Preparing Meals in advance

Today I did our advance meal prep for the week. This system is really working well for us! I started all of this food prep at 4pm, and was done by 6pm.

I bought a big pack of ground meat, two packs of chicken thighs (bone in) and one pack of sirloin tip steak. I have been a little reluctant to stray from white meat, so this week is the big experiment.

The recipes I used follow (If the links don't show up for you, just visit the blog and they will show up). I modified the recipes to be allergen free for us, but I am linking to the original recipes.

• Boston Market Meatloaf
• Keftedes (greek meatballs) for our greek feast
• Greek Chicken Marinade
  
• Chicken Satay Skewers
• Teryaki Marinade for beef steak kebobs and chicken
  

First I prepped the chicken thighs. I removed all the skin and the bones to leave me with boneless, skinless chicken thighs. I tossed all the bones w/ some meat remaining and skin into the stock pot to create Chicken Stock . I divided the chicken pieces and put them in the various marinades. Then you can either freeze them, or leave them to cook in a day or two. I cleaned and sterilized all the equipment, myself and the counters.

As I chopped the veggies for the kebobs, I threw the leftover vegetables and scraps into the stock pot too. I cut the beef into hunks and threaded them onto skewers, then placed them into the teryaki marinade for dinner tonight.

Then I prepped the ground meat and turned it into meatloaf and meatballs. I saved it for last because I really dislike the feel of ground meat, it sorta creeps me out to no end. Then I scrubbed my hands till the skin fell off :).

The nice part about this system is that so many of the recipes call for the same ingredients, so you use it in more than one recipe. Plus, clean up is so much easier each night.