I will be the first to admit that I do not like cooking. I do not like being in the kitchen doing anything kitchen related besides making some coffee, and maybe some peanut butter toast.
But as a busy person, I find that meal prep makes meal times so much easier and less kitcheny. I just take a peak into the fridge and pull out a meal and eat it. Of course there is the argument that you could also just as easily open an app and order a meal, but as a person with a lot of various food indolences, eating out becomes pretty much impossible.
There are also various reasons why meal prep is helpful to you.
The Benefits of Meal Prep
If you don’t meal prep now, it can seam daunting and overwhelming on where to start. Maybe you even know the benefits, but are feeling lost on how to take that first step. In case you don’t know the benefits of meal prep here are a few.
- Reduce food waste. Whether it’s the left overs from a restaurant that you thought you were going to eat or the shriveled half of an avocado you forgot in the back of the fridge, there is a lot of food waste being dumped in the trash, or compost.
- Save money. Not only with meal prep will you use the items you bought and planned to use, but making meals at home more often is better for your budget.
- Save time. Meal prep can reduce the time it takes to prepare and cook/make the meals, but it can save time elsewhere, like reducing the trips to the grocery store.
How to Start
Like all things when developing a new habit, start small.
There is this unhelpful viewpoint of “all or nothing” thinking that is very pervasive in our society that you have to be doing “it”, and if you are not, if you are struggling with it, than you are failing. And this all or nothing thinking is very detrimental to us in developing skills and habits to make changes in our lives. Whatever those changes may be.
Here are some thoughts on how to get started and set up for success!
- Ease yourself into meal planning. Start with one or two meals in a week.
- Think about some meals or recipes you find yummy.
- Discover what are the ingredients that go into those meals.
- Search your fridge, cupboards, pantry to see if you have some or all of those items
- Add the items you need to your grocery list.
- If you don’t have a grocery list, make one! I like the “To Do” app by Microsoft because It creates a checkable list that saves your items when you check them off so you can re-add them again next week. This way I am not recreating the list each week. Additionally you can share this list with other people in your household or others you shop with.
- Another tactic for meal planning is if you are already making some meals, make a bunch extra so you can put the extra in storage containers to eat later in the week or freeze them and enjoy on another day. This will mean some preplanning while making the grocery list and buying items at the grocery store.
- Quick tip about leftovers, for those who will eat them, because I understand that some folks don’t eat leftovers. Have an idea in mind for when you will be eating them, so that they don’t spoil in the fridge or become forgotten in the freezer that they become so freezer burned you have no idea what the meal was.
- Have some go to flavors you like or spice combos you like to season your food. Think soy and ginger, chili lime or coconut milk and basil. Whether you use premade sauces or combine a few things on your own, some go to flavors/sauces can be a real time savor!
Hacks for the Kitchen Averse like Myself
If cutting fresh veggies ain’t your jam, there are a few different options here:
- If buying fresh, buy precut, pre sliced, or some other smaller size. There are many options in the produce section.
- Frozen veggies can also be a great option and they often come in cut up options. Frozen can be super helpful when cooking, baking or some other form of heating the food option.
- Using beans, get the canned ones, they’re already cooked for you!
- Don’t want to scramble eggs, you can certainly buy a carton where it’s already pre scrambled.
- Using cooking methods that can be happening in the background like baking, roasting or using a slow cooker. I love these options!
I am a big fan of methods of cooking that are much more of a set and forget it kind. I do not want to be stirring and watching for simmering and adding 17 different ingredients to a meal. Sure sometimes those meals can also be “chefs kiss!”, but I am fine with eating a meal that I like, tastes good and wasn’t too involved, then having a Michelin Star meal every time I eat. I am willing to make that compromise for meal prep done for the week.
I also love buying various salad bags and combining them to make something unique. I just open and dump a little of this and a little of that and viola! I have a lot of veggies, then all I need to do is dump some protein on top.
