Another thing I had to learn after surgery was meal prepping. Before surgery we did a lot of eating out, because I didn’t plan properly. Either I had nothing planned, I forgot to thaw meat, or was just tired and didn’t feel like cooking.
Well, that doesn’t really fit into the gastric bypass plan, so I have had to adjust. Now, I cook 5 meals a week. We order out on Fridays, and one day a week (usually whatever day is our busiest), I call a “Free for all”, where everyone just grabs what they want: cereal, chicken nuggets, etc.
My favorite and most useful tool for meal prepping is my grocery list meal planner. I can hang it in my kitchen, where it’s visible and easy to access (no more hearing “What’s for dinner Mom?”). We can write down what we need as we go through the week.
Then on the weekend, I make my meal plan for the next week, and I can write down the ingredients right next to it. I search for recipes in my favorite bariatric cookbook, online, and sometimes I just wing it (which doesn’t always turn out great!).
My stomach cannot tolerate ground beef anymore, so if I have something with ground beef (kids love ground beef), I will just cook myself a chicken sausage. It’s all about being flexible and knowing what works for you!
When it’s time to go shopping, I can tear off the shopping list and bring it with me, while the list of meals stays in place! It even has a space to plan my lunches for the week! (I ignore the breakfast space because who has time for that?! Breakfast is whatever is available that’s easy and quick).
Finding meals that my kids will eat, but also is healthy and protein packed for me, has been challenging, to say the least. But by trial and error we are getting there, and I can’t wait to share with you what our meals look like, along with some recipes and weekly meal plans!
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