that's right y'all. i'm getting back into the swing of the school year and that means i'm cooking with all the burners on sundays. this helps me keep from eating out or running out of meals to serve during a quick moving work week.
i thought it might be fun to share how i plan many meals, prepare and store them so they are easy to gather up for lunches or to eat at home.
often i try to plan one basic breakfast for monday thru friday. if i don't make enough for the week we often end up with eggs and sweet potatoes or oatmeal on friday. and we are okay with that.
this week i decided to use up some bacon from the freezer and make a breakfast salad. by prepping + storing the bacon, egg salad and clean, chopped kale salad separately all i need to do each morning is put the pieces together in one bowl. i made a double batch and hoped that it would be plenty for the week! so on the weekday mornings i will just make a layer of kale, scoop some egg salad and crumble bacon over top of the whole thing. we will might drizzle a little balsamic if we feel it needs something else. i put together the salads while my husband makes the coffee and we eat in our quiet kitchen after we are dressed and pretty much ready to leave the house.
i store these foods separately as it seems to keep them fresher. a bonus is that it is also more flexible that way. for example if we decide on wednesday to have toast and egg salad we are able to change the meal that tiny bit very easily.
as for lunches - once again i try to plan for one basic lunch and then if we have dinner left overs we also serve those for lunches too. we find that if the main course is something simple and filling we don't mind eating the same lunch all week.
i planned grilled chicken + egg over salad for lunch. with a few sides like whole apples, roasted nuts, watermelon and a lara bar for if we get extra hungry {i often eat a snack at the start of my walk home so i'm not starving when i walk into the front door of our house}. i prep the romaine and other greens {wash, let dry a bit, chop} and other veggies i have on hand {carrots, peppers, cucumbers, radishes - etc.} and put all those prepped vegetables in one bowl to store in the fridge. my husband will often grill several chicken breasts while i make the hardboiled eggs. i slice up the chicken once it is cooked and store in one container. the hardboiled eggs go in a separate container. we assemble the salads either the night before {and add the egg in the morning or pack it separately and add it at lunch time}. we typically mix several dressing servings {think the tiniest mason jars known to man} for the week and put one in our lunch boxes the night before.
we also do this prep in advance with the other side dishes - i chop watermelon and place servings in small glass containers {sometimes other mason jars} so we can just pull them straight from the fridge when we are about to leave for work. i make several small containers of roasted almonds + cashews. and we typically have apples and lara bars in a big fruit bowl on our kitchen table. everything is ready to go - all we have to do is put it in the lunchbox the night before we go to bed {room temperature items like the nuts, apples, lara bars} or the morning on our way out the door {cold temperature foods like the salads + watermelon}.
okay, breakfasts and lunches are ready... i think we are good for this week!
happy monday!
** the recipes i used are linked to their original source - just click on the foods listed.
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