Meal Plan & Prep Monday

Prepared Thai Chicken Meatballs

For any plan of any kind to be successful, it takes planning and preparation.  This is true in all aspects of life, not just food.  I find when I prepare for meals ahead of time, and get some of the work out of the way, there's food available for those nights when I only have 30 minutes to pull something together, or I just don't feel inspired to cook at all.  I know many people who menu plan, and while I don't do it faithfully every week, I hope to get better at it as 2019 progresses.

While I'm not on a strict round right now, we live fairly close to Whole30 ALL the time.  Because of this, I still have a day in the kitchen almost every week, and when I am cooking something on the fly I try to make extra for easier time of meals later in the week (for example: if I'm grilling chicken for dinner, I throw a few extra breasts on so that I don't have to food prep grilled chicken another day; when baking potatoes for dinner, I bake extra for leftovers and quick grab meals).  I would say, in general, I at least prep fresh Whole30 Mayo, Dump Ranch, a dozen hard-boiled eggs and grill about 3 pounds of Chicken Breast each week (that is, if I haven't had it for a meal and prepped extra already).

So, here's a few of my menu items this week:

Coconut Curry Meatballs w/ Cauliflower Rice
Zoodle Pad Thai (I'll share the recipe in a blogpost later this week)
Whole30 Instant Pot Beef Stew
NomNom Paleo's Cracklin' Chicken & Creamy Whole30 Bacon Garlic Spaghetti Squash
Philly Pepper Steak & Eggs (another recipe I'll be sharing late this week)
Whole30 Mock Chick-Fil-A Nuggets & and Air Fryer Waffle Fries (with a salad for greens)

I usually try to food prep the day after I go to the grocery store.  I put everything in the fridge, not freezer when I get home from the store.  The only exception to this is if I'm planning to use the whole package, as is, with no modifications (as in the shaved steak I bought to do the pepper steak, that was just placed right into the freezer as is).

I always buy two packages of Boneless/Skinless Chicken Breasts that are about 5 lbs each. For one of the packages, I opened it and prepped it for future meals. I diced up two breasts and placed in a container of pickle juice, and put in the freezer.  This will be used for the Mock Chick-Fil-A Nuggets.  I also sliced 2 breasts very thinly in bite-sized pieces, placed them in a container with 2 Tbs of Coconut Aminos and sprinkled with salt. This will be used for the Zoodle Pad Thai. The remaining chicken breasts in the package were seasoned liberally with Trader Joe's Season Salt and grilled.  These will be for quick lunches (or breakfasts!).  The other package gets cleaned up (gut off all the extra bits that are yucky!) and separated in about 1 1/2 pound packages and frozen.  These are for meals and nights when I know I'll have time to think and cook, or just to pull out and grill when I run out of grilled chicken in the fridge.

I prepped a batch of NomNom Paleo's Whole30 Sriracha Sauce that is used in the sauce for the Zoodle Pad Thai.  I will be freezing the leftover sriracha sauce, that way, I don't need to make it again when I need it. I also prepared the Pad Thai Sauce.

With this weeks haul of Ground Chicken Breast, I prepped a triple batch of the Coconut Curry Meatballs.  I froze 2/3rds of a batch in one container that I'll use later in the week for the Coconut Curry, and the remaining third in a container that I'll use in week or two for a soup recipe I saw.  I find when I have a couple recipes I want to try that have similar flavor profiles, it's nice to over-prep for the first one so that when I go to try the second recipe, half the work is already done!

I also prepped the Creamy Whole30 Bacon Garlic Spaghetti Squash and placed in an oven safe dish, covered and put in the freezer.  I will pull it out to defrost in the morning I plan to use it and bake it off while I'm making the Cracklin' Chicken.  While prepping the bacon for this recipe, I prepped two more packages of the bacon.  That way, I have some bacon in the fridge to add as a condiment on salads, or have a couple slices with breakfast.

My last thing to prep was some roasted vegetable soup to have in the fridge as a veggie packed side to add to my lunches.  I'll be sharing this recipe sometime in the near future, but it really couldn't be easier to throw together...chop a bunch of veggies - usually the ones on my counter/fridge that are happening to start to be a little overripe, roasted in the oven until soft and blended with some compliant bone broth to a soup like consistency.  Easy peasy and not any cheesey!

Roasted Tomato Soup ingredients ready for the oven!