Meal Planning Made Easy
Is this ever you?
You just got home from a busy day. You want to have a healthy and easy meal, but you really do not know where to start. So you open the door of your refrigerator and just look. Look and see what jumps out at you. You close the refrigerator door and decide let’s go out instead because it just feels easier.
What if there was a way to make it easier for you and in the process would save you time, money and your sanity? Seems to good to be true? Well it doesn’t have to be! There are just some simple things to have to get started and some Tupperware Tools that can help too!
Tools to help you get started: Inexpensive Calendar like those from the Dollar Tree, Tupperware Stack Cooker, Freezer Mates, Fridge Smarts and Season Serve
Step 1: Take out your Calendar and find your current week
Step 2: Finding out if your local grocery store has online ordering. This is helpful so that if you plan out what you would like each day you can shop ahead of time and only buy what you need vs what catches your eye as you shop.
Step 3: Decide if you like the following options: Soups & Sandwich/Salad, Breakfast for Dinner, Fish, Beef, Pork, Chicken and Non Meat. Please one or more item in each day of the week. If you do not like Fish, like me, – have an extra Chicken or Beef day!
- Monday: Soup & Sandwich
- Tuesday: No Meat
- Wednesday: Beef
- Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner
- Friday: Pork
- Saturday: Chicken
- Sunday: Chicken
Step 4: Map out as many weeks as you want to! Then decide on what you and your family would like for those days using those proteins! (Not sure how that goes be sure to read to the end!)
Step 5: Plan when you will buy your items . Supermarkets have 5-6 week cycles for Beef, Chicken and Pork. You can save big by paying attention to those cycles and use the Freezer Mates to store bulk to plan ahead.
Step 6: Prepare yourself for easy recipes:
Stack Cooker
- Using the Colander, 3 qt and cover of the Stack Cooker you can cook your Beef 6 minutes per lb or 12 minutes for 2 lbs. Every 3 minutes or so open up the microwave to break apart the pieces as it cooks. The fat will drain with the colander and in the process will be healthier for your family. Store the precooked meat in Freezer Mates. Then you will have it ready to go for easy meals like Tacos, Hot dishes/Casseroles, Sloppy Joes, etc.
- Also, using the 3 qt and cone of the Stack Cooker you can make Happy Chicken. Take your 3 lb Chicken and have it so it sits with the cavity in the Cone of the Stack Cooker. I like to put Paprika on mine along with some salt and pepper. Place the Stack Cooker Cover on and cook it 7 minutes per pound until it reaches 165 Fahrenheit. Typically its around 30 minutes. Make sure to let it rest for about 10 minutes before taking out the Microwave (or 1/3 of the time). Take off all the parts of the chicken you want to eat that night and through the week and save the bones for the broth you will make later on.
Season Serve
The best way to get meat ready for a meal is to marinate it in either an Acid or Alcohol. This is especially true for beef to make it tender. When using the Season Serve you have the ability to evenly marinate it throughout. This process can be done as you go through your work day as well!
For those of you who love Ice Cream you can even store TWO 1.75 quarters of Ice Cream in it, or about 2 dozen cookies, 12 muffins or cupcakes (Note only about 6 of the really big muffins from Costco or Sams will fit). Write “Chicken Livers” on the outside and no one in your home will touch your stash of favorite treats!
Fridgesmarts
The average family will throw out $1600 or more a year on produce because it goes bad before it can be used. Fridgesmarts have the ability to have correct air flow and a place for the water to naturally go when it comes off of the fruit or vegetable so it does not sit in it. As you prepare meals throughout the week and you only need a 1/2 an onion for this or some carrot for that store left overs in the fridgesmarts for the day you will make the chicken stock from the bones of the Happy Chicken. If it will be more than a few days use the Freezer Mates to store them so they do not go bad before the broth is made.
Freezer Mates
For all the meats that you prep ahead of time or buy in bulk storing it in your Freezer Mates will not only save you space but it will also preserve your food too. You can label the outside by using a chalk marker or freezer labels to know what is on the inside. The current ones are stain proof on the inside as well. I love that the sides are flexible so it is easy to slide out what ever you have inside to prep it the way you want to!
What to cook?
If you would like to learn what types of meals you could make in 1 weeks time with you and your friends let’s set up a time to learn together! I would be happy to show off how to make Happy Chicken or German Chocolate Cake and Meal Prep with you as it cooks! As you and your friends expand your wish list we can set up another one for a later date with new recipes to try and items to see! Trust me, learning this skill will not only save you time but will save your pocket book as well.
I would love to hear your feedback on this idea! Saving money is so important to so many people. What week do you want to set up first? This week or next?
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Support my local Tupperware business by purchasing any of the items above by using the product name in the search when you shop my site:
- Stack Cooker
- Freezer Mates
- Season Serve
- FridgeSmarts