Meal prepping, let’s talk about it. This is a trend and a very effective skill that a lot of families and fitness gurus are adopting all over the world. It involves the act of preparing food ahead of time so that you eliminate the stress, and sometimes time-consuming process, of having to cook. Especially meals that you are planning on eating the day of.
I’m no meal prepping pro but I do find this to be a very effective and helpful way to ensure that I’m eating the necessary meals throughout the day.
In fact, I honestly have only just recently (the past 4 months) been getting into meal prepping, and even then, I’m not consistent with it. It’s not because I think it’s pointless or anything like that. It’s just that sometimes it can be time consuming and my days are currently so busy that I don’t really have the time to plan anything beyond one meal for every day of a week. The benefit of meal prepping is the fact that you can knock out anywhere from a couple of days, to a full weeks’ worth of meals.
Not only does it save time for cooking, but it gives you more time for other activities, like cleaning. Meal prepping can help you cut down your time spent in the kitchen, and simplify your life for the better. That’s why we’re going to take a closer look at meal prepping.
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What is meal prepping?
Meal prepping is the act of preparing your meals ahead of time. This can be dinner meals, lunch meals, breakfast meals, or even snacks for the week. It’s literally anything that involves food and you consuming it. The great part about meal prepping is that you aren’t just prepping meals for the day. Although you could, but why not just go the extra mile? Essentially meal prepping is designed to help you prepare meals that you will eat in the near future.
For example, when I meal prep, I’m usually prepping lunch for my mother and myself for the entire week. Very rarely will I meal prep for other reasons just because lunch right now is more realistic for the time of day when I don’t have time to actually cook a meal. I’m usually always busy running errands, working on the blog, taking care of the kids, or doing something that is not allowing me free time to make a decent lunch. That’s why I meal prep my lunch for the week and get that responsibility out of the way.
If you have a busy schedule, a big family full of picky eaters, you’re working on getting fit, trying out new recipes, or just simply trying to live a healthier lifestyle, then meal prepping is for you. Even if you don’t identify with any of these examples, meal prepping is still something that you can benefit from! It’s just simply the act of preparing meals ahead of time so that you take away the stress and worry of not knowing what to eat for the week.
What kinds of foods can I meal prep?
Literally anything and everything. What makes meal prepping such a great tool is the fact that there’s no limit to the types of food, or even the amount of food that you are able to prepare in advance. You can prepare meals for the day, meals for a specific time of day, snacks, and even indigents for a meal that you will be eating later in the day. Basically, if you can cook it you can prepare it in advance.
There are different types of meals that you can prepare ahead of time such as family meals, multiple types of meals, individual meals, and even snacks or desserts that will be a part of a specific meal. Let’s look a little bit closer at the different types.
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Family meals
These are exactly as they sound. Meals that you preparing for your family. This can be breakfast meals or dinner meals. Meal prepping for a family can be time consuming in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually very easy. Some things to keep in mind when meal prepping big meals for your family are to know the exact number of people who will be eating, and the specific foods that family members are not going to eat.
For example, you don’t want to put in the time and effort to prep a big bowl of seafood gumbo for dinner the next night if you know that someone in your family doesn’t like seafood. Or maybe the recipe requires crab legs among other types of seafood meat, and there’s at least one person in your family who does not eat crab legs.
Knowing this information ahead of time is so important! Remember, the point of meal prepping is to reduce time spent in the kitchen cooking meals. This means, you don’t want to spend time prepping for this amazing dinner just to have to turn around and cook another meal for that one person who isn’t going to eat those crab legs. Not only will you have prepped more food than what you needed, but you’ll be spending more time in the kitchen cooking up another meal for that family member who currently doesn’t have anything else to eat.
However, this is where meal prepping can be a blessing in disguise! Even if you were meal prepping a delicious seafood gumbo for your family, this doesn’t mean those who don’t like seafood have to be excluded altogether. Instead, during the meal prepping process just be sure to prep them a portion of the gumbo minus the seafood (or crab legs), and with something else that they would prefer instead.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
Multiple types of meals
This is where meal prepping can honestly become a bit tedious. If you really want to soar as a meal prepping champ, and really free up a lot of your time spent in the kitchen, then preparing multiple meals ahead of time may be your jam. As I mentioned earlier I only meal prep lunch meals. Occasionally I will prepare dinner meals if I feel that it is necessary, but for the most part I stick to one meal for every day of the week.
However, you can literally prepare a weeks’ worth of dinner ahead of time. Preparing multiple meals can be time consuming, depending on the meals that you are preparing, but it is also another blessing in disguise. Knowing exactly what meals you are going to eat every day of the week for dinner takes away the pressure of having to decide that the day of. Also, preparing multiple meals ahead of time takes away the pressure of having to make sure you have everything that you need for those meals.
