Double Duty Meal Prep

{Chocolate Butterhorns}

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If you have read my blog for any amount of time you have probably picked up on the fact that I like to cook in bulk and that I do freezer meals.  Because I homeschool my boys and work part time from home I just don't have my late afternoons to figure out what to do for dinner.

Over Christmas break I started doing some double duty meal prep.  What do I mean by that?  Basically, you make one item that can go into several different meals.

Here are some ideas:

I love this dough recipe which can be found here or in Not Your Mother's Make-Ahead and Freeze Cookbook (NYM Series).  I tend to double this recipe and use it to make chocolate butterhorns {see links} for breakfast and then the rest of the dough for a bubble up pizza.

{Bubble Up Pizza}

The dough recipe could also be used to make regular crescent rolls or the topping for a pot pie. Actually any dish that needs to be topped with dough would work!

Another double duty idea is to brown a lot of ground meat (beef or turkey or a combination). I can cook a bunch of ground meat in a crockpot with very little hands-on time.  Yes, you heard that right...a crockpot!  See this post on instructions on how it all works.  I can start cooking the meat in the late morning on low and only have to stir it a time or two and then I can deal with it at the end of the day.  Normally I divide it and make different meals like sloppy joes, taco meat, and meat to eventually add to spaghetti sauce. The texture of the meat turns out a bit different than browning it on the stovetop.  It is more like "Taco Bell Meat"...fine in texture.  But even with the texture difference it is worth it to me to get all that cooking done while I am working.

Or how about making spaghetti sauce that can be used with pasta or made into lasagna? You could also use it on pizza. Another option is to cook a lot of chicken to use in different casserole dishes. Freezer biscuits can be made for breakfasts and then to top casserole dishes like chicken pot pie.

So how do you make meal prep easier?  Would love to hear your ideas!