How to Meal Prep Like a Real Home Cook

Meal planning tips and basics to save $$.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK; DESIGN: MARISSA DICKSON

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Scrolling through #mealprep tags on any social media platform conjures up endless images of perfectly portioned and served meals, some of which are a little too quaint to believe. It is easy to think of this as the ultimate goal of preparing your breakfast, lunch or dinner beforehand. However, meal prepping is not about pictures. When done right it can reduce the time spent on cooking, give you delicious meals for less money, and help you eat healthier Plus, it’s a lot less complicated than food influencers suggest, and saves you money on groceries. How to make it happen:

Focus on preparation rather than full meals

Meal prep means different things to different people. For some, it means filling a freezer with meals for a month – while just preparing the ingredients for cooking can be a lot easier. Approach the latter sous chef style by washing and chopping vegetables while putting groceries away, or cooking a sauce that you’ll be using throughout the week on Sunday. When you start preparing your meals, simple shortcuts will keep you organized throughout the week.

Cook what you will actually eat

Trying to change your diet is not necessary. Meal prep celebs may crack the calculators to make sure they’re getting enough of every single vitamin and mineral out there, but as long as you mess up your recipes and get enough protein, you’re not planning your diet and Start your meal preparation journey at the same time. Far too often, ambitious meal preppers create huge amounts of healthy foods for the week only to end up avoiding. Instead, start making recipes that you like already cookingso that you only make one lifestyle change at a time.

Learn the rules of freezing

Meal preparation often involves purchasing ingredients in large quantities. Whether you keep these separately or freeze whole meals to keep them longer lasting, you need to learn what is best to keep in the freezer and what is better to keep in your refrigerator. Foods like leafy greens, eggs, and other fresh vegetables lose a lot of flavor when frozen, and foods that oxidize easily, like avocados, will continue to do so in your freezer. Most dairy products also have a tendency to separate in the freezer. However, broths, sauces, soups, and individual cooked proteins can all freeze well. Just label everything with what it is and when it was frozen because no matter how organized you are, you can’t tell if it’s chicken or vegetable broth if it’s frozen differently.

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* First 5GB at high speeds, then at 2G

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK; DESIGN: MARISSA DICKSON

Start with just one or two meals

Nobody likes to do a lot of homework. Instead of starting your prep trip by buying groceries in bulk and preparing meals for a week in advance, start with something manageable, like a meal or two during the week. This gives you some time to adjust your routine to figure out how much prep time you need, while also limiting the amount of food you end up throwing away. Once you get into the habit of making multiple meals at once, you can start scaling up from there.

Mix your recipes

It’s easy to get obsessed with a new recipe, cook it repeatedly, and then have too much left over when you’re fed up. Instead, plan ahead how you will mix your meals. If you’re only packing lunches for the week, 2 or 3 different options should do, but you’ll need to scale as you add more meals. Finding that variety is actually the easy part: just scour the internet on your phone and save some recipes that will catch your eye later instead of scrolling social media.

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK; DESIGN: MARISSA DICKSON

Organize yourself

The hard part of food preparation actually lies in the organization, so it’s time to show your Type A side. Before you even break out a chef’s knife, plan out what you will be eating and when – including when you will have time to cook – and then create a grocery list based on that. (Yes, you might want to block some of these times on your calendar!) If you’re not sure where to start, there is plenty to do Schedule templates try out. The good news is how much time you save on the other end of it all: without worrying about lunch for the week (or dinner if you move), you can use that time to do something else.

Nothing the pictures

Remember: your food is meant to be eaten, not photographed. Meal Prep is meant to save you time, so don’t spend your days looking for the perfect Instagram-friendly bento boxes. Don’t waste your mental energy worrying about side dishes and colorful lunches – if your favorite food is just beige, it can still taste just as good.

source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/how-to-meal-prep-like-a-real-home-cook/