Free Meal Prep: Meatballs and Gravy

• Ingredients:

• 1 large bag of Kirkland brand meatballs OR 1-2 large bags of IKEA meatballs (I'm actually not sure how the volume of the IKEA meatballs compares to the big'ol Kirkland bags)

• 8-10 large potatoes or 10-12 medium potatoes, russet work best

• 16oz(approx. 480ml) of the liquid of choice for mashed potatoes: Heavy cream, half and half, whole or skim milk, or even in a pinch or if you reallllly wanna cut down the calories on this you can reserve a pint of the

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced (or a teaspoon of powered garlic)plus some salt, pepper, and spices of your choosing for mashed potatoes

• (optional) a stick of butter

• 4 packets of the gravy mix of your choice

• 1 16oz (approx 480ml) container of sour cream

• a few dashes of nutmeg

Prep:

• Get the meatballs out of the bag and cook them according to that bag's instructions. No really, just let those cook while you get everything else done

• Peel and cube your potatoes, place them in a pot full of cold water with salt. Put on high heat and do not start a timer until you see the potatoes at a rolling boil. cook for 10-20 minutes or until potato cubes are easily pieced with a fork. If you want to save the starchy water for mixing the potatoes later, do so now. Otherwise drain your potatoes like you would pasta.

• return potatoes to the pot they cooked in and add butter, garlic, spices, and liquid of your choosing to the potatoes. use a wooden spoon to stir and break up potatoes until they're mostly mixed, then use a potato masher to get the last bits. Once they mashed potatoes are homogenous let them rest for 10 minutes to thicken.

• (The meatballs should be done by now, pull them out of the oven and set aside)

• make gravy according to packets instructions but do not fully turn off the heat. Once the gravy is mixed stir in sour cream and nutmeg. once incorporated turn off heat and stir for 2-3 more minutes to thicken.

• Divvy up meatballs into the amount of portions you want and spoon gravy over them. If possible, use containers that have multiple compartments so that you can put the mashed potatoes separate from the meatballs and gravy. Allow to cool fully before transferring to the fridge. After 6 hours in the fridge transfer all portions you do not intend to eat with the next 48 hours into the freezer. After you eat one out of the fridge, transfer another from the freezer to the fridge to thaw.

Approximate nutrition info

(this one is especially tricky to nail down as there's a lot of modularity in it. this version of the nutrition facts assumes that you have 12 kirkland meatballs per portion and that you used both butter and heavy cream for your potatoes of which there are approximately 8oz of peeled potatoes per portion)

• Calories: 1065

• Fat: 74 grams

• Saturated Fat: 34 grams

• Cholesterol: 222mg

• Carbs: 68 grams

• Sugars: 10 grams

• Fiber: 7 grams

• Protein: 36 grams

• Sodium: 2246mg

I'm just gonna hit home again that this is the theoretical maximum amount of calories and fat that this can possibly be. You can cut this way, way down by doing stuff like subbing out that heavy cream for skim milk or the starchy water, using light sour cream, low sodium gravy mix, cutting out the butter entirely, and so on. As a point of reference I am indeed just tallying up all portion sizes of everything that goes into each portion and adding them up. It's not too hard of a task to do and it's best practice for making your own recipes so you can keep track of calories.