I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am so excited that this quarantine is over. OF course, things are to back to 100% normal, but they will be. This week, I really wanted to focus on meal prepping. We’ve talked about meal planning before in Meal Planning for the Average Woman blog, but Ive never discussed meal prepping. I also got a bunch of questions this week for tips on meal prepping, so I thought I would provide some of my tricks.
First, before you start anything else, you need to know this: Meal prepping is not rocket science. It is simply intentionality. It requires you to think through what you want to eat long prior to the panicked half hour before dinner. It is not difficult, and it definitely does not have to be elaborate. There are some super simple ways to make meal prep so much easier on yourself.
When I first started meal prepping, it took me all day on Sunday. Obviously I didn’t want to spend my entire Sunday slaving over a hot stove, so I prioritized. Which meal was the most difficult to incorporate into our daily schedule? For my husband and I, that was breakfast. Even with waking up at 5am, breakfast was just difficult to prioritize while we were in college. Now, as working professionals, we have found a new struggle in lunches. Whatever your struggle meal is, prioritize that.
Tip #1: Prep snacks
Most people meal prep because they tend to make healthier food decisions when they have easy access to healthy food. One of my biggest struggles is my mid-afternoon snack. Because my brain says to reach for potato chips, I decided to prepare my snacks in advance for quick access. I typically put together about a 1/2 cup of grapes or blueberries, a couple of cheese cubes, and 3-4 almonds. IT doesn’t sound like much, but its macros are balanced, and it really does hold me until dinner.
Tip #2: Prep veggies
If you are big into fresh veggies, then you know there are not a lot of meal preparation tasks more pesky than preparing vegetables. I recommend slicing all the veggies at once and putting them in baggies for each day. Then you can just pull the baggie out, dump the veggies in the pan, and you have avoided the time consumption and constant cleanup of veggie prep at every meal. It also helps you to avoid not cooking veggies because they are inconvenient.
Tip #3: Keep it simple.
Pinterest meals are beautiful, but who cares if it takes you 3 hours to prepare it. One pot meals or one pan meals are wonderful. (Pinterest has a lot of those recipes too). Keep it simple. Try to use the same meat base. For example, if you will be using beef throughout the week, don’t buy ground beef, and stew beef, and flank steak and roast. Design meals that use a similar meat base for simplicity in prep and in the grocery store. If you want to go fancy, what we do is set aside one, maybe two nights a week for some kind of special meal like salmon or roast beef.
Tip #4: Organize your refrigerator.
When I was growing up, our refrigerator had a place for every thing and a thing for every place. We knew we were out of something when it no longer occupied its spot. Things just did not move. I have encountered refrigerators that quite frankly stress me out. There are four containers of sour cream, two of which are open buried behind the fresh groceries bought yesterday. Veggies go bad, food gets wasted; thus, money gets wasted. Having a messy and chaotic refrigerator is just not worth it. Organizing your refrigerator will make it easier to find things and fewer things will go bad.
Tip #5: Timing things out.
You’ll probably want to do any necessary baking first. Then move on to hot prep. I used to make breakfast tacos and roll them up in tin foil to be reheated. Then move to cold prep. You will also want to account for the dishes piling up.
There are so many wonderful things about meal prepping. I don’t know about you, but when I have a planned, prepped, and organized refrigerator, I feel like I can conquer the world. My food choices are healthier. My cravings diminish significantly, and I don’t have a ton of dishes to keep up with all week- just the one day with an insane amount of dishes. In all seriousness though, meal prepping is the way to go.
Until next week Friends,
Mrs. Ashley Seguin
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