Busy Mom Family Meal Prep

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After being a work from home mom for the past year, I’ve recently transitioned back into the office. To say that it’s been an adjustment is an understatement.  I promised myself that I would be more self-disciplined and create a space for my family that would bring about a little more structure for us, especially with me being back in the office, so I decided to begin with our food. The first couple of months we probably ate more takeout than I’d care to discuss, and It was time that we limit the amount of money that we were spending on takeout and start applying that money towards grocery shopping and prepping our food at home.

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Meal prepping is something that I’d do every so often, but I have never been consistent with the task. Not only do I want to save money, I also want to provide my family with healthier home cooked options versus the continuous cycle of eating out.

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Two weeks ago, I posted on my Instagram feed about how I meal prepped meals for the week for my family of (5) and only spent $110. Want to know how? Keep reading.

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I realized the best time for me to go grocery shopping, prep, and store meals for my family for the week was on Sunday. Hubby and I sat down and discussed the meals that we would eat for the week. We made simple meals for the days that he was working and saved the ones that would require a little more effort for his days off.

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We wrote down each meal for each designated day and set reminders in our phones for each meal and any instructions that needed to be followed since I can’t have my phone at work. It took literally 2 hours for me to cook, marinate, and store all the food for the week.

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Here’s what we’re eating for dinner this week:

Monday

Baked Tilapia with Brown Rice and Broccoli

I purchased the tilapia frozen; we already had the rice in our cabinet, and I purchased the broccoli frozen as well. This meal was simple and took no time for hubby to make either. You will be surprised at how much you can get accomplished in so little time when you already know what you have to do in advance.

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Tuesday

Taco Casserole

Every Tuesday is Taco Night, but I wanted to make this week Taco Night with a spin. I found an amazing recipe and the cool thing is you can make it the same day or prepare two days in advance, and even cook in the pressure cooker too.

Wednesday

Slow Cooker Honey Teriyaki Chicken with Rice & Mixed Vegetables

This recipe can be found in my Monthly Newsletter and is perfect for my husband too. On Sunday, I thawed some chicken thighs that we already had in our freezer, seasoned them, and let them marinate in the refrigerator. If you’re not going to eat the chicken within two days, you have two options: make your marinade during meal prep then add it to the meat the night before you plan to cook it or toss the chicken in a marinade and freeze them immediately.

Thursday

Baked Ziti

Spaghetti is one of my favorite foods, however, I had it twice for lunch so I didn’t want to eat spaghetti. Instead, I decided I’d make a pan of Ziti. I bought (2) boxes of Rigatoni noodles, a big pack of ground turkey (which I also used for the taco casserole), some turkey kielbasa sausage that I chopped up and added to (2) cans of spaghetti sauce along with 2-3 packs of Mexican four-cheese, and hubby wanted me to throw in some spinach.  I cooked the ground turkey, sausage, and spinach first. Once everything was cooked, I layered all the ingredients into the pan: first ground turkey, next the rigatoni noodles, then the spaghetti sauce and turkey sausage, the shredded cheese and then the spinach. I wrapped it up in foil and stored it in the freezer. Now, all hubby has to do is throw it in the oven. Easy Peezy!

Friday

Freedom Friday

Hubby and I don’t cook on Friday and so we’ll either order out or eat leftovers which will be the case this week and I’ll start planning our menu for the upcoming week and grocery shop Saturday for more prepping on Sunday.

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I’m actively thinking about meal prepping for breakfast as well. Maybe some good smoothie recipes since I can’t eat in the office either (face palm). LOL. Anyways, this is what we’re having for dinner this week! Hopefully, you found this post to be helpful and you were able to see how simple meal prepping for your family can be especially as a busy mom.

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XoXo,

Angie