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Meal Prep: For the Rest of Us

Meal Prep: Philosophy, Buzzword, Way of Life, Nightmare.


The healthy living world has been all about the meal prep for a while now. Precook chicken, blanch veggies, steam rice – eat the same lunch every day for a week. Bleargh! No thanks.

I always envied the Preppers. They always post photos of all the ready to eat, healthy, colorful food they have ready for the week. I dreamed of opening my fridge and grabbing my lunch and that's it- no decisions, no fuss, no work. So I tried it. I bought awesome containers, I portioned out fruit, dates, and nuts. I made hard boiled eggs. I wrapped turkey and lettuce with bacon to have paleo wraps. I put all of this food into my awesome containers. The turkey turned brown. My super fun fear of food borne illness set in and I could NOT make myself eat any of it. FAIL.


Now I am sure this works brilliantly for some people. In fact, if you like this style of prep, try this awesome page full of Paleo, kid friendly, make ahead lunches that are colorful, tasty and oh so easy from Our Paleo Life.





For me, I discovered the greatest success with my freezer. When I was engaged to my lovely husband, we spent a holiday with his Mum in Enfield. She always had these great little meals all ready in the freezer. Just pop the pan in the oven and done. It was easy, fast and kept anyone from grazing or just grabbing “whatever” and allowed for proper meals with limited fuss. (ever tried to shop and cook in another country?)


Fast froward to my current meal prepping attempts. Having just had gall bladder removal surgery the month before and being scheduled for two more surgeries in the coming weeks, I decided that this was the way to go, as I could batch prep great meals and freeze them for my family to relieve the stresses on my husband to provide meals for our kids and himself.




So onto Amazon I went and ordered those great aluminum containers with the little board lids. The first session was Beef Stew, Chicken Pot Pies, A Curry and some Chili. I assembled Roast Beef and provolone sandwiches and chicken sliders, 5 hours in the kitchen netted me about 32 containers of food and a bounty of heat and eat hot sandwiches. To the freezer they went, and for my recovery time, my family ate like kings!




After the recovery, I decided to keep a stocked freezer going and it was great! At meal time, I could either grab a large pan of enchiladas, or a single for myself and let my family choose what they wanted for dinner. When I wanted something Paleo or spicy or un-loved by the family, I could have it without feeling like I was forcing my food choice on them. It was dinner bliss for two weeks!



Then on my last planning and strategy session, I realized something. With this kind of flexibility, I could easily manage a Whole 30 without depriving my family of their favorite foods. I quickly pulled all my favorite W30 recipes from my online planner and discovered that many had the ability to be frozen and pre prepped. So, I prepped some Whole 30 meals and when we have dinner, I will be able to eat my Whole 30 food without anyone else feeling like they HAVE to eat what I do. All non-W30 meals lives in the chest freezer in our garage and the "Sher-safe" items stay inside. I don't even have to look at non compliant food! The family dinner component was pretty hard last time, but now I won't need to be tempted by other foods, and the family can still enjoy their favorite healthy recipes.


But, Sherrill! How Do I Start? I have never done this before! The thought of spending two lifetimes chained to my kitchen makes me sick. The thought of where to even start makes me shake with uncontrolled NerdRage!!


Sher to the rescue. Welcome to the MasterClass.



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