Well, well, well. Another week, another food prep. I look forward to the weekend because I genuinely love meal prepping… it’s one thing that I do to really make our lives easier each week and it never fails to actually do that. My goal is always to prepare a few breakfast and lunch items, a sweet treat, and then anything that we can use for snacks.
This week, I also wanted to share what I bought for our groceries—obviously, I won’t be listing everything, but the big pieces that help. I am on a freezer food buying ban currently (I wrote about my goal to clean out our freezers on my newsletter this week), but that won’t stop me from stocking up on stuff, you know.
Everything I Bought
Danny got paid Friday which means I got both our usual weekly grocery delivery and went to Costco. I had originally planned to go to Costco in person on Friday morning, but the timing did not work out (Forrest had a half day and I had several important things to do in that 4 hour span of time). Instead, I got an Instacart delivery, which yes, I know is more expensive, but damn, it’s convenient.
Here are the biggies I purchased that will help us throughout the week:
From Walmart:
Salmon (Alaskan, never Atlantic)
Canned pineapple (for Hawaiian chicken this week)
2 bags of potatoes
Meatballs
Egg noodles
Enchilada sauce (enchiladas are an easy staple for us)
From Costco:
Rotisserie chicken (obviously)
Eggs (yes, I was blessed by the egg gods and my Costco had eggs!)
Brussels sprouts
Spring mix
I did also visit our community sharing program this week (it’s a food bank!) and I got:
Some cans of beans
Chicken thighs
A ham
Fish fingers
5 avocados
A bunch of older bananas
Apples
I utilize food banks because 1) the more people who use the programs, the more funding those programs will get and 2) the income requirements for food banks are much, much higher than you would ever suspect. For example, the income limit for a family of 4 to use the community sharing is just a little under $8,000 a month. That’s… a lot. That’s nearly every single family of 4 I know. So if you’re reading this and stressing about grocery prices, go ahead and visit that food bank. I promise it’s not as scary as you think it is.
Alright, those are the basics I bought and received this week. Let’s get to the good stuff: what I made!
Breakfast Burritos
Danny is a breakfast burrito fan. Last week, I made him both sandwiches and burritos and while he likes both, I knew he preferred the burritos. (He bragged about them to his students. That’s a compliment.)
This week, I made a quick guacamole with some avocados I had plus the leftover tomatilla salsa I made two weeks ago. I had about 2 tablespoons left in one container and wanted to get it cleaned out, so it was quick and easy to add avocado, lime juice, and some red onion.
For the rest of the burrito, I partially cooked a potato in the microwave, chopped it up, and then crisped it in ghee before adding a few leftover bell peppers diced up. Then I scrambled the eggs. I cooked the bacon in our toaster oven and added 1 slice to each burrito, followed by the egg and potato, some cheese, and a healthy amount of the guacamole. Wrap up and repeat. I made 5 burritos in total for Danny to have this week, which means he won’t be secretly stopping at a fast food place for a breakfast sandwich.
Rice & Chicken Fried Rice
As I mentioned, I got a rotisserie chicken from Costco. This is an every-other-week purchase for us: we love rotisserie chicken and I try to use all of them. However, I have a TON of chicken stock saved up, so I knew I wouldn’t make chicken stock this week.
After I shredded as much meat as possible off the chicken, I decided to make Danny some chicken fried rice. I had already planned to pre-cook some rice for lunches and dinners throughout the week, so it was easy to make fried rice.
I sautéed some frozen veggies (peas, carrots, and corn) then added some of the shredded chicken, before adding 4 eggs and scrambling them up. I added about 1 1/2 cups of the rice I had cooked, then about 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, a splash of rice vinegar, and a drizzle of sesame oil. Once it was mixed up and looking good, I divided it into 3 containers for 3 lunches this week. Super easy.
Miscellaneous
I always have a few bits-and-pieces that aren’t full blown things I’m cooking or baking that I make each weekend. Here they are this week.
Boiled eggs: Violet and I are both big boiled egg fans. She often eats 2 of them a day (breakfast and lunch or sometimes lunch and snack) and i often each 1 a day. So we go through a lot of eggs in our house (hence the constant hunt for eggs). I boiled 6 eggs for this week, which I’ll try to make last until at least Wednesday or Thursday.
Rice: as I mentioned, I pre-cooked some rice for the week. I use a rice cooker and made 2 cups of rice. I always just use water with a small amount of butter, garlic, and soy sauce for a little flavor. It turns out perfect every time. Highly recommend a rice cooker in your home!
Pre-washing fruit: I have oranges and apples for snacks this week, plus some strawberries and blueberries. I like to get berries pre-washed and doused with a little bit of watered down vinegar to keep them from going bad in .5 seconds. This way breakfast for Violet is as easy as peeling a boiled egg and plopping some berries on her plate (this is her favorite breakfast—even better if there is a banana bread muffin there too).
Pre-mashing banana: As i mentioned, I got a bunch of bananas from community sharing and they aren’t… the best bananas. They are bruised and a little rough looking, but that’s ok: we’re a banana bread household. I peeled and mashed all the bananas to freeze in 1 cup increments for future banana breads. Doing stuff like this is so, so simple and makes me feel so accomplished. Who would have thought I would ever get excited about having mashed banana in my fridge?
Banana muffins
I know: I mentioned banana bread too many times for this to be a surprise. But yes, I made banana muffins. This weekends meal prep has been a little lighter than usual, but I knew I needed to make some muffins. They’re a great quick breakfast and snack; they are easily carried along in the car; Violet can eat them independently; they’re a sweet treat without being a flat out dessert… banana bread is just the perfect vehicle for getting kids to eat something healthy.
As always, I use the most simple recipe from Better Homes & Gardens recipe collection (I have that classic red-white-and-blue book).
Violet loves these so much, they’re often the first phrase out of her mouth in the morning. “Banana bread muffin?” she will ask, blearily, as I’m bumping into her room because it’s 4:30am on average.
And friends, that is that. It was a lighter meal prep this week. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter for more food writing, general musings, and more.