That's what's for dinner...: Ultimate Meal Prep

When it comes to meal prep, simplicity is the key. The less steps you have to take to get a meal on the table, the better. I have complied a list of my favorite recipes that can either be prepared in advance, in bulk (and frozen), or made on a Sunday night to feed you the rest of the week.

I have a few rules when meal prepping that make things go faster, as well as saving you time and money.
1. Make meals with like ingredients.
If I am prepping one chicken meal, I am preparing many chicken meals. If I grill chicken for dinner, I will also grill extra chicken for salads, sandwiches or to keep in the freezer. The same goes for ground meat. It is just has easy to brown 2 pounds of ground meat as it is to brown 1 package. Additionally, buying large quantities is often cheaper. You can either freeze the unused portion to grill later, or divide it among different meals. This also works great when buying produce. I will get giant bags of onions, potatoes, peppers, green, carrots, etc from Costco, and then use them to make all my freezer meals.
2. Chop Once
If you have to chop onions for one meal, you might as well chop the onions you need for all your meals. If I am making slow cooker meals, I will line up all my gallon zip top bags and drop the ingredients as I chop. This is a great job for any kitchen helpers too! Just set things out assembly line style and chop away!
3. Measure out your serving sizes
The easiest way to to know how much food you have on hand, is to know how many servings you can have. I like to portion my meals into 3 servings (3 people in our family) so that I don't have to worry about leftovers or worrying if I am eating too many servings. I also know that if I am feeding more than 3 people, I will need to pull more food out of the freezer.
4. Keep the freezer and pantry stocked for emergency meals
Keep items you regularly use in the freezer and pantry. Meat, eggs (out of the shell), milk, cheese (if you plan on grating), bread, flours, sugar, onions, peppers, tomatoes and other produce (except greens) all freeze well. Even if it comes out a little mushy, once you cook it you won't be able to tell. I also always double any meal I am making, and freeze one for later. Just defrost over night, and you've got dinner. My personal goal is to only buy fresh produce and milk every week because my pantry and freezer is so well organized and stocks.
5. Shop the sales
Base your meals around what is on sale. Most items run on a 6 week sale cycle so buy 6 weeks worth. Meat has been on sale lately, which is awesome. This also means that my freezer is over flowing. Every week, I buy a few packs of whatever I use often and toss it in the freezer or make it into a meal I can freeze for later.

Soups/Stews:

Vegetable Soup