Meal Prepping for the Week + FREE Printable Grocery List & Recipe Card!
If you’re anything like me, the very idea of cooking dinner after a long day of work can leave you feeling exhausted - providing you an excuse to order take-out. I’ve found I’m spending way too much time cooking, shopping or prepping meals for a single night during the week. I finally got fed up with it and decided to try my hand at prepping freezer meals during the weekend for the entire week. By creating a grocery and recipe list of my weekly meals, I was hoping to save both time and money, thus giving me more downtime to relax after a full day at work. My ultimate goal was to create 10 freezers meals that I can pop directly into the slow cooker as I’m running out the door.
I went through several of my Crockpot books (and pins on Pinterest) and compiled 10 recipes that had similar ingredients so I wasn’t veering too far away from one another. As I sat down to try and organize my meal plan ideas, I quickly realized what a daunting task this was going to be. The biggest problem I discovered was trying to organize all my planned meals. I had all these great recipes in mind, but I was so overwhelmed at the idea of figuring out how much of each item I needed that I almost gave up. In the end, I decided to design a grocery list that I could print out and bring with me shopping so I could stay on track and not get distracted.
Here's some quick bullet points to help you get started:
• Create the List – Place your items into categories. This makes it easier to check off as you’re shopping. Tip: It’s helpful to write down the amount needed of each item so you aren’t relying on your memory.
Clearly, I wasn't prepared for the amount of food I would be freezing. Protip: Make room in your freezer beforehand.
• Organize Freezer Bags – Grab some gallon size Ziploc bags and a Sharpie. Pre-Label each bag and write any prepping that needs to be done when re-heating. Ex: adding a cup of water.
• Prepare Bags – Simply take all the ingredients and throw them in the bag. This is the best part because presentation isn’t important.
• Place in Freezer – If organization is important to you, you can gently fold the bags in half and stack them one on top of the other.
• When Ready to Heat – I usually take the meal from the freezer and put into the refrigerator the night before. This isn’t necessary, I only do this just in case the frozen food is too large to fit in the slow cooker
I apologize for the lack of prepping photos. I was honestly so overwhelmed I just wanted to focus on completing each recipe!
The recipe card is 4” x 6” and fits perfectly into a photo album for easy organization and protection. Download and print out as many copies as you want!
Do you have any recipes you’re excited to try out?
Enjoy and happy prepping!
- Jess
