How To Get Meal Prep Down To A Fine Art
Why prepare meals ahead of time?
- Save time
- Save money
- Ensure healthy meals instead of skipped or unhealthy meal choices
- Ease stress and pressure
Tips for preparing food with minimal time and effort:
- Choose recipes with few ingredients. This could mean preparing a meal of chicken, rice and a couple of vegetable choices; liven up with a few herbs and spices. These are four basic ingredients, with a dash of flavour – simple!
- Plan your weeks worth of meals in one go
- Meal preparation may seem overwhelming if it isn’t something you are used to, so start small such as preparing a weeks worth of breakfasts (overnight oats), and slowly add a lunch, evening meal, or snack to your usual preparation routine.
- Use recipes that have overlapping ingredients to save on cost
- Have a set go-to list of recipes that are easy, quick, and a hit with everyone under your roof
- Always take a list when you go food shopping
- Make recipes that can be made in large batches and frozen for a later date. I.e. Bolognaise, soup or stew
- Cook basic ingredients in large batches and store in the fridge for later in the week. For example, hard-boiled eggs, quinoa and grilled vegetables can all be cooked at once and sored separately before being thrown together to make a meal a few days afterwards. This also means that you can incorporate other foods in place of others, such as grilled fish or a chicken breast and have the boiled egg for a snack on another occasion.
Meal planning will make a healthy, balanced diet much easier and straightforward, eliminating the stress and last minute panic. It will also leave you with more time to do the things that really matter, such as spending time with friends and family.
