Seriously, I’m a miracle worker this week. And by a miracle worker, I mean I’m actually prepared for once in my life.
The past few weeks have been quite rocky over in our house. We’ve both been extremely busy, we’re exhausted and drained by the end of the day, and well, I haven’t been Susie Homemaker over here. Somehow a few weeks ago my meal planning and grocery shopping fell to the wayside, and I started to just wing it.
Uhhh – can I be the first to tell you that “winging it” doesn’t work in this house? Our fridge was bare for about two weeks and we ended up eating out more than I would care to share with the world. So this week I decided it was going to be different.
I was going to grocery shop.
I was going to meal plan.
I was going to prep my food days in advance so I wouldn’t feel like a chicken with my head cut off.
And you know what? I did it.
I made it my personal mission to get a list together on Friday and after work, I filled our fridge up with some healthy delicious food.
And on Sunday, I prepped TWO dinners. I knew that on Monday night I was getting my hair done (highlights were SO needed) and tonight I have class (if it’s not cancelled due to another awesome snow storm). My butt was in the kitchen for an hour on Sunday afternoon – an hour! That’s it! What have I been doing with my life? Apparently I needed this reminder that I can be put together throughout the week and eat healthfully.
A pot of lentil cabbage soup was made…
as well as a batch of tofu, roasted veggies, and mashed potatoes.
Funny how the little things can make you feel like you’re on top of the world!
Question: Are you an avid weekly planner or do you fall off the wagon with it sometimes like I do?
PS – I’m praying for a snow day today (writing this Monday night). I hope I’m lounging on my couch today!
{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
I definitely wing it for the most part. Hope u get a snow day!!
I meal prep every weekend. I work crazy hours during the week and I have to have all of our meals made by Sunday. I accumulate recipes throughout the week, grocery shop Fri after school, and prep for an hour Sunday evening. I have all main dishes and sides in proper container and labeled. Then I make my husband a weekly instruction sheet on how to cook/prepare each dish since he gets him before me on weeknights. It’s a great system!
You go girl!! No more empty fridge for you!!
I do plan meals for the week, always make a list for the grocery store! Going shopping today! <3
I fall of the wagon but not that often these days as I know how it amazing it feels to stick with it! Planning…it’s all in the planning for it
I fall off the planning wagon alllll the time- no matter how hard I try to get ahead of things! But gosh do I try to get things knocked out on a Sunday so that I can have a minute where I’m not crazy during the school week!
I’m crossing my fingers for your snow day! (My kids start state testing this week so I’ll be trapped in a room all week with the poor children—— a snowday would only prolong the yuckyness that is state testing season…)
I used to be really good at planning…and then it kind of fell by the wayside this winter. I’ve had a cold and I feel like I’m drowning at work, so I just don’t have the energy! Hopefully spring brings me motivation
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Nice job! It sounds like you did really well this week. I am really good about meal planning, but the actually meal prepping ahead of time is pretty non-existent. I definitely NEED to work on that!
Thanks for linking the lentil cabbage soup recipe! I recently made a lentil and cabbage casserole that I loved, so I am thinking that it would be super tasty in soup form
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I hope you got your snow day..or at least a delay!
I love planning out meals but don’t do a lot of food prep. I need to though since I know it would help tremendously. Even being a work from home momma, things get crazy busy up in here.
I totally find myself winging it sometimes, but the week goes much more smoothly if I plan ahead. Hope you get your snow day!
I have bee so inspired by all the meal prepping I’ve seen onthe blogosphere lately. For the last two weekends I have even planned out the meals I would eat for the week and bought the ingredients with plans to prep on Sunday. Both weeks I have, instead, spent my time on the sofa wathing various ty episodes on my laptop. The shredded coconut and dark chocolate bar still awaits on my kitchen bar. #fail. Oh well, there’s always this weekend!
I’m definitely a huge planner. Student life means we definitely have to budget, and that’s a lot easier when I know exactly what I’m making and what I need to pick up for the week.
I try my best to meal plan, but usually don’t end up falling through with it. I usually just prep my basics for the week and end up winging dinner.
Do you have to freeze part of your batches to be good later in the week or can you put all of them in the fridge?
I seem to go through cycles of being well prepared and having a healthy stocked fridge, and then we have 2 busy weekends in a row and everything goes to pot. No food, eating out, etc. But this weekend, I am going to take your approach. Plan some meals, grocery shop earlier than Sunday afternoon, and prep a meal or two. Thanks for the push I needed!
Hope you got that snow day!
I do cooking prep on Sat or Sunday and it makes packing lunches and at-home dinners so much easier. This week it’s salmon & spinach salad for lunch and a turkey/mushroom sloppy joe for dinner.
Totally winging it this week-It’s a crazy busy one but we just got a snow day so suddenly life feels a little bit easier!! I’m hoping to get some bonus mid week prepping done today!!
