How To Meal Prep & Shop (Corona Virus Edition ) Part II

Ok, guys so I am just about 2 weeks into my month challenge of planning, shopping and prepping for one whole month and so far it’s going great so I wanted to update everyone. If you missed the first post about the shopping trip for a month you can check that out here.

I shopped on April 4th, so I officially started my month on the 5th. Below is what we have eaten so far. Don’t mind the first few days I forgot to record breakfast and lunch and not everything got photographed.

5th- Dinner: Cheeseburgers, fries, and coleslaw

6th- Dinner: Thanksgiving Casserole

7th- Breakfast: Eggs in a tortilla

Lunch: Dinner leftovers

Dinner: Peking Pork

8th- Breakfast: Banana bread

Lunch: Dinner leftovers

Dinner: Baked mustard chicken, green beans and baked sweet potatoes

9th- Breakfast: Gluten-Free Toast with peanut butter and jelly

Lunch: Hummus veggie wrap

Dinner: Chicken and broccoli pasta alfredo

10th- Breakfast: Cereal

Lunch- Dinner leftovers

Dinner: Fish Tacos

11th- Breakfast: Eggs, hashbrowns, & sausage

Lunch: Turkey sandwich with coleslaw

Dinner: Black bean and rice bowl with veggies

12th- Breakfast: Eggs and potatoes +peeps (because it was Easter morning)

Lunch: Caprese sandwich

Dinner: Easter dinner of ham, scalloped potatoes, and green beans & gluten-free carrot cake

13th- Breakfast: Eggs & homemade cinnamon buns

Lunch: Tuna salad sandwiches, coleslaw and carrots, and hummus

Dinner: Easter dinner leftovers

14th- Breakfast: Toast with peanut butter

Lunch: Gluten Free “hot pocket” from Aldi (these were buried in the freezer from way back when)

Dinner: Vegetable pizza

15th- Breakfast: Eggs with veggies and potatoes

Lunch: Smoothie (for me), leftover pizza for Kevin

Dinner: Pork with mushrooms (Recipe to come soon)

Some things I’ve done during the last 2 weeks that have helped:

-One night I prepped chicken which I turned into 2 meals. The chicken breast were huge so I filet them in half (basically into chicken cutlet size), we each had half for dinner for our baked mustard chicken which left half that I cut into smaller pieces which I used for the chicken Alfredo dinner the next night and then the other half of a chicken breast got steamed and pureed for little man into some baby food so I was able to stretch that while still having enough protein for each meal.

-We had some veggies that were looking less than “fresh” so those got used first and/or I blanch cooked them and then froze them so we could eat them in a week or two and still have produce.

-With the exception of Easter (because it was a holiday and I wanted the good stuff) we have been mixing our fresh eggs with egg beaters. When I had gone to the store a few weeks ago they were limiting cartoons of eggs to 1 dozen per family but you could also get egg beaters which I don’t mind especially if you add in some veggies and cheese.

-We were able to get 2 dozen farm fresh eggs locally a few days after I had gone to Publix.

-We had the good fortune of being able to go to a food pantry for foster families last week which had some fresh produce and cheese as well as a large container of coleslaw so there has been a lot of coleslaw.

-And again, I keep a pretty well-stocked pantry which makes things much easier too.

-For our Easter dinner, we had seen my parents that day for a backyard socially distanced visit and mom had brought me some of their ham which I had forgotten to get at the store and some homemade gluten-free carrot cake. My parents have been completely quarantined for weeks except for our backyard visits so I knew it was safe.

-The thanksgiving casserole made a ton of food so we ate it for dinner one night, lunch the following day, and I took one serving to make some baby food for the baby and then froze the rest so there is enough for one more dinner later in the month. This is a dish I’ve made for years and I know freezes pretty well so I didn’t hesitate. I also made some banana bread of which I cut in half, we ate half for a few days and I froze the other half, which will make a nice treat later in the month too when we won’t have any bananas.

I’m currently feeling pretty good about how the month is going so far and loving the challenge of having to eat what is in the house and what is planned verse just whatever I”m in the mood for and swing by the store to pick up the items to make. I feel like we are eating a good variety and extra conscious of what we are eating.

Today, I set out to go through the rest of the menu and roughly plan out what we will eat when to make sure that all the fresh veggies get eaten before they go bad and that we have what we need for reach recipe. For example, our lettuce supply is only going to last about a week so I know I want to make our next round of fish tacos while we still have lettuce and tomatoes whereas chili and cornbread require no fresh ingredients so that is being added to the end of the month.

Here is what menu items I have left in rough order of how we are going to eat them:

Pork Ramen (Because I have pork leftover from last nights dinner)

Lasanga (because I have fresh mozzarella I need to eat)

Chicken, Couscous and Veggies (yellow squash and snap peas)

Sweet Potato Lentil Stew

Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes with Peas and Carrots

Fish Tacos (while we still have lettuce and tomatoes)

Mexican Quinoa Bake

Chicken with Carrots and Wild Rice

Tofu Curry (to use the last of the fresh veggies)

Gluten-free Chicken and Dumplings with Peas

BBQ Pork and Coleslaw (to finish out the cabbage)

Broccoli Cheese Soup (frozen)

Black Bean & Rice Bowl

Chicken Tikki Marsala with frozen Broccoli and Spinach

Pesto Chicken with Tortellini (pesto is frozen)

Chili & Cornbread

Mac-N-Cheese with Ground Beef

Thanksgiving Casserole (leftovers in the freezer)

Trader Joes Orange Chicken and Fried Rice ( in the freezer)

I promise to keep you updated over the next few weeks. Be sure to follow on Instagram for a behind the scenes look at each day’s meals. And check back for more recipes!