What’s the word for meal prep that’s not single meals?
Sharing to inspire and acknowledge my own achievements today haha. I did one big prep and cut up bulk meat from Costco to try to save on groceries this month for my family of 4. I’m very fortunate to live nearish to a Business Costco which had even better meat deals. Shopped Saturday and broke down the chickens. Today I cut up a pork belly.: made 60 meatballs, 100 + dumplings, 10 boiled eggs (turned into Korean-style eggs), chia pudding, homemade granola, and yogurt Jell-O cups for snacks.
Quick breakdown of the meat haul this week:
Ground: $10 for 4 lbs → $2.50/lb
Pork belly: $18.28 for 7.4 lbs → $2.46/lb
Whole chickens (4): $20 total → about $1.00–$1.25/lb
Total: ~$48 for around 30 lbs of meat
For comparison my local grocery store has 4 chicken breast on sale right now for $15.99!
Plan for Pork belly:
2 large pieces → cooked tonight (red braised pork belly + rice)
3 portions → freeze
~1 lb → sliced for homemade bacon -salt/brown sugar cured into the fridge 🥓
~1 lb 6 oz → thin sliced for Korean BBQ
Ground pork:
2 lbs + 2 lbs beef → meatballs
2 lbs + tofu/veg → dumplings 🥟
Chicken break down (4 whole):
Bag 1: 4 leg quarters
Bag 2: 4 leg quarters
Bag 3: 3 breasts (sliced)
Bag 4: 2 breasts
Bag 5: 2 breasts
Bag 6: 16 wings
Bag 7: 2 carcasses for stock
Bag 8: 2 carcasses for stock
Bag 9: skin for shmaltz (fat) (frozen for now)
Bag 10: chicken taco meat
I’m tired after all this work, but I’m happy to see my freezer full and my kids snacking on granola and yogurt jello cups already. ☺️🙌