Meal Planning S5: Cleanout, Plan, and Prep

Unfortunately, I have been down and out for about six days so the veggies and meats that I had thawing went bad during this time.  I had to throw out four chicken tenders and a bag of flat iron steak strips. So this is me catching up and meal planning for the upcoming weeks.

My meal planning was a bit hap-hazard as I skipped the planning and mostly focused on replacing items.  So I have ingredients to make beef and noodles, chicken lasagna, two different chicken marinades, and nachos.  I added some rice noodles and extra beef broth so I may get to try out an Asian-style stew or stir fry but these ingredients will keep in case I can’t.

Meal Planning/Grocery Shopping:

This time around I only looked at a list of possible meals just to get groceries and prep started.  Then I created my Instacart list.  I added items that I was running out of, like olive oil, after I added the items that I needed to replace such as meats and veggies.  I have steaks, rice, and several key seasoning on hand already.

I made the list Saturday night and remembered another item overnight which I added then.  I didn’t submit the order until I woke up Sunday just so that I was sure I could be there to receive the frozen items.

The window for delivery was nearly three hours and I couldn’t count on the delivery being before lunch but based on the texts I suspected I would have items prior to me needing to eat lunch.

Meat Prepping:

There’s really only one meal that takes too long and requires too many steps to make during a weekday.  That’s the Beef & Noodle Soup.  I make it in the crockpot but theoretically, it could be done on the stove but still may not be ready to eat by supper time if started around 4 p.m.

This order included stew beef, ground beef, raw unfrozen chicken breast, frozen steak/stir fry (this one is new to me).  It also included fresh spinach and fresh cilantro.

I did the chicken last.  I feel like chicken is the riskiest raw meat so I wanted to handle it last.  So I started the stew beef in the slow cooker first which includes adding it and salt and pepper.  Easy.  The frozen stir fry beef thing just went right in the freezer.  I’m not sure if it’s pre-cut but if it’s started out frozen it might as well stay frozen. 

Then I pressed out three 1/3 lb hamburger patties with my Tupperware hamburger press and froze the three patties.  The remaining ground hamburger I started in my colander over the stove to cook the ground hamburger for lunch and the remaining amount to freeze.

Then I labeled two bags for each of the chicken marinades that I want to try new this round.  The first is Cilantro Lime and the second is Basil Balsamic from Pinterest.  There are so many options here but the hardest part of this process really is judging the time to thaw out, which is longer than overnight.

I prepped the dressings into the bottom of the freezer Ziplock’s prior to cutting open the chicken.  Then I trimmed the chicken and added one chicken breast to the Balsamic marinade and two to the Cilantro Lime marinade.  I wasn’t sure how much chicken I was receiving in this order since it was just listed in pounds.

Cleanup:

I did a quick clean-up before handling the chicken and less between handling the beef, which wasn’t messy, and the herbs.  When I cleaned up the ground beef, I scrubbed spots off the pans and ran one load in my drawer dishwasher (like having just a lower drawer of a dishwasher).  I wiped the counters with diluted vinegar which I’ve posted why I do this before.

This process was started around 9 when I ordered groceries and 1 p.m. when I finished cleaning up.  The beef stew is still going and the second load of dishes is waiting for the dishwasher to finish.

Meal Planning:

So now I’m prepped for the following meals:

• Beef and Noodles
• Spinach Chicken Lasagna
• Chicken and rice
• Beef stir-fry
• Beef broth stew
• Steak and veggies
• Chicken Parmesan
• Nachos/tacos (no lettuce though)
• Chicken pesto
• Chicken pesto pizza

Additionally for snacks:

• Cheeze-its
• Babybel
• Single serving chips
• Fruit popsicles
• Peach crumble
• Soda
• Sunchips

Sides:

• Rice
• Chips
• Brussel sprouts – oven ready
• Cauliflower rice
• Broccoli
• (other frozen veggies)

I’m a bit concerned that the Pesto may be too old but every time I’ve tried to order Basil, they deliver very small packages which won’t make enough Pesto to go far.  However, I could pretty easily stop in and get pre-made pesto if really needed.  Pre-made pesto often includes cashews which I don’t tolerate as well as pine nuts.

I must be making progress as I was able to clean out the fridge faster, meal plan, and meat prep in two days for a total of 4 hours.  Upcoming posts will include how the marinades turned out and what meals I ended up making from them.

The freezer is getting rather disorganized so I may add a bonus freezer organizing to see if I can get that more manageable.  I have bins that are meant to act as drawers but things are piled on the bins right now, so it’s not working as planned.