Hi guys, welcome back to my channel and to a huge family Meal Prep. Today, I'm going to be
prepping for the week ahead and I'm going to be making some breakfast, some lunches, snacks, and
three dinners as well. So I hope you really enjoy this video. I hope it inspires you. I personally
love to meal prep and today, I've got the morning free. So I know by doing all of this now, I can
get everything out just once and get everything messy just once. And I know that my future self
is going to thank me for doing this. The boys are always hungry, so I'll have so much food on hand.
And you may also be wondering where I am. I'm actually using my sister-in-law's kitchen today.
Some of you will know we're doing renovations at home and our kitchen has no light,
it has no heating and it's falling apart. So thank you to her for letting me use this space. It's a
beautiful kitchen. I will leave her some food as well. But anyway, let's get into the recipes and
I'll be sure to timestamp them as well and link them down below. So if you're watching
something you think, that's not for me, you can skip ahead to the other recipes. And as always,
if you're new, I would love you to subscribe. But with all that said, let's get into the Meal Prep.
First off in this meal prep, I'm going to be making some pancakes. I love to have these
in the freezer. They freeze so well. And it's very easy to just get them out when you want them,
stick them into the toaster and then your kids can have a delicious breakfast. They're also perfect
for a bit more of a treat breakfast on the weekend with maple syrup and berries.
And I will link this recipe down below, but being originally from Canada, I feel like I could
make these in my sleep and I am making a double batch today because I just really want to have
a good amount of stock in the freezer. So I'm just beating up four eggs. I'm also adding
in about 600 mil of milk, but obviously this is a double batch, so that might seem like a lot.
So I mix that all together in a bowl. And then in another bowl, I mix up the self-raising flour,
about 600 grams today, and then I'm also going to add in some baking powder, which makes it
nice and fluffy. And if you want to make them a bit more sweet, you can add a bit of caster
sugar in at this stage, but I don't bother because the kids put so much maple syrup on them anyway,
they're pretty sweet. And then you basically just mix the bowl of the dry ingredients with the bowl
of the wet ingredients. And if I'm not sure about the consistency, if I ever think it's a bit runny,
I'll just add a little bit more flour in until I feel like it's the right consistency.
Then I'm just going to fire up my pan. I actually brought this pan with me today,
but I can only fit two pancakes in at once. So I should have brought a bigger one,
but that's fine because while these are cooking away, I'm going to try and just chop up some veg
and some fruit as well. So I'm going to be multitasking, cutting and prepping all of that
while also just keeping an eye on the pancakes. And I'm just frying it in a little bit of coconut
oil spray. I feel like that's such an easy way. It's also a bit of a healthy option. Obviously you
could use butter or whatever you have, but yes. So now that the pancakes are on, I'm going to fill
a bowl with some water and I'm going to wash all of the berries that I've bought. I really
like to pre-wash them all because I tend to soak the berries in water like this for a good five
minutes and then I'll rinse them off. And then I just know that they're ready to go in the fridge.
I'm also going to wash some veggies, which I'm going to cut so that they can just eat raw veggies
when they're hungry. Or also sometimes I'll just stick raw veggies on the side of their dinner.
I am peeling the carrots, which I know you don't have to do, but I just find it the easiest way.
So yeah, I'm just going to go ahead and chop up some carrots, some cucumber and some red peppers
while also doing the pancakes in the background. And then I'm also going to cut up some fruit.
(singing)
And I wanted to show you the container that we're using for the berries. I got a set of three of
these on Amazon and I really like them. I tend to put a little bit of paper towel at the bottom
and then layer the fruit. So I'm putting the strawberries on that layer,
and then the raspberries and blueberries up the top. And then they last really well. Although
there is five of us, so no fruit lasts that long in this house. Everyone eats it up and I've got
a ton more today, more than normal because Matt and I are doing this 75-day challenge.
I will share more about it soon. I've had loads of questions about what it is that I'm doing,
but I'm only a week in and I just want to make sure that it's actually good and it actually works
before I share all the details, but it's pretty much just healthy eating and workouts as well.
Sometimes I like to do these little challenges because it's like a burst or something to set
your mind to, but only for 75 days, say. So, so far so good, but it's only been a week.
So anyway, we're cutting up some watermelon and then some cantaloupe, the boys love this and they
also love mango as well. So I'm also going to cut up a mango and a pineapple as well. And I'm sure
someone's going to say I'm cutting the pineapple up wrong, but that's just the way that I do it.
