So, here are the steps to my monthly food prep. I have been doing this for dinner for about 3 years and I wouldn't do dinner any other way. It just makes my life much easier during the week day.
1) Raid the Pinterest boards....In between months, I pin recipes I am interested in, that are healthy and can be adapted to fit my unique needs. My boards are very organized and I transfer pins my recipe boards to my "What's on the Menu?" board. This is where all of my dinners that I plan to cook and freeze are pinned. Sometimes I use it for veggie ideas that I would like to try that month and some lunch ideas.
Here is the link to my boards:
http://www.pinterest.com/ang8169/
2) Pin 7-8 recipes, quadruple the recipes...I pin 7 to 8 recipes because we will eat that meal up to 4 times that month. We eat it one day and follow it with leftovers the next day and then I will unfreeze the next batch about 2 weeks later, eating it as leftovers the next day. The easiest way to do this to me, is I copy and paste the ingredients from the site to a work document and I do the math so there are enough servings. I always make 3-4 servings per day. I use that document while cooking as well.
3) Grocery list... I use my word document with the recalculated measurements to make my grocery lists, raiding my cabinets, pantry and fridge to be sure I don't purchase anything that I already have. Especially spices and other kitchen staples.
4) Shop!... Don't forget gallon freezer bags! These are your friends. When you get home, don't put away this items you will need for cooking, keep it all out. It's just easier so you aren't fishing around for things.
5) Label gallon bags and any cooking/warming instructions...This step is something I didn't teach myself to incorporate until later. My favorite reason for this is because it gives me a second to preview the recipe and see if there is something important I need to know or prep for the recipe (an example of this may be the need to flash freeze something which would dictate that would be one of the first recipes you'd want to cook). Another reason I love doing this is for the rare occasion I am not home to pull something from the freezer. It has step by step directions written on the bag so my husband can't claim he doesn't know what to do!
6) Prep!..For my own sanity, I try to prep meals that only require me to assemble a collection of ingredients into a bag with minimal chopping, sautéing, etc....This make prep go much quicker. On average, it takes me between 3-5 hours to complete everything. That's down from the marathon 12 hr cook days I used to do! Exhausting!
This IS something that is very time consuming. There is no doubt about it. But I consitently find it to be worth it. We don't eat out as much as we used to because "there's nothing to eat" is never an excuse in our house. Almost everything I make can be cooked or warmed in the crockpot which makes weeknight dinners done in less than 15 minutes every night (NO KIDDING). It's worth it to me.
I usually do steps 1- 3 on an evening, and steps
4-6 the next morning. Done and relaxing by the afternoon.
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