It's prep time...

“Whether you've got 15 minutes or an hour to spend in the kitchen on Sunday, any meal-prep will set you up for a more productive and delicious week ahead.” — Carolyn Hodges, EatingWell

Last week’s blog was on meal planning. Prep is its hardworking sibling. In the pace of today’s family with parents working and afterschool activities for kids like sports, music lessons, and dance classes, getting a homecooked meal on the table for dinner (or breakfast in the AM or brown bag lunch) can seem like a fantasy. This is where prep comes in. You essentially become the line cook in your kitchen cutting veggies, marinating meats, measuring out rice, etc.

“Create your Sunday meal-prep plan, and write it down. A plan gives a sense of how much time you'll need to prep, helps you organize ingredients to buy or take out of the freezer, and keeps you motivated to get it done.” — Carolyn Hodges, Allrecipes. Your prep day can be any day that works best for you. Keep in mind you can get kids involved in the prep such as husking corn, snipping off string bean ends, and/or measuring out rice or dried beans.

Now bear in mind that not everything can be prepped ahead. Potatoes will turn brown as well as sliced banana. And for some things, prep can mean cooking and reheating. An oven-roasted chicken can be shredded for fajitas, to add to salad or pasta, or to make chicken salad for sandwiches. Also keep in mind what freezes well— marinating meats to be defrosted and cooked later, cooked grains like quinoa and/or rice, and fresh fruits for smoothies.

Now the other hardworking sibling is grocery shopping. As mentioned in my meal planning video, a grocery store is set up in U and E formations. The U starts with produce, fresh and colorful to make you think everything in the store is fresh; the bottom of the U is meats, poultry, fish, etc.; Then up the other side for dairy. According to the Supermarket Handbook, this was done because it meant you had to walk across the whole store to get a gallon of milk, sparking impulse purchases. The E is the aisles with your whole grains, pasta, condiments, and/or processed foods such as cereal, cookies, chips, etc. So, when I write out my shopping list, I break it into three categories— produce, refrigerated/frozen (meats, dairy, cheese, etc.), and shelf-stable foods (oils, cookies, bread, etc.). This means I am not going all over the store to find my items. I shop one area at a time. Also, I bag all the refrigerated (and frozen) items together, so it makes for an easy transfer to the cooler in my car trunk.

Okay, now that you have your meal plan, your grocery list, and your prep schedule, let’s get cooking!

___________________________________________________

My go-to roast chicken recipe:

Preheat your oven to 425. Wash and pat dry a whole chicken. Stuff the cavity with a whole sliced lemon and garlic cloves from a whole bulb. Rub the exterior with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. If you want you can create a rack by laying vegetables such as carrots, celery, leek, scallion, potato chunks, etc. in the pan and placing the chicken on top (this is optional). Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 and flip the chicken over in the pan. Roast for another 15 minutes. Then turn the chicken over again and roast for another 15 minutes. Using a knife cut into the chicken breast to make sure it is cooked through (if not return to the oven in 5 minutes increments until it is).  If you made a veggie rack you will want to remove the vegetables and put them on a plate or in a dish (they can be eaten and are delicious).