I’ve been asked a lot about how I meal prep; what kinds of food I meal prep; I even get asked all the time if I could meal prep for other people!
Instead of trying to half-ass answer questions I get asked about meal prepping, I’m going to list my top tricks here.
Meal prepping can be as easy or as complex as you make it. It can take all day, and honestly it seems really intimidating when you’re looking at a full Sunday in the kitchen and then a giant mess to clean up afterward.
My biggest trick for taking the giant headache out of meal prepping is to prepare foods that you already eat on the daily. That may sound obvious, but I catch myself looking for some crazy ass extravagant meals when I decide I’m going to “meal prep”. No. Stop right there. Make the same meals you eat for dinner and quit making it hard on yourself.
My second favorite tip for meal prepping is “food prepping”. Instead of making full meals that get all soggy together in the fridge after 48 hours, keep the majority of your ingredients separated so that you can make individual meals in the morning or the night before. This also makes it easier to serve your picky spouse something different than what you want.
A great example of food prepping would be getting all of your ingredients for a burrito bowl ready: prepare the meat (chicken, hamburger, turkey, shrimp), sauté onions and bell peppers with salt & pepper, heat a couple cans of black/pinto/ranch style beans, boil fast-cooking brown rice bags that steam on the stove (add lime juice and cilantro after you’ve drained).
You could kill 3 birds with this one meal prep: eat it as your dinner, make an extra for the next days lunch, and then have all your individual ingredients to use in a salad for the new few days.
Food is such a personal preference that I feel it’d be silly of me to tell YOU what foods to prepare.
This is also why I’ve developed these food prepping “rules”: my husband and I almost always prefer our meals prepared entirely different.
Pick healthy, filling foods you ENJOY eating, cook them the way you like to eat them, and then you have food on hand that YOU like that you won’t dread eating!
A couple of ideas:
-Roast all your favorite vegetables on a baking sheet drizzled in olive oil and Montreal Chicken seasoning. Store individually and serve with choice of meat, beans (or both). Add to a chop salad. Pour a homemade vinaigrette over the top and serve over rice. (I love the minute brown rice cups).
-Grill several chicken breasts or pan-grill cubed chicken on the stove. Add to vegetables or to a salad. Lemon Pepper seasoning has a strong flavor that goes well with tons of sides. Montreal Chicken or Montreal Steak works well on all kinds of protein!
-Cube or slice sweet potatoes and roast in coconut oil and Caribbean Jerk seasoning. I love adding sautéed onion and grilled chicken for a full meal.
-Grill kebabs with chicken, onion, pepper and red onions. Coat all ingredients in a bowl with olive oil and fajita seasoning. Skewer, grill. Remove from skewer and store. Serve with (or without) rice.
-my crockpot Mexican chicken. Put this in burrito bowls, make chicken wraps, make the most savory burrito bowl of your life. Options are endless with this chicken.
-Give me your favorite quick meals that have minimal ingredients. I want to feature them!!
Sure, it will take you longer to assemble your ingredients in the morning before you head out, or maybe the night before, but this is just my preference.
Let meal prepping become easy so that it does the exact thing it’s meant to do: make your life easier!
What are your favorite meal prepping tips, and what’s your favorite all-purpose seasoning? Mine is clearly Montreal Chicken! (Montreal Steak is also great and adds more of a kick!)
If you’re feeling really crazy one weekend, you should make my husband’s family’s enchiladas. You can eat them fresh the first time, prepare a couple days worth of leftovers, and freeze as much as you want for a later date!
Freezing tip: tightly seal your food in a freezer bag & date. Use within 2-4 months for best results.
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