This post may contain affiliate links, which means I make commission (at no cost to you!)
if you purchase through the link. Read our affiliate disclosure here.
If you’ve been reading the blog, you know that I am a HUGE fan of meal planning and meal prepping to save time and money in the kitchen. While spending a couple hours prepping on Sunday may be a pain while it’s happening, the sense of relief you feel when you’re done and your dinners for the week are in the fridge waiting for meal time is awesome. If you prep lunches and dinners- well, then, WOW- you are really ahead of the game for the week!
Go back to last week when you got stuck at work a little late, the kids needed to be picked up or the dog had a vet appointment and you’re thinking “welp, there goes that. I’ll just order take out now that there isn’t time to make dinner…” If you’re like most people, it happens more often than not and take out and fast food really starts to add up.
Enter meal planning & meal prep. The planning is easy- I actually love meal planning while watching TV. It’s so easy to scroll through grocery fliers, Pinterest, All Recipes and flip through cookbooks while getting through DVR’d shows you like, but don’t need to pay 100% attention to. Ready to learn more about meal planning? Here’s the post we published recently that details how to meal plan.
Meal Planning for Beginners: Save Time, Save Money and Reduce Stress Six easy steps, a great app for grocery flyers, and free printables to keep your lists straight. Easy peasy!
By far our most popular post (shared over 60,000 times on Pinterest) is from our “Meal Prep Like a Pro” series. I’ve linked to each post below, starting with the crowd favorite.
Meal Prep Like a Pro With These 10 Yummy Recipes
Meal Prep Like a Pro- Part Two: 10 Awesome Recipes to Try This Month
Meal Prep Like a Pro- Part Three: The Lunch List
Meal Prep Like a Pro- The School Lunch Edition: No Parents Allowed!
If you would like additional meal prep and easy recipes ideas, check out our Meal Prep Motivation Pinterest board.
Now that we’ve covered the “Why,” the “How,” and the “What,” here’s the Best Pan Ever. It’s three compartments, which is perfect for meal prep! If you frequently halve recipes, or certain family members have dietary preferences and restrictions, this pan is a.maz.ing. I cannot tell you how much I wish I’d known about this 3-part pan when I was cooking for my (now adult) vegetarian daughter! This would have made my life so much easier.
If you’re cooking for 2-4 people, or two adults and three little kids, this pan is perfect! Check out what I prepped yesterday:
Top: Shepherd’s Pie -All Recipes
Middle: Crispy Proscuitto White Lasagna by Half-Baked Harvest
Bottom: Easy Baked Lemon Chicken by Flavour & Savour
These recipes are all SO GOOD! (I know this because you can’t package up foods for the week without taking a *tiny* taste.) I made roasted Brussels sprouts and potatoes to go with the chicken and we’ll have a Big Salad with the Shepherd’s Pie and White Lasagna. Boom. Dinner is served! And I won’t think about what I have to make for dinner one time this week.
This is a good time to share my absolute favorite, go-to, never let’s me down, always delicious, no fail blogs I frequent to find new recipes. Making the same routine foods time after time after time gets old! I like to keep things fresh & new so cooking is fun- especially when I meal prep because I know I’ll be in the kitchen for a few hours.
<drumroll>
Damn Delicious – Chunga is an amazing cook and recipe developer. I know I can go to Damn Delicious and find something that ends up tasting as fabulous as it looks.
Cafe Delites – Karina is a “balanced foodie” and she shares recipes that are good for you and good for your waistline. Her recipes are full of flavor and I’m never disappointed!
Minimalist Baker – Not just baked goods, these recipes are perfect for vegetarians and Meatless Monday. Dana is an amazing recipe developer and her recipes fall into at least one of three categories: one bowl, 30 minutes or less, 10 ingredients or less.
Pinch of Yum – Lindsay is a former teacher, so she is excellent at explaining things to the rest of us! Her recipes are seriously fantastic and Pinch of Yum is a great site to browse for helpful tutorials, too.
Gimme Some Oven – Ali is just fun. Her blog isn’t all food, but it’s a little bit of food, life & travel rolled into one and it’s all great. <blog goals> And if you like garlic & pasta, her garlic pasta recipe is to die for.
I know I’m missing at least 3 other sites, but my mind is drawing a blank! I’ll update as I remember. 😉
Back to why we’re here, the Best Pan Ever. Seriously, this pan is the best. I actually happened upon it while looking for Christmas gifts ideas online and broke my cardinal rule of not buying myself anything when I’m supposed to be shopping for others! But I am so glad I did because this pan is going to get *a lot* of use.
Are you a meal prepper? I’d love to look at some of your favorite recipes! Please drop recipe links and any tips you have to make meal prep as easy as possible in the comments below. I’m always looking for new recipes and ideas to try!
Leave a Reply