Weekend Meal Prep: My Staples List
In my last blog post I started the topic of weekend meal prep. If you are new to meal prep, I hope that the arguments and benefits I shared there gave you enough food for thought and made you want to try it. Today I'll share some practical ideas and staple dishes and ingredients from my own meal prep routine to help you get started.
I like to differentiate these ideas into two separate categories: complete make-ahead meals that only require to be warmed up and are ready to eat, and prepared ingredients that will be used in assembling or preparing a complete meal.
MAKE-AHEAD MEALS
1. Soups, including hearty vegetable soups, chicken or beef soups, pureed soups, etc.
2. Stuffed vegetables or green leaves, such as staffed cabbage, bell peppers, tomatoes, zucchinis, squashes, collard greens, and many others. For stuffing I like to use a mix of grains (quinoa, wild rice), vegetables and herbs, and ground meats (for non-vegetarian options). You can keep a few stuffed vegetables fresh to eat early in the week and freeze the rest for later. They are easy to defreeze and make delicious complete lunches or dinners.
3. Curries. I love curries and enjoy making them. When I cook it on Sunday, I normally make a big enough batch that will last for a couple of dinners and a lunch for our family. However, I prefer to finish curries in the first couple of days and not to freeze them.
4. Egg muffins or frittatas. They make an easy breakfast on the go or a nice lunch, if combined with a simple salad, for example.
5. Baked treats. I'm not big into baking desserts, cookies, scones, etc., and my family doesn't eat them much or ask for them. But I know that some people like to bake a bunch of healthier muffins or banana bread, for instance, on the weekend to make sure that their family has a healthier dessert or a snack during the week. It also minimizes consumption of store-bought sugar-loaded sweets.
PREPARED INGREDIENTS OR MEAL COMPONENTS
1. Proteins:
Meatballs. I like to use ground turkey, lean beef, bison or lamb for meatballs. I usually make quite a lot of them in the pressure cooker and freeze a bunch. Frozen meatballs can last for a really long time.
Grilled marinated chicken breasts or thighs. If we grill on the weekend, I like to throw a few extra pieces of chicken on the grill that we can later use on our salads.
Meats cooked in the pressure cooker or slow cooker, such as pulled chicken or stew meat. You can use pulled meats later on for tacos or served with some salad. And stews can be served as a complete meal or combined with something else. Making meat roasts can be another good idea, but in my family we don't it them much.
Other than that, our main source of protein at home is chicken or fish, which is pretty quick to cook. So I do prefer to have a freshly cooked piece of fish or chicken served with some salad or made-ahead sides.
2. Whole grains:
I've read a number of meal prep blogs that talk about making ahead some whole grains or whole grain pastas and then keeping them for a few days in an airtight container. It is a good idea since cooking whole grains usually requires significant stove time, which you don't have when you rush home after work and want your dinner in 15 minutes. So instead, you might end up with a quick-cooking options which are much more processed and less nutritional. However, since I have a pressure cooker with a timer which is perfect for cooking grains, I can always have some freshly cooked rice, quinoa or any other grain right by the time I get home from work.
3. Vegetables and fruits:
Roasted vegetables. I love making a big sheet of mixed roasted vegetables on the weekend. I try to use vegetables that are in season as well as all sorts of root vegetables, such as beets, parsnips, carrots, sweet or purple potatoes, Brussel sprouts, squashes, etc. As long as you pick vegetables that require the same or similar cooking time, you can combine them all on one sheet and let the oven do the rest for you. I use roasted vegetables a lot during the week in my salad or grain bowls or as a side dish. They add so much flavor, texture and variation to the salad bowls and make them really filling and nutritious.
Chopped and washed vegetables. You can chop or spiralize veggies on the weekend and then keep them fresh in an airtight container for a few days, to be used in salads, stir fries, soups, etc. You'd be surprised how much time it saves you when you don't need to chop anything but only need to throw it all on the pan. I can guarantee that you won't dread making your dinner on your way home when you know that everything is already chopped for you!
Washed and chopped fruits. Even such a small thing as washing a box of blueberries on Sunday night saves you some valuable time on a weekday morning when making your breakfast. Sliced stored apples, for example, make a great snack for your kids. And cutting and chopping a watermelon, melon or papaya and storing them in a big container saves you a lot of time and mess later.
Enjoy your weekend meal prep journey! I would love to hear your success stories!