I’m really struggling with cooking meals lately. My meal-planning system still works well, and I manage to go shopping each week, but I really, really don’t want to cook once I get home from a long day at work. I’m sick of the meal-planning kits from Greenling, and I feel too guilty about eating frozen food all the time (although Indian night is really tasty!). 

My approach for this week was to prep everything on Sunday and then put it in the crockpot in the morning. Here’s the website I followed in order to make the following meals:

While I was writing this post about batch cooking, I did an internet search and realized that I could use Greenling to get organic/local/sustainable products delivered to my door and that I could actually order all the ingredients (already chopped/prepped) to cook five Engine 2 meals (for two people). 

What!?!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Engine 2 diet, it was developed by a firefighter in Austin (I’m actually friends with his awesome wife!). It’s a plant-based diet that focuses on whole, healthy foods. 

The total cost for 10 meals (5 separate meals for two people each) was $89.99. 

And just when I was about to

In my quest to “make a clearing” this year as I try to balance mothering an infant and a three year-old, starting a school and a national charter management organization, making time for health and wellness, and continuing to nurture my marriage/friendships/relationships with family/neighborly connections, I started experimenting with batch cooking. I start cooking early on Sunday afternoon. I try to cook our most difficult meal first. Otherwise, I’ll avoid it all week long and make excuses. None of our meals are particularly difficult, but some are harder than others (like Lebanese soup, which has multiple steps). 

In between all the steps, I start the prep work for other meals.