Protein hacks that I have found quick are:
- Opening a can of tuna for a salad
- Trader Joes lentils that are in the produce section (when I could eat legumes that is), I just opened the bag and dumped some on top. Putting the rest in a storage container. You could also cook your own lentils, they’re pretty quick and this can be pared with other meal prep items.
- In the meat section you can get precooked chicken strips or precooked bacon, or even a roasted chicken or turkey that you can take apart and use the meat as part of later meals.
- In the past I have pre baked many breast of chicken and stored them to use later on top of salads, in lunch wraps or in burritos.
Lastly find something fun to listen to when you meal prep. Choose some inspiring upbeat music or a podcast/audio book that doesn’t require too much of your brain so you can focus on the prepping.
How to Execute the Meal
Preplanning is super helpful here. Preplanning the meals/recipes. Getting those ingredients on a grocery list and then plan the day you’ll go to the grocery store. Lastly, you’ll need to plan when and how you will prepare the items and the meal.
Staying with starting small and starting with one or two meals, there are option on how to execute these meals.
First option you could go with making on the night you planned and know that you will need some extra time, or some extra help with prepping the larger serving size.
I use this method personally on Sunday nights. I make a huge stir-fry. While I am cutting the veggies, or adding some frozen veggies to my pan, I am also boiling water to cook a starch (rice or quinoa). While the various veggies are cooking, I then add the protein. Lastly I combine the starch in the pan and mix it all together and season.
Now that the dish if flavored, I serve myself dinner and dish the rest into storage containers. I put most of the containers in the freezer with one going in the fridge to eat in the next couple of days. The ones in the freeze may serve as an additional meal later that week or some meals for the next week or two.
Second option is have a specific time you set aside to do meal prep for those one to two meals. This takes planning and scheduling it into a day during your week. My recommendation would be to set aside at least an hour. Meal prep can take more or less time, it depends on how involved your meals are or how many meals you’re making. Also, when you first begin it may take longer to meal prep than once you’ve been doing it for a bit. So take that into consideration.
I also use this strategy for the meals I make that I will be eating during the week. If you want a little inspiration or just to watch the flow of how I manage the prep here’s a video
Fighting the Fear of Boredom
Many people share with me they are afraid they’ll get bored of eating a meal a second or third time. Sure that can happen. But also most of us have eaten leftovers. Sometimes a food item is even better reheated! But if you know this about yourself. Plan for the eating of that ready-made-meal on a different week. So the meal feels fresh.
I personally don’t deviate too much for my vegetable, protein and flavor combos too much. I like what I like and it works for me. I am perfectly happy eating the same thing over and over again. Probably part of my neurodivergence. But I get others need variety or feel like they do.
But it could also be worth a quick examination of what you eat, even when we eat out/order in. Think about it. We often go to the same few places, sure we branch out at times, but we still have our tried and trues and we often order the same thing or same couple of things every time we go there or order from there. We are creatures of habit. And you can make this meal prep a habit of your life!
Putting it All Together
- Start with only 1-2 meals. Do that for a while until you are meal prepping one to two meals per week. Once you have that as your new habit, you can add more meals to your week if you like. Everyone is different with a different schedule, your life might work great with two meals per week, or it may need more. You get to examine and decide. You don’t need to meal prep for every meal for every day-unless you want. You do you!
- Choose the path of least resistance: precut veggies, frozen veggies precooked starches or proteins, mix and match whatever makes it easy for you.
- Have some easy staples in your kitchen that you like to use in various foods. This could be rice, canned beans, frozen riced cauliflower, or lentils.
- Know you favorite flavor combos and have those herbs, spices, oils or sauces on hand.
- Know that you don’t have to be creating masterpieces every meal. Do you like it? Great!
- It’s ok to repeat, weekly or biweekly-think taco Tuesday’s or lasagna Friday’s
As always, reach out if you have any questions. We also offer Nutrition coaching if you want so assistance in creating habits around food and fueling yourself. Learn more here.
Until next time friends, nom nom!