People are more active and busier than ever before. We're also more conscious of making healthier choices when it comes to food. However, its not always easy to make healthy choices when leading a busy life. That's where meal prepping becomes super beneficial. What is meal prepping? It's preparing a lifetime's worth of food... no wait... a week's worth of food on one day. Seems overwhelming, right? I know that I was overwhelmed the first time I made Clayton and I a full week's worth of meals. But through my experience I've got it down to a science.
Here are my tips and recipes to make meal prepping worth your while:
Tip #1: Pick A Day
I chose Sunday as my meal prepping day because it's normally my day to relax when I have the least amount of tasks to do. In addition to that, the food is most fresh for the week. Set aside at least 2 hours to make everything.
Tip #2: Chose Your Menu
Since we're cooking in bulk, I like to keep it simple. This summer I have been meal prepping for Clayton every week. We go to the grocery store together, he buys what he wants, then we go home and make it together (more like I make it and he tastes). Since he’s trying to eat a high protein/ low carb diet, his menu consists of lots of veggies and proteins like chicken, turkey, and beef. For this week's menu I made him a variety of salads that each have chicken or steak, different kinds of vegetables, and a little cheese.
See the end of this post for some of my favorite recipes and a link to my meal prep board on Pinterest!
Clayton's Menu:
Breakfast: yogurt parfaits, oatmeal, hard boiled eggs (switch it up!)
Lunch & Dinner: variety of salads,
Snacks: peanut butter protein bites, buffalo turkey meatballs
3) Stick to Your Plan
Trust me, the only way to make a weeks worth of food in one day is to plan it. Start by writing out your menu. I’ve made a sample one below. I try to navigate the grocery store in a way that makes most sense to me.
Sample Grocery List & How to Navigate the Grocery Store:
Produce - grab fresh veggies that you don’t want to buy frozen. For this week I’m grabbing lettuce, cucumbers, asparagus, and brussel sprouts. I’m also going to pick out some berries for Clayton’s breakfasts.
Meat - try to find deals when buying in bulk. This week I’m getting 4 chicken breasts, 4 NY Strip steaks, and 1 pound of 99% fat free turkey.
Dairy - Clayton loves hard boiled eggs, and yogurt parfaits for breakfast. I’m getting 18 eggs, 2 quarts of yogurt, and cheese for salads.
Other - This week I’m making Clayton some buffalo turkey meatballs (recipe below) so I’m getting some buffalo wing sauce and breadcrumbs.
Once you have everything, think about how long everything takes to cook and how it is prepared (oven, stove, etc.). Here’s an example of what I do:
Chicken - 25 minutes, oven
Steak - 5 minutes each, stove
Turkey - 20 minutes, oven
Now that you have a plan, start deciding which order you are going to make everything. It’s all about creating a process. Once you have everything cooked you can start putting it into containers and storing it for the week.
Here are some recipes that I love: (click to see the full recipe)
See these recipes and more on my meal prep board on Pinterest here!
Good luck!
-mms