In addition to preparing a weeks’ worth of dinner meals, you can even prepare a week’s worth of lunch and/or breakfast meals as well. Especially if you would really like to spend way less time in the kitchen cooking, and more time doing other activities. This may sound like a big job to take on and that’s because it is! Every family has a different set of needs, and preparing multiple meals in advance may not be what’s right for you, and that’s ok.
What matters is that you are doing what best meets the needs of your lifestyle, and not necessarily what is going to drastically reduce your time spent in the kitchen.
Individual meals
Much like family meals these are just single meals to be enjoyed whenever. While big families may use meal prepping as a tool for preparing larger meals, those who simply want to meal prep for specific meals during the day can use this tool in this manner. If you haven’t caught on yet I do this all the time with my lunch. Like literally every single week.
Meal prepping individual meals is great for those who find that during their busiest time of day they are not able to sit down and enjoy a good meal. This may be those who work a regular 9-5 and are either having to work through their lunch hours, or spending time waiting in line to get their lunch, or even traveling somewhere to buy lunch and then cramming it down their throat before having to get back to work.
This option is even great for those just simply find it easier to have a system in place that requires very little effort to get the ball going. What’s sets the individual meal prepping apart from the meal prepping multiple meals, is that you are prepping meals for only one or two people. That way, instead of this being a family matter, it’s a you matter, where you are just ensuring that you have breakfast, lunch, or dinner, ready to go in spite of your busy schedule.
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How many meals can I prep at a time?
Honestly there’s no limit the amount of meals that you can prep. This solely depends on your needs, who you are meal prepping for, and of course how much space you actually have in your freezer and fridge to store the food that you have prepped. This is important because you don’t want to spend time prepping a specific amount of food and not have anywhere to store it. When meal prepping you want to ensure that you have enough space in your fridge or freezer to be able to have those meals sitting there until they have all been eaten up.
With that being said just know the needs of your family, or maybe just for yourself. My need when it comes to meal prepping is to make sure that I have lunch to eat everyday so that I’m not taking away time spent working, and also that I’m not skipping lunch altogether. Your needs may be different from mines and that’s ok. The key to being successful with meal prepping is to know exactly what you are doing it for.
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How do I meal prep?
Glad you asked!
Believe it or not while it may sound like a lot it’s really not. In the beginning this can seem very stressful and overwhelming, but once you find your own rhythm with it, it’s probably the easiest thing you could ever do. That hardest part about meal prepping is how time consuming it can be. Followed by knowing what you are going to eat and when, and ensuring you have all the ingredients that you need for every meal. Once that’s out of the way, the rest is as easy as pie.
Here’s how to effectively meal prep:
- Get quality storage containers, preferably glass containers
You want to make sure that you are storing your food in the proper storage containers. If you’re actually making meals then you want glass containers. Not only are glass containers healthier for you, but they will keep your foods fresher for a lot longer than plastic containers will.
If you’re simply prepping ingredients for a couple of meals ahead of time, you can still use glass containers, or use a small Ziplock bag. This will allow you to seal your ingredients shut so that they too will stay fresher longer.
If you’re prepping foods that need to be frozen before you cook them, a big Ziplock back works just fine. Especially if it’s meat that you are going to season beforehand. If it’s meat that you will be cooking within the next two days, a container in the fridge works perfectly fine.
- Know what your meals will be for the days of the week you will be meal prepping
Make a list of the meals that you will be eating and on the specific days that they will be eaten. This will help in not only keeping you organized, but in also taking way the torture of not knowing what to prepare ahead of time. If you have a clear understanding of what you will be eating, and whether or not that meal will be for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, you will take away a lot of guessing as to what you need to buy and prepare for the week.
It’s also important to know if you are preparing meals for yourself or the family. This allows you to have a more realistic idea of what meals you can prepare ahead of time that everyone will enjoy.
- Schedule a specific time during the day to meal prep
Meal prepping is more than just preparing meals for a couple of days or the week. It’s also scheduling a specific time or day to get this work done. Know when you will have the free time to be able prepare the meals that you are wanting to have for the week. That way, you’re able to focus on the task at hand and it’s not something that you have to worry about for another day.
My meal prepping tip: meal prep all those meals for the week in the same day. That way as the days go by in the week you don’t have to spend time prepping for another meal. Instead, you just grab what you already prepared, cook it or heat it up, and go on about your day.
That’s pretty much it! Meal prepping when you first start it can seem like such a huge chore but I promise you it’s not. Once you figure out a system that works best for you, and how meal prepping can best meet your needs, it can be so life changing. Especially when it comes to your eating habits.
What do you think, will you be giving meal prepping a try?
-Xo
Kimora
