Money Saving Mom®

As many of you know, our almost 20-year-old daughter was very sick the first 2 weeks of January with Flu A that turned into bronchitis that turned into bacterial pneumonia that turned into the beginning stages of sepsis. After two trips to the ER in the first few days January, she was admitted to the ICU step down unit at the hospital for a few days. (We are so grateful they caught the sepsis right at the beginning stages or it could have been so much worse. You can read more here.)

She lost a lot of weight and her recovery has been slow, but she felt well enough and had good enough blood work results to be able to move back to Murfreesboro, TN where she lives and goes to college. (Gratefully, her semester starts tomorrow instead of earlier in the month like many schools, so it gave her more time to rest and recover!)

She moved back to her house in Murfreesboro today and I sent her with a week’s worth of meals so she would have nutritious food to eat, but wouldn’t have to think about cooking and could focus on continuing to recover and on school. Here’s what I made for her:

Food I Made For Kathrynne:

She made a list of food that sounded good and I based the meals upon this:

5 meals of browned ground beef and onions with cooked rice (I froze these for her to thaw and heat up as she needs them.)

4 meals of baked salmon and cooked rice

Cooked quinoa

Homemade granola bars

Homemade Energy Bites (I added protein powder as a mix-in to make these a little heartier!)

Extras I sent with her:

Also sent with her for quick meals/snacks: Oatmeal packets, yogurt and granola, turkey and cheese, Quest bars, cuties, steamed veggies, pre-cooked chicken, apples)

She’s going to get some bread, milk, and a few other items and she should have all of her meals and snacks covered for the week!

Other Things I Cooked/Baked:

While I was cooking, I made a few extras for our family for this week, too: sourdough bread, 3 loaves of French Bread (it’s rising in the pics above and looks much better when baked!!), energy bites, granola bars, rice, quinoa, and ground beef with onions (I’m going to add potatoes and peas for dinner one night this week).

Homemade Energy Bites With Protein Powder

For years, I’ve said on my homemade energy bites recipe that you could add protein powder to them as an add-in, but I don’t think I ever have. I added two scoops of my favorite Justin’s Peanut Butter Cup Protein Powder and I think they turned out so well and this way they pack a little more of a protein punch!

Homemade Granola Bars

Can you believe it? I don’t think I’ve ever made homemade granola bars? We’ve had this recipe from my sister on my site for years and I’ve always wanted to make it, but for some reason I just have always bought granola bars (maybe because for years they were so inexpensive at Aldi??)

I decided to make some homemade granola bars this weekend on a whim, but didn’t have enough peanut butter and didn’t have Rice Krispies or wheat germ to make my sister’s recipe, so I found this recipe online and swapped out healthy Cocoa Puffs instead of the Rice Krispies + added extra chocolate chips. They were delicious!!

Would you enjoy seeing more posts with meal prep like this? Let me know in the comments! And let me know what types of meal prep posts you’d especially love to see!