Mealtime Monday

Alright, here is the low down on my prep night. It took me 1 hour and 7 minutes to complete the following:

• 2 fish taco recipes complete with black bean corn salsa
• 2 breakfast casseroles
• 2 Greek chicken sauces
• black bean burgers for 2 families
• boiled chicken*

*The boiled chicken is actually for one of next weeks meals, but while I had the chicken out I thought I would just go ahead and throw it in a pot of boiling water.

Sooooo if you count up my meals you'll see that I only prepped for 4 meals. Now don't panic; I fully intend to feed my family a 5th meal- I simply forgot to thaw my whole chicken fryer. It is safely defrosting in my fridge as I write, so it should be ready for prep on Tuesday night. My bet is that it will take me the full 23 minutes to skin 2 chickens so that will put me right at my 1 hour 30 minute time budget. (Really looking forward to de-skinning that chicken- major sarcasm there!)

Please note- I have not prepared any of my side dishes yet.

Here are my recommendations for final meal prep and food storage

Monday- Breakfast Casserole. This dish was fully prepped Sunday night and stored in fridge "overnight" as recipe directs. I will take casserole out of fridge 30 minutes prior to baking (per recipe instructions). While baking I will prepare our fruit salad.

Tuesday- Greek Chicken Pasta. I have prepped all but the pasta. The chicken, artichoke, feta sauce is being stored in my fridge. On Tuesday night while the pasta is cooking, I will toss the chicken sauce in a skillet and briefly warm. I will then stir in the pasta and serve.

Wednesday- Rotisserie-Style Chicken. Tuesday night I will skin chicken, add spices and place in crockpot. Wednesday morning I will plug in crockpot and cook all day on low. If I can fit my foil wrapped bake potatoes in the crockpot I will cook them with the chicken.

Thursday- Fish Tacos with Black Bean and Corn Salsa. I sprinkled the recommended spices on the frozen fish and then placed the fish back into the freezer. I stored the black bean salsa in fridge. Wednesday I will transfer fish from freezer to fridge to thaw. Thursday night I will either bake or grill fish.

Friday- Parents Night Out at Church- aka DATE NIGHT!!!

Saturday- leftovers or out

Sunday- Black Bean Burgers. I am taking a risk here, but I have frozen my black bean burger patties. I am slightly nervous about the freeze second to the egg substitute ingredient- but feel fairly certain it will all be ok. I'll let you know. Sunday morning I will transfer to fridge and then grill after church. Cross your fingers.