Have you been “testing the waters” with real food, trying to incorporate more of it into your family’s diet? If so, you’ve probably discovered that it’s not an easy task. Cooking real food takes time, effort and energy. I wish it was as quick and easy as serving processed food or fast food, but it isn’t. So the reality is that if we want to eat real food and feed it to our families, we’re going to need some strategies that will allow us to cook and serve it without losing our sanity.
Before we talk about strategies that can make life easier, let’s talk about one that won’t. To my way of thinking, the least efficient way to prepare real food is to start each meal from scratch – washing and chopping vegetables, making sauces, preparing dishes from start to finish. It just takes too much time. A more efficient approach is to combine tasks and prepare ingredients for several meals at once. That way, many of the ingredients you’ll need during the week are already prepped and ready to go.
One way to combine tasks is to take brief periods of time throughout the week and use them for real food prep. I shared this approach in 17 Ways to Prep Healthy Food in 15 Minutes or Less and 10 Real Food Mini-Projects for Busy People. My friend Christina at Juggling Real Food and Real Life refers to it as using “pockets of time” to prepare real food for your family. It’s a great approach; for those of us who juggle lots of responsibilities and activities every week, it saves time, energy and hassle.
An even more efficient approach, though, is to take a few hours and just make a big mess, in order to prepare lots of ingredients to use in future meals. With this approach you pick a block of time – Saturday afternoon, Sunday evening, or any 3-4 hour period that works for you – and use it to get as much food as possible ready for the week (plus more for the freezer). You save time and energy because you consolidate steps and effort – wash fruit, then wash vegetables; cut up fruit, then simply wipe off the cutting board to cut vegetables; chop celery and carrots in the food processor, then chop onions; grate mozzarella, then grate cheddar; cook a big pot of pasta, then cook rice in the same pot. In each case, you save a significant amount of time that would normally be devoted to washing, cleaning up and putting things away. You also gain efficiency by preparing several things at once – you can start one or two things baking and cooking, then work on other things.
Here are some examples of real food you can prepare using a “big mess” approach:
- Bake whole chickens or a number of chicken breasts. Shred the meat and package some to use during the week and some to freeze.
- Cook pork roasts, shred them and add barbecue sauce. Serve some for dinner during the week and freeze the rest.
- Wash the fruits and vegetables you plan to use during the week.
- Wash and dry salad greens and cut up salad vegetables.
- Bake several loaves of bread. Make extra dough to use for pizza or flatbread.
- Chop vegetables and store or freeze them the way you plan to use them. For example, package chopped carrots/celery/onions together to use in homemade soups or chopped peppers/onions/garlic to use in jambalaya, spaghetti sauce, quiche and omelets.
- Make a big pot of tomato sauce and package it to use for spaghetti, lasagna or pizza.
- Bake double or triple batches of muffins, bars or cookies.
- Shred all the cheese you’ll need for the week, plus extra for the freezer.
- Cook a big pot of rice and freeze the extra.
- Organize and package snacks for yourself and the children.
- Prepare a casserole for the week and an extra for the freezer.
The options are almost limitless – you choose the tasks that will make your life easier and focus on the real foods your family will enjoy. This approach does require some planning and effort – and it does make a mess – but it pays you back many times over. Consider giving it a try and see how it works for you. Gaye
Sharing with The Pin Junkie, Family Fun Friday, Weekend Wind Down, The HomeAcre Hop and From the Farm.
Christina says
This is totally the ONLY way I can crank out enough food for all these people. Bulk PREP! 🙂 You have some great ideas here that can help me be even more efficient! Thanks!
GC says
LOL! I know – sometimes I want “these people” to stop eating so much! I know that bulk prep is the key; I do it some, but really need to do it more.
Thanks Christina.
Gaye
Nina says
This is something I totally need to do more of. I even heard that the day you bring home the groceries should include preparing and storing your fruits and vegetables so that they last longer and don’t spoil. So while it takes time to prepare all these things, you also save time during the week when you don’t have to chop yet another new onion (when you could have chopped them all up in the food processor).
GC says
Hi Nina – I agree – the day you get groceries is the best day to get everything prepped and ready to go. It doesn’t always work out for me to do that, but I like to get as much prepped at one time as I can.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Gaye
Jenny says
Great ideas! Thank you so much for sharing these at the HomeAcre Hop!
GC says
Thanks Jenny!
Gaye
DeDivahDeals says
Great ideas, especially now that the weather is getting warmer and no one wants to spend too much time in the kitchen. Thanks for sharing and linking up again with us at the #WWDParty.
