So when I stumbled across a woman on Youtube who does this very thing (seriously, until a few months back I wasn't a youtube watcher at all but have since discovered some wonderfully inspiring stuff thanks to my husband) I watched loads of her videos over a number of weeks for inspiration and ideas that work for us.
You may have already seen her? Lisa at Downshiftology.
Anyhow, I have since dabbled in a bit of meal prep, but this weekend I got serious because I planned ahead and had all I needed on hand. She uses some great glass clip-lock containers for her prep foods but they are quite expensive so hubby and I were thrilled when we found very similar glass containers at Kmart that literally cost just a fraction of the ones Lisa uses. Thank you Lord!
This is some of what I prepared -
Pickled onions, pickled cucumbers, chopped onions, boiled eggs, zucchini zoodles, grated carrot, shredded white cabbage, shredded red cabbage, roasted garlic cauliflower, small roasted pumpkin pieces for salads, larger roasted pumpkin pieces for a blender soup, cauliflower rice (for a veggie fried rice), beautiful brown rice salad with nuts and herbs...
I also make a litre of almond milk, roasted cajun spiced pumpkin seeds, sultana scones and a banana/date/pecan loaf.
I still need to bake a loaf of bread which I'll do tomorrow morning, and make a batch of buckwheat granola for Blossom and a batch of oat granola for hubby and I. Bread is baked a few times a week, but the granola is made once a month.
I also need to bake some cookies for hubby's morning tea at work but I'll leave that until tomorrow as well because he's still got some peanut butter and oat cookies left from last week.
Out in the garden things have been growing well and we're definitely enjoying the fruits of our labours. Zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, spinach, capsicums and herbs are being enjoyed and we've had enough to share with our neighbour. Next week I'll have some for Blossom but she's assured me for now she has enough.
We're trialling perpetual spinach which can be used like rocket (arugula) or baby spinach in salads. It's delicious and I often grab a leaf and munch on it as I walk by.
It's growing well beside the roma tomatoes and beans...
We have zucchini in two spots, but the largest and most abundant producer is nestled behind the cherry tomatoes and sitting beside another pumpkin plant (they keep popping up everywhere and delivering wonderful pumpkins!)...
Different types of silverbeet are growing in different spots, some on the ground, some in pots, all doing well...
I had no success with chives initially but then decided to plant pots in three different parts of the garden to gauge the best result. Once I did that we ended up with two flourishing pots and one mediocre. Everything in our garden is an experiment or learning curve...
Birds eye chillies thrive no matter where they are...
Long strands of tomatoes are everywhere, they spread across the ground too. We now have twenty productive tomato vines and we only planted eight. The rest came up on their own and because of this we have four different varieties...
We eat a lot of coriander (cilantro) so I've just planted another lot and next week I'll plant even more before the warm winter weather turns to hot spring. Coriander cannot cope with our heat so I make the most of growing it at this time of the year.
I let some of it go to seed for next year. The flowers are pretty...
Little extras...
...and a not so little Dill. We have a few of them, so tall, over six feet now!
Well, my legs are weary tonight as before all the kitchen activity hubby and I went to a display of Holden cars, some built before WW2 - and it was wonderful to see the iconic cars of our nation and our youth. Holden closed their factory in Australia and no more shall we build them. A sad goodbye to an era.
After that we went for a walk through the markets in town and enjoyed a late breakfast before heading home to our various chores. A lovely day, all the more precious because I spent it with the man I love.
Tonight I'll get back to my crochet...
...and tomorrow I might watch another of Lisa's videos. She has seasonal meal prep ones and I'm thinking spring might be a good one to re-watch.
I'll share it below just in case you're after ideas like I was.
Bless you lovely friends, and may the week ahead abound in laughter, a rested mind, refreshed body, inspired conversations, good food, stitching and a very large dose of Jesus' love to share with others.
loving hugs
