I really look forward to seeing everyone’s Valentine’s recaps, but I don’t have much to recap here, as it was as low key as it gets. I did the grocery shopping Friday morning, so with the fridge stocked and the cold temps outside, we had no reason to go anywhere.
We didn’t leave the house once except for church on Sunday, which made it delightfully low-key. We spent the weekend chatting over coffee on the couch for a couple hours, David learning video editing, me napping and doing chores and the girls running a muck.
I managed to make it through the first half of Spetre on Saturday night before falling asleep at about 8:45, so something tells me the relaxing weekend was much-needed.
Since we had the entire Sunday afternoon up in the air, I decided to try a little something out of my norm and do a massive food prep.
I’m always a fan of Sunday food prep, but I usually do a few small things that give me a jump start on the week. Yesterday, however, I prepped almost everything we needed for the week ahead.
- washed and trimmed the asparagus
- made a batch of freezer breakfast burritos (which I totally messed up buying the right tortillas for because again the store only had taco size and you really need to use the large burrito-sized tortillas)
- leftover burrito filling that I plan to make into breakfast scrambles
- sauteed kale
- homemade tomato soup
- spinach lasagna roll-ups
- homemade veggie broth since my freezer broth bag was full
- chopped all the ingredients for my paleo sausage and veggie bake and vacuum sealed them
All in all, the entire process from prep to a clean kitchen took about 2 hours. It covers all our dinners for the week, minus spaghetti night, which is pretty easy to pull together.
Pros: I feel SUPER prepared. Knowing I don’t have to cook a thing except spaghetti is pretty exciting. I only had to trash the kitchen once. I had David’s help with the girls.
Cons: It took 2 hours, which is a luxury amount of time to have solo in the kitchen. I was worn out.
Luckily, David to the rescue!
We couldn’t resist trying out the hammered Moscow Mule mugs I got him for Valentine’s Day. We tend to lean Kentucky Mule over Moscow, which uses bourbon instead of vodka and with fresh squeezed lime, it was just the refreshment I needed.
Still, I was so tired of being in the kitchen that I didn’t even have the heart left to make our dinner. Lucky for us, my sweet friend Katie dropped us off a little care package that included mac ‘n cheese and these suckers:
Yup, our Valentine’s dinner ended up consisting of a couple homemade double doozies and a Kentucky mule. Do we know how to celebrate or what?!
Oh, I do have one more ‘pro’ to add to the super food prep list: steps!
David gave me a Fitbit Charge HR for Valentine’s day and I had it charged up and ready to go just prior to food prepping. Though it’s a far cry from my 10,000 step a day goal, over 1,000 steps in the kitchen alone isn’t too shabby.
Knowing that tonight’s dinner is ready to be stuck in the oven kind of gives me butterflies, so I’m interested to see how this mega food prep plays out over the week.
Are you a Sunday food prep fan?
Do you cook it batches, freeze things or just wing it through the week?
Or, just tell me about your Valentine’s day! 😉
Heather says
Wow, 2 full hours to food prep that is awesome! I seem to take a lot of naps with the kiddos on the weekends now, so I have let the prepping get away from me. I do however make in batches, so that helps out some especially for weeks I’m really busy. I hope you have a great week and enjoy the easy meal making this week!
Kate says
Sunday food prep is essential for us! Our schedule throughout the week is crazy-busy and there wouldn’t be a way to have healthy wholesome meals everyday without food prep. But it is definitely time consuming. I usually prep a little on Saturday and on Sunday so it’s not such a big chunk of time.
What did you use for the veggie broth? It look delicious!
Have a great week!
Brittany Dixon says
Love the idea to spread it out between Saturday and Sunday! As for the broth- it was a hodge podge of scraps- carrots, celery, potato, onion, kale ribs, parsley and green peppers. It’s always so random- 🙂
John J. says
1000 steps on your new Fitbit. Darn Good. Were you dancing!? We got our 4 plus miles walk in, then filets on the grill, with a champagne warm up, topped of with tasty red wine and truffles. Good V-day!
Brittany Dixon says
Always dancing dad, you know me! 😉 Sounds like a wonderful Valentine’s day! <3
Alyssa @ Renaissancerunnergirl says
The Sunday food prep habit is key to being able to bring my lunch to work and eat dinner at a reasonable time on weeknights. I’m better some weekends than others (this one, not so much…my BF and I just wanted to watch movies and eat sweet potato fries from the diner in the arctic temperatures) but I’m trying to do it most of the time. I knew I could work from home on the holiday today so a frittata and a loaf of banana bread are planned!
Jennifer says
It’s such a good idea to make sure your fridge/pantry is stocked up for the weekend. We ended up eating out way more than like to due to low food inventory. Don’t you love your Fitbit?! I actually got mine last Valentine’s Day and I love it! I’m also really into Moscow Mule’s as well, they are really yummy!
Natasha says
Love Sunday food prep, but it takes a “ridiculous” amount of time out of our day. So as much as I love it, I am going to try a local South African thing, Fitchef and see how that works. We leave so early in the morning, get home late and don’t have time for anything…so hopefully this will help us get back onto track
Our Valentines day was a bit of a dud, tried going to the movies, both walked out of there with a massive migraine (it is so loud) or we just getting old 😉 The restaurants were packed and people everywhere, decided to get grilled chicken, put together a quick salad and that was Valentines meals done for the day, spent the rest of the day binge watching series and snoozing the afternoon away, LOL, we are exciting like that 😉
Brittany Dixon says
I had to laugh at your movie theater comment because I can’t even get David to go to one with me-ha! We are old too 😉
My brother is getting an au pair from South Africa- she comes in May! I can’t wait to ask her questions because I’d love to visit South Africa one day 🙂
Liz @ I Heart Vegetables says
I need to get on board with the food prep thing! It would be so nice to have at least some of the work done when I come home from work! I need to find more things I can prepare in my crockpot 🙂
Sarah S says
I actually don’t mind Sunday food prep! However I’m terrible at meal planning so Sunday food prep doesn’t always happen.
Hilary says
I like to somewhat super prep for the week! Lately I have found the crockpot to be the best invention it really does make life so much easier and cuts down the 2 hours in the kitchen dramatically!
Heather says
2 hours in the kitchen does seem daunting, but I like the idea of having everything pretty much done. I’m thinking once I finally get into the weekly habit of meal planning, doing some major prepping on the weekend will be next since our evenings are always so rushed.
Annie says
I LOVE the idea of Sunday meal prep, but always worries the veggies that I dice on Sunday won’t taste a crisp and fresh by mid week. I’ll be curious to hear how it goes for you!
Brittany Dixon says
I have the same fear so I’ll let you know. I think the vacuum sealing with help with that one meal and the asparagus are for tonight, so it should still be pretty fresh. We shall see! 🙂
Parita @ myinnershakti says
What’s your Fitbit user name? Let’s be friends!
Brittany Dixon says
I didn’t even know I had a user name- HA! I’m clearly still new to this. I’ll look into it!
Julia @ Lord Still Loves Me says
Good, I’m glad you had the relaxing weekend it sounds like you were in need of. After everything, you certainly deserved it.
My Valentine’s Day was atypical to say the least. I’m an RA so I was taking care of some rowdy residents coming back form Muffins and Mimosas. Woo. 😉
Hillary says
I would love to hear more about how you make your veggie broth!
Brittany Dixon says
It’s super simple! I keep a veggie scrap ziplock bag in the freezer and add scraps to it whenever I’m prepping. Carrot scraps, celery, onion, kale ribs, potato peels, etc. When it gets full I toss it all in a pot, cover with water and simmer for a couple hours. Then drain (salt then or salt later) and freeze or use immediately. It’s so easy! Just don’t use too many onions- I learned that one the hard way 😉
Lauren @ Oh Hey! I Like That! says
I just got a FitBit Charge too! I had an injured neck for the past week so I couldn’t exercise, but now that it’s healed, I’ll be back on track this week!
Rachelle says
Normally I would have done meal prepping for the week. Hubs and I both work full time, so in order to have healthy lunches and dinners I have to do a big meal prep. But this Sunday I was under the weather, so our V-day and meal prepping just didn’t happen. I know you will enjoy the much need break that meal prepping provides. Frees up so much time!!