24 Hour Kitchen Survival Guide: One Hour Food Prep Plan

Save Your Sanity During The Shelter-In-Place

Since the shelter-in-place began due to the COVID-19 pandemic most of us have been cooking a majority of our meals at home. Our family went from packing lunches for school and work and eating a few meals on the go due to our after school activities to eating ALL our meals at home. Learn how to eliminate the stress of making all your meals a home with this one hour food prep plan by downloading my 24 Hour Kitchen Survival Guide. Whether you live alone of with a big family, you can benefit from this guide.

The first week our home life was turned on its head. All four of us were home for work and school. The musical desks and technological troubleshooting was enough to fry all our brains.

Why Meal Prep When Your Home?

Into the next week, I hardly meal prepped. Why prep when I am home to make the meals? Frankly, with the new opportunity to work from home which I have not had in the ten years I have worked for the federal government, I wanted to use my breaks and lunch to take a walk, water the plants or check in with the family.

At the government I have often said I feel chained to my desk so the opportunity to throw a load of laundry in on break was super exciting! Don’t make fun, I appreciate the simple things for sure.

I learned very quickly that even if I was home, I had to meal prep or every break and lunch I would be in the kitchen cooking.

Sweet Attack

The second week home the girls had started baking because they had TIME and I knew I could not handle fresh baked goods in the house. I have a strong sweet tooth and if it’s around, I want to eat it!

After a week of all we could eat sweets and the news our schools would be “distance learning” for the remainder of the school year, I knew I had to get back to a routine or the whole family would suffer. I needed to reestablish our healthy eating habits and get back to my routine. We were in a new normal and I needed to help our family adjust by maintaining stability in our home life.

In talking to friends and family I realized many of us were dealing with the same issues. The absence of our pre-COVID 19 routine eliminated our usual time windows for chores. For example, when my girls come home from school they have an after school routine that moves them through their chores. Without our typical transitions combined with an abundance of time, there was little urgency to get things done.

This meant dishes were not always cleared to the kitchen timely and loading and unloading was delayed. Our dishes continually piled up and every time I turned around I was making another meal, putting together a snack and I felt I was harping on the family more than necessary.

Recommitting to Kitchen Prep

So around week three or four I committed to my pre-COVID 19 weekly prep. My routine had developed over the years. Some weeks are more extensive than others. I have done so much research on meal prep and have read countless blogs but they always seem to focus just on one meal.

The blogs also rarely talk about the overall kitchen management and what to do with the little bits of food leftover at the end of the week. I HATE wasting food. Grant and I ran a seasonal cafe for our first business. Wasted food meant wasted money and in a cafe, it can add up to a lot. Also, I work with the homeless in my day job and am faced with people who don’t always have enough to eat so I am bit sensitive to wasted food.

I don’t know about you but my family eats three meals a day and usually two snacks. That is a lot of food! I don’t suggest you prep once for the whole week of meals every week, but there are definitely steps to alleviate much of the stress of having to feed little and big humans every few hours without them living off goldfish crackers.

How This Guide is Different

So here is where my guide comes in. I wrote it too share how to maximize roughly one hour of prep. My quiche recipe takes an hour to cook so my goal is to be done and cleaned up by the time my quiche comes out of the oven.

If you implement the 24 Hour Kitchen Survival Guide you will:

• have a tidy fridge because you review your fridge contents weekly
  • avoid finding rotten veggies in the bottom of your fridge (hallelujah!)
  • use up the last little bits that are still good but not quite a meal
• have a ready to eat quiche or frittata for any meal
• have vegetables prepped and ready to eat
• pull together quick healthy lunches with minimal effort and prep
• have ready to eat healthy snacks
• save yourself from cleaning your cutting board and knife multiple times a day

It’s a Guide – Take What Works for You

Remember this is a basic guide. Sometimes I prep more and somethings I’m lucky to have any time in the kitchen. Anyone out there have a child who plays club volleyball? Sometimes we are on the court all weekend. On those weeks I just do my best and go for simple meals.

So here it is! Get your 24 Hour Kitchen Survival Guide here!

If you like it, drop me a line by email at [email protected] or on Instagram @carismatic.life or #carismaticlife or #carismaticfood.

I love to streamline my kitchen prep and have dealt with cooking for specific diets as well. Think paleo, SIBO, gluten-free, grain free, diary-free, egg-free, clean . . . I have dabbled in a bit of it all. Grant and I also prepared meals daily for 300 + in our cafe days, love to entertain and camp. If you like this guide, let me know what you’d like to see. I have lots more where this came from.

Until next time, eat healthy:)