So Week 1 of April Meal Prep was hard. Between win and fail, this week leaned heavily toward the failing side of things. I learned some things about meal prepping for a two-person household this week. Namely, that I don’t need to prepare meals in such large quantities… Well, let me give a quick review of each day, and then I can summarize my findings and strategize for next week.
Day 1-Tuesday, March 26th
In order to make weekly posts on meal prep throughout the month of April, I had to start creating content a week ahead. I had already determined that a diary/vlogging format would likely be the best way to show my progress, so I needed to be ready to record video every day of this project. I intended to publish videos a week at a time to embed into the weekly written posts. There’s more on that at the end of the post.
Tuesday was supposed to be the day that I prepped my entire meal plan for the week. My menu:
- Breakfast
- Vegan veggie-loaded tofu quiche
- Snacks
- Apples
- Celery sticks
- Strawberries (in-season in Florida)
- Entrees
- Chicken Fajitas
- Pot Roast
- Side dishes
- Mexican spiced sweet potatoes
- Mexican rice & beans
- Mac & cheese
- Collard greens
On Tuesday, I managed to shop for all my ingredients, and prepare the vegan quiche, all of my snacks, and all of my sides except the collards. Then my camera battery finally yelled at me that it was dying, and my SD card only had about 20 minutes of recording space left. I decided to wrap everything up and call it a night.
Day 2-Wednesday, March 27th
Wednesday was my first day for my regular work week. I work as a prep cook at the St. Lucie Mets dining facility. I came home from work to discover that the full dishwasher still needed to be run before I could clean up my mess from the previous evening. I had an apple with peanut butter for a snack, took a shower (necessary after any day working in a kitchen), and started cleaning. I decided to load up a plate with some of the side dishes I had prepared the day before and leave the rest of my meal prep for Thursday.
Day 3-Thursday, March 28th
I got home from work a little later Thursday because we had a cookout for the team at work as a spring training send-off. I got to drive the golf cart for the first time. Also, Tim Tebow looks bigger on tv.
I got home to a functional kitchen after reviving it the night before. I started on the greens, which just needed time to cook down after I threw everything into the pot. Then I put all the pot roast ingredients and seasonings into a gallon-size bag to marinate overnight in the fridge. Then I seasoned and cooked the peppers and onions for fajitas, and finally, the chicken for fajitas. I like saving chicken for last so I don’t have to wash anything between prep stages. I can just throw my cutting board and knife into the sink to be washed once I finish cooking if I do chicken at the end. Note: don’t leave knives in the sink if you aren’t the only cook in the kitchen.
Day 4-Friday, March 30th
I woke up a little early so I could throw the pot roast fixings into the slow cooker with a quart or so of beef broth. I set it to low, knowing I wouldn’t be home for at least 8 hours. Someone else had other plans, though. That’s right, my mother set the slow cooker to high after I left for work, and forgot to turn it down again before she left for the day. I’m going to add walls and electronic lock doors to our kitchen so she can’t enter without a code. Anyway, the pot roast veggies were delicious, the roast itself was overcooked and leathery. It still tasted good, but it was more like wet beef jerky than pot roast.
Friday evening, I whipped up a batch of my famous chocolate chip cookies to bring to work the next day for my birthday. While letting the dough chill, I fixed a plate of pot roast, collards, and mac & cheese, and enjoyed my first plate that I didn’t have to cook the same evening. Mom and I watched the Scoobynatural episode from the previous night (we got rid of cable a while ago, so I watch my CW shows the next day on their site). Then I portioned and baked my cookies, wrapped them up, and went to bed.
Day 5-Saturday, March 31st
On my 29th birthday…I had a normal day. I went to work, left work, played some Pokemon Go, and went home to take a shower. I fixed a similar plate to the night before, and vegged out with some YouTube videos between steps in washing laundry. (I only have two pairs of work pants, so I have to wash every other day. A third pair is on my list of things to buy with my next paycheck.)
