Weekend Meal Prep, or My Secret to Delicious and Easy Weekday Meals
One of the evenings last week I made a delicious lentils, roasted beets and feta salad for my family for dinner. It took me only 15 minutes to assemble this salad from some mixed greens, cherry tomatoes and other already pre-made ingredients, and to pan-fry a few chicken tenders to go with the salad. As I was making it, I thought that the reason I could make this tasty and nutritious dinner on a weekday after work so quickly was because I had some meal prep done during the weekend before that. And then I realized that it was the time to write a post about meal prep.
In this first post I'll share some tips for successful meal prep and discuss its benefits. In the next post I will include a list of my staple make-ahead meals and prepared ingredients that you can use to assemble a quick, delicious and nutritious weekday meal.
How did I get to meal prepping?
As much as I enjoy weekend meal prep and all its benefits now, it wasn't always like that. I really came to it gradually. I often hear things like "meal prep is not for me", "I'm not organized enough", "I don't have time for it", "my family doesn't eat leftovers", etc. I used to think the same way before. When I first started hearing about meal prep, I thought it was all about preparing a few make-ahead meals on the weekend and then eating those microwaved leftovers all week long. And it didn't sound very appealing to me because 1) it seemed like it would take a lot of time to make those meals, and 2) you'll get tired of eating boring leftovers quickly and end up wasting all the food and effort. But then I started realizing that meal prep was not about eating leftovers. It was about putting some effort upfront so that you and your family can enjoy healthy, nutritious, and delicious meals all week long.
What is meal prep?
While meal prep is partially about cooking bigger batches of make-ahead meals, it is mainly about making it easy to assemble quick, healthy and tasty meals during the week. This involves some planning first. Specifically, planning meals you want to make ahead and those you want to be able to assemble easily during the week. Next step is to prepare ingredients that you would like to use in your meals during the week. This includes chopping, cooking, roasting, marinating, portioning, etc. And then, if you decide to prepare some make-ahead meals, like soups, stews, casseroles, chilies, etc., you allocate some time to actually make a big batch of those. At the end, make sure to store it all properly to maintain freshness. And the following week you can enjoy your delicious made-ahead dishes or use thoughtfully prepared ingredients to construct quick and nutritious meals.
Tips for a successful meal prep
1. Think in advance of meals and recipes that you want to make ahead or prepare quickly during the week.
2. Once you have a list of meals and recipes, make a grocery list. Making a trip to a grocery store with a shopping list guarantees that you'll have all the ingredients you need for the week, eliminates compulsive shopping, minimizes waste (buying produce that you end up not using because you don't have any other ingredients to cook it with), and saves time and money. If you always go to the same grocery store(s) and know the layout pretty well, try to make a grocery list organized by department and the store flow. You'll be amazed how much time it'll save you.
3. Make time for meal prep. Meal prep doesn't happen in an instant and requires quite some time commitment (i.e. several hours). I know it might sound like a lot, but it will save you the same time or more on thinking about what to cook, preparing all the ingredients and cooking during the week when you come home exhausted after a long day at work. My meal prep time is mostly on Sunday afternoons. And now I think of it almost as my meditation time. There is definitely something calming in chopping all those veggies for me.
4. Get proper containers for storage. To make sure that your meals and ingredients stay fresh and delicious for several days, you need to store them properly. My personal favorites for food storage in the fridge and freezer are glass containers with airtight lids. And something to keep in mind - square and rectangular containers are easier to stack and don't waste space in the fridge like round ones do. For dry foods storage (like grains, nuts, dried fruit) I really like OXO Good Grips containers from the Container store.
Benefit of meal prep
And if you are still not sure why bother with meal prep, here are some of the key benefits of it.
1. More control over what you eat. You are much more likely to bring your lunch to work and have a home cooked dinner if you have most or a part of it prepared in advance. This results in healthier and more nutritious eating than eating your lunch out or getting a take out dinner most of the time.
2. Time saving. Those few hours spent meal prepping during the weekend save you more during the week as you already have either a complete meal or ingredients that can be quickly cooked or assembled.
3. Money saving. There are many reasons why meal prep saves you money. First of all, it reduces costs of eating out. Secondly, it minimizes the need for last minute trips to the nearby convenience or grocery stores that are more expensive than the ones you would do your groceries otherwise. Besides that, it's usually cheaper to buy in bulk for batch cooking than buying individual items.
4. Improved cooking, baking or chopping skills. As you start thinking about new meals to cook for the week, search recipes, and do all the chopping and prepping, you will soon significantly expand your cooking skills and variety of meals on your table. You will definitely thank yourself later for the time invested in the meal prep.
People often ask if I really make dinners at home most of the days (when we don't have plans to be out). And how do I manage it with a full-time job and a toddler? We indeed eat home-cooked meals pretty much every night that we are at home. And most of the time it doens't take me more than 15-20 minutes on a workday. But this is only possible when I do allocate some time for meal prep on the weekend. And I do see a big difference on the weeks when I didn't prep in advance. But even then I try to make fresh quick dinners on the night we are home. Luckily, my husband shares my love for salads and is perfectly happy with a piece of fish or meat served with some salad. You don't need too much time to prepare that.
Do you want to be better about eating home-cooked meals? I highly encourage you trying weekend meal prep. You will see for yourself that it's not as scary and difficult as it might seem in the beginning. Stay tuned for the next post with my meal prep staple meals and ingredients!