Discover How To Strategy Your Meals To Maximize Your
Learn How To Plan Your Meals To Maximize Your Time
Meal planning and bulk cooking are both wonderful strategies you can utilize and modify to fit your families needs. The concept behind this is basic. The principle is that you prepare and or prepare your meals ahead of time and after that maintain them by either freezing or fridgerating them. Likewise, meal preparation you can cook one large meal and get 2-3 other meals out of it! The secret here is to make every meal you prepare count!
When you are going to prepare a family favorite, double, triple, even quadruple the dish if it will keep in the freezer. Sound fantastic does not it? Why not provide yourself a much-needed break-- cook ahead today so you can relax tomorrow!
Start by documenting a list of your preferred meals and intend on preparing a grocery list that will accompany your list. Now, considering that we are talking bulk cooking here if you generally would serve up one pot of spaghetti prepare to serve 2 (that would imply that you will need to double the dish so make certain to modify your shopping list appropriately) It will take the same amount of time to prepare simply a little additional planning is needed.
Next you can utilize a blank calendar and simply compose the meals down on the day you will serve them. I personally publish my meal plan up on my refrigerator for the whole home to see. This also assists to trigger me for the next day of meals that will be served.
The most important tool in meal planning and bulk cooking is your freezer. If you have a small freezer, do not worry; you can fit lots of meals in that small freezer space it will just require a bit more creativity on your part. With using freezer bags, that you can stack flat and using some freezer evidence containers you will be surprised at how many meals your freezer can hold.
Here are a few important and commonly used meal planning strategies and ideas:
Multi-recipes ~ Utilizing article this technique requires you to prepare many main course meals in one day. For instance, on a Sunday early morning you could prepare a roast in your Crockery pot, some spaghetti on top of the stove, a baked Chicken in the oven and perhaps a nice salad. You also could quarter and boil some potatoes, cook some rice and some veggies (either fresh or canned). What you now have is 5 different meals that you can use throughout the entire week. You can eat one of the meals that extremely evening and you could Freeze or refrigerate the rest. This strategy works extremely well for some people and it supplies a wide array of meals that you can use. I personally use this strategy from time to time. I normally do my multi-recipe cooking on a Sunday and it can take up to 5 hrs to complete but what you are left with is 2 read this guide weeks worth of food that you can enjoy. And notice that the meals that I use in my Multi-recipe list are simple to prepare.
One Prepare Wonder ~ With this strategy you would prepare one main course recipe that can be used for various meals. For Instance, lets say you simply baked a large turkey. You might slice a few of the turkey off and serve the breast with gravy, dice some of the turkey and prepare a turkey gumbo and utilize the rest for either a soup or turkey salad. Mind you, you do not need to prepare all of those meals on one day. After the Turkey has actually been cooked and cooled, you can freeze and refrigerate the turkey that you cut off the carcass and prepare your other Turkey associated meals at a different time.
Quick and Easy meals ~ Be sure to integrate those fast and easy meals into your preparation process. If your household enjoys Sloppy Joes cook up the sloppy joe meat wholesale and freeze it then all you need to do is thaw the meat, get some buns and viola.
What about Hamburger Helper? Why not prepare 2-3 boxes of it, separate it into 3 separate big containers and freeze them. That idea alone enables you to prepare 3 meals in simply 30-minutes.
Designate a meal for a particular night ~ Every Friday night in my home is either Pizza or burger night. The concept here is to choose any night of the week and simply designate a meal to opt for that night. I constantly make certain that I have lots of Frozen Pizzas with a variety of toppings on hand in my freezer. The same opts for those Turkey burger patties (my household doesn't consume much hamburger). The concept behind this process is that you now have one nights meal already prepared. You can also stockpile on that meal when the items are on sale. If you see Frozen pizzas being sold in bulk, get them up!
Love your leftovers ~ This is one of my preferred parts of meal planning as it permits you to utilize your imagination. At least every other week or so make sure to go through your refrigerator and take inventory of what you have in there. When you combine 2-3 leftovers, you may discover that you have a meal right there. You can use left over pasta from spaghetti to prepare a pasta salad, leftover spaghetti sauce and simply a couple of pieces of chicken can be a terrific meal to top with cheese and place in the oven. Again, with a little imagination you can make your leftovers work for you!
Use the sales paper ~ everybody likes a great sale and I utilize the sales paper to help me in my meal preparation. When I see our Household favorites on sale instead of purchasing one, I will acquire 3-4 of the same items and just get back and prepare the meals or freeze the food that I acquired. My household and I love Chicken. When I find entire chickens on sale Ive been known to purchase as much as 5-6 at a time. Remember that I have a family of 6 and in my family of six; there are 3 teenagers (and you know just how much they can consume). By going shopping like this, I actually conserve hundreds and hundreds of dollars a year in food alone!
Helpful supplies
Labels/ freezer bags/Freezer-proof containers: Make certain that you have all of your freezing and refrigerating needs on hand. When storing food in freezer safe containers be sure to position a label on the container with the name of the meal and the date the meal was prepared.
Crockpot: This handy device is my best friend in the kitchen. When utilizing a crockpot you actually prepare the meal, location it in the crockpot, Set it & Forget it. It is a hands complimentary cooking experience. I prepare entire chickens in my crock pot and after that slice the chicken up to freeze and use for sandwiches, enchiladas, chicken salads, chicken soup, chicken stew. as you can see the possibilities are endless.
As you can see, meal preparation is a cash, sanity and time saver-- what else might a busy mommy ask for?
Now, lets get Cookin!