Moms: Let’s talk meal prep for a moment.
Can we agree that it’s not always easy? Especially when you’ve got kids tied around your ankles and everyone is getting tired - including yourself.
Or what if you just lack ideas?! Sometimes I get stuck on the same 5 meals and I literally *can’t* think of anything other than tacos and spaghetti to eat.
I’m with you momma.
When I was pregnant with Declan, my moms group at church got together and packed freezer meals for each other. It was such a fun event, and SO helpful to have a few meals tucked away for the post-partum fog. As my family ate the meals over the next few months, I wondered if there was a way to pack freezer meals that were lower in carbs and higher on veggies.
After lots of thinking (and procrastination), I decided to take the plunge and just experiment!
Here’s my theory: Meal prep would be easier if I had veggie meal “packs” which served as a springboard to creating a nutritious meal.
Last Thursday, I decided enough thinking was enough thinking, so I pulled the trigger.
If you’re familiar with this area, you know our farm is 10 minutes away from Sno Pac which is a frozen vegetable and fruit packing company.
Long story short, I made a last-minute decision to go to SnoPak, ended up buying 70 pounds of veggies, picked up some freezer bags at the grocery store and within 90 minutes, the girls and I had 24 meal “packs” done! We had a blast! It was fun watching the girls get so excited about our “assembly line”. I love when real-life learning can be exciting!
Now that they have done it once, they could probably do this on their own next time!
But wait… it’s just bags of veggies? Now what?
This is where the experimenting comes in.
Personally, I love doing sheet-pan dinners where you throw a bunch of veggies on a cookie sheet with your meat of choice and then bake it. However, I don’t know that I want to do that 24 times though.
So here’s what I’m going to try:
Sheet pan dinners with brats, or chicken, or steak
Soups! Already made vegetable beef soup this week!
Stir Fry with veggies and chicken
Fried veggies with curry & rice
Fried rice with veggies
Cheesy potatoes with some veggies added
Tater Tot hotdish (with veggies added!)
Tips from my experiment
1. Find a friend
If you buy in bulk, most of these veggies come in 20lb boxes…. Which is a lot. Perhaps split it with a friend so you don’t have to process and store so much of the same thing.
2. Make a blend you can use in anything.
I picked more unique veggies that I don’t get as often (like beets and squash) but I think my packs would be more versatile if I picked more “normal” veggies…. Like you could do a carrot/onion pack and add chicken to make Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Wild Rice Soup, Casseroles etc.
3. Pack your meals right away.
If you let your veggies thaw and refreeze in the 20lb box, they can stick together. No one wants a 20 pound beet brick. (If it happens, don’t worry… Sno Pac flash freezes them so every piece of veggie is individually frozen and all you have to do is break it up)
4. Include your kids!
My kids LOVED this project! They were actually helpful and now they learned a new skill.
5. Share the knowledge!
If you make a great blend, let me know what you did! I want more ideas :)
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