There’s something to be said for the art of slow cooking, but in all honesty, who has the time? In between work meetings, taking the kids to school and everything else you have to do around the house, it can be easy to let meal-time become an afterthought. If you’re anything like me, this can result in an over-reliance on junk food, which isn’t nutritional or healthy.
The concept of meal prepping is so popular because it allows you to consolidate your meal preparation efforts by shopping and cooking meals in bulk that can then be stored in your freezer to eat later.
Depending on your schedule, Sunday afternoons may be the best time to prepare meals for the week ahead. By shopping and cooking meals in bulk, you don’t have to spend time during the week, when you’re at your busiest, even thinking about what to eat or feed your family. All you have to do is pop into the freezer and microwave, the healthy meal you prepared earlier.
But, what do I actually make?
The secret to meal prepping is to make simple meals. If you’re already time-poor and hoping meal prepping will be the key to finding more time in your weekly schedule, it’s unlikely that you’re going to stick to your plan to prepare meals ahead of time if you make it hard for yourself.
If the meals you want to make are complicated, require hours spent deciphering cookbooks and having to run around to lots of different shops for ingredients, you probably won’t be able to maintain your new habit.
Where do I start?
Let’s be real. It can be difficult to transform from regular person to Martha Stewart all at once. Focusing on one meal at a time will allow you to begin the transition and see a big difference immediately. If you find yourself reaching for junk food because of your 3pm-it is, or you regularly skip breakfast because there just isn’t time to make yourself any before you rush out the door, these are the best meals to make ahead of time.
There are lots of different tips and recipes for meals you can make and freeze online.
Pinterest is an especially great source of this information.
The main thing to remember is to go easy on yourself. There is no law saying you have to prep a weeks’ worth of meals on Sunday. If it’s easier for you to prep on a different day, or in smaller doses, that’s fine too. Any preparation you can do ahead of time is likely to help you improve your eating habits and save you time in the long run. Even if you can only prep one meal per day in advance, you’re still going to be better off than you were without doing this prep.
If you're interested or for more inspiration to get you started, you can check out how Khloe Kardashian prepares her meals in advance too.
Then there's this submarine hack that makes food last longer. Good luck and go give it a try.