What Is Meal Prepping and Why You Should Try It
Meal prepping is a real game-changer when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle. It allows you to cook all your meals in advance and have them ready to go whenever you need them. This means that you’ll never have to order takeout or eat unhealthy convenience foods.
Let’s plunge into meal prepping and its major benefits.
What Is Meal Prepping?
Meal prepping is the time-saving process of preparing meals in advance. This usually refers to meal prep for the week ahead, but it can also be done for longer periods of time. It saves you lots of time and money, and is a great way to make sure you’re eating healthy, nutritious, home-cooked meals.
What’s more, you can tailor prepped meals to your dietarian preferences. There is classic and vegan meal prepping available, as well as a meal plan for kids. With the proper planning, you’re able to include your fave yummies and enjoy them for the rest of the prepped week.
What Are the Advantages of Meal Prepping?
There are many advantