We have brought you the most interesting and useful meal preparation tips for your daily life kitchen hacks.
What is Meal Prepping?
Meal prepping is all the rage of late, and for a good reason. It saves time and money while helping you stick to your clean eating plan and stave off hunger. Yet, if you’ve thought about embracing this healthy eating habit, only to be derailed once you realize the time and effort, not to mention all the plastic containers involved, we don’t blame you.
Luckily, meal prepping doesn’t have to be a daylong logistical nightmare, full of dirty dishes, spilled quinoa, and mismatched food storage containers. (Not to mention less-than-appealing leftovers.) Want to prep like the best of them? Follow these meal preparation tips from some of the best think-ahead health gurus. Meal planning and prepping are wonderful skills in your personal health and wellness tool kit.
A well-thought-out meal plan can help you improve your diet quality or reach a specific health goal while saving you time and money. Here are a few mostly used meal preparation tips to help you in daily life.
Benefits of meal prepping
Meal prepping can save you time and money since you’re buying and preparing home-cooked food ahead of time. Many people meal preparation by shopping and cooking on the weekends, which may work better with your schedule than cramming it in during a weekday.
Meal prepping can also make eating healthier easier since the menu is set in advance. You’re less likely to choose a not-so-great option when you’ve already had a healthy dinner at home, ready to go.
Invest in quality storage containers
Food storage containers are one of the most essential meal preparation tools.
You may find the meal preparation process very frustrating if you’re working with a cupboard full of mismatched containers with missing lids. It’s well worth your time and money to invest in high-quality containers.
Before you make a purchase, consider each container’s intended use. If you’ll be freezing, microwaving, or cleaning them with a dishwasher, make sure you choose safe containers.
It’s also handy to have a variety of sizes for different types of foods.
Plan Your Meals
Cooking more meals at home is good for your health and your wallet. You can fit it into even the busiest week with a little planning. The goal is to make the most of your time in the kitchen. Start by listing your meals for the week ahead, and be specific. You could make a basic outline for each week: chili on Monday, pasta on Thursday, and tacos on Friday. It can make planning easier, and some people, especially kids, like knowing what to expect.
Cooking more meals at home is good for your health and your wallet. You can fit it into even the busiest week with a little planning. The goal is to make the most of your time in the kitchen. Start by listing your meals for the week ahead, and be specific. You could make a basic outline for each week: chili on Monday, pasta on Thursday, and tacos on Friday. It can make planning easier, and some people, especially kids, like knowing what to expect.
Choose Easy Recipes
Start simple. Turkey chili and roasted vegetables are a cinch to make and reheat easily. Lasagna or fish stew, on the other hand, takes more work and may not stay as fresh. When you find a recipe that looks good, save it in a file or spreadsheet. Once you make your picks, list each ingredient to buy, including how much you need. Apps and other online tools can help you figure out exact amounts.
Shop Once
Once you have your list, pick a shopping day that fits your schedule. Maybe you like going to the neighborhood farmers market on Saturdays or hitting the grocery store on a weeknight when it’s not busy. Be sure to buy just what you need. And don’t let the sight of a week’s worth of groceries overwhelm you when you get home. Remember, you don’t have to shop and cook on the same day.
Pick a Prep Day
Cooking more food at once makes it easier to prepare healthy meals on hectic days. Pick a day of each week to prep as many of your dishes as you can. And make it fun! Put on some music.
Invite a friend over to share the work and the food. Or turn it into a family affair — everyone gets a job that matches their age. If meals for a full week seem a bit much to take on, start with 2 or 3 days’ worth and prep another dish later in the week.
Think About Cooking Time
On meal preparation day, start with foods that need the most time on the stove or in the oven: cooking meat, roasting vegetables, soaking or simmering beans, and making quinoa. Once you have those pots and pans, you can do quick tasks like washing lettuce or chopping carrots and celery into handy snack sizes. If you don’t like to pre-cook your meat, put it in a marinade, so it’s ready to be tossed into the pan or oven when needed.
Make Extra
If you know you use a lot of some ingredients or recipes, double or triple the amount you cook at once. You can save yourself the hassle of cooking beans, boiling eggs, or steaming veggies several nights per week.
Portion It Out
Divide large recipes into ready-to-go single servings, and you may save yourself some time during the week. It can also keep you from overeating. Put each serving in a re-sealable plastic bag or glass container. You can also pour soups, stews, and broths into silicone muffin tins, freeze them, and pop the pieces into a plastic bag after they harden.
Lunch in a Jar
You can pre-make five at once and have lunch all week. Put nuts, grains, protein, and dressing at the bottom of an 8-ounce jar, with veggies and greens on top. Or make a “wrap-less” burrito with beans, rice, and veggies. Another idea: portion out single-serve smoothie ingredients ready to throw in the blender.
Suitable for How Long?
Don’t let your hard work spoil in the fridge! Keep in mind how long some foods will stay good refrigerated:
- Ground beef or chicken (cooked): 1-2 days
- Whole meats, poultry, fish, soups, and stews (cooked): 3-4 days
- Beans, chickpeas (cooked): 5 days
- Hard-boiled eggs, chopped vegetables: 1 week
- Soft cheese (opened): 2 weeks
- Hard cheese (opened): 5-6 weeks
Freeze
Airtight containers are best for freezing food. You can save space by using large re-sealable plastic bags and squeezing out any extra air. Anything will freeze, but foods with lots of water, like salad greens or tomatoes, don’t always work well. Once you store them, keep in mind how long they’ll stay good.
- Soups, stews, beans (cooked): 2-3 months
- Ground meat, poultry (cooked): 3-6 months
- Apples, bananas, pears, plums, mangoes, berries: 6-8 months
- Vegetables: 8-12 months
