A few years ago, meal prepping was really only utilized by the fitness community, such as bodybuilders or bikini competition participants. They took their meals extremely seriously and wanted to ensure that they always had a nutritious meal waiting for them after a hard workout.
Well, fast forward to the present day, and you’ll find many people of all professions preparing their meals a few days ahead of time. This innovative way of cooking and eating not only saves time but money too.
Even though meal prepping saves time, in some situations, you really don’t even have time to meal prep. That’s where services like Lean Kitchen come in to deliver prepared meals right to your door. If you do have time to spend cooking a week’s worth of food, though, below are five steps to ensure you’re successful.
Step 1: Plan Your Meals
If you’re following a diet or simply want to eat the same thing every day, it’s a good idea to plan your meals for the week. This will make it so much easier to meal prep because it gives you a direction when it comes to going food shopping. You won’t be lost trying to think about what to make for meal prep.
Step 2: Go Grocery Shopping
After creating a menu of what you’ll eat for the next few days, it’s time to head to the grocery store and buy all of the ingredients and items you’ll need for meal prepping. If saving money is your main goal, then plan your meals around your local supermarket’s sales and specials for that week.
Step 3: Schedule a Time to Cook
Meal prepping can take about two or three hours of your time. However, this depends on how many people you’re prepping for and if it’s just lunches, just dinners, or both.
It’s a good idea to schedule a time to cook during the week so you know you won’t become too busy. We recommend meal prepping on Sunday afternoon, so you have a fridge full of prepared meals for the week.
Step 4: Get Cooking!
When it’s time to start actually cooking your meals, you’ll find that there are plenty of time-saving tips and tricks you can use. Our favorite tip is to cut and chop all of your vegetables and ingredients before you start cooking. This makes it so much easier and decreases your chance of burning or overcooking something because you’re too focused on chopping up vegetables.
It’s also a good idea to plan what you’re going to cook in a certain order. For example, if you’re roasting potatoes, you’ll want to put those in the oven towards the beginning of your cooking time because they can take a while to fully cook.
Step 5: Package Your Meals
The last step is to package your prepared meals in containers. You can also label which day you’ll eat each meal to help you stay on track. When you put together your lunches or dinners in separate containers, it’s super easy to grab a healthy meal and go during your busy schedule.