Day 6-Sunday, April 1st
I got out of work really early, so I had the opportunity to take on some quests in Pokemon Go before showering and getting ready for my birthday dinner at a local Italian place. I got the gluten-free pizza, Mom got her favorites, and my aunt ordered off the special $35 Easter menu. They had one crème brûlée left, and brought that out with a birthday candle. Obviously, none of my efforts in meal prepping were used that day.
Day 7-Monday, April 2nd
Mom and I are actually sharing my car right now while we both save up to get hers fixed, or find her a new one. So any time either of us needs to do something at the same time, we go together. She had to take a pre-employment drug test to complete the hiring process at her new place of employment early before there was a crowd at Quest. Then we went so I could get a new round of allergy shots after not being able to afford treatment since last summer.
We got home, and I considered my vegan quiche for half a second…then threw some bacon into a pan to begin preparing a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. I had my vegan quiche for dinner that evening, and it was pretty good. With a few tweaks, I think I might develop the perfect recipe for a vegan quiche.
Summary of Results
- Prep more options in smaller amounts
- Most of the stuff I prepped for week 1…was either frozen or thrown out if it wouldn’t freeze well. We devoured the strawberries because they were in season here in Florida and are the best strawberries ever. We also went ham on the mac & cheese. And I had fajitas the night I made them, plus pot roast and greens two nights that week. But it was too much food, and even the things that were amazing got boring after eating the same thing over the course of the week. Plus, when I come home tired after work, I don’t feel like eating anything too heavy.
- Solution: Make smaller portions of less carb-laden foods. Prep vegetables to be thrown into a skillet for a quick stir-fry, have more snacks of fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Anticipate cravings
- Another problem I had was turning to my ready-made meals when I wanted a certain thing that wasn’t on the menu. Like that bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. Or pancakes. Or a standard quiche rather than my experimental vegan quiche.
- Solution: I know what I like. I need to have ingredients prepared to whip up a thing that I will probably crave during the week. If that means cooking bacon now so I can pull a few strips out of the fridge and make a BLT when I get home from work, so be it.
- Predict non-prepped dining
- I didn’t figure in that we would eat outside the house at least one night of the week due to my birthday. Even if we don’t eat out, there may be other occasions where we would prepare special meals rather than utilizing our prepared menu items.
- Solution: Plan for 1(?) non-prepped meal or food event per week. During Week 2, I hosted my annual WrestleMania party, which included an assortment of delicious snacks. During Week 3, we have both my aunt’s birthday, plus my uncle will be coming to stay with us for a while.
- Don’t bother with breakfast
- I made an item for breakfast, and I don’t eat breakfast. I’d rather spend a few more minutes sleeping in the morning than get up and try to eat. Also, if I do eat in the morning, I either like something sweet like the sugary cereals, or I like high-protein, high-fat options like bacon and eggs. Healthy breakfasts are hard for me to stomach.
- Solution: You guys are on your own to find meal prep breakfast ideas that work for you. If you have a favorite recipe, please feel free to share it in the comments.
As you can see, I’m struggling to juggle real life and my blog life. I can’t find time right now to edit my videos for each week of meal prep. I might find time to release a video for each week later and attach the video to the post, or I might edit it all together into the “I tried meal prepping for a month” format that a lot of lifestyle vloggers use. The reason this post was a week late was because I kept trying to edit video and couldn’t find time around working and sharing my car with Mom and getting a human amount of sleep.
Until I can find time to edit my videos, I’ll keep meal prepping and recording content. When I get a little more structure in my life, I’ll edit my content and post an in-depth review of what it’s like trying to learn to meal prep when everything is insanity.
This has been my Week 1 post for April Meal Prep! Tune in tomorrow for Week 2, which will feature my new discoveries from my second week of meal prepping. Please leave your thoughts in a comment below, or get in touch with me directly by filling out the form on the contact page.
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