Meat Prep Monday
Because Meal Prep Never Worked For Me
When it comes to prepping meals, I think I’ve literally tried it all. Subscription services. Paid weekly and monthly done for you plans. The exact same meals every week. Then every two weeks. I just never could quite get the hang of it.
Every family is different, but I FINALLY found a system that seems to works for us. This was not my idea, but unfortunately, I cannot find the original source, so if you know of them, please comment below.
I prep ONE meat for the entire week, every Monday. A big tray of chicken. Three chuck roasts. A whole bunch of ground beef. That happens to be our three week meat rotation, but of course you can do it with whatever meat your family prefers. Under each of those categories I have a list of our tried and true meals. To give you an idea, this is a sample menu for chicken week:
Meal 1) Chicken tacos
Meal 2) Chicken pot pie
Meal 3) Chicken and rice
Meal 4) bbq shredded chicken, Mac and cheese and broccoli
Meal 5) we do meatless on Fridays, so this is the wildcard day.
Lunches are leftovers, or simple fare of something like cheese, a fruit and nuts.
Weekends are when I try out something new, or do burgers and hot dogs.
It turns out that fixing sides or throwing together a recipe with already cooked protein was the key for me to less stressful weeknights. I plan on Friday for the next week and planning is easy…for beef week, I just look at my list of beef recipes and pick what sounds good, or what I already have ingredients for.
The three week meat rotation + having a list of recipes to pull from means that no one is getting bored!
In case you need a little inspo, here are five of the meal ideas on each of my lists!
Chicken
Chicken thighs, instant pot rice, roasted mixed veggies (I turn this into a second meal… casserole of leftovers + the organic cream of chicken soup from Kroger with cheese on top, and warm it up!)
Shredded bbq chicken with Mac and cheese and broccoli
Chicken pot pie (the recipe we love is from this book! Checked it out at our library.)
Chicken tacos
Russian Chicken (I use this recipe.)
Ground Beef
Chili
Shepherd’s Pie
Potato Nachos (pictured above!)
Korean beef bowls
Ground beef + Gravy + Cooked mushrooms + Mashed potatoes
Chuck Roast
Shredded with potatoes and carrots
Beef and cheese quesadillas
Beef and Veg soup (I modify but this is the general recipe I use.)
Shredded beef served over baked sweet potatoes (I open and fluff them before adding meat and juice on top.)
Shredded beef bbq over Mac and cheese
Let me know if you try it, and which meat would be in your rotation!