Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I spent the last day of 2015 busting my butt in the kitchen doing another 20 dinner prep. If you didn't see my last one, check this out for reference http://www.sonottired.com/blog/how-to-prep-20-dinners-at-once. I was using a different meal plan this time although it is still from http://www.5dollardinner.com so prep was a little different. This is also a slow cooker plan because after running out of my previous stash of dinners, I'm tired of thinking about dinner. First you get an obligatory ingredients shot. I shopped the day before. I find shopping and prepping the same day to be too much for me... I've got tiny people! Thankfully DJ and Trinity are home so I have help this time. After gathering everything I label all the bags and set out my pans for the chopped veggies. I also use these pans when I put the bags together. The meal plan is awesome, it give you the shopping list, recipes and prep instructions. Its nearly impossible to mess up if you follow the directions. Also, I do not have a huge kitchen by any means. You can do this is any sized kitchen. Hint: before you begin, clean your kitchen, empty the dishwasher, have an empty garbage bag in the can and a recycling bag ready to go. Once you get going you don't want to have to deal with these things. I strap the tiniest helper onto my back and begin! First I wash and chop the veggies. This plan has less veggie chopping than my last one so I am hoping it will take less time overall. As I chop things I put them in pans and bowls. Freakiest looking mushroom. I realize that 1) I have to cook two sauces and 2) I need to peel 10 lbs of sweet potatoes. So I call for backup in the form of child labor. Trinity gets to work while I prepare the maple sauce and creamy mushroom sauce for two of the dinners. They have to be cooked and cooled before putting the bags together so I need to get them done first. Seriously you guys, this mushroom sauce was a homeade cream of mushroom soup for cooking so you don't need to use the canned stuff. I hate using the canned stuff. (By the way I just ate the ranch chicken tonight that used the soup and it was so good. Never using cans again) Trinity is still diligently peeling sweet potatoes while I brown and cool all the beef. Veggie prep done! Cans all opened and ready to go! At this point the baby is done. She's been chillen on my back this whole time and she needs a nap. So I take a break to nurse her and try to get her down. After an unsuccessful attempt at getting the baby down, I give her to DJ and try to finish. We have a New Year's Eve party to attend and time is running short! I go recipe by recipe and bag up each one. And done! I am wiped out! Look at all those dinners! You will notice that there are paper towels between each bag. You see last time a bunch of my bags stuck together. Imagine me trying to seperate giant bags of frozen stuff without ripping the bags or defrosting them. Really not fun. So the paper towels prevent that. Highly recommended. We have a "new to us" fridge in the utility room now. The fridge is DJs for his beer, the freezer is mine for my dinners. He really wanted me to show a pic of his kegs.. We currently have his Juice Box IPA on tap and a pear strawberry cider I made on tap. It pleases me. In total the prep took me approximately 4 hours. This was with Trinity helping with the peeling and chopping, but also included the baby break. I think those things balance each other out. I learned a few important things this time around. It's my third time doing this so I have figured out what works best for me. 1) I need to do this when everyone is home. It takes way less time when I have trinity to help and others to care for the baby. 2) Put paper towels between the bags in the freezer. Really happy about this one. It has made fishing the dinners out so much easier. We have eaten 3 of the dinners so far by the way and I think this is my favorite plan we have done. Delicious. 3) I need to wear good shoes. I don't usually wear shoes in the house but I am on my feet forever. That plus the baby on my back required some serious foot padding. 4) As I empty prep bowls and pans I put them immediately into the dishwasher (unless they are disposable, then just toss them) As you empty cans toss them in your recycling bag. By doing this it didn't look like my kitchen got destroyed by the time I was done. It just looked like I had cooked one dinner not twenty. When you are done with this you will be exhausted. No joke. But the benefits are so worth it. Come on! Try it!
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AuthorI'm so tired. The children are so not tired. |