Healthy Meal Prep: 3 Freezer Meals for a Family of 4, at One Time; Stay Healthy, Full and Fit-Over 50 or at any age.

Meal prepping is a great way to stay on track with your health and diet goals.  Planning and having food ready when you need it is key to maintaining your health and weight.  Doing this doesn’t require a ton of free time or crazy amounts of planning either.  Meal prep can actually be very simple and many make ahead meals can be prepared in a very healthy way with a little creativity.  

All photos,  videos and content are solely owned and the rights of SheDo50Too

One of the simplest times to meal prep is immediately after a grocery haul.  With a new batch of groceries and so many ingredients on hand, it’s easy to envision all of the scrumptious meals that can be prepared.  Recently I have posted on social media about a meal prep that really wasn’t preplanned.  I typically buy the same groceries every 2 weeks for our family.  This includes lots of vegetables, fruit and lean meats.  When unpacking all of the groceries I asked the family if there were any recipes I haven’t cooked in a while - that they would love to have.  Unanimously the answer was:  Sheppard’s Pie and Lasagna.  I decided that would be easy enough with the items I had on hand as follows:
3 pounds of lean ground turkey
carrots 
onion
celery
spinach 
zucchini 
green onion 
Cauliflower 
greek yogurt
low fat ricotta cheese 
cheddar cheese 
mozzarella cheese 
egg substitute 
heart of palm pasta noodles 
pasta sauce
soy and Worcestershire sauce
Balsalmic vinegar
fennel seeds
Garlic powder 
​onion powder 
salt & pepper 
Italian seasoning 
corn starch
​
​All photos,  videos and content are solely owned and the rights of SheDo50Too

As seen in the above video, I had enough ingredients to make 3 meals instead of 2, so I added a batch of baked rotini.  I was able to use the lasagna base for that and happened to have rotini noodles in the pantry.  

These are actually healthier version of the traditional recipes. The sheppard’s pie does not have a gravy with meat drippings or fat and there’s no mashed potatoes and heavy cream on top.  The lasagna has heart of palm noodles and less cheese than traditional versions. For all of the freezer casseroles everything is the same except the sauce.  

My preparation is as follows:
Split ingredients 2/3 and 1/3 -I have 2 pans going at once.   In both pans at the same time:  Sauté onion in olive oil until transparent, add the carrots, celery and zucchini.   When tender add the turkey.  Cook this mixture completely and add the spinach.  (I do not give amounts for the vegetables just add to taste.  I include  a lot  of vegetables in my meals to boost the nutritional value, stretch the meal, and cut the calories.)  

Season all with garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.  For the Sheppard’s pie pan add fennel seeds, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar to taste.  I use about 2 Tablespoons of each.  Let. This simmer and add a mixture of 1 Tablespoon cornstarch and 2 Tablespoons water to thicken the sauce (my gravy substitute).  Let this simmer on low and move to the other pan finish off the base for lasagna.  Add the pasta sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning.  Allow this to simmer on low heat now.

Steam cauliflower (I do this in the microwave) Once steamed I blend the cooked cauliflower with Greek yogurt to make a mashed potato consistency. Add small amounts of yogurt to get the texture you like.  I do this with an emersion blender, any blender works.  

Place the sheppard’s  pie mixture into a freezable casserole dish and top with the cauliflower mixture.  Follow with shredded cheddar cheese and green onion.  That’s it.  This casserole is ready to go in the freezer.  I seal it with aluminum foil and my casserole dish lid and label with a post it.  When ready to cook, simply pull it out of the freezer and place in a cold oven.  Set the oven temp to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for about 1 hour and 15 minutes - remove the foil and finish cooking for 10 minutes to slightly golden the cheese.

Back to the pasta mixture.  Mix the ricotta cheese with one egg or egg replacement (I used a 15 ounce pack of ricotta).  Layer as  follows:  meat, vegetable and sauce mixture followed with lasagna noodles (I used heart of palm noodles - Palmini is the brand I like - this cuts carbs and calories tremendously-I will link this product at the end of this post - zucchini noodles work great too) and then layer  ricotta mixture.  Repeat with meat and noodles and ricotta - do this until your dish is almost full.  I had quite a bit leftover, so I mixed my ricotta mixture  into the meat and sauce remaining and added the rotini into the mixture for the third dish.   I froze them the same as the Sheppard’s pie and will top with the mozzarella cheese after baking.  Same baking instructions. Place in a cold stove and set the cooking temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit - cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Add the mozzarella and cook for an additional 10 minutes until melted.  I hope you try this and enjoy.  My family loved the dishes and I did all of the prep in less than 1 hour.  Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on the recipes..  What do you do for meal prepping?  I would love to hear some new ideas to try.  

Subscribe to my newsletter for more in depth information, tips, workouts, menus, discounts and more.  I wish you health in all things and success in your own fitness endeavors.        

This is the heart of palm pasta that I referred to.  As an Amazon Associate I do earn if you purchase through my link, however this does not change the price that you pay for the item.   I have used every variation of this pasta and my whole family loves it as a pasta substitute.