And it seems to work for me. I cut all the skin off and then just cut up the middle. And then when
we do eat the cantaloupe, I cut it like that for the boys so that they can reach each piece, but
these are great to have in the fridge when they come home from school and they're starving. If
it's before dinner, I can say, you can have fruit or you can have veg, like those are your choices.
But also, it's great at breakfast. If they're having toast or cereal, I can stick some fruit
on the table and they will eat it up. So I know just having this on hand will help me out so much
this week and actually doing all of the pancakes and cutting all of this veg and fruit up only took
half an hour. So even if that's the only meal prep that you do, it will save me time this
week. And I just know it will encourage me and the kids to make healthy choices. Like if they
want hummus with veg, it's ready to go. But yeah, that is the mountain of pancakes
once I'd made them all. And I store these in reusable Ziploc bags, I love these things. They're
great for putting soup in or chili or pancakes or muffins. They're perfect for the freezer. So I'm
going to put four pancakes in each bag because that's the perfect amount for the kids. Fraser
tends to have two, whereas the others will have one. But anyway, that's just a half an hour and
look how much we've got done. And I just know it's going to help us make healthier choices this week.
So now that all of that is done, I'm going to get on and make some banana muffins. I
had a couple of bananas to use up, but also the kids just love these and our oven at home at the
moment isn't working the best. And also, these freeze very well. So if you make a batch of 12,
you can freeze six of them, get them out, defrost them or even defrost them in the microwave and
they taste great. So I'll link this recipe down below. It's really simple. It's not ultra healthy,
but you can swap out half of the flour for oats if you wanted to make it a bit more of
like a breakfast muffin, but the kids are probably going to have these as a pudding
or as a snack. And I'm actually going to make a double batch as well, because I was going to leave
one batch here for my sister-in-law as a thank you so much for letting me use your kitchen.
But super simple. First off, I'm just mashing some bananas in a bowl and then I'm going to add
the egg to that. And also some melted butter. Mix all of that together before adding in the
sugar. And then once that's all mixed, then I'm going to add in the dry ingredients,
like the flour. And I think there's baking powder and bicarb as well in this. So I'm just going
to fold that together until it's all a nice batter. And then I'm adding in chocolate chips.
You really don't have to, obviously we're going to have it a bit more as a dessert,
but if you don't have chocolate chips and you do want to make it a dessert, these are great
if you put some Nutella on the top. It seems like a cupcake to them. But yeah, then I'm just
going to put it into my muffin cases. I'm using a silicone one because that way I find if you don't
use the paper cases, you can pop them out easily. They go into the oven for 25 minutes on 180.
And while they're baking away, I'm going to make some Mexican burrito bowls for us to have for
lunches. And I'm going to make a double batch of this so that we can have it for a few days
and actually eat it today as well. And they're so simple to make. I am loving any recipe at the
moment that says tray bake or one pot that I just love that you can just stick everything together
and make a delicious meal. So for this one, I'm cutting up some peppers, got some red peppers
and some yellow peppers as well. And then I'm also going to cut up some red onions. And then
once everything is chopped up, I pretty much just put that onto a tray that I've lined with tinfoil.
I just line it all up and then I'm also going to add some chicken. And today I actually bought
some pre-chopped chicken, which saved me even more time. So I can just chuck that on there.
And then I'm going to put some taco seasoning onto the chicken and pretty much everything.
You could use any taco seasoning that you have, or even if you just had smoked paprika
or any spices that you like, you can chuck that on and give it a bit of a mix. And then I'm also
going to add some olive oil on as well. And once that's all mixed up and ready to go, you can just
stick that into the oven for about 25 minutes, I think. But again, I'll link this recipe down below
so you guys can check it out. It is so delicious. And once it comes out of the oven, I'll show you
how I put the bowls together. Oh, and while that is in, I'm also going to make some bulgur wheat
to go in the Mexican bowls. You could use this or brown rice is also great. And while that's all on,
the muffins were finished. So I just checked it by putting a fork into it. And that is the
first batch done. So now I'm going to fill up the muffin tin and put the second batch in.
So while the tray bake is still in and the second lot of muffins are in, I'm going to make a very
quick 15-minute Thai curry. This is just for me and Matt to have tomorrow night. This is still
too spicy for the kids, but we just like to buy the little Blue Dragon Paste. So simple,
you just stick it into a frying pan with some oil, let it heat up and then add in some coconut milk
and any veggies that you want, or if you're having chicken in it, you can also add that in at this
point and you let it all simmer and cook together. But we're actually going to have a veggie version
of it, so I actually ordered some What The Cluck. If you haven't had it, it's a great veggie,
like fake chicken type thing, but it was actually replaced with this stuff, which is pretty much the
same kind of thing. So, that is actually kind of cooked. You just have to heat it through.
