Our First Day Meal Prepping!
Today was exciting as Candice and I spent three evenings picking out meals, writing down ingredients and making a shopping list and finally headed to the store to buy food and then onto dinner prep. We live about 10 minutes away from each other, but in the rural areas of the Willamette Valley, Oregon we are practically neighbors. Looking for recipes and deciding what to cook took more time than I expected, but Pinterest was a great place to find some delicious looking ideas and recipes. We'll see if we can make them taste as great as they looked! Candice is an amazing cook and I am learning as much as I can from her!
Early this morning we headed to Winco for the bulk of our ingredients such as veggies, spices and some meat. At #DoukasFarms we raise our own beef, chicken and pork so it makes it easier shopping in my freezer for some of the items. I had never been to Winco and was surprised by how much cheaper their food was than where I normally go. They also had big barrels of spices, I loved it! I purchased double of what I normally buy and it was half the price! A win/win for me. Our next stop was Costco and we grabbed any of the cheeses and bulk items we couldn't find at Winco. After three hours of shopping (boys were with Grandma and Grandpa) we headed to Candice's house to prep the food.
We prepped the spices, some of the veggies and most of the fruit. We split up the work, I put spices for each meal or portion of the recipe into ziplock backs and used a permanent marker to label each one for each dish, while Candice cut up veggies and we finished with the fruit together. It took about three hours to prep
Veggies best to cut up day of:
- Onions
- Green Onions
-Bell Peppers
*Helpful Prepping Tips:
1. When cutting up jalapeños, do not touch anything but the knife, cutting board and jalapeño, and immediately wash hands once it is bagged!
2. Make sure to label all bags for which dish they are prepped for.
3. Bring a cooler along and buy ice when checking out. Keeps everything fresh and was great for bringing prepped food home.
4. Veggies best to cut up day of:
- Onions
- Green Onions
-Bell Peppers
DATE NIGHT FUN! (For friends, spouse, significant others etc..)
You will need a season of your favorite cooking show (or all the seasons). Take two jars or bowls, and in one have the seasons numbered on separate pieces of paper and in the second jar number all the episodes on separate pieces of paper. Pick one option of each bowl to find out what season and what episode you'll be watching and cooking with. You have to watch part of the show first to find out what you'll need to buy, head to the store together and then enjoy cooking your meal together while watching your favorite cooking show!