Meal prep like a boss
TL;DR
Meal prepping can genuinely improve your quality of life, if you do it in a way that makes sense for you, your schedule, and dietary needs
There are a few things to consider when it comes to meal prep, and when you have thought those out for yourself, then meal prepping won’t seem as tiresome and laborious
How to meal prep: Try out recipes, create a schedule, have appropriate equipment and have emergency food
My meal prep is not so aesthetic, but hopefully you get the jist
First of all, this blog post will benefit people who think like me:
“I can’t be bothered to think or figure out what to eat tonight, so I will end up eating a slice of bread”
“It is an absolute chore to think of what to eat each night”
“I end up wasting food in my fridge if I don’t already have it prepped”
“I hate the whole process of feeding myself, because there is time and labour in not just the cooking, but the cleaning up after, and all for a meal that I will eat within 10 minutes”
So, if none of those thoughts resonate with you, then this post will probably not benefit you as much as the click-bait title implies. But feel free to read and find out.
What’s the point in meal prep?
From my perspective it saves time, energy, effort and encourages me to eat healthier. It’s also encouraging sustainability, since you end up only buying the food you need for the week, and reduce food wastage (which is an issue we have as humans). There is also a convenience factor to meal prepping. “Wait meal prepping can be convenient, like how take out is convenient?” you may ask, and I’ll say “yeah it can be”. Let’s say you have access to a freezer space that accommodates your households eating habits. That means you can prepare a week’s worth of food (or more if you have the space), which saves you time during the week.
Honestly, if you can find a good enough reason to meal prep in your life, then that is the point for you to do it.
Things to consider with meal prep
Meal prepping is not just about having food already cooked in your fridge, or readily available in your freezer. You need to make sure the food you have prepped is what you would like/need, in terms of diet.
Obviously, online the gym people always say have a lot of protein and then give you meal prep recipes of plain rice, with a chicken breast and broccoli. You can have more protein in your diet, and the recipes you prepare are tasty and enjoyable. Meal prep doesn’t have to be set meals that are given in a meal prep kit, you can personalise them to what you need.
Also, food textures, tastes and aversions. Not all of us are born with taste buds and mouths that don’t mind this. Having an appreciation for how certain foods can freeze and thaw out, and how you cook them/reheat can affect the overall texture in your mouth, is good to know before you throw yourself into the meal prepping game.
Lastly, you need to know yourself and what your limits are. Because it’s all fine to say you have time to meal prep, when actually you can only spare 2 hours a week to meal prep, rather than a full Sunday. Also, knowing if you are someone who is fine repeating foods during the week or if you need variety each day, will change your meal prep strategy.
Now how to meal prep like a boss
Try out recipes
Once you know where your limits are, you can try out different recipes, and build up a library of meals you like.
Do this however you wish. Some people sign up to food subscriptions (like hello fresh and Gousto) and keep the recipe cards for the ones they liked. This means you don’t have to know a recipe off the top of your head. Though I am aware there are sites that already have the recipe cards for these subscription boxes, which saves you having to sign up to them in the first place.
Others go straight into cooking and trying recipes online (personally I find this more expensive, since the food isnt already portioned out as it is in the subscription boxes, but you do you boo).
Keep an accessible note of the recipes you have liked. This will be your meal prep menu. And each week before you go grocery shopping, you look through your menu, and see which meals sound great for the week, so you can shop accordingly. And even if you decide you want take-out instead, that food can stay in the freezer, so you are still reducing the food wastage.
Create a schedule
You do not need to stick to it like a regiment, but having an idea of how long it takes you to prepare a meal, can help you estimate what a meal prep sesh could look like for you.
For example, I have scheduled 3 hours max for week to meal prep and I aim to do it on a Sunday. Sometimes my weekends are busy, so I delay it to Monday. In other cases I meal prep a lot of food one week, that covers me for 2 weeks of meals. Either way, I meal prep once a week, and I block off a couple of hours to do that.
Get appropriate packaging
It does not need to be those glass containers that are all over your fyp (for you page). Literally I reuse my butter tubs and take away tubs, until they look well used. These are less bulky in my freezer and fridge, so I can store them better. Obviously since they are plastic, microwaving (or putting them in the oven) is not recommended, so you can get the glass containers for the heating process. I have the chance to eat lunch at home, so a dinner plate is perfectly fine.
Emergency food
No matter with all the meal prepping in the world, there are some days you just don’t want to eat what you have made. And that’s fine, but it’s when you don’t want meal prep AND you don’t want to (or can’t) spend money on take out. This is where emergency food comes in. Emergency food is something that can still feed you, it might not be what you need in a constant meal, but for the sake of making sure you eat, food is still food, and it saves you spending money on take out.
When I became an adult, my emergency food was Bird’s Eye chicken nuggets and chips. Nowadays it’s either Bird’s eye cod fillets with chips, or a steak pie with chips. The steak pies I get in bulk, so they depend on freezer space, but a 2 pack of cod fillets sits in my freezer, just in case I am not feeling like any meal prepped food.
This gives you another option. Some days just feel rough, and you don’t want the meal prepped food. And that’s an ok reality, it happens. As humans we crave the stability in repetition, but we cannot always have the repetition guaranteed. Life does that, and that’s ok.
That’s it! With all these points considered, you can go meal prep like a boss. I have been meal prepping since 2023, and my quality of life (genuinely) is so much better, now that everyday I don’t need to think about what I am cooking for dinner each night. It’s already prepped. And since I cook meals that I know I enjoy eating (and cooking), I am always looking forward to my meals, because they are foods I enjoy. I am someone who is happy to eat the same meal for a week, so my strategy for meal prepping is actually just batch cooking lunches and dinners for the week. Over the last 2 years I have changed my meal prep from being protein focussed to being fibre focussed. I have eaten more vegetables and figured out new recipes that I like, and how to store and re heat them. It’s been great for me.
