Messy Motherhood 03: Meal Prep & Playdate with Allie Bumgardner

Meet Allie Bumgardner

For today’s fun conversation, Stephanie is joined by her dear friend, Allie Bumgardner! Allie is a follower of Jesus, a wife to her husband of six years, a mom to her three kids, and a certified nutritional therapy practitioner. While she’s not currently practicing because she’s being called to be a full time stay-at-home mom, she loves to talk about nutrition and sprinkle it into her life. 

Goodbye Boring Meal Preps

Does the week go smoother when there are meals prepped and ready to go? Absolutely, but who actually likes taking the time to meal prep? It’s a boring task and most of the time it feels daunting. If you have kiddos at home when you’re trying to do it, that can add another layer of complication too. Allie and Stephanie started talking about these pain points with each other and how they both have had intentions of meal prepping, but then losing motivation along the way. And thus, the meal prep playdate idea was born! 

The How-To Behind Meal Prep Playdates

Before diving into the details behind this fun idea, please know that all of this is a great starting place to use as guidelines, but you’re able to tweak it along the way! It’s also important to mention that both Stephanie and Allie have children that are at the age where they can skip nap time, which provides a little more flexibility when it comes to the duration of the time of the meal prepping. On average they plan for three to four hours, but you’re definitely able to do this in one to two hours and are still able to knock out several items to prep! 

The first place to start is picking out a day to do this each week – Stephanie and Allie typically do it on a Monday or Tuesday. This helps set up the rest of your week for success. This means that over the weekend or even during the week beforehand, they are sending each other recipes they see on Instagram or Pinterest or even types of food they may be craving that week. Start coming up with three to four recipes that you want to make during your meal prep playdate. You want to make sure they are not super labor intensive and that they don’t require a ton of ingredients. Make sure they are realistic for the time you have set aside. 

A tip for not wasting food – Make a list of everything you have in your fridge and your pantry before you plan out what you’re going to meal prep for the week. This is especially good if you have items that need to be used or are about to go bad because you can find recipes that include these items so that nothing goes to waste!

Grocery Shopping… with four kids?!

Once you have the meals figured out, it’s time to go grocery shopping and grab the ingredients that you need. Sometimes Stephanie and Allie will go together, just the two of them, but other times they have taken their kids with them. You do what you got to do! Sometimes they each grab what they need on their own or one person just grabs for all. You just want to make sure you have everything before the meal prep day comes.

The big thing here is that when you’re grocery shopping make sure that you check for all the ingredients in your house, make sure that you’re using what you have, and then know that you’re going to be doubling every recipe that you have. Basically, you’ll buy your ingredients, your friend will buy their ingredients, and then you’ll throw it all together and make a large batch. 

An important note here – don’t get caught up on who is spending what, it all evens out in the end. 

Guidelines for the Friend That’s Hosting

If you’re the one that’s hosting the meal prep playdate, then a few things that you may consider doing would be starting coffee, making sure your dishwasher is emptied so that you can just start throwing all the dirty dishes and bowls in there as you go, and making sure that you have your cutting boards ready and any other fun kitchen utensils that you know you’ll need. Basically getting the kitchen prepped and ready to go so that as soon as your friend arrives, you can jump into the meal prep once the kids are settled. Lastly, whoever is hosting is in charge of lunch. Note – Stephanie and Allie keep this super lowkey. Something quick, easy, and manageable is perfect. 

Embrace the Mess

Don’t be afraid of the mess. It’s going to get messy but you’ll clean as you go and having a friend help you clean up afterwards makes it a lot easier. Knowing that you’ll be left with all the wonderful meals and snacks makes it all worth it. Also, while you’re making the mess, you’ll be having fun with your friend and talking the entire time which is great because you’re getting so much done at the same time. The mindless tasks of washing fruit, chopping up vegetables, or loading up the dishwasher goes by so much faster when doing it with a friend. 

Stephanie and Allie really enjoy being intentional with their time by enhancing their conversations with doing a bible study or reading a book ahead of time and then discussing it during the meal prep day. 

Guidelines for the Friend That’s Traveling to Meal Prep Playdate

This person that is coming has a heavier load because they have to pack up kids and food. This is where having a large cooler bag comes in nicely. Both Stephanie and Allie have the cooler bags from Trader Joe’s. Usually, all the food and containers they need can fit into that bag. While you could bring your actual tupperware containers or glass containers that you’d like to store your prepped food in, Allie has found it really helpful to bring a couple large gallon sized Ziploc bags to transfer the food in, and then once she gets home she is able to transfer it all to a nice glass container to put into the fridge.

The Reality of the Playdate

While the meal prepping is happening, the play date is also happening and the chaos is very real and there is a lot of noise. There have been many times when Stephanie and Allie have been in the middle of a recipe and someone has to step away because their child is having a meltdown, or two kids are fighting. Usually, the person who’s kid is crying steps away while the other continues to work on the recipe or watches the food that’s cooking on the stove. Sometimes, both of them have to step away and in these moments, just make sure that nothing’s boiling and everything is safe in the kitchen before both leave to check in on the kids. 

The nice thing about doing the playdate is that the kids are occupied more and they’re getting to play too. You get to do this mundane task of meal prepping, while the kids play, and none of it feels overwhelming. Even when you get pulled away, your friend is there to lift you back up when you return. There’s beauty in the mess during those moments. 

Jesus Initiated and So Can You 

If you’re missing that community or even craving the community shared here, find somebody you know and invite them into your home. Choose one thing to make and just start inviting people into your space. It doesn’t have to be a meal or anything major – it could be as simple as chocolate chip cookies or making PB&Js and freezing them! It’s about having a third thing that helps people open up and it’s a great way to build intentional community. All moms want the same thing – a deep, real community with other moms. Too often we wait for someone to invite us, but Jesus initiated, so try initiating conversations, invite people into your home, and it could lead to something that could change your entire motherhood journey. 

Recipe Flops and Favorites

The infamous yogurt bark will forever be remembered as a great idea but a complete fail. What was supposed to be frozen yogurt with fruit in it ended up almost being melted yogurt all over Stephanie’s passenger seat. Needless to say, they never got to eat the yogurt bar. 

However, they do have a tried and true Dill Pickle Chicken Salad recipe that is a staple in their rotation.

Energy Balls are on the to-do list for every meal prep playdate! 

One of the favorites has been the time they washed all their fruit, cut up all their veggies, and then made a protein dip! Many veggies were eaten that week by both adults and the children! 

Homemade gummies and goldfish were a big hit with the kids – making something fun for them to eat and be excited about is always a win. 

These are just some of the fun recipes that Stephanie and Allie have made together! If any of these interest you, or to see a complete list, head to Stephanie’s blog post here! 

Also, Stephanie loves a good kitchen gadget, so if you’re looking for any of those tools used you can find those here! 

Your Takeaway for the Week

Your goal for this week is to start thinking and planning your first meal prep and playdate with someone in your community. If there is someone on your heart or somebody that you are considering trying to become friends with, or a good friend that you already have, try to start figuring out ways to make this meal prep and play date work. If you have any good ideas to add to this day, or any fun new recipes, be sure to send them to @stephanie.booe on Instagram! 

LINKS MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE:

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Keywords:

Meal Prep, Play Date, Parenting, Nutrition, Meal Planning, Grocery Shopping, Community, Motherhood, Culinary, Meal Prepping, Kids, Chaos, Friendship, Collaboration, Recipe, Healthy Eating, Meal Prep Tips, Meal Prep Ideas, Meal Prep with Friends, Meal Prep Chaos