This course is now available as a join-anytime, self-paced workshop! Keep reading for course details and sign up at the end. 

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There are as many reasons to food prep as there are people doing it. I have food prepped because I worked outside the home, because I homeschooled my daughter while running a full time business, because we experienced lengthy unemployment and every penny needed to stretch more than usual, during seasons of teen busyness where I needed to stay ahead of the game, in anticipation of guests who would be staying for several days, during times of health challenges that required careful management of energy output, when friends and family needed extra meals in their homes, because it feels like good stewardship of precious resources. The list goes on and on. Currently, my main motivation for food prep is because my husband works out of state several days each week; it is better for his health and our wallet to pack much of his food for him.

Weekly Food Prep is a tool kit for anyone who can relate to one or more of the scenarios mentioned above. It is not about reinventing the wheel, it is most often simply about switching up the order of things. When we do a little food prep, we are tending to one of our most basic human needs. We already eat every single day, instead of thinking only about the next bite we’ll consume, let’s think a few bites ahead. Do we decide to launder our towels the minute we step out of the shower? Of course not. Our kitchens work the same way.

It takes time to develop new habits and practices, so this course will take place over four weeks. Each week a new module will be delivered in which I take you through my own week’s food prep via substantial video classes, extensive ebooks, and a private interactive community space. In this course I will guide you in developing best food prep practices for your household, and I will help you discard the narrative that you “can’t” food prep because of this reason or that reason (I’ve heard them all). We’ll flip the script and support one another with reasons that we can take care of ourselves in this way, adjusting to our personal circumstances as needed, and I will provide plenty of how-to along the way.

There is a saying that reads: You either fail to plan or plan to fail. And while I think “fail” is a harsher than needed word, more than twenty five years of keeping home has taught me that there is indeed some truth to the sentiment. A person who is running their household is always best prepared when they stay a few steps ahead, both mentally and in application. We don’t enter a workday outside of the house without an agenda, it is incredibly helpful to approach the work of home in a similar way.

Think of Weekly Food Prep as office hours for your kitchen. A window of time that will set you up for ease and abundance in the week ahead.

The Most Important Thing to Know

Here is where I think most people get hung up when it comes to food prep or menu planning: This is not about prepping every single bite you will eat in a week. Let go of that idea, this isn’t all or nothing! My approach is much more down to earth than that. Some people will find full preparation works for them, but some of us just need to fill in the gaps, round things out, and have our next step already in mind for those moments when we are too busy or tired to engage the brain on one more thing.

Maybe we are happy to bake some quick fresh biscuits to go with our dinner, but feel it would be handy to have a big pot of soup waiting in the fridge to heat up as the main star. Maybe we love to make dinner from start to finish every night but really need help with breakfasts and lunches. Maybe we’re tired of wasting resources on packaged snack food and would like a better setup for that in our homes. Maybe the dinner hour is a time of exhaustion and taking one morning a week to prep for several dinners is exactly what we need.

This system is flexible and meant to be adapted for your individual needs.

Food prep is not something we need to be married to, either. This is not a test of your long term commitment. Not at all. Some weeks I don’t meal prep at all! And in the summer I find it is hardly needed as our diet shifts so easily to lots of smoothies and big fresh salads topped with protein. Food prep is simply a skill set and state of mind that once learned, can be returned to again and again as we desire. 

What to Expect

• four chock-full modules
• beautifully designed ebooks for each class, easy to download and keep forever
• “food prep with me” cooking class videos that are informative and encouraging, each approximately 30-40 minutes long
• printables for planning your kitchen work days
• dozens of delicious recipes* focusing on simple, whole food ingredients
• email support if you have questions
• self-paced: you do not need to be in class at a specific time
• lifetime access to the website, ebooks, videos (save your passwords!)

*I cook with basic whole food ingredients that have been mostly raised in the region we live. This results in tasty meals prepared with plenty of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, quality meats and dairy, and some grains and legumes. However, it is important to note that recipes are secondary in this program. Our main focus will be on systems, which can be universally applied no matter your dietary preferences.

The Four Modules Within the Workshop:

Module One: Think About Your Why (and a bit about what, how, etc.)

In Module One we’ll lay the foundation. We will discuss what food prep is, the reasons why this method is a handy tool for people in all seasons of life, and we’ll begin to discuss specific ways you can turn these ideas into routine. This module will also include recipes and a substantial cooking class video from my full week of meal prep, as well as plenty of community discussion and sharing on our private community group.

