A lot of people have asked me what goes into my meal prepping. Well first I start with my weekly chart, I promise its not as scary as it sounds. I start by drawing out a table with the meals I will be making and I give myself a budget. (see chart below) Since there are only 2 of us and I make 90% of our meals I give us a budget of $70 a week. I make about 30 meals a week for us and they cost us roughly $2.33 a meal each, which you can’t go out and eat for that.
Every week I make 10 breakfasts, 10 lunches and meal prep 3 dinners (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) so I can just throw them together. I do all of my grocery shopping on Fridays, I am fortunate enough to be able to. I tend to cook Saturday morning, we eat leftovers for lunch and then occasionally splurge and go out Saturday nights. My cooking time, if I plan accordingly usually will take me anywhere from 2-3 hours.
After I make my lists of what I need for breakfast, lunch and dinners I look through my weekly circular ads. I do a majority of my shopping at Schnucks, Valli and Meijers because those are my options. You can grocery shop anywhere you can find the best deal. I have found the produce to not be as good at Walmart but each Walmart is different. I always check online to if the store has a rewards program because often times they have online coupons associated with them which saves me time from clipping.
I then head to the grocery store and pick up everything I need and unload it into my fridge. I then strategize a list of what gets cooked when. I know I sound like a crazy person, but this is the only way I can be most time efficient. I plan out what can cook at the same time, usually starting with all my oven items first because roasting veggies takes the longest. Then I do all of my stovetop and the rest of my food chopping. I move a lot while getting everything prepped but like I said the more efficient I am with my timing, the more gets done.
Side note on food storage: if there is something on sale for a great deal like canned beans for 59 cents a can I will stock up on them as well. I will post more about meal prep food storage later.
Slightly Crazy without Nuts 
Hi Sarah- I am going out of town for three weeks, leaving my 3 hungry men alone with my poor defenseless kitchen!!
Do you have any recommendations for anything I could prepare ahead for them. I have a few freezer basics- a spaghetti meat sauce they can do several things with, etc.
I would like them to encounter something green or orange , etc on their plates at least a couple of times!
I wondered about something for at least during the first few days??
Anything they have to prep would need to be very simple!! What would you prepare? Thx so much.
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Casseroles are great. Check out my Instagram @mealplanmomma for some ideas. You can hide veggies in the casseroles and then all they have to do is pull it out and bake it.
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