Everybody likes getting more for less! How about getting more meals from less recipes? With some strategic meal planning and prepping, you can create several days’ worth of meals with just a few recipes and one trip to the grocery store. You can even prepare all of the recipes at once and store meals in single serve containers in the fridge for grab-and-go meals all week.
Diabetes Food Hub can be a great tool for meal prepping! Click here to learn how to use our recipes, meal planner, and grocery list generator to make planning, shopping, and preparing healthy meals a snap! Additionally, we’ll be rolling out a series of meal prepping articles over the next few weeks to show how a little planning can make your meal planning life a lot easier .
BEEF, it's what's for dinner...and lunch! This week, we'll start with a lean top sirloin or top round roast to make a delectable roast beef, better than anything you can find at the deli counter. A whole roast is typically 3-5 pounds, so you'll have plenty leftover for sandwiches and salads throughout the week.
Here are 3 recipes to make with 1 beef roast:
Main Recipe: Cook Sunday Night
Roast Beef with Creamy Horseradish Sauce
Roast beef is a classic comfort food, but takes too long to make on a busy weeknight! Cook this on a lazy Sunday with Rustic Red Potatoes and Green Beans for a hearty Sunday dinner. Then use the leftover roast beef for lunches or a quick weeknight meal later in the week.
Follow-Up Recipe: Lunch Prep
Roast Beef Rollups
Homemade roast beef will have less sodium than deli roast beef, and take these rollups to another level! Try topping with the Creamy Horseradish Sauce instead of oil and vinegar. You can prep a bunch of these at once, or have all of the ingredients ready and prepped for quick assembly right before eating. If you prepare them ahead of time, store the sauce separately and add to the wrap right before eating.
Follow-Up Recipe: Quick Weeknight Dinner
Grilled Steak Salad
Save time on this recipe by using leftover roast beef instead of grilled steak. This salad calls for Mesclun salad mix, a mix of young salad greens with a variety of textures and flavors, but you could also use leftover romaine lettuce from the Roast Beef Rollups. You can dress this salad with the Creamy Horseradish Sauce from the original recipe—add a little bit of white wine vinegar to thin it out and add a nice tangy flavor. Or try it with our Light Blue Cheese Dressing.
Add these recipes, and any other recipes you would like to cook this week, to your Meal Planner, then click “Generate Grocery List.” You can add, edit, or delete items on the list as needed.
Don’t forget about food safety!
Leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for about 3-4 days or in the freezer for 3-4 months. Be sure to date anything that you store in the fridge or freezer. When reheating leftovers, make sure they reach 165 degrees F. Find more food safety tips here.
Want more meal prep ideas?
Check out the other articles in this series:
Meal Prep: 3 for 1 Chicken
Meal Prep: DIY Salad Bar
Meal Prep: Breakfast on the Go