Have I got your attention? Are you tired of hearing all the hype about all these fantastic people who spend 2 days creating their family’s entire meals for 1 or 2 months? Full credit goes to these people who do this and for keeping the prices of the meals down to around $1 per serve. For me, it’s too much effort. Instead of trying to make 500 meals for $50 in 50 minutes (and these figures are purely hypothetical), I’d rather keep a well stocked pantry and we can eat whatever we want, whenever we want for a minimal amount of money.

You do what works for your family. Some of these people who have managed to keep their grocery budgets low by cooking up 4 to 6 weeks of meals in one whole weekend are true heroes in my eyes. Personally, I’d rather be doing something else. I know most of my meals are made cheaply because the ingredients are cheap. There’s nothing cheap or nasty about the meals I produce. They are all made from fresh seasonal produce, meat (or protein) that has been purchased for $9.99 per kilo or less, fresh seasonal produce and homebrand pantry staples. The other reason I don’t meal prep or cook this way is because I don’t have the freezer space and to be honest, by the time you’ve defrosted the meals in the microwave, it’s sometimes just as quick to make the meal from scratch and you don’t have those ‘cold spots’ in your microwaved meal as it sometimes happens.

I don’t meal plan either. There are so many variables when it comes to families and their busy schedules. I’ve never been one for meal planning. My planning extends to something like Monday is Burger Night, Tuesday is Chicken Night, Wednesday Pasta night etc etc and that’s subject to change. I know I’ve got all those ingredients in the pantry throughout a fortnightly or even monthly cycle. I shop fortnightly so I can keep the fruit and vegetable supply as fresh as possible, relying on frozen or tinned to get me through times when the fresh has run out.

So, what’s the point of these huge cook ups, cooking in bulk and storing it all in the freezer? Let’s look at some of the reasons why people might consider this to be a good idea and what I do instead.

Saves You Money

For sure, cooking in bulk means buying the ingredients in bulk which will always save you money.  There won’t be any need to duck down to the supermarket for that one ingredient and then you end up spending $50 on stuff you didn’t need.

What I do is budget $150 per fortnight for everything, food, toiletries, cleaning products (if any), pet food etc. Some fortnights I’ll spend right up to the $150 and the next fortnight might only be a top of pantry staples. Any money leftover goes to the next fortnightly shop or I’ll spend it on meat to top up the freezer.

Saves You Time

And what a great time saver cooking like this is. If you’re willing to spend an entire weekend prepping a month or 6 week’s worth of meals, then go for it. I’d prefer not to. I do like to bake on a Sunday afternoon with the kids, for example, and as much as I love cooking, I couldn’t think of anything worse than meal prepping for a whole weekend no matter how much time it was going to save me over the course of 4 to 6 weeks.

What I prefer to do is think of family friendly, easy to cook, quick meals that are ready in no time. I do have a few time saving methods in my recipe regime such as cooking double the amount of rice or pasta and portioning those into family sized serves and popping in the freezer for a quick meal. Honestly, rice or pasta takes 10 minutes to cook. While it’s boiling, it takes no time to chop and fry a bit of onion, brown the meal, add the vegetables and serve.

Same goes for any kind of meal. Use time saving appliances like the slow cooker to prepare your entire meal. All you have to do come dinner time is serve it.  If you’re looking for some tasty, healthy slow cooker meals that can be prepped, frozen and then just popped into the slow cooker, this round up of Ultimate Whole30 Slow Cooker Freezer Meal Plan from New Leaf Wellness could be just the time saver you need. No need to worry about microwave reheating. Just take your partially prepped meal from the freezer and throw it into the slow cooker in the morning.

It’s Healthier

Yes, cooking your month’s worth of meals could be healthy for some. You’ve already decided on what you’re having for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks, in advance and you won’t have extra food in the pantry to tempt you. 

It’s neither here nor there but I try to limit the amount of cooking time on vegetables so as much nutrition is retained. I think by cooking it, freezing it then reheating it in the microwave you might lose nutritious value. I’m not really sure if this is the case but I can still maintain a healthy meal plan with the ingredients I buy. Everything I make is from scratch. I know exactly what ingredients are going into my meals. 

Quick meals on busy nights like homemade pizzas, burgers or Mexican meals like tacos or nachos can be packed full of nutrition like salad ingredients, lean meat, bulked out with extra vegetables or legumes or keep it entirely vegetarian for a meat free option. 

Find What Works for You

I tip my hat to these people who manage their family’s meals by spending a whole weekend cooking them up and freezing them but I’m here to tell you there are other ways. It’s the way I’ve been grocery shopping and cooking all my life. I run my kitchen like a restaurant, that is I have a fortnightly ‘menu’, I only buy those ingredients for that fortnight’s meals and I keep those ingredients topped up. The ‘menu’ is seasonal so it changes from winter to summer. I can have a meal on the table in 30 minutes or less and it’s cooked fresh. I have many time saving meal prep ideas that won’t fill up your freezer and best of all, you won’t be a slave to your kitchen and your weekends will be free to do what you want to do with your family.

If you’d like to know how I manage to run my kitchen like a restaurant and the steps you need to take to do this, you can find out more here.