Maternity leave coming to an end! SOS!

[mariah_papaya]

Soooo..... up here in Canada we get a year off when we have a baby (Woot Woot, I love my commie country!) But, all good things come to an end eventually, and I have to go back to work in two weeks. Spam me with your best prep-ahead, throw in a ziploc bag in the freezer, then dump in a crockpot, type of recipes. Whole 30 will be done by then (I'm at day 25 now, go ME!) but I have no intention of stopping eating like this, why would I, no amount of White Chocolate Macadamia Nut cookies can possibly replace this exhilaration of being a finely-tuned machine of efficiency and athleticism. But! Needless to say, the leisurely hours of meal prep are coming to a screeching, grinding halt. 

[littleg]

My favorite recipe ever.  When I make it I make up a giant (like 2-3x recipe) batch of the sauce (since that is the only prep really) and put it in jars in the freezer.  Then 1-2 lbs of stew beef (instead of ribs) + 1 jar of sauce go into the Instant Pot and I have 3-6 meals.  

 

PS - to make it even simpler use unsweetened apple sauce instead of a pear

 

Another super easy one: spaghetti sauce - 1 lb ground beef, 1 32 oz can diced tomatoes, 1 small can of tom sauce, some tomato paste if you want + dried basil, oregano, fennel, parsley - let it simmer for 2-3 hrs.  I can't eat onions and garlic but even non-paleo hubs says he doesn't miss it in this sauce and then you save yourself the time of cooking onions and garlic  I eat it over zucchini noodles.  

[EmilyK]

My favorite no-thought meal is a bag of frozen chicken thighs and two jars of Trader Joe's salsa verde.  Into a slow cooker all day and you have pollo verde with absolutely no work.

 

I work full time with two school aged children, and I can make all of our lives a whole lot easier by cooking for about two hours on a Saturday.  It makes weeknight dinners a lot easier.