Let’s talk MEAL PREP. Why meal prep at all? We have talked to many home providers and have narrowed it down to the BIG 3! The top three reasons why it is so beneficial to meal prep.
First and foremost, there is usually only ONE OF YOU. One provider, many children. There just isn’t time to spend more than 20 or 30 minutes in the kitchen. Calamity could easily strike!
Secondly, cost is a major factor. So many providers have asked us how they can save money, trim their food budget and have less waste. We have answers.
Finally, nutritional balance goes out the window without true planning. Menus fall into a deeply rutted road, leaving a provider attempting to dodge the potholes of nuggets, sticks, sammies and mac.
Maybe meal prep has always sounded overwhelming and you have no idea where to begin. Well, start here. Read on, my friend. We’ve got you covered.
It’s All About PLANNING AHEAD
We can thank Benjamin Franklin for the famous quote, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to FAIL.” Absolute truth, whether you are planning meals for your childcare, your family or planning for your retirement. Having a solid menu plan in place will lower your daily stress level, make more efficient use of your time and save you money. Worry, another term for stress, takes a lot of time and energy from a person.
With preplanned menus, you won’t have to waste time searching for new meal ideas to lift you out of your food rut. With the right preplanned menus, you may even have a grocery list provided for you, saving you more time.
Following an efficiently made grocery list that reuses components and minimizes waste will definitely save you money over wandering the grocery store aisles, randomly tossing in foods that you hope to get used up in the coming week.
Preparing meals from scratch, with preplanned menus, will create an improved nutritional balance throughout your week of menus. More variety, more vegetables, more different protein sources will be added to your line up.
Most importantly, you will have greater peace of mind, knowing that you have everything you need on hand and your meals are going to come together with ease.
There are many resources available to you to help you. The national CACFP offers great ideas, Amazon has a litany of cookbooks dedicated to advance meal preparation. The Kid Menus is a wonderful choice for preplanned meals, with a grocery list that meets all CACFP requirements and many of the optional best practices, for a very minimal weekly fee.
What is peace of mind worth to you?
Plan for SUCCESS:
The first step in building your plan for success is to keep it SIMPLE! No need to re-invent the proverbial wheel(s). Rather, it’s least cumbersome to chose options that are easy, effective, and proven to work.
1. Participating in the CACFP
We hope that you have chosen to participate in the CACFP program, ensuring that you will receive reimbursement for the healthy meals you are serving to the children in your care. We believe the CACFP guidelines can be excellent parameters for healthy eating. However, since the guidelines are component based, they are flexible enough to allow a provider to choose the least healthy option within the guideline’s parameters.
2. Done-for-you meal plans from us (The Kid Menus)!
Whether you participate in the CACFP program or not, The Kid Menus will help you make the most healthy choices while staying within the guideline’s parameters. Choose a set of menus (or build your own) that meet the program requirements, offer variety and nutritional balance, and include interchangeable components that are cost-effective and that children will enjoy. Shop once on the weekend and have a prep session when you get home to wash, chop, brown, and/or bag your meal components. This will save you a great deal of time throughout the week.
3. Compliment your plan with family-style eating
You can minimize waste by using components in multiple meals or snacks and by serving meals with a family-style service. Family style is great for encouraging independence in young children. They often eat better, with less complaints when they are allowed to make their own choices.
Plan your STRATEGIES:
There are any number of great ways to strategize when it comes to efficient meal prep. Let’s discuss your options.
- If you are planning ahead for one week at a time, consider planning your meals around the grocery store sale flyer to capture the best prices for the week.
- Purchase bulk or “family” packs of different meats. A cost-effective way to do this would be to purchase one family pack of a different meat each week, then package it down to the most usable portion sizes, write the date on each package and freeze. After just one month of this habit, you would have numerous packages of four different proteins in your freezer, such as beef, chicken, pork and fish. Just add eggs and you would have five different proteins lined up for each week’s meals.
- If you are planning further ahead, like a month of meals, you might benefit from a seasonality chart, to help you figure out what foods are currently in season and readily available. Many providers enjoy growing a garden with the help of their kiddos and incorporating those vegetables into their meal patterns.
- Other great strategies include cooking from scratch and buying only unprocessed foods; cross utilizing fresh or perishable ingredients to make sure they get used up; making larger batches of staples (like brown rice) to use several times throughout the week; incorporating plant proteins (nuts, nut butters, edamame, beans, lentils, quinoa, etc); and making simple substitutions from ingredients you already have on hand. Just do a quick Google search “substitution for eggs” and see all the ideas that come up.
- Themed days or weeks can tie neatly into your curriculum and help the children want to try new things. Be sure that you have the right kitchen equipment to make meal prep smooth and fast.
- Finally, it is a great practice to date everything that you place in the fridge or freezer. It isn’t necessary to purchase fancy or expensive labels. I personally like to use blue painter’s tape and a black sharpie. The tape comes off easily and doesn’t leave a sticky residue on reusable dishes. If you are using freezer bags, of course you can write the date directly on the bag.
Plan for THE DAYS YOU FAIL:
I will be the first to admit that the best laid plans sometimes just don’t come together. Some days, there are just too many roadblocks to allow for success. That might signify a “failure” of your first plan, but why not have a back up plan already in place?
- Use your leftovers creatively. For instance, did you have roast with potatoes and carrots last night for dinner? Turn the leftover meat into a hot beef sandwich with instant potatoes and brown gravy for lunch the next day. Lots of meals can be remade into something a little different a couple of days later. You might be repeating a protein more than once in a week, but “desperate times call for desperate measures”, right?
- Make intentional leftovers by doubling recipes. A double batch of beef lasagna could feed the family as well as make a couple of freezer lunches for the daycare kiddos. Open a fruit and vegetable while you reheat the lasagna and lunch is done.
- A well-stocked pantry/freezer is another great way to make sure that tough days don’t derail the meal plan train. CACFP best practices call for including as many fresh fruits and vegetables as possible, but there is nothing wrong with having two or three meal plans/ideas that you can substitute on a busy morning and still have a creditable lunch ready within 20-30 minutes. Nutritional density may suffer somewhat in favor of speed and convenience, but you can always get back on track the next day. This is the appropriate time to occasionally serve those nuggets or sticks, along with an additional protein like cheese or yogurt. Use our (pantry checklist) to make sure you have the best non-perishable staples on hand for the days when something different is called for.
Meal prep doesn’t have to be overwhelming! Investigate some great resources, print and keep them nearby along with your weekly or monthly menu plans. Work at getting into a planning and prepping routine. Strive to trim a little time off each week, challenging yourself to get faster at managing the process. Before you know it, planning your meals will be a fun challenge rather than dreaded boredom.
You can do this and we can help you!
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