Alannah and I worked side by side this weekend on our respective weekly cookups.  If you haven't read Well Fed Paleo this is where you get as much food prepped as you can in one fell swoop, making quick work of the rest of your week's cooking.  Or in my case, at least make some of the rest of the week's cooking quicker work. 

This isn't making whole meals ahead but rather doing prep work like browning ground meat, chopping and peeling, steaming vegs for sautees, making smoothies and so on. (curious?  check out a cookup plan here)

I had made extra turkey and pork sausage for breakfast Saturday morning.  To that leftover meat I added some steamed greens, leftover chopped vegs from stir fry, a handful of flaxseed, and a dozen eggs and made breakfast muffins. No recipe.  Just a bit of Adobe seasoning to the above and into the oven til set.  (I toss leftover vegs etc in the freezer for soup and frittatas.)

Alannah made a stuffed pork tenderloin from this magazine, then sliced and froze it for her lunches.  She will do another main dish every several days and the variety will increase.  She also made up a double batch of mocha/veg/yogurt smoothie from the same volume and froze it in ice cube trays.  It's a grab and go breakfast if you toss it into a smoothie cup and let it defrost. 

 I pulled out two chicken carcasses from a chicken roast and made a meaty bone broth.  Then prepped a bajillion veggies for juicing etc.  I divvied up vegs into baggies for husband's lunch.  Also had a can of rice noodles which isn't a health food but adds crunch to salad.  Divvied that up into snack baggies to toss into lunch boxes too. 

Husband meantime made burgers on the grill because you do NOT want to make another thing after a weekly cookup.  You're done.  Out. Finis.  He made up a load of chicken legs as well.  Some went into lunches and some was chopped for dinner tonight.  

We are working on our new routines like this in the new house – assigning laundry days, getting back on track with meals, finishing up the school year (Amazingly they are almost there and maintaining their A averages.  Go kids! I am taking note of this fact  to remind myself when I am tempted by new curriculum…) and wading through boxes.  

With so much to do we can't afford NOT to do a weekly cookup. It is easy to let diet go when you are pressed from all sides but the time to compromise is not when you are asking more of your body.