Prep on Sunday, Eat All Week - First week was a success!

I just wrapped up our first official week of "prep on Sunday" menu planning and family dinner nights. I'm happy to say it was a success!

I planned my menu on Friday during nap and then made the grocery list Saturday.
I was super tired Saturday due to very little sleep Friday night, so I postponed grocery shopping to Sunday morning. Got home from shopping on Sunday, had some lunch, and then set to work prepping.

Here's what the menu looked like:

Sunday - out with friends
Monday - Parmesan-Ranch Chicken, roasted garlic red potatoes, green beans (YUM!! Will for SURE make this again. and again)
Tuesday - Tuscan Beef Stew with biscuits (good, simple, will make this again)
Wednesday - Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken with rice (meh, bland. Nothing inherently wrong or gross, but we won't make it again)
Thursday - leftovers/takeout
Friday - Meatloaf, garlic bread, green beans
Saturday - family birthday party with dinner there

For my Sunday prep session, I labeled 3 gallon size ziplocs, one for each of the first 3 recipes.

I did the Parmesan-Ranch Chicken prep first. I took the chicken out of the freezer put it in its labeled ziploc to defrost in the fridge. In a small tupperware, I combined all ingredients for the breading for the chicken and set that aside on the counter where I would need it the next night. I then set a reminder in my phone (thank you, Siri!) for Sunday night to pour the ranch dressing marinade into the chicken bag once the chicken was defrosted.

Next I turned my attention to the BBQ Chicken and the Beef Stew, my crockpot meals for the week. I put the stew meat into the Beef Stew ziploc. I then scrubbed and chopped the red potatoes for the BBQ Chicken, setting some aside to be roasted as a side for Monday night's dinner. Next I chopped all veggies and put them in the appropriate bags, either BBQ Chicken or Beef Stew. Once the veggies were in, I added all the sauces, stock, and seasonings. Then sealed the ziplocs and set them in the fridge. I set another reminder on my phone for Tuesday night to take the chicken out of the freezer to defrost for the BBQ Chicken. I didn't want to defrost it early in case we ended up not being able to make the chicken Wed. night as planned.

3 dinners chopped, sauced, prepped, and packaged within 40 minutes. I have to say I was impressed with myself when this was done.

The week stayed true to the menu, and the time between getting home from work and sitting down to dinner was really smooth!

On Monday night I turned on the oven as soon as I got home to pre-heat. I purposely picked a recipe that needed less than 30 minutes bake time. This meant I had 20 minutes to hang out with Kaleb before needing to get the chicken in the oven. When it was time to put dinner in, I just had to dump the breading on a plate, pull the chicken from the fridge and dredge it, then pop in the oven. I then dumped the red potatoes from their ziploc into a roasting pan, drizzled with EVOO and sprinkled with garlic powder and parm, these went in the oven with the chicken. This 'prep' took me less than 5 minutes, that was completely manageable! I heated the green beans when Kyle got home. This dinner was a for sure win and is absolutely in our regular rotation now!

Tuesday night, I got a call from day care at 5 that Kaleb had a fever and was saying his tummy hurt. He was clingy and whiny when we got home and we got him into bed early and scrapped the family dinner thing. Kyle and I did enjoy the beef stew and it was really nice having dinner just in the crockpot ready to go. I was able to freeze half the leftovers, which will be really nice for a night I need something quick but don't want to do takeout!

Wednesday Kaleb was tantrumy and clingy and I was super prego-tired. We still did family dinner, but weren't all that impressed with the recipe. All considered, it was still nice to have dinner be easy enough/prepped enough that we could still do family dinner even when I was completely exhausted.

Thursday we did delivery pizza, because someone at work that day had done a pizza day and when I'm pregnant, once I smell/hear about/see someone else eating something then I can't forget about it and I must have it.

Friday is my new flex day, which means I have time at home to make a recipe that doesn't lend well to being prepped on Sunday. This week I did meatloaf, one of Kyle's favs. I like having this day to experiment with new recipes that maybe take a little more fuss.

Tonight is my niece's birthday party so we are having dinner over there.

My menu for next week is planned, the grocery list is ready for shopping tomorrow morning, and I'm looking forward to the sense of accomplishment I'll feel tomorrow afternoon when my week's worth of family dinners are prepped and ready to go!

At this stage in the game I feel like it is a tad early to be sharing my menu planning winning strategies, what with this being only my second week :) But, after another week or two under my belt, I'll be sure to share how the logistics are all working out!