I do my best to plan . . . . it makes all the difference, right? Did you get your snow day? We did!!!
Three cheers for a 4-day weekend!
I TRY to meal prep - key word try. I’d like to get more of it done in advance, though, so I can stick to healthier options instead of scrambling for a meal when I’m running late!
I totally get lazy with my meal planning sometimes, but I’ve found that my healthy diet depends greatly on planning! If I don’t plan, I end up eating out and spending tons of money! Not cool!
Seriously, it’s so true! Getting those little things checked off your list can make you feel so productive and efficient. Lately my routine is to grocery shop and cook/prepare on Mondays after work. So far it’s working great, and I get more time to have fun and be spontaneous on the weekends!
Great job! That soup looks great!
I wish I was better with meal planning- I have good intentions that seem to fall apart every week! I need to be better with this! You are motivating me to set new goals next week!
Planning is so necessary for our busy weeks! I feel like the weeks I don’t plan and prep on Sunday, the rest of the week is a free for all and adds more stress to my life.
Just gotta remind myself that 1 hour on Sunday is worth a peaceful week. Hope you got your snow day!
I’m usually a pretty big planner - but when I fall off track I let things gooooo lol then its a big game of catch up!
I read this book a few years ago…it’s so powerful!
we have a snow day today…did you get one?!
I do meal plan each week, or things are just a wreck in our house too. I feel so much more organized about everything when that side of things is taken care of for the week.
I wind up winging it more than I like because planning always makes me feel so much better.
Hope you get a snow day!
Omg i fell off the wagon months and months ago. If this were Oregon Trail, I would have been killed by a rattlesnake or dysentery by now.
I am all about weekly food prep! I find that I am able to get so much more accomplished during the week if I have a fridge full of healthy options ready to go!
I love prepping food and or making big meals that have lots of leftovers. It makes eating throughout the week so much easier! I just looked over, that lentil soup sounds really good and healthy!
I wing it for sure. But I try to go to the grocery store about 1x per week so we have fresh stuff I can wing it with. I am NOT a meal planner with “said meals” and such. Luckily my husband doesn’t care. Hah! I haven’t been shopping in a while though since I was out of town. gotta get on that!
I use to be such a planner and then I moved here and my life got all sorts of crazy!
(But in a good way) Hope you had a snow day today lady!! xoxo
Hope you got your snow day!
I can totally relate!! Last week we ended up eating out too! Grad school really sucks sometimes! I was so great about meal planning and having a system for grocery shopping routinely, but as soon as assignments started coming up…I kinda stopped even cleaning my dishes. Luckily I have a great hubby who helps ALOT, but lately dinners have been pasta, veggie burgers that I buy frozen and pizza…oops? But good job getting back into the routine!
I’m a pretty regular meal planner! Except I took 2 weeks off from it last month because I just got burnt out from planning.
It was nice to just wing it for a while, but I’m glad I’m back to meal planning now. It makes me feel so much more organized!
I usually plan everything out on Sunday and do some prep. I am lucky enough to have time during the week to cook and I literally look forward to it every night!
I am overly diligent with meal planning/prep. I have about 2 hours total though during the work week and my husband gets home even later than me so it’s necessary!
How much I plan seems to be directly correlated to how good my mental health is. If I feel like emotional crap I’m not going to cook so all the pretty food sits unused. But I know the direct opposite is true too. The better care I take of myself, including forcing myself to cook and eat well, the better I feel better the ears. Doing good things for yourself can make you feel good about yourself. Cooking a “real meal” with more than 3 ingredients, 3 steps, and 10 minutes is a big deal for me and I feel really accomplished at the end of it.
I loosely meal plan but it is so variable depending on what meetings hubby has, how much we have for leftovers etc. I want to be more diligent though as I know I would save money- and feel less stressed. I am not sure how people do so much prep though - ie-if I cut up lots of veggies for lunches, they go bad more quickly than if I wait and cut them each night while packing lunches. Any tips? I love cooking baking etc - but food in general (shopping, unpacking, planning, cooking…..) takes so much of my time with 5 of us who do not eat out and bring lunches to work/school daily! (not to mention some pickiness in there too!)
Hope you got your Snow Day - they are THE BEST!!!
I fall behind too, all the time. It’s bad because like you say, just spending that hour is so great for keeping you nourished all week long. The times that I fall behind are times when I’m running stale on new meal ideas and I’m bored of the same-olds. So can I make a request that you make this posting of your weekly meal plan a regular thing?
That way I can get inspiration for new ideas from you and other blogs, which will help when I’m in a rut too!
i got back on the planning train this weekend and stocked my fridge with vegan burritos. an easy and nutritious grab and go option http://theloudandclear.com/2013/03/06/convenience-nutrition-frozen-vegan-burritos/