Module Two: Develop Your Style + Plan

In Module Two we’ll deep dive into valuable lessons that will teach you how to implement meal prep. This module is the nuts and bolts of turning the idea into a reliable, practical component of your home keeping tool kit. And the best part? The focus in this module is to help you develop your own approach, not for you to follow mine. This module will also include recipes and a substantial cooking class video from my full week of meal prep, as well as plenty of community discussion and sharing on our private community group.

Module Three: Stack Your Kitchen Tasks

In Module Three you’ll learn my favorite tips and hacks to save time, money, and energy in the kitchen. And you will be encouraged to share your own, too! I am a big believer in the old adage, “work smarter, not harder,” perhaps never more so than when it comes to kitchen work. Time is precious, stamina and finances are limited. Let’s focus on efficiency rather than lengthening our to-do list. This module is the secret sauce for making it all work. This module will also include recipes and a substantial cooking class video from my full week of meal prep, as well as plenty of community discussion and sharing on our private community group.

Module Four: Staying Organized for the Long Haul

In Module Four we’ll bring it all home and focus on methods to help keep it all organized. Whether it’s packing things up for the fridge, freezer, lunchbox or travel days.  There will be ideas on how to keep all of this information at arms length, not occupying precious brain space, so that it will be easy to implement. I’ll be sharing tips for a creating a “kitchen secrets” notebook, recipe organization ideas, and much more. Our final module is the icing on the cake, the proof is in the pudding moment! This module will also include recipes and a substantial cooking class video from my full week of meal prep, as well as plenty of community discussion and sharing on our private community group.

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Many of you have been supporting my work for years, and I want you to know this course has been a long time coming. I believe deeply in the healing power of home, and the heart of our homes is indeed the kitchen. I’ve put every bit of knowledge and experience I have into this course, and I would be honored to have you join. 

Four full modules, recipes, video classes, ebooks, community, tips + support, lifetime access. 

$45.00 

You really are here!

Thank you for saying hello! It was wonderful to hear from so many of you last week. It is the very thing that makes a person who chooses to share their writing feel like people are indeed out there on the receiving end, that maybe they do find value in reading the words you scratch out. You are a gift to me. 

When I sat down to publish my last post, I did not have the final paragraph written, or even in mind. But I needed something to wrap up my thoughts on the naming of this new blog, and for some reason I did so with a totally unrelated rhetorical pondering on the nature of blog reading, then versus now. I wasn’t so much thinking of engagement via commenting as I was sheer visits/reads (those are the numbers I see here and on Instagram). But you all gave a hearty wave and hello, and for that I am incredibly grateful. It is true that comments make a blogger feel like what they offer touches people in a positive way. I’ve read before that it is a form of currency, reciprocation for writing offered, but that’s never been how I feel. You don’t owe me anything! Recently I heard a blogger say “comments give me steam to keep going, and often inspire future posts.” Steam. That made sense to me. I feel that way, too.

We enjoyed a relaxing stretch of days surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday. Both Adam and Emily were home for many days in a row, which is something this family does not see much of. The last couple of years my greatest gratitude at the Thanksgiving table has simply been that we’re all together. A small acknowledgment that carries a weight only a mother could know. I understand that Emily may not always be able to make it home for the holidays, even if she would like to. Adult life is coming for her swiftly, and with that, I am aware that life and work can enforce geographic limitations, whether we like it or not. It is one of my greatest sadnesses of the modern world, the disbandment of family and clan. Prior to this past year, I’ve lived my entire life within a fifteen minute radius of my childhood home (save for a six month stint in Vermont as a newlywed), and while I always longed to leave Connecticut, I only pulled the trigger once every last member of our immediate families had left. 

There have been more hours spent in the woods hunting this year than any other I can recall, and rifle season has ended with no venison in the freezer. I don’t remember the last time that’s happened. Adam would tell the story of his one missed perfect opportunity if he were writing here, but I won’t do his tale justice. An excellent, careful storyteller, Adam is not one of those bragging hunters who thinks they have it all figured out. He is humble, perhaps to a fault, and is the first to point out his own “shortcomings.” Since losing his best hunting partner and guide, Adam would say his level of impatience has been revealed. He is no longer copiloting with the most zen and patient hunter out there. Dad was skilled at placing stands, could spot a buck rub from an unreasonable distance, was an excellent shot, and above all, had the ability to sit up in a tree, in still-silence, for hours and hours. Adam? Well, he is incredibly proficient with his rifle, and excels at calling in those young bucks who’d chance just about anything for a date with a doe, but patient? The man who listens to podcasts at 1.5x the speed so the speaker will get to the point faster? Let’s just say my father’s presence kept my husband grounded, and I think Adam didn’t realize quite how much until these last two years. He is not one who needs to repeat lessons in life in order for them to be learned, so it is fair to say his next opportunity will not pass him by.

