All about Meal Prepping

Ever since I became a working adult I have struggled with meal prepping. What do I take for lunch, what do I make for dinner, what should I buy for groceries, how long will this last, how do I not get tired of what I’m eating, etc? The questions go on and on. Also, the fact that spending my Sunday in the kitchen cooking everything got tiring after a while and turned me off the idea of meal prepping. There are many different ways to meal prep and this is the method along with some tips that worked for me.

• Take the time to write out what you would like to eat for the week in a breakfast, lunch, dinner grid, then look in your fridge and pantry and see what you already have then write your grocery list from there. It’s a great way to use up what you already have and save some money.

• Think of at least two meals you would be interested in eating with a common ingredient. For example, making black bean tacos for a dinner meal prep and using the rest of the black beans to bulk up a southwest salad for a lunch meal prep. Another example, making baked tofu, using half of the baked tofu for a stir fry with rice and tossing the other half of the baked tofu into barbecue sauce, and eating it with veggies and the same rice you cooked to serve with the stir fry. This will keep the food flavors different and keep you from getting bored and wasting the food.

• Keep salad mix on hand along with ingredients to throw in. Have two different salad options ex. pasta salad, regular salad. Hummus and a prepared salad from the grocery store a vegan or vegetarian “tuna salad or an “egg salad” on the side are great ways to bulk up a regular green salad.

• Healthy snacks are a great addition to the lunch bag; fruit, peanut butter and crackers, nuts, and granola

• Use glass containers to store your food. I hated the way plastic got stained whenever I would make spaghetti and with glass, you can easily tell what’s in the container.