Welcome back to Kitchen Month at Synced Spaces. Next, we tackle...Food! We all love to eat. But shopping, prepping, cooking, cleaning and storing is a chore we deal with (and sometimes dread) several times a day, every single day of the week.
With just a few simple organization tips you’ll spend less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying your meals (not to mention crushing those nutrition goals).
Here’s my plan for organized meal prep, grocery shopping and storing your leftovers:
1. Clean your fridge out before you go shopping. I do this every Sunday. Get rid of any food that has gone bad or expired, and make a list of items that you need to use up this week.
2. Don’t just wing it, make a meal plan. List all your meals for the week, in detail, including snacks. Come up with a few meals using the items in your fridge that are about to go bad. There are a ton of meal planning templates out there, so experiment and find one that works for you. My advice would be to use one that narrows it down to even your snacks to ensure you aren’t getting hungry and going rogue in between meals. Download our Meal Plan chart and Grocery List. Click here to download the Meal Prep Guide and here to download the Shopping List.
Weekly MEal Prep
Downloadable Weekly Calendar
Weekly Meal Prep
Downloadable Grocery Guide
3. When you make your shopping list from your meal plan, find products that can overlap, include amounts, and don’t overbuy. Buy in bulk if it’s something you use all the time. Categorize the list by sections in the grocery store, which will make it easy to navigate and check items off as you shop.
4. Check the weather and make sure you’re creating meals you’ll want to eat that week. If it is going to be a cold, rainy day, maybe make a chili or pasta.
5. Have the right containers - jars, zip locks, sauce/dressing containers, in all sizes with matching lids. Get sets of tupperware that are conducive to the way you pack meals to grab and go. Make sure you keep your containers in order. If something doesn't have a lid, throw it out. Life is too short to have useless food storage!
6. Label your containers with contents and the date. If you’re nearing the end of the week and need to freeze, this way you’ll know what you’re dealing with when you pull them out of the freezer. This can be as easy as using a sticky note and tape, or put reusable labels on each container, like these ones we love from The Container Store.
