Failing to prepare is preparing to fail. This applies to many life situations, including meal prep. If you resolved to eat better this year then meal prep is going to help – a lot. Oh and you’ll also save yourself time, and money. Keep reading for the method for becoming a healthy meal prep pro.
Prepping enough meals and snacks for a week might sounds pretty daunting, so if you’re starting out just do a few days at a time. You don’t want to end up in a situation where you’re throwing out food either!
Meal prep in jars
Invest in some good glass containers like mason or ball jars or reuse glass jars – you might not have to buy any - that’s being sustainable. If buying plastic, look for BPA free.
Conduct a pantry audit
Pre planning, audit your pantry. Food does not last forever – especially organic foods which have shorter shelf life, so check your inventory. Do you have loads of pasta, lentils or buckwheat flour? Write a list of what you have already and build your meals around these foods. This also saves money.
Plan your meals
Having an idea as to what you are going to eat - and therefore make is going to save you both time and money. If you buy random food at the grocery store, you might end up not using it and throwing food out, and who wants to waste food - and money? Keep an ingredients list on your phone so you buy that. And only that.
Plan your grocery trip
Prioritise your time. What do you need and where do you need to get if from? Be efficient, could you go on the way home from work? Can you get it all out of the way on a Sunday morning?
Buy bulk
Buying bulk is also pretty economical. The idea here is to make meals around ingredients that you can use in multiple ways. Like chickpeas for example. You can use them in salads, make roasted chickpea nut snacks and scramble them for breakfast.
Same for black beans. Cook up heaps and use them in tacos, in these spicy breakfast bowls – which are great for lunches too, and to make black bean brownies!
Bulk bins are great for making up your own muesli or snacks. Portion packs and commercial snacks cost more because you pay for the convenience and the packaging – but you can make you own trail mix, dips, hummus, and granola, all minus the preservatives, and other additives your body does not need.
Cook in bulk
Buy from bulk, cook in bulk and then prep your meals in advance to save you time from cooking throughout the week. You’ll also stick to your health goals because you will be prepared. You also won’t have to think about what you’re having for dinner, for lunch – every day! Check out these recipes for some breakfast ideas you can prep 3-4 days in advance.
And for salads you can prep ahead of time, check out this post here for 8 super delicious summer salad ideas.
And for the dressings to keep on hand in your fridge, this post here for 5 healthy salad dressings that will take your meals from meh to yeah.
For some more substantial meals, check out these 8 feel food healthy eating dinner ideas.
Cook extra at dinner
Making a quinoa salad for dinner? Cook up an extra cup of quinoa, there are loads of other ways you can use it – like in this quinoa banana loaf.
Any pulse or grain, if you’re cooking it, cook more to use for meals for the next few days. Portion serves into containers and then you can create different meals by switching up what else goes in. Got lots of greens? Then something like this green quinoa salad would be perfect. Need to roast up some vegetables? Then this winter roasted vegetable salad is perfect.
Meal prep with a friend. SHARE this post
So whether you’re running between classes, full on with kids or trying or adulting and still trying to have a social life, we hope now you’ll have more energy and focus for other things in live by getting into meal prep.
Share this post with your friends, family and flatmates. Sometimes creating new habits can be hard, and if you have someone else doing it with you – it’s often easier doing something with others than alone.