make eating easier for the week - episode 2 - fall inspired coldfoam double feature (pumpkin & caramel corn), sweet potato yogurt bowl, tomato pesto ravioli soup, caramel apple tarts

between kids, working, chores, trying to have a social life and taking care of yourself, it's hard work being an adult. and then when you try and add planning and cooking three meals a day, somethings gotta give.

over the last year of my life, I have been on a self growth journey with a focus on finding ways to making things easier in my life so I can have more fun. I sort of stumbling on meal preping when I started making coldfoam in bulk to store for the week. It was so helpful that I kept adding on to my sunday prep and now I prep: cold foam for my morning coffee, something for breafast and lunch duing the work week, and a silly little treat. this way I don't end up drink the same cup of coffee all day, and wonder why my brain doesn't work well and I can't focus.

for MELLO'S FALL 24' DROP I wanted to create the ultimate autumn inspired meal prep. I wanted to keep things extra cozy and warm, while still being medium-minimal effort. let me know what you think of this menu in the comments!

this week's menu

pumpkin spice coldfoam

caramel corn coldfoam

sweet potato yogurt bowl with matcha white chocolate chip granola

tomato pesto ravioli soup

caramel apple tarts

prep time: 2-2.5 hours

skill level: easy medium

---

but first, the grocery list

on friday, after work I take about an hour to plan my meals for the following week and write my grocery list. this makes meal prepping on sunday easier, because eveyrthing is already pre-planned and decided.

I also love using my meal prep grocery list notepad because it has a section to plan your meals & divided into the categories at the grocery store to shopping for groceries easier than ever.

this week's grocery list:

produce	protein	dairy	aisles
apples (4)	rotesserie chicken or 4 thin sliced breasts	yogurt (4 servings)	frozen pastry dough
sweet potatoes (2)		heavy cream	honey
spinach			pumpkin spice
yellow onion			vanilla
garlic			coconut oil
caramel sauce			butter
			white chocolate chips
			caramel sauce
			ravioli
			oats
			almonds
			chicken broth
			dried cranberries

things that aren't on the list - that you may need and might already have:

• salt

• pepper

• garlic powder

---

meal prep vlog

meal prep cheat codes

the goal of meal prepping is to make things easier so if we need to short cut then so be it. so feel free to short cut and use every hack your cute little brain comes up with.

• I planned on using a rotesserie chicken from the hot bar at the grocery store for the tomato pesto ravioli soup - or feel free to vegetarian and ditch the chicken.

• I used the frozen pastry dough because homemade pastry dough is a serious effort. If you want to go full Martha Stewart and give it a try from scratch then do it, but don't feel any bit of guilt with using this circuit.

• I also had some leftover caramel sauce, you know the one by the cut up fruit in the produce section, from a previous meal prep so I used that for the caramel apple tarts but if you prefer to throw a caramel together from scratch pop off queen!