Mom Food signifies food that YOU like. Here are some meal prep tips to make sure you get your Mom Food and eat well.
There’s hardly a mom I know who won’t go to great lengths to make sure her kids eat well. Even if she indulges them in sugar-coated Choco-Bombs every once in awhile, I think most of us have clued in that what our kids eat effects their behavior, growth, and development.
Yet, there’s many a mom among us, ahem, who has herself skipped meals or counted a Dr. Pepper and leftover Halloween candy as a meal.
It’s easy to overlook our own health and well being while we’re looking after everyone else’s. Don’t get me wrong, when I was young and svelte, chasing after a bunch of little kids, I told myself I was invincible. I had to be or I’d fall down crying. As I’ve “matured”, I’ve realized more and more that Mom food matters.
Mom food? Yes. Mom food. Maybe you skip meals because you cannot look at another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Maybe there just doesn’t seem to be time in between school drop offs. Maybe you feel that it’s too self-indulgent to…. stop and have a meal.
Let’s get some things straight: You matter. You matter to your family. Therefore, your health matters. Therefore what you eat matters. End of story.
How do you get to this place of eating regular, healthy meals without paying a fortune or letting all the balls drop? With some savvy meal prep, that’s how.
Mom Food: Meal Prep to Make Sure YOU Eat Well
Meal prep is nothing new, but man, it is selling like hot cakes in book stores and on social media. It’s the simple practice of prepping food in advance in order to make meals easier all week long. On a good week I do this for my husband’s and my lunches, and it has been a game changer.
How can you make this happen at your house? There’s a basic formula that you can use in order to make Mom food meal prep quick and easy.
The meal prep process for Mom Food
By definition, Mom Food signifies food that YOU like. In this cooking scenario, you don’t have to consider anyone else’s preferences. You’re making food for YOU, so make what you love.
1. Choose a protein to cook in bulk.
This might be boneless, skinless chicken breast, ground turkey, or even hard cooked eggs. Since we’re looking at a week’s worth of lunches, cook enough for 3 to 4 servings per person. If you’re pressed for time, pick up a rotisserie chicken and carve it up.
2. Prepare some salad greens.
You can never go wrong with salad for lunch, particularly if you load it high with protein, veggies, whole grains, and legumes.
3. Roast or saute some veggies.
That said, maybe you’re not up for salad every day this week. No problem, roast or saute some of your veggies to add variety, even to those salads.
4. Cook some grains.
A pot of rice or quinoa will be good all week and can be mixed and matched in so many different ways.
5. Cook some beans (or open a can).
Beans are another easy ingredient to add to your meal prep.
6. Mix up some dressings and sauces.
Homemade dressing is so much better than the bottled kind! Make a big batch to treat yourself with all week long!
Now that you’ve got your components all lined up, you can do one of two things:
1. Store them in covered containers in the fridge. I love these Pyrex with lids. This will allow you some flexibility to how you mix and match your prepped ingredients.
2. Assemble everything into lunches. This is most typically what I do. I make a stack for my husband and a stack for me. We use these meal prep containers because they are lightweight for taking on the road, and cheap enough that we can dispose of them when they get weird.
As you can see, this process is pretty simple. It takes about 90 minutes from start to clean kitchen, but it’s so worth it! You’ll have a stack of yummy lunches, Mom Food, to enjoy all week long!
Want to make it even easier?
Maybe you’re up to here in to-do’s and figuring out this lunch cooking plan thingy is just too much. Sure you can cook it, but figuring it all out right now is JUST TOO MUCH. I hear your cries, sister.
How about a little help? In Mom Food Lunches I provide you with the recipes and cooking plan to make sure you feed yourself all week long.
It’s a week’s meal plan that you can cook up in 90 minutes or less that includes:
- five quick and easy “mom food” recipes
- recipe labels so that you can meal prep in cute little boxes and feel fancy
- a complete grocery list
- an efficient cooking plan so you don’t waste time.
All this works together to make sure YOU eat well — all week long!
Marie
Just came across this post – I recently started making individual mom freezer meals. A bag with seasoned protein, a grain, beans and a scoop of refried beans gets tossed in the fridge to defrost for the next day. Add a handful of spinach and any other toppings (tomato, avocado, salsa, etc), and there’s a filling lunch for mom with minimal effort! It’s really helping me improve my eating habits, always a good thing when you’re setting the example for little ones!
Jessica Fisher
Great strategy!
Kristin Hyman
I’m 2.5 weeks postpartum with our fourth baby. I prepped for lots of dinners in the freezer, and bought some pre-made quality “luxury” items at Costco and Schwan’s for lunches (like noodle bowls and tamales) but spent a half hour cooking fresh veggies to add to my meals just today … peppers/onions/mushrooms for omelets and your sweet potato and zucchini hash which goes as a side with everything, IMO. 🙂 I always roast double or triple the veggies we have for dinner to keep in the fridge for breakfasts and lunches. Having those veggies on hand makes me feel okay with the insane sweet tooth I get when I’m nursing and sleep-deprived. Ha!
Jessica Fisher
Yay for feeding yourself yummy stuff. And congrats on the new little one!
Jo
Great ideas! One thing I do is make an egg bake (add cheese, tomatoes, leftover multi-color peppers I froze, etc.) so I have a good breakfast (or even lunch) with little effort in the mornings. If I ever have the oven hot, it’s a good excuse to cook something like this egg bake that will make my life a little easier!
Jessica Fisher
Sounds like a great idea!