Not going to lie, it’s been a hot minute since I have done any sort of meal prep. There was a time long, long ago…like, pre-COVID, that I would spend hours every Sunday prepping meat and carb sources and veggies, and then distributing them into individual containers so for every meal I could grab and go and life was magical and unicorns were real.
Well, upon re-evaluation, I no longer have six hours every week to spend making food that we are just going to reheat later. However, we also couldn’t keep eating Chipotle for ever meal (and by “we” I mean me…I’m pretty sure Gregg could keep riding that train if I let him). Enter: meal prep in under an hour.
If you can manage, it’s nice to prep your carb and protein sources in bulk, and then add veggies and fat sources during each meal, since those are more difficult to prep in advance (we prefer frozen broccoli or canned green beans, but you can use whatever floats your veggie boat – except kale. Please don’t use kale).
Today, I prepped the following for the week ahead, and put them in plastic containers to keep them fresh:
In reality, Gregg will smoke the pork chops, beef tips & chicken, but I like to fry up ground turkey (me) & ground beef (Gregg) to help make additional meals during the week easier.
Oh, and we didn’t prep any eggs, but eggs & egg whites are both great easy-to-prepare protein sources, and they wanted to be in the photo. By frying the meat up on the stove, each was done in about 10 minutes and ready to be stored.
No lie, if you ONLY get a Costco membership to get their rice, it’s worth it. We buy the 25-lb bag and it lasts FOR. EVER. Because Gregg and I both reach for it all the time, I make four cups of rice with six cups of water on the stove and it’s ready and done in 20 minutes – the best part? We only have to do this every OTHER week.
I used to bake the potatoes (we love sweet and baby reds) however, at the end of last year we invested in an air fryer (is it an “investment” if I went to Target and bought the most affordable one?) and our WORLD. HAS. CHANGED. Which probably says more about how exciting our life really is than anything else…
This step probably takes the most time, but the good news is that you can cook the potatoes while the meat and rice is cooking on the stove. I slice up enough baby red potatoes to fill the bottom of the air fryer (you want to be sure not to overfill the fryer or it will take forever and the potatoes won’t all cook the same) coat them with just a little bit of olive oil, and toss them with Lawry’s garlic salt and pop them in the air fryer for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.
Once they’re done, I mix them up and put them back in the fryer at the same temp for 8-10 more minutes. BAM – then they’re done; I do the same thing with the sweet potatoes and altogether you have four-five days of potatoes ready and willing to be ingested.
Now, when you’re ready to eat, you just grab some protein, a carb source, add some veggies and sprinkle it with some cheese (Gregg) or olive oil (me!).
Pin the pic below to save these quick and easy meal prep tips, and let me know below if you try it!
