Prepare Meals for the Week

You'll be surprised by how much time you'll save when you prepare meals for the week ahead of time.  Just a little bit of planning will make dinner time a breeze when you prepare meals for the week.

Prepare Meals for the Week Ahead of Time

Does time get away from you on busy weekdays?

Do you find yourself eating out more during the week because dinner time arrives before you know it and you haven't even thought about what to cook?

Are you and your family eating way too many TV dinners or ordering takeout more than you want?

You are definitely not alone!  Being the mom of 2 young kids, dinner time arrives at the same time every night-- so you think I would know that it's coming....right?!  Yet most days it sneaks up on me and I'm left staring at the fridge trying to decide what to throw together.  After a few minutes I give up and declare we're ordering take out.  Do you find yourself in the same boat?

Taking a day - or a few hours - during the week to prepare meals that will serve you and your family for the days or week ahead can prevent stress and ensure that you’ll eat healthier and enjoy a variety of meals.

Saving money on your meal budget is also a definite perk you’ll experience. Whether you’re a full time mom or dad or a full time business owner or employee, you can profit from planning and preparing your meals a week ahead of time.

As you progress in your “think ahead” mindset, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been doing this all along. Preparing meals ahead of time means different things to different people.

You may want to concentrate on the breakfast meal of the day – or lunches for on-the-go families – or dinner, when you come together for a great meal and some conversation without the hassle of preparation.

No matter which type meal you choose to prepare ahead of time (or all of them), you’ll profit from the pre-planning. Such planning can set you free to do other things and still provide you and your family with a nutritious and delicious home-cooked meal that will be appreciated by all.

If certain times of the day are hectic (such as mornings) and you end up with an unhealthy snack or nothing at all, you may want to consider pre-thinking and preparing a healthy and nutritious first-meal-of-the day in batches so that you only have to grab and go whatever you prepared for the week.

The main focus of preparing meals for the week or a few days ahead of time is to plan. Planning is key to having a smoothly-running mealtime that everyone will appreciate. For example, make sure you have enough containers for individual servings and that they can be easily stacked in the refrigerator to take up the least amount of room. These are my favorite stackable containers.

You’ll also want to prepare meals which are easily microwaveable so you can heat them without having to turn on the oven. A comprehensive shopping list is mandatory. You don’t want to be in the midst of preparing meals and find you’ve left out a key ingredient.

In the beginning, you may want to plan only a couple of days ahead of time. Planning meals for an entire week may overwhelm you, but pre-planning and preparing a few servings for one meal of the day a couple of days ahead of time can help you get organized and get used to the concept.

Stick with tried and true recipes for your plan-ahead meal prep. It’s frustrating to spend time preparing a meal ahead of time that everyone turns their noses up when it’s served.