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My favorite: silicone muffins trays (especially jumbo.) You can freeze a whole bunch of anything - soups, chili, beans, grains, etc. - and then remove the little hockey pucks when frozen and move to a different container. You then get uniform sizes and can grab "two chili and one rice" for a meal.
@@peggymarie2524 Mine are jumbo sized, and held together in sets of six muffins. They're a little floppy to get into the freezer, so I have a small "cookie sheet" that came with the toaster oven that I use as a base. Once frozen, I'll pop items into large freezer bags and then grab what I need. The freezer bag can be reused over and over. In the summer, I'll use the same trays to make big ice cubes! (Edit: well, not "cubes" so much as hockey pucks.)
I was in the coolest class in sixth grade. We'd do country days, where we'd learn about the country, listen to their music, make and bring dishes from the country to share for lunch, and really dive into the experience. Those lessons really stuck with me, and I've spent 25 years living and working overseas. You could plan a country week and watch some shows from or about that place, listen to radio or music from that place, and have a special candlelight meal to celebrate the whole experience!
Monday-Indian, Tuesday-Mexican/Latin, Wednesday - Chinese/Japanese/Thai, Thursday- Italian/ Mediterranean, Friday - Easy/ Pita Pizzas- Casserole, veggie burgers and air fries, Saturday-Soup/stew, Sunday- soup/ stew. Either Sat or Sunday is a leftover day depending on what we’re doing that weekend. Lunches are always whatever we had the night before or need to use up that way dinner isn’t the same thing every night and your using/ planning to use leftovers 😊
2:03 There are also a few web sites devoted to "use up things in my cabinets." You can sometimes have AI/GPT/Bard success: "I need a vegan recipe that uses up capers and rainbow chard."
@@LetsEatPlants I was just poking around and found Supercook. It's got a decent interface. In the past I've just relied on Internet searching all of the ingredients in the search box. The AI/chat tools are pretty good, too.
I haven’t been tempted once to stop for any fast food since I started this method of preparation for my meals. You always have the best tips and suggestions. And my Instant Pot is finally my friend. 😊 I just wish I had a bigger freezer!
I didn't know you can freeze lemon zest. Game changer. Thank you, Maddie. Labeling is another thing I need to work on. 😂 Garam masala, chat masala, roasted hot chilli powder, all spice are all spice blends.
I love videos with tips, tricks and hacks. You give good tips in all your videos. And I like that you vary in content. Sometimes a meal prep video, other times a recipe and now a video with tips.
Thank you for all your practical advice! I like that you move along and give so many great common sense tips to help us all eat better by putting a little upfront work into the process. It really does make a huge difference to have everything all set to go. Thanks again!
It really does make a difference when I wash the veggies and prep grains and beans once a week! I’ve been doing this since I started following you, thanks 🙏 Actually, I learned how to do brown rice, oats, and beans in the instant pot from your videos 🧡
My husband and I just prepped our food for the week last night. It makes mealtime a cinch! We're having "fried" rice for dinner and all it's going to take is mixing and heating. All the components are already cooked even! I'm loving this! And you are such an inspiration!
Thank you Maddie for this great video. I will use all these hacks because I'm always trying to come up with something to eat for dinner. I'm just beginning to meal prep and it's really helpful. I just have to stay consistent.😊
Oh yay! I love hearing that!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Consistency and routine are definitely key but don’t beat yourself up if you have a slow learning curve! Took me a while to get into a regular pattern with it (I’m talking years!). Just starting is already great! 🤗🤗
Great ideas - thanks! One thing I do being a solo prepper is to pick a week's default food "almost always potato and salad" and have that for dinner for three days and for the others I do two days of leftovers (frozen prep from prior weeks) and two days of new prep. For lunch on the non potato days I usually do a salad so I just need to come up with three lunches that are usually a wrap or burrito. It might seem like a lot of repeats but different sauces make a huge difference. For example creamed potatoes and peas with an oriental orange salad is totally different than baked potato with ranch salad. Breakfast for me is usually the same everyday but Sundays - waffle day!
The freezer is your friend. Seriously put away half of a meal to go right to the freezer. Granted it needs to be a meal that you really like. If you don’t like it you’ll never defrost and use 😊
Most items are still good after the “expiration “ date. Best by dates can certainly be extended. Use your five senses to help determine when something truly needs to be trashed. I’ve been doing this for many years. I’ve never gotten sick, and save money and food waste. Those dates are guidelines and the government/companies just covering their you-know-whats.
When it comes to batches, some things REALLY lend themselves to it more. You had mentioned in a past video making pancakes and waffles in batch and freezing them. Their shape stores well, and most of the work is in the prep and cleanup, so best to get that done ONCE. Edit: ah, you covered that at the end here too!
Good point! Yes I feel like pancakes and waffles are perfect bc I hate making them and so if I’m going to do the work I’d better be making a triple batch. 😂 Plus I used to love buying freezer waffles and homemade are so much healthier and cheaper!
That’s a great question! It definitely depends on the size of your family. My husband and I (2 ppl) use about 3-4 of the big ones (holding beans grains and cooked veggies), and quite a few of the smaller sized as well (I have at least 8, but not all of them are constantly in rotation). I also have 4 minis for dressings and a few medium-small for hummus, or other leftovers. Sometimes some will be in the freezer for a couple months so I like to have extra, but I always suggest to start with less and you can always add to the collection!
I would love to see BROL meal ideas? Dr Gregor uses the mix in sweet and savory ways - not sure if that’s a theme but BROL is supposed to be healthy and I think it can be used in lots of ways?
I hear ya!! I do a lot straight into the freezer if I know I won’t use them up within a week. Otherwise, just start looking for recipes for repurposing right away, otherwise I’ll forget. 😆😆
