One Key to Easy Meals - A Prep Day

I have had a couple of friends ask me how I have so much time to make good dinners when I have lots of distractions from kiddos. First of all, I LOVE to cook and eat, so that is motivation right there. I rarely plan a menu, because then I end up spending more money buying extra ingredients that I don't have on hand. One of the best things I learned to do is to have at least one prep day a month. This is especially helpful when you know you have really busy times coming up.

I cook maybe 15 to 20 pounds of meat, roast veggies, cook beans, and then make sure I have on hand anything else I may need to make our family favs. It is a serious time saver, and then I am set for almost a month. This prep time I bought a ton of meat on sale.

I got 10 pounds each of chicken and 90% lean ground beef, and a very large pork loin roast. I slow cooked half of the pork and chicken in the oven (season meat, double wrapped in foil and cooked at 225 for 6 to 8 hours until VERY tender. Let it sit for about 15 minutes, shred it, and bag it after it is cooled). I froze the other half of the chicken and pork for grilling. I made my red pepper salsa, put it in baggies and froze it. I cooked 5 pounds of ground beef, bagged it for tacos or pizza joes, or other beef favs, and then made burgers out of the rest of it (I got about 30 burgers, froze in 3 different bags.) I also cooked 2 pounds of black beans. Above is the picture of what I did in two days (imagine 3 more freezer bags of meat there). We are closing on a house in a week and I am having a baby in 3 weeks, so I wanted to have the freezer stocked with whatever I may need to make a quick meal. This is the "Cook once, serve 20 times" method.

I also often utilize my crock pot for this day as well. It is a lot to do in 2 days, but slow cooking the chicken and pork is SUPER easy, and everything else just takes a little time, but then you have everything you need cooked for meals already. I always keep lots of canned tomatoes, taco shells, tortillas, pasta, cheese, onions, eggs - the essentials on hand so that I can just throw things together. This month I even bought rolls and froze them so I don't have to go to the store when I have burgers. It will save me a ton of time, and money - I won't be making the frequent drive thru that I did last time we moved.