Creating Ease: Weekend Meal Prep That Gets You Through the Week
This is the third post in our series on creating ease through organization, with a focus on function. So far, we've built the series around meal times. We started with the morning rush: make-ahead breakfasts, outfits planned on hangers, and bags packed the night before. Then we covered the mid-afternoon reset, with a real 20-minute break, a simple go-to lunch, and "Dinner 1" served at 3:30 for hungry kids.
Today is technically the dinner post, and it's about the thing that makes all of it possible: meal prep, the weekend champion.
I hate meal prep too
I know it's the most dreaded work. I dread it too. But without it, I'm lost all week.
I cook dinner around 2:00 or 3:00 so my family can eat whenever they walk in the door, and I'm doing it while I'm also trying to work. I can't spend hours in the kitchen. So the goal is simple: oven-ready meals with the veggies already prepped, so I have about 20 minutes of active cooking to put dinner together.
Start with a plan
Before I head to the grocery store on Saturday morning, I ask everyone what they want to eat this week. Everyone groans. Nobody wants to think about meals, yet everyone has an opinion when dinner is on the table and it isn't the one they wanted. So I ask anyway, and we keep a go-to list of meals our family loves.
I also cook one meal, not five. When my kids were little, I catered to each of them, but I was a stay-at-home mom with more time in the kitchen then. That season has passed.
I never go to the store without a plan. The grocery store can take you for a wild ride if you show up without one. Either you buy too much with the best of intentions, or you don't buy enough and by Thursday you're out of food. The basics like milk, eggs, and bread are no-brainers. Beyond that, I plan four to five dinners to prep over the weekend.
What prep looks like
When I get home, I lay everything out on the counter and tackle it all right then. Every veggie gets cut and stored in containers in the fridge. Every protein gets marinated. Sometimes I pre-cook the carbs, like quinoa or brown rice. If I'm doing something elaborate, like smoking a chicken on the charcoal grill for an hour, that's a weekend luxury. During the week, meals are simple, easy, and fast.
Take chipotle chicken bowls. The chicken is already marinated, and the salsa and pico are made. In my 20 minutes of active cooking, the chicken goes on the grill and the brown rice goes on the stove. Then everyone layers their own bowl. One of my kids loves avocado on top and the other can't stand it, so everybody gets it their way.
Everything prepped, chopped and ready for the week. Store in clear containers for easy organization in the fridge.
This week's dinners
My family helped build this week's menu. Here's what we prepped:
Baked ziti and shredded beef tacos. I cooked the beef for the ziti and marinated the roast for the slow cooker.
Chicken satay with jasmine rice and steamed edamame. I buy the frozen edamame, marinate chicken tenders in the satay marinade, and cook the rice and grill the chicken the day of.
Grilled shrimp with roasted veggies for the adults and butter pasta for the kids. I buy peeled and deveined shrimp and marinate it, but I leave the acid out of the marinade. You don't want shrimp ceviche.
Daal and chicken curry with toasted wheat tortillas. I love my Pakistani flavors, and this is my favorite meal of the week. It takes more time, so I usually cook the whole meal on the weekend.
Pro Tip: Double your recipe to batch your meals. One for this week, and one made freezer ready for another week.
On a night when I want something super simple, I make roasted sweet potato boats with leftover meat, like the shredded beef or the ground beef from the ziti. Add grilled chicken or any toppings you like. They're versatile and easy to pull together.
That's five meals made at home, and a week that sails along because the meats and veggies were prepped over the weekend.
Why it's worth the hour
Meal prep takes me about an hour, and it saves me a week of headaches.
It's a time saver. I shop once for the week, and I'm not standing in the pantry at 2:00 wondering what to cook.
It's a money saver. When dinner is already halfway made, we don't order out.
And since it's a task none of us love, make it a little more enjoyable. Put on a playlist, or listen to an audiobook or a book you've been wanting to get to. An hour goes by faster when you're looking forward to something.
Family fav- shredded beef tacos. Slow roast beef in the oven for several hours to give you that shredded texture. Perfect for tacos, lettuce wraps or anything else!
Where design comes in
This is where your kitchen can make the dreaded task easier, or harder. When we design for you, we start with your lifestyle: how you shop, how you cook, and what a Saturday morning with a full counter and a long prep list actually looks like. Then we plan the kitchen around it.
One of the first things I suggest for a family that preps ahead is a prep sink on the island. Washing and chopping your veggies right where you're working, without walking back and forth to the main sink, makes a big difference. A workstation sink, like those from The Galley, takes it a step further. It's designed around the whole process of preparing, cooking, serving, and cleaning up, so you're not working around your kitchen, it's working with you.
Here's what else we think through:
Where the groceries land. Where do you unload a dozen bags without crowding your workspace?
Counter space to spread out. You need room to chop, marinate, and portion, not just a few inches next to the stove.
Fridge room for prepped food. Containers of cut veggies and marinated proteins need a home, and so do their lids.
A place for your containers. If you have to dig for the right size, the system doesn't work.
A beautiful custom cabinet is only successful if I've thought about what goes inside it, and the same goes for your kitchen. These details matter when we know your lifestyle, which is why I suggest them. When your kitchen is planned around the way you live, a dreaded task can actually become something you enjoy.
Ready for a kitchen that's built for your life?
If your kitchen isn't making the weekly routine easier, we'd love to help. Reach out to start a conversation about your space.
— Humeira
H&S Interiors and Organization | Bee Cave, Texas