GC says
Yes, thank goodness for the warmer weather. I fell like we’ve been waiting forever for it!
Gaye
DeDivahDeals says
Yes, at least all winter – lol!
nmburk says
Great reminder! I’m always so tired after I get home from a marathon shopping trip with three little boys in tow- the LAST thing I want to do is spend the next several hours in the kitchen! But I need to plan to spend the next morning or naptime doing the prep to save my time later in the week!
GC says
Hi Nicole – Oh no, I don’t think anyone can do it after shopping with three little boys! Each person has to do what works with her stage of life. When my kids were little, I COULD NOT have prepped food after shopping with them.
Gaye
vitatrain4life says
So many great ideas!! I do a lot of these already but I never thought of shredding all my cheese ahead of time or making one huge pot of sauce on a Sunday afternoon – genius!!! It’s so hard to cook real food all the time for a family BUT it’s definitely what I choose to do, no matter how difficult. You just gave me some ideas to make it that much easier – THANK YOU!
I had so much fun doing the HOP with all of you this past week 🙂
GC says
Hi Allie – Thanks so much! We love having you co-host with us this week.
Gaye
krisonfitness says
This is what I try to do on Sundays. One of my snags in my half marathon training is diet. I have been able to stay on a pretty much clean eating lifestyle because I make my big mess on Sundays and prep meals for the week. This way there is no excuse not to stay on track.
GC says
Hi Kris – Yes, Sunday afternoon or evening tends to be the best time for me to “make a big mess” too. I love the idea of setting things up so there’s no excuse for getting off track!
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Gaye
Nicky says
These are all great strategies Gaye. I usually will go grocery shopping and prep most of my fruit and veggies when I get home, That way everything is organized in the fridge/freezer and ready to go. Any time you can shorten your cooking/prepping time is a good thing.
GC says
Hi Nicky – I need to be better about doing fruit and veggie prep on grocery shopping day. If I put it off, it tends not to get done!
Gaye
jugglingrealfoodandreallife says
Great advice Gaye! I know lots of folks who do this and it works really well for them. When you can take care of all of this prep at once, then it is as quick or quicker than cooking processed food. Many of the folks that I know that do this incorporate it into their shopping day. They shop and then come home and wash, chop, and prepare. Others use Sunday afternoon for these tasks. I have yet to find a block of time to do all of this prep, but I always try to do as much as possible in my pockets of time…….usually early in the week. It makes things so much easier.
GC says
Hi Christina – I think you are in the hardest “life stage” for doing this sort of thing – the time when your children are young and involved in a lot of activities. I think you do an amazing job of getting real food on the table and into the lunch boxes, in spite of your schedule.
Gaye
Erlene says
I would love to do this, but I’m terrible at planning meals out in advance. I need to get better at that so I can take a day to do some quick prepping like this. It would make things so much easier.
GC says
Hi Erlene – Meal prep is essential for me. If I don’t do it, we’re going to eat junk! If it is hard for you, maybe start with planning and prepping for two days a week and see how it goes. That would be a great start.
Gaye
Bev says
Such a great idea! I try to cook a couple meals for the week at the beginning of the week, and it makes it so much easier. (And I definitely make a big mess!) I’ve been also trying to chop off peppers and boiling some eggs so I have some healthy foods I can just grab when I’m hungry. Stopping by from the Let’s Get Real Blog Hop.
GC says
Hi Bev – Those are great strategies. Having things ready to “grab and go” or “grab and eat” is always a win in my book!
Gaye
dishofdailylife says
Definitely a smart strategy and one that we should use in our house more often with our crazy sports schedules during the week. Thanks for the reminder!
GC says
Thanks Michelle. Yes, it’s harder to do when you have crazy kid schedules going on, but it pays you back extra if you can find the time to do it!
Gaye
Kim Hall says
Years and years ago I became a vegetarian, but my family was not. For years, I prepared two dinners. Mine was always from scratch with organic everything, and it took 1-2 hours to make. I grew so weary of the work to keep it up that I finally gave it up.
Preparing ingredients and meals the way you suggest is such a huge help. Not only do you mess up your kitchen once, but you are prepared for quite a few meals for the week. That’s real stress reliever, to say nothing about the positive impact on the pocketbook and health of the family!
GC says
Hi Kim – Yes, that business of starting every meal from scratch is for the birds! Especially if you’re making 2 different meals every night. I love the idea of messing up only once, and getting a lot of value out of me efforts.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Gaye