Meal Prep – The Final Tally

The time has finally come to wrap up my Meal Prep Journey. Over the past two months I have made, frozen and reheated five different recipes that I had never tried before. These recipes were all evaluated for how easy they were to prepare, how long they took to prepare, how tasty they were (including whether it received toddler approval), and how much it cost per serving. In addition, I froze a portion of each and evaluated how tasty each recipe was after being reheated.

Overall, this was quite a fun challenge and a tasty one too! I can see myself making all of these recipes again and this project has been inspiring and really shown me the benefits of prepping larger quantities that can be stored for rainy days. Without further ado, here is the final scoring for each dish progressing from lowest total score to highest:

Recipe	Final Score	Notes
Turkey, Tomato & Butternut Squash Cannelloni	67%	Most difficult & most expensive
Mexican Lasagna	78%	Least affected by freezing
Folded Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wraps	83%	Most affected by freezing
White Chicken Chili	89%	Tastiest
Hearty Corn & Potato Soup	97%	Least Expensive

If you would like to see more detail for my evaluation of each recipe, you can see the final, fully completed tables for each dish, which now include taste results from freezing, here (with links to the corresponding post if you would like to try out the recipe yourself!):

Turkey, Tomato & Butternut Squash Cannelloni:

	1 Point	2 Points	3 Points	Points Awarded
Difficulty	Difficult	Not Bad	Easy	2
Time	2 hr +	1 – 2 hr	Under 1 hr	1
Taste	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	2.5
Toddler Approval	Thumbs Down	Meh	Thumbs Up	3
Cost Per Serving	Expensive $$$	Reasonable $$	Inexpensive $	1 ($6.83)
Taste After Freezing	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	2.5
Total Points	Fresh:	9.5/15	Frozen:	12/18

Mexican Lasagna:

	1 Point	2 Points	3 Points	Points Awarded
Difficulty	Difficult	Not Bad	Easy	3
Time	2 hr +	1 – 2 hr	Under 1 hr	1
Taste	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	3
Toddler Approval	Thumbs Down	Meh	Thumbs Up	2
Cost Per Serving	Expensive $$$	Reasonable $$	Inexpensive $	2 ($3.10)
Taste After Freezing	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	3
Total Points	Fresh:	11/15	Frozen:	14/18

Folded Crispy Buffalo Chicken Wraps:

	1 Point	2 Points	3 Points	Points Awarded
Difficulty	Difficult	Not Bad	Easy	3
Time	2 hr +	1 – 2 hr	Under 1 hr	2
Taste	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	3
Toddler Approval	Thumbs Down	Meh	Thumbs Up	n/a
Cost Per Serving	Expensive $$$	Reasonable $$	Inexpensive $	2 ($3.89)
Taste After Freezing	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	2.5
Total Points	Fresh:	10/12	Frozen:	12.5/15

White Chicken Chili:

	1 Point	2 Points	3 Points	Points Awarded
Difficulty	Difficult	Not Bad	Easy	3
Time	2 hr +	1 – 2 hr	Under 1 hr	2.5
Taste	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	3
Toddler Approval	Thumbs Down	Meh	Thumbs Up	3
Cost Per Serving	Expensive $$$	Reasonable $$	Inexpensive $	2 ($3.75)
Taste After Freezing	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	2.5
Total Points	Fresh:	13.5/15	Frozen:	16/18

Hearty Corn & Potato Soup:

	1 Point	2 Points	3 Points	Points Awarded
Difficulty	Difficult	Not Bad	Easy	3
Time	2 hr +	1 – 2 hr	Under 1 hr	3
Taste	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	3
Toddler Approval	Thumbs Down	Meh	Thumbs Up	3
Cost Per Serving	Expensive $$$	Reasonable $$	Inexpensive $	3 ($2)
Taste After Freezing	1 Star	2 Star	3 Star	2.5
Total Points	Fresh:	15/15	Frozen:	17.5/18