Be Your Own Prep Chef for the Week

Wouldn't you like to have your very own prep chef? That person who would do all of the tedious prep work, so you could just waltz into the kitchen around 5 PM and throw a meal together in 20 minutes or less?

Well, you can. You can be your own prep chef early in the week, so actual cooking, later, is smooth as silk.

cabbage, carrots, and celery for fried rice, casserole, and slaw salad

Here is it, late Sunday, and I've packed my fridge with the beginnings of several weeknight dinners. We all want easy when it comes to most weeknight dinners, don't we? There are two basic ways to meal-prep ahead of time. 1) You can completely make and freeze entire entrees to be heated just before dinnertime, or 2) you can prep just the ingredients, so that you have a gigantic head-start on dinner when you walk into the kitchen. I actually like (and do take) both approaches. But I prefer the second, as it breaks up the work, gives me more weekday time, and tires me less.

chopped onions and minced garlic -- no sweat if carrot bits mingle with the onions

Prepping large batches of ingredients means that in any one week, meals may look a bit repetitive on paper (on on my laptop), yet in taste and final texture, they're all quite different. I focus my prep work on those ingredients that take the most time, such as cooked grains and beans, chopped/diced vegetables, dressings and sauces, and cooked protein sources, such as boiled eggs and poached or roasted meat.

an extra-large pot of rice for fried rice, casserole, burrito bowls, and pudding

Here's my approach to prepping for the week's dinners:

1) First, I survey the contents of the fridge, and pull all of the leftovers and soon-to-expire ingredients to the front. I try to make sure all of those leftovers go into meals at the beginning of the week.

2) Next, I make a written plan of the week's dinners. I do this on the notepad feature of my laptop. It takes about 10 minutes of brainstorming and typing it all out, and it helps me to see all of the prep work I will need to do in advance. As I'm planning, I try to use specific ingredients 2 to 3 times in a given week. 

3) For those ingredients that overlap from one meal to another, I prep in one large batch. I get out the largest cutting board and best knife and begin. I shred some cabbage, dice several carrots, slice celery, tear a bunch of lettuce, chop the onions and bell peppers, mince the garlic, boil some eggs, poach or roast some chicken, shred cheese, steam a big pot of rice, boil a large pot of beans, cook a basic pasta shape (macaroni or penne), make a large batch of quickie marinara sauce, and mix up a couple of pitchers of different frozen juice concentrates. I make my own salad blends with some of the veggie ingredients and keep them in mason jars for several days of lunches. 

4) I store it all away in the garage fridge, knowing that I'm ready to take on a week of dinner-cooking. You know, I'm at home all day, every day right now. But I still don't relish the idea of spending large chunks of my late-afternoon in the kitchen. I have projects and a course that consume my weekday time. Prepping in bulk is a way to give myself more time on these days.

boiled eggs will keep all week

How it all plays out

Here's an example of some double-duty prepped ingredients. I shredded cabbage, then sliced carrots and celery for one large container and diced onions and minced garlic to keep in another. I also made an extra-large batch of rice and a large batch of easy marinara sauce. 

• One night this week, I'll make a chicken and vegetable fried rice, using a couple of cans of chicken, some rice, and some of each of the prepped veggies, along with seasonings and frozen peas. 
• Another night, I'll use some rice with most of the marinara sauce, some onions, celery, a can of green beans, rehydrated TVP, and shredded cheese in an Italian vegetarian casserole. 
• I'll use the rest of the marinara sauce on homemade cheese and pepperoni pizzas. 
• Rice can be used with leftover cooked beans in burrito bowls, adding canned corn, avocado, shredded cheese, olives, and salsa. 
• And finally, the last of the rice will be turned into a custard-style rice pudding at the end of the week, and I'll make a slaw salad with whatever remains of the cabbage, carrots, and celery. 

Anything left over? Well, that's what weekends are for, right? Since this week will be rice-heavy, next week I'll choose a different grain.

not-yet-tossed salad in a jar will keep several days

A few tips:

• I prep veggies from mildest to sharpest in flavor to minimize washing the cutting board and knife.
• I store chopped veggies to be cooked all in two large containers, keeping pungent ingredients separated from non-pungent. I'm fine if a stray cabbage shred gets into the Italian casserole.
• If I have a recipe that requires a specific amount of one ingredient, I bag that up separately and label.
• I use lettuce salad bases early in the week and cabbage ones later in the week.
• I tend not to prep fruits, other than washing, as the cut side of a piece of fruit will brown and some fruits loses their favorable textures soon after cutting or slicing (like bananas)
• I never prep seafoods in advance, due to their short safety life, even in the fridge.
• If I pre-cook other meats, they go onto the menu within the first 3 days of the week. Boiled eggs will keep the entire week in the fridge, so will cooked beans and baked tofu.
• I plan on using my prepped ingredients along with some canned or frozen vegetables and meats. I still get that freshly-made taste and texture, but also the ease of canned and frozen.

Are you a Sunday meal-prepper? What tips could you add? Any crock-pot preppers?