Cooking Ahead Plan

Cooking ahead saves time and money in the long run.  The task of preparing meals in advance is not easy, but it is well worth the effort.  There will be days in your week where there just is no time to cook a meal for your family. In today’s economy, eating out is not an option for most families. You will have situations where your only choice is to eat out, however, we try to avoid it at all costs.

There are several ways to prepare meals in advance (either way you will be so happy you took on this project):

1. Once you have the groceries on hand, begin cooking and work until you have reached your goal. I have found that this requires two full days of cooking.
2. Spread your cooking time out over several days or even a week. You will spend three to four hours per day, but it is less exhausting and you will be able to give your attention to other things / people who need your attention. This is an especially wise method if you have babies and toddlers to care for.
3. Never – never cook just one recipe at a time. If you make meatloaf for your family dinner double the recipe and eat one now and freeze one for later.

Before cooking it is a good idea to prepare
in the following ways:

1. Pull out the recipes that your family enjoys the most. Decide which of these can be prepared in advance. Not every recipe tastes as good after sitting in the freezer. For the cooking ahead plan to be successful, it is important to include your family favorites.
2. Look through other recipes and decide if you want to include a new entrée or two. Don’t forget to include some freezables for breakfast or dessert (apples are great to have on hand for baked apples or apple pie.)
3. Plan your main entrée menu for the MONTH! Remember that you can insert left-over days, or a few “silly suppers” (i.e. pancakes, deli submarine sandwiches) which will not be included in your stash of meals. A pizza night is always good too if it is saved for once-in-a-while rather than the “I didn’t think to cook” every week emergency option. I usually pull out our family calendar and write on each day what we will eat. This helps to coordinate your family activities with the meal you have planned and the kids like knowing what’s for dinner. You will like knowing what’s ahead too!
4. Remember that you can repeat a menu item during the course of the 30 days, but don’t do this throughout the month or for every recipe.
5. Put your cooking days on the calendar. You will be most successful energy-wise if you plan in advance, however, there have been times when I would go out and buy all of my meats even though I didn’t have great motivation to cook for thirty days all at once. Once the meat was purchased – I knew I was committed. This isn’t the best way to take on this great endeavor, but it does work since life doesn’t always afford days for cooking. It is best to gear up for the job. On the day(s) you set aside for cooking, start early! You will be amazed at how much you can get done within the first early hours of the day. The phone doesn’t ring as often and your energy is optimal.
6. SAVE THE MENU ~ DON’T RE-INVENT THE WHEEL! You will begin to collect a menu plan for each month that will coordinate with the seasons and holidays. Every year as Thanksgiving and Christmas approaches, I have my menu plan already created for the holidays. I pull it out, tweak it a bit, and then go from there. Summer lends itself to a different menu than winter meals. Just think – by doing it this way, you will soon have menus planned for the entire year! Of course each plan may include similar meals and recipes, but each batch will bring in the flavor unique to the time of year. For example, July would include salads and burgers, but in August you might consider using crock-pot meals as you kick off the school year. October may introduce the family to soups and hot casseroles once again adding in your seasonal pumpkin dishes.
7. Make a list of all grocery items you will need for cooking the planned recipes.
8. GROCERY SHOP! This may be obvious, but you will want to shop after you received your paycheck so you have money to invest in a month of meals. The biggest chunk of the budget will go towards your meats. If you are spreading this project out over a few days or a week or two, it does work to buy all red meat, prepare it, then at another time purchase all of your chicken and then prepare it. This method helps if you have a limited budget and cannot afford to buy all meat at one time. Be sure to check your pantry for items used only during this mass cooking endeavor i.e. cracker crumbs, canned tomato products, etc. Also – do not forget Ziploc bags or containers for your prepared foods.

Sample cooking schedule:

Recipes with ingredients to follow

Day One ~ Grocery Shop
Day Two ~ Cook chickens, debone and freeze in two cup portions save the chicken needed for a specific recipe such as chicken tetrazinni.
Day Three ~ Prepare Meatloaf, meatballs, Taco and Chili meat
Day Four ~ Prepare spaghetti sauce and lasagna
Day Five ~ Prepare Chicken Kiev, Parmesan

Note: This cooking plan works great to fit into one week OR if your are feeling energetic, you could do it in two long days
* You could also take a slower approach and break the cooking plan into different weeks i.e. Week one = ground meat, Week 2 = chicken, Week 3 = other recipes….side dishes, muffin mixes, etc as mentioned above.