So I've just chucked that in and I'm going to let it simmer away. And then also have that
with some of the extra bulgur wheat, because I cooked loads. But by the time I've done that
the tray bake is all done. So I've just taken it out of the oven. I'm also going to chop up a load
of coriander because I'm making eight portions, and then I've also cut up two limes into wedges
and this is going to go in the burrito bowls. And then to put it all together, it's really simple,
I'm just going to add in some bulgur wheat. I'm doing about three heaped tablespoons each. Then
on top of that, you can then add the red onion, the peppers, the chicken. I also add some salsa
and then I've also drained some black beans. I put that in and also some sweet corn, the coriander
and the lime. And it is honestly the most delicious, healthy lunch. We love to make this.
And we are really excited to eat it straight away. If you are making the burrito bowls, they last for
a good four days in your fridge. So if it's just for yourself, you might just want to make the four
portions. But once we'd had that, the Thai green curry was all done. So I'm going to
put that into some glass Tupperware and we'll have it tomorrow night with the bulgur wheat,
there was some leftover. And now that's all done, I'm going to make a turkey bolognese
sauce. This freezes really well, again, and it's super healthy. We're using 2% turkey meat
and there's so much veg in it as well. So first off, I'm just chopping up some peppers
and some red onion. And again, I'm doing a double batch. So this might look like a lot. But the
first step is to soften the onion with some garlic and I'm using garlic puree because I just find it
so much easier. And then once that is soft, you add in the turkey mince. I'm also finely chopping
some green olives. But yeah, you chuck in the turkey meat. And once that is browned, you pretty
much put everything else in and let it simmer. So I'm adding in some ground white pepper,
the olives. I'm also adding in some tomato puree and I've chopped up some fresh basil,
adding in the peppers as well. And then I'm also going to add in some Italian herb
and then a load of chopped tomatoes. Yeah, that's the tomato pure going in. And then basically once
the chopped tomatoes are in and everything's in you just give it a stir and let that simmer
away for about 20 minutes. And then when you do come to eat this, all you have to do
is make the spaghetti, like heat it up. Or we're also going to have it with courgette,
which is a really nice healthy option. So yeah, I'm going to package this all up. I'm
going to leave some for my in-laws again, and then we're going to have some for us.
The last recipe that I wanted to share with you guys is one of my kids' favorites. This is a tuna
mac and cheese. It's so delicious. And I keep giving it to the boys on the night that they
have a football training. I feel like it's easy to digest, gives them a load of energy, fills them
up. And I know that they just really love it. So I'll link the recipe down below. But I am making
a huge amount of it today, so you might actually want to use half of those ingredients so that you
just make one, but I'm making two big batches. So first off you just want to melt some butter.
And once that's all melted, you add in a little bit of flour. I did 50 grams of butter and then
I'm adding 50 grams of flour. I'm going to whisk that up until it's a paste. And once it is, I'll
add in some milk. And then I basically just keep mixing and mixing until it thickens into a sauce.
And I tend to just know that it's ready when it starts boiling like this. When it does, I turn off
the heat, move it off of the heat, and then add in the cheese. And it just melts down quite quickly.
I've saved some cheese to one side to put on top of this pasta bake. And then now you've got your
simple cheese sauce. That's pretty much it. And while I was making the cheese sauce,
I was actually cooking my pasta. So I'm using macaroni, but you can use penne, rigatoni,
whatever you have. And then anyway, I'm going to add in two cans of tuna, you can add two or three,
however fishy you like it. And then you add in some veg. So I added in a can of sweetcorn,
but frozen peas works great, carrots as well, work really well. And then you just add all of
your pasta, made a ton of it. And then you mix that up with the sauce. And that is pretty much
it. Then I just stick it into some pans. So I've got these two here, then I top it with cheese. And
then when you do want to eat it, you just put it into the oven on about 180 for 15 to 20 minutes.
Again, this is a dish that freezes very well. So I'm going to freeze one. And then when I do get it
out of the freezer, I'll probably let it defrost fully before then putting it into the oven,
although you can cook it from frozen. But yeah, that is pretty much it. That
is everything that I made today. I am so pleased. This is really going to set us up for the week.
I know that this probably looks like a lot, but as you saw, even if you did like half an hour or
just once you've done your food shop for the week, prep a few things, it might make life
that little bit easier. But anyway, thank you so much for watching. I really hope you enjoyed it.
Let me know what you think in the comments below and I'll see you in my next one. Bye guys.