Three Things I Meal Prep When I 'Don't Have Time' to Meal Prep

Staple, Snack, Sweet #9

Welcome back to Staple, Snack, Sweet. In this weekly series, I share three recipes I am using to prep a kitchen staple, a snack, and a sweet that make family meals easier.

This weekend, I shared with the Stir & Scribble chat that I was attempting a quick meal prep session on Saturday. This week is stacked — I have a couple writing deadlines, testing budget blenders for Serious Eats, and soccer starts back up for my 10-year old in addition to our regular routine. While I usually plan and shop Saturday and the prep on Sunday to distribute the work, my Sunday was packed celebrating Valentine’s with mom friends. So I gave myself an hour to crank out three essentials that would make my the easier: a quick breakfast, a substantial snack that can do double duty as lunch, and a sweet treat that would be good for desserts and lunchbox filler. Here’s what I was able to prep in just one hour.

Staple: Overnight Oats

Putting together overnight oats takes just 10 minutes and the results are delicious either cold or warmed in the microwave, I wonder why I don’t make them every week. I love this recipe from my friend Kelli Foster because it includes yogurt and chia seeds for a little more heft, but also because it is endless riffable. You can make a plain base and then top individual servings with chopped nuts and fresh fruit or swirl in nut butter and mini chocolate chips. My current favorite topping is diced pear and chopped pistachios. I made a double batch of eight servings this week.

Recipe: Overnight Oats

Snack: Pimento Cheese + Bagel Chips

I credit a BOGO on Cabot shredded cheese at the store as the inspiration for making pimento cheese this week. It’ll be great partnered with bagel chips, celery, and some other bits for snacking lunches for me and my homeschooler or can be turned into simple sandwiches throughout the week.

My son and I have started a weekly tradition of popping out on Saturday morning to pick up bagels for the family. We’re often overzealous in our order — bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches plus a few bagels for future lunches or snacks (who could resist a french toast bagel). So there are always leftover bagels that need using up and I can’t believe I hadn’t thought to make bagel chips yet!

Recipe: Pimento Cheese + Bagel Chips

Sweet: Rice Krispie Treats

A classic and the sweet, buttery, crunchy anecdote to all the chocolate Valentine’s Day candy we had been consuming as after dinner sweet treats. My recipe below uses a whole box of cereal and a whole bag of marshmallows which means you barely have to dirty a pot for making these.

Recipe: Rice Krispie Treats

The Game Plan

Here’s the play-by-play of how to make this prep as efficient as possible.

1. Preheat the oven for bagel chips. Takes at least 20 minutes for most ovens to come up to temperature so get this going while you prep the rice krispie treats and oats.

2. Make the rice krispie treats and cool. Since these need about 30 minutes to cool and set make the treats first and set them aside while you do everything else.

3. Put together the overnight oats and portion. This week I used deli containers to portion the oats. Because the mixture will be a bit soupy when first mixed, I like using an ice cream disher to scoop out oat-er part of the mixture into the containers and then pour on the more liquid part before covering and labeling.

4. Slice the bagels and bake the chips. Use a serrated knife or mandoline to cut your bagel. Rebecca recommends using a brush to evenly distribute the olive oil onto the chips, but I just tossed mine in a bowl and skip dirtying a brush. You can also reuse the bowl for mixing up the pimento cheese.

5. Mix up the pimento cheese. Especially easy if you buy diced pimentos and shredded cheese. I know many folks feel like pre-shredded cheese is an inferior quality but I promise that if you buy quality brands like Cabot or Tillamook it really is not. And it makes your kitchen life easier!

6. Portion the rice krispie treats. I cut this 13x9 pan into 18 portions.

7. Label and store everything. Big fan of this tape dispenser + Souper Cubes freezer tape for labeling everything in my kitchen.

This prep took me a just over an hour with clean up! You could easily squeeze this prep session into a weeknight (pick an easy meal like a one-pot pasta for dinner).

The Wrap Up

Here’s how long you might expect this prep to last:

• Overnight oats: In the fridge overnight oats are good for about 5 days. They do freeze beautifully if you find yourself with leftovers at the end of the week.

• Pimento cheese: Lasts about 5 days in the fridge as well! Keep it fresh by always portioning it with a clean spoon — no chip dipping Brian!

• Bagel chips: Last 3 months when properly stored in the pantry! I’ve never had them around that long myself.

• Rice Krispie treats: Store at room temperature in an airtight container. They get a little staler or soft after 5 days but are still good to eat for up to 7 days. You can individually wrap these for an even longer shelf life, but I never bother.

I’ve previously toyed around with also sharing my meal plan here in this series, but now that I’m sharing Dinner Tonight at the end of each week, that feels a little redundant.

As I work to bring back Staple, Snack, Sweet, what would you like to see here?