RaleneCreates: Exploring Meal Planning & Meal Prepping
Do you think meal prepping takes too much time?
Do you spend time each week planning out your meals?
What if I shared strategic ways to plan and prep to save you time?
First, let’s explore the difference between planning and prepping, as many people use the terms interchangeably and they are distinctly different.
Meal Planning is actually deciding in advance at least once a week “what’s for dinner?” It’s the process of planning out meals in advance for a period of time such as a week, or even a month.
Wouldn’t it be cool to not have to think about dinner plans for at least a week? Meal planning also can be taken a little further by allowing you to grocery shop specifically for what you need for those meals. It helps save money. I love to save money. 😆
I take it a step further and order my groceries on Instacart which helps me avoid impulse spending. (US readers feel free to use my affiliate link and get $10 off first order with Instacart). During my planning phase, each week, I map out my meals and create my grocery list. Sometimes, my meals are planned based upon meat or items I have on hand in my deep freezer. My deep freezer has to be one of my best purchases ever!
Meal Prepping is the process of preparing the planned meals in advance and storing for use during the week. It can be done on one day of a week and placed in freezer containers. Prepping takes your planned list and prepare the meals on a given day so you are only cooking maybe once a week.
Hmmmm. So you don’t like leftovers? Let’s talk about that another time. Some meals taste so much better the second day.
Next to my deep freezer, my Crockpots and Instapot are another great purchase. Most of my meals are crockpot or instant pot meals which also saves me time.
Each week, I do a mixture of meal planning and meal prepping to make my life easier:
Shop my kitchen(cupboards and freezers) for what I have available to cook.
Explore my deep freezer for meals I have not consumed previously and refresh what’s on top.
Plan out my meals (check out my planning video to see my detailed process)
Grocery shop from my planning list (online or in person)
Prepare meals one day using my crockpots and freezer containers.
Enjoy at least a week (sometimes longer) of not cooking. 😀
As always, I desire you to GROW and explore new ways of doing things. This blog maybe a little different than my usually RaleneSpeaks blog entry but is right on target with RaleneCreates. Check out more of my creative videos on my RaleneCreates Youtube Channel. Why don't you do me a favor right now and go subscribe so I can reach more people in ways that God has for me. Thank you so much in advance. (smiling at you)
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