Hunting here is very different than hunting in Connecticut, where deer practically leap out in front of you left and right (only a slight exaggeration). In our current region, the lower deer population combined with more abundant land mass is such that if you are not able to muster all the patience within your soul, your freezer is going to remain empty. But the good news is we do indeed have deer right here on this land, and it is hard to beat the beauty of walking to your tree stand right from the comfort of home, no vehicle needed We had that at our last home, too and it was wonderful. There is hunting to be had here, for those who are patient. The end of rifle season brings the return of bow season back, and muzzle loader is coming up, too, so there is more hunting ahead.

Writing this makes me think of something. The patience Adam would say he lacks in hunting does not convey to all aspects of his life. At least by my observation. Yes, he really does listen to podcasts sped up, but that’s because he does not like wasting precious time in life more than it is a sign of impatience. Professionally, he has all the time and care in the world for his clients. When out exploring in the woods, there is never a rush. In that scenario, he’s as open-ended, lose-all-track-of-time as they come. But for some reason hunting is different. Maybe it’s because the anticipation can reach fever-pitch, which puts you in a different zone than say, combing the forest in search of chaga or chanterelles. Or maybe we can just chalk it up to his Gemini status, which I am prone to do when it comes to explaining the mysteries of my better half. And for the marital record, I do not think he’s an impatient hunter, that’s his belief. The vast number of hours he’s logged in the woods, often in single digit temps, waiting-waiting-waiting for that one opportunity as I slumber peacefully in our warm bed, or sip coffee beside the woodstove? Yeah, I’d say he’s the patient one.

I hope you don't mind looking at a half-down wall between our kitchen and dining room for the foreseeable future. I sure don't! I'd rather feel this partial openness than closed off walls. We have discovered some rather significant structural issues that need to be addressed before finishing this wall properly with beautiful thick beams. Which is not going to happen until well after the holidays... or, when we find an abundance of time. 

Yesterday I dug into the freezer and pulled out about seventy pounds of tomatoes to turn into sauce. I usually make an oven-roasted tomato sauce, but went back to using the stove top this year because as long as it takes to simmer down sauce, it’s easier for me to do large quantities on the stovetop versus the oven. I made one round already in late summer just to have enough to get us through, and now I need to finish taking care of the harvest. I used this recipe with my last batch and am using it again as it was quite delicious. I was skeptical as it calls for lemon juice to correct acidity due to it being water bath canned and I didn’t want the flavor to be off. It wasn’t! Prior to adding the lemon juice to the first batch, I gave it a taste and it was so good that I thought I’d just pressure can future batches if it seemed too acidic with the addition of lemon, which it did not. I am thankful for this because I don’t always love the level of babysitting that is required with pressure canning, especially when processing large batches of something. That isn’t really talked about much in the canning world, it’s usually only mentioned that people need not be afraid of pressure canning (which is true), but you don’t hear much about the need to stay close to keep an eye on the gauge, adjusting burner temps as needed (which with my last two persnickety electric stoves is needed often). With a water bath canner you just set the timer and walk away.

I am glad the flavor stayed true so I can water bath this tasty recipe. I love a thick and flavorful marinara and this recipe does the trick. We don’t eat much pasta, so our main uses for marinara are as a 50/50 base with broth for any Italian type soup, as a 50/50 base with salsa in chili, swirled into quiche (we love that!), made into a hearty meat sauce and stuffed into baked spaghetti squash halves then topped with mozzarella and popped back into the oven to get warm and bubbly. Those sort of things. It is a wonderful convenience food that can be used in multiple recipes.

Speaking of recipes, I have a winter blog project in mind. I’d like to add many herbal and  cooking recipes to this site, but don’t want them to be in individual blog posts. When I look for a recipe on a blog I really want just the recipe. Maybe just a few sentences about it, but for me, a long preamble describing every moment in life that led to the recipe is unnecessary. I’d like to provide a virtual recipe box for you, straight and to the point. With pretty pictures, of course! I have a way to create “hidden posts” that I can list in one big recipe index, then put a tab for that on the upper menu bar. But dozens of posts with recipes will not be taking up front page space here, and I imagine one central index will be more user friendly. Hopefully all of that makes sense. I’m excited to use these winter months for such a project.

On that note, I’d like to share that over the last several months I’ve been working on a brand new online course that revolves around weekly food prep. You’ve been asking for this, and it is almost here! In my next post I’ll share all the details.

Our tree is up, decorations are slowly being placed here and there, and it is in these darkest days of December that I feel permission to rest deeply... biologically if not societally. Thankfully, the former is the instinct I am prone to acknowledge. Society will keep on spinning its tale with or without me, but biology is true and honest and dependable. Let us invest deeply.