that you plan to eat for multiple meals.
4. Roast a chicken that can be eaten with a salad one night, in a wrap for lunch, and then baked into a casserole on a different night.
5. Make a large pot of grains that you plan to use for multiple meals.
6. Make a large pot of beans that you plan to use for multiple meals.

Hopefully this post will help to inspire some organization and HOMECOOKING! I’d love to see comments below for people who try it out!