Meal planning and prepping. Just hearing this can make some of you break out in a cold sweat Before doing the 21 Day Fix and following the portion fix meal plan, I never did the whole meal prepping thing. And, to be honest, still to this day I don’t normally do an entire week’s worth of prepping like so many of us see all over social media. I have had a few weeks where I’ve gone all out and done that, but it’s not my typical way of prepping. I have attended two completely different meal prep classes in my area and I wanted to share my thoughts on them both.
I do like having freezer meals ready to go for days when I just don’t have time or don’t want to think about what to cook for dinner and by attending some local classes, I had my freezer stocked and ready.
The first one is held here locally each month by Kelly Nentwich with Thrive4Mom. Her meals are all plant based so if you are following a plant based or vegan diet, it’s a great option. Although I do eat meat, I always like to incorporate more vegetables into my diet. The meals are gluten-free, dairy-free, peanut-free, corn-free and egg-free. Once you sign up and pay for the class, she does all the grocery shopping for you. I showed up to her home and she had 6 different stations set up and ready for all of us to use to assemble our meals. We rotated through each station and as we would complete chopping and assembling everything, we would then place the freezer bag in our cooler that we had brought from home and move to the next station. I attended this class with my mom and we really enjoyed doing it together.
The cost was $159+tax and I came home with 6 freezer meals that each feed 4-6 people. Kelly is a certified health coach and I would definitely recommend her if you are struggling with certain allergies or you are trying to follow the 21 Day Fix vegan meal plan but are having trouble. Since that is not my area of expertise, I know Kelly would be able to support you.
The second class I attended was a Wildtree Workshop. Although there are Wildtree consultants across the country, the one I attended was held locally by my friend Becky Premock. Although Becky’s main passion is her Beautycounter business, she loves the Wildtree products and uses them all the time. The cost was $78 which covered the cost of the Wildtree products I would be using when I assembled the meals. Once I paid for the meal plan workshop I wanted (there were many to choose from), I received a grocery list and Pre-Workshop prep chart. For this class I did need to do all my own grocery shopping and prep most of the food at home before attending the class. I decided to try Kroger Clicklist for the first time. So, I ordered all my groceries online and picked them up at my local Kroger store. I then came home and got to work. It took me about an hour to prepare everything according to the Pre-Workshop chart I had been given. I was instructed to label the bags, then chop my vegetables and then fill each freezer bag with the meal ingredients by following my prep chart.
When it was time for the workshop, I loaded up my cooler with all my freezer bags and headed to Becky’s house. Once I arrived there I stayed at one work station and added all the Wildtree products which were mainly oils and spices and this finished the meal assembly process. That also took about an hour. I then had 10 freezer meals which each feed 4-6 people. The cost of my groceries was $157.23 but I do want to mention that I buy all organic meats, chicken and vegetables so if you choose not to go that route, your cost may be less. I have considered hosting a Wildtree workshop at my house but would want to provide people the option of actually assembling everything here. I find it much more enjoyable when I’m with others and able to socialize through the entire process.
So, overall the Wildtree workshop did cost more than Kelly's workshop but it included 10 meals vs. 6 and included meat. I also came home with Wildtree products to use for other future meals. With Kelly's workshop she does all the grocery shopping and I enjoyed assembling the entire meal at her house because it was much more social but I did get more meals with the Wildtree workshop and they are meals my husband enjoys more because he likes meat and chicken in his dinners. There are definitely pros and cons to both.
I’d love to know if you’ve tried any meal prep workshops and what your thoughts are. These are just two that I have personally experienced but I’m sure there are many more available.