Time Saving Tip - 1

I've read many, many times that one of the easiest ways to save time during the week when it comes to meal prep is by taking one day to cook all of the meals for the week and freeze them.  Well you know what...if I'm looking for a time saver, chances are I don't have a whole day to stay in the kitchen in cook, and if I DO have the time, I'd rather spend it doing something else.

So far, this has been one of the best time-savers I've discovered, when it comes to food prep.  While I don't have one full day available to cook meals for the week, I do have a free hour or two every once in a while.  I utilize it by prepping ingredients for meals that I plan at the beginning of the week.

There are a lot of ingredients that we use typically in a week, that require chopping, slicing, etc. (Including snacks for my son, who is a fruit/veggie nut).  I find that I spend most of my time cooking cutting/chopping things up, so this really saves a tremendous amount of time.  By dicing up, in bulk, things like onions, bell peppers, carrots, celery, apples, melon, etc. you can easily save time without sacrificing an entire day. 

Plus, this day happens to be my son's favorite day of the week (prep day)...I let him stand next to me and gorge himself on melon while I cut things up to put in tupperwares/baggies.  Just cut up ingredients you know you will use during the week and save them for later.  Then, all you need to do is dig out the tupperware later and ignore your knife block. 

Voila!  My son's snacks for the week, cut up and ready to go!


Besides cutting up fruits and veggies, I also sometimes cook rice in bulk ahead of time.  Just anything you can cook ahead in just an hour or two of free time--it helps, trust me!