Jobs and their drive time often keep us from having time to cook like we want. One solution? Assign a couple of hours to get as much done for the week as possible. I call this bulk meal prep.
When I did this recently, I made some full dishes, but I also cooked some parts that I would later add to other ingredients to make complete meals. This cut down my cooking time every night.
One pot can do a lot
You can save cleaning time along the way by using one pot for multiple jobs. I started by cooking penne pasta I added to this Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad. And why not stick a batch of rice in the oven since it takes the longest of all to cook (about an hour). I would use it later under my Sausage Sauté (unfortunately this recipe is no long on the web).
After a quick rinse and dry, I used that pot to brown 5 pounds of ground beef, intending to break it down into 5 portions. Ground beef weighs less once browned due to the loss of the grease. I use 11-12 ounces cooked meat for a recipe that calls for 1 pound raw.
I drained off the fat, then weighed out one portion of the meat to freeze for a later meal (that’s cooking WAY ahead!). I returned 2 more portions (2-pound cooked equivalent) of meat to the pot and made a double batch of Korean Beef. I substituted butternut squash rice for the slaw (see how to make that rice here) and just added the other ingredients straight into the pot.
After wiping down the pot, I put the last 2 portions of meat in there and made a double batch of 3-ingredient Chili. Now this pot could rest. Honestly, I didn’t even end up “cooking” the chili – just reheated it by the serving as we ate it. That was a super time saver!
Phase 2 of my bulk prep
The youth from our church was coming over for a devo the next day, and I wanted to make a layered salad that needed 4 boiled eggs. Well, when I boil eggs, I boil as many as will fit in my medium saucepan. So, I had enough for the salad AND breakfast a couple of days.
But with eggs for breakfast, I love to have bacon! I roasted a whole package so I’d have enough for breakfast AND this Sweet-and-Sour Green Cabbage with Bacon I made later in the week.
At the same time, I roasted a bunch of sweet potatoes to have as a snack with nut butter and coconut each day (I love a good healthy snack).
Bulk meal prep set me up for a great week!
Three full meals, plus some components for other dishes – not bad for 2½ hours. Dedicating just this one block of time to cooking gave me some nights I didn’t have to cook at all and just a couple of nights where I only needed to cook a little more. But with things like the rice and pasta already done, that really cut down on the total time I spent cooking on those nights.
Choose meals where you can cook things back to back in the same pot and some recipes where cooking part of that meal ahead makes the rest easy. It takes a little practice, but using these techniques can definitely make a difference on fixing supper after a long day’s work.
How do you meal prep? Lemme know in the comments!
