Meal Prep Recipes for Back to School Time
With back to school time right around the corner, meal prepping is at the top of our to-do list. After a long day of teaching, the last thing we want to do is make dinner. Check out these recipes to make meal prep so much easier (and tastier)!
Tips
- Choose few recipes and double (or triple) them to make multiple meals quickly
- Prep side dishes too! (See above- we like to have bags of chopped veggies that we can easily throw in our grill basket for a quick and easy grilled meal)
- Plan some meals with simple ingredients that can be turned into a different meal (see below)
- If you meal prep often, reusable (and dishwasher safe) ziplock bags are a great option- we use these often for chopped veggies and other meals
- When making chicken dishes, use a bag of frozen chicken- this is more affordable and it is easy to separate ingredients if needed
- Have a rice cooker on hand- We use this one because of the different features. We’ve had it for almost 8 years now and it works great. Here is a rice cooker that we got for a family member that works perfectly and is much more affordable.
Chicken Dishes
This delicious chicken dump can be baked, grilled, or cooked in a slow cooker. It uses basic ingredients like chicken, garlic, olive oil, parsley, and lemon juice. This is a great meal to serve over rice, with a side of your favorite veggies, or it would even be yummy over some pasta.
YUMMY!!!! This chicken is perfect over a bed of rice, pasta, or mashed potatoes. It is creamy and a wonderful option to make ahead. We usually make this twice a month.
Chicken and Peppers
This is a meal we ALWAYS have in our freezer because we use it in many different meals.
- Chicken Fajitas (chop up peppers and onions, add fajita seasoning, and put in 2-3 chicken breasts- add some chicken stock and cook for about 4 hours on high)
- Chicken Cheesesteak Sandwiches- Use chicken, peppers, and onions; sprinkle some Italian seasoning on top (cook for about 4 hours on high and then add provolone cheese and put on sandwich bun)
- Vegetable and Chicken Soup- Make chicken noodle soup as normal, but add the chicken and pepper mix for a loaded veggie and chicken soup
Pork
This carnitas recipe is always a favorite at our house. We use this for tacos, as a pizza topping with caramelized onions, and on top of nachos when we entertain. The flavor of carnitas is just truly so delicious!
Crockpot Honey Garlic BBQ Pork Tenderloin
This bbq pork tenderloin is so tasty and is wonderful over rice. This would also be good with some make ahead potatoes as well. You can also serve this on a roll as a slider.
Slow Cooker Pork Roast and Vegetables
Pork roast is one of my favorite recipes because it is filling and I know my family will devour it. Plus, it cooks altogether, which is a major plus for me!
Beef
Crockpot Sweet and Sour Hawaiian Beef
This slow cooker recipe is absolutely delicious and full of flavor. This is a delicious recipe to have with rice. It is pretty easy to prep and is a great recipe to double for future meals!
The only real cooking ahead of time is browning the meat, but it is a great slow cooker recipe.
Just like the carnitas recipe above, this recipe is versatile. We use this for tacos and as a pizza topping with caramelized onions and peppers. It has such a good flavor. We love it!
Breakfast
These baked oatmeal bars are delicious and nutritious. One thing I love about baked oatmeal bars is that you can customize the fruit flavors to fit your budget and taste buds. We are huge banana lovers at our house, so we like to add lots of bananas in ours. We also love frozen fruit to save some money as well.
Breakfast burritos are a staple at our house. They are quick and tasty and they are so easy to customize. We add different fillings for each member in our family. Some of our favorites are onions, peppers, eggs, diced potatoes, and ground sausage. These are always a hit!
Just like breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches are very easy to customize. You can change out the bread and fillings to fit every member of your family’s liking.
Note: we have made these using bagel thins and English muffins. We found that English muffins cook up better when reheated. If you toast the bagel thins separately and then add the meat, egg, and cheese, then the sandwich is very tasty.
These could also be made with normal breakfast biscuits as well.
These egg muffins are a kid-favorite in our house and they are also easy to customize. These are perfect to make ahead and freeze for a later date.
Yum! These little muffins are tasty and a great make-ahead meal options! We keep them in freezer bags and take them for a grab-and-go breakfast on busy mornings.
I hope you enjoyed this list of recipes. Meal prepping is time consuming up front, but it will save you so much time and energy during back to school time!
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Enjoy and happy planning!
💜 Anna
