Ok, Dani

Travel, Wellness, Personal Growth, and Manifesting for Women

  • Home
  • About
    • About
    • Resume
    • Contact
  • Work With Me
    • Intuitive Readings
    • Holistic Life Coaching
    • Money Rewiring Hypno
    • Speaking
  • Lifestyle
    • Marriage
    • Wellness
    • Minimalism
  • Manifesting
    • Inspiration
  • Travel
    • Cruising
    • Disney
    • Family Travel
  • Podcast
    • Manifest It Sis Episodes
  • Videos

Busy Mom Meal Prep

May 4, 2016 by Dani 6 Comments

If you're new here, sign up for the FREE 5-Day Manifesting Breakthrough Challenge! . And then, join me in my group, Manifest It Sis on Facebook! We have lots of fun over there. Thanks for visiting!

Welcome back!! Have you signed up for the FREE 5-Day Manifesting Breakthrough Challenge?! .

busy mom green smoothie

I am so not the pinteresty, instagrammy meal prepper. 1) My ish ain’t pretty. and 2) I actually didn’t consider what I do “meal prep” until someone told me it counts since I’m “prepping” stuff for the week ahead of time. So I still don’t call it that lol, but I do process foods for the week to make life easier.

A few things to note:

  • I follow a generally low carb, clean lifestyle
  • John eats low carb but not necessarily clean
  • Kids follow not exactly clean diet with healthy carbs (whole grains etc)
  • I’m home with the kids during the day and am a serious grazer
  • John works outside the home and takes lunch most days

So how I do things:

I call it “processing” food. Which…is probably the worst word to use when you’re a clean eater, but this is how I process stuff.

I grocery shop every 7-9 days. My hauls tend to look like:

20160222_144924

I buy eggs, fruits for smoothies and kid snacks, a variety of veggies but always zucchini for spaghetti, onions/green peppers / tomato, bagged greens for smoothies and sauteeing as a side dish, bagged salads to make lunch easy, a variety of meats going by what’s on sale but always ground turkey, ground beef, spicy Italian sausage, and chicken breasts (often pork loins and roasts as well but again that’s by sale price).

Then I also purchase the things I like to graze on during the day: almonds, peanut butter, kimchi, cheese, deli meat (not clean, but low carb)

Immediately after I get home I:

  • throw away whatever’s gross in the fridge.
  • divide the ground beef (i buy the 4.5 lb pack) into 3 even portions and pop in freezer
  • divide the big pack of chicken breasts, cut them in half lengthwise and bag them up for seasoning or freezing
  • peel, halve and bag up bananas and pop in freezer (I also bag up whatever fruit will be for my shakes)

20160201_095522

20160307_152218

Each week I make a few staples:

  • a big batch of chili (John takes this to work for lunches)
  • a batch (or 2) of turkey muffins (I eat these during my random grazing thru the week)
  • bake all the chicken breasts (2-3 batches because I flavor the different bags differently)
  • (sometimes) a big batch of pasta sauce (for zucchini noodles)

20160210_111310

20160216_193307

We eat a lot of the same foods each week, but I (try to) season them differently so it doesn’t get boring.

Our dinner is often just meat, salad and veggies in some random combination…

Sweets are zero carb frozen treats, and I make these sugar free “cheesecakes” fairly often.

I make a lot of “catch all” dishes, throwing every random veggie we have left over into either an egg bake, a “meatloaf” a soup or something…

*Note: I DO make separate food for the kids. We let them try what we’re eating…(knowing they’re gunna most likely throw a fit) and then I’ll give them a pasta dish of some sort, or when they ask for it, oatmeal or mac n cheese or whatever. They don’t get any “sugar free” anything…  (And I sneak veggies & protein into everything they get #trickymommy)

What I am trying to get better at: 

  • pre-planning the new meals and recipes that I experiment with
  • enforcing that the kids eat more of the “family” meal

I’m no good with rigid stuff, so my loosey goosey meal prep/planning works for our house.

Do you do any form of meal “prep”?

Like this post? Check these out too:

  • Vegas, Cheapskate Style!Vegas, Cheapskate Style!
  • Money Book and ChatMoney Book and Chat
  • My Samsung Phone is Everything! (And More)My Samsung Phone is Everything! (And More)
  • How to Create a Personal Self Care PlanHow to Create a Personal Self Care Plan

Filed Under: Clean Eating, Fitness, Food, Health / Fitness

« Fab Fit Fun Box Review
Extended Stay America – Brickell Miami »

Comments

  1. Cece says

    May 5, 2016 at 3:59 pm

    Hey Pinterest is the internet and life is life, so whatever works even if it aint fancy and that is basically how I do my prep. It is very basic and very boring but it keeps me fed, and eating clean. I’ve been prepping and cooking meals a week out for going on five months and it’s been great. Chicken. Chicken and Chicken + veggies. LOL

    Reply
    • Dani says

      May 6, 2016 at 8:57 am

      LOL i love it. pinterest is the internet and life is life. Absolutely.
      So….have you ever tried chicken? 😉
      I’m glad it’s working for you. What’s your go to chicken dish?

      Reply
  2. aaronica @ the crunchy mommy says

    May 10, 2016 at 8:15 pm

    this meal prep seems right on to me… i try and have different meals every night like with no repeats within a quarter. i need to stop this for the sake of my peace of mine

    Reply
  3. Cynthia C says

    August 20, 2016 at 7:47 am

    I try to have healthy ingredients on hand and just “wing it” when making meals. I eat mostly a Mediterranean diet, so I try the have all the basic pantry items on hand, along with lots of fresh veggies, chicken and fish.

    Reply
  4. Francine says

    August 23, 2016 at 10:15 pm

    I try to to do meal prep but it usually doesn’t happen .

    Reply
  5. Angela Hendricks says

    November 14, 2016 at 11:50 pm

    I admire you for being able to do that! I would love to start meal planning/prepping ahead but I never end up doing it. I need to learn how to do it! #vtechentry

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copyright © 2023 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress