Does cooking real food at home feel extra difficult sometimes?

You know it’s what’s best for you and your health, but there are weeks and even months that it just feels out of reach.

You don’t have any fun recipes you are interested in, or haven’t taken the time to look any up. You haven’t made time to prep anything. and the last thing you feel like doing on Sunday is spend hours in the kitchen, cooking, prepping, and then cleaning.

 

I’ve been there.

And the last couple of weeks, so have some of my clients.

I’ve noticed a trend with many of them, that know they need real, home cooked food to feel their best, but they just are’t motivated to do it.

So I’ve offered them a suggestion, and I figure I might as well share it with you, too.

 

It’s called my Rule of 2

Here’s how it works:

Do just two things to prep food for the week- focus on prepping protein and veggies.

 

 

 

To me, protein and veggies can feel like a big hurdle to have to make during a busy weekday. I don’t feel like washing, chopping, and then cooking vegetables, and protein just feels like it takes sooo long. That is, unless you are doing each when you have time over the weekend, instead of having to do it before cooking dinner.

My Rule of 2!

 

Veggies:

Each weekend, buy 3-5 vegetables you and your family enjoys. Think up a few ways you might want to use them (in a stir fry, roasted, air-fried, etc.) and throw them in your cart.

When you get home, or sometime before the week starts, just wash and chop them. You don’t have to have a master plan for them, just get them washed and prepped to have in a meal. This will take precious time off of cooking dinner and will make you more amped to use all of the prepped produce. It’s like you are being your own sous chef!

You can take it a step further and actually cook some of the veggies up if you want so they are easy to enjoy the first few days of the week. I like to do this with veggies like sweet potatoes, beets, and squash as they take a little longer to cook. But this step isn’t imperative. Just will yourself to prep some veggies and watch how you are so much more inclined to throw them in the oven or sauté them quickly for dinner each night.

 

Protein:

Protein just feels like such a hurdle when I’m figuring out dinner, anyone else?

But not if I’ve already prepped something for the week.

 

Here’s what I do-

I think of 2-3 proteins I want to have for the week. I make a big batch of one on Sunday, usually a slow cooker shredded chicken or roast that I can eat from for a few days. Then I think of a couple of quicker proteins to have ready for the end of the week, like tofu, shrimp, or a few pieces of salmon.

It might look like this… I roast a whole chicken on Sunday that I can use the meat from for salads, soups, wraps, or bowls for the first few days. Mid week I make a sheet-pan meal with salmon and the veggies that were already prepped, and at the end of the week I make a slow cooker chili with ground beef. In this example, I only prepped the chicken because the rest of the meals were 10 minutes prep with the proteins, making them super easy!

While I’m roasting the chicken on Sunday, I would wash and chop the veggies for the week, totaling about 20 minutes of prep and 40 minutes of passive cooking.

 

Here’s another example-

Sunday I do a slow cooker Chicken Carnitas recipe while I wash and chop broccoli, asparagus, snap peas, delicata squash, and bell peppers. I have shrimp and steaks in the freezer. Monday + Tuesday I roast the bell peppers and broccoli while I make a quick batch of rice for dinner, having the chicken with rice and roasted veggies (with the yummy sauce it’s already in). Wednesday and Thursday I quickly sauté asparagus and snap peas along with the shrimp for a stir fry (taking 10 minutes) and enjoy it with some leftover rice. Friday I thaw a couple of steaks in the morning and then bbq them while the squash roasts in the oven (delicata roasts super quickly!), and I throw them on a bed of greens and top with goat cheese and toasted nuts for a yummy salad.

Each day I’m spending 15 minutes or less cooking because I’ve already got so much prepped and ready to go.

 

This is especially helpful for people that don’t like eating the same thing each night!

 

What do you think? Is prepping two foods- vegetables and protein- easy enough for you on the weekends? Let me know what you like to prep below!

And if you could use even more help with meal prepping, I have an entire course dedicated to it!

It’s my Batch Cooking Framework Course and you can enroll here!

 

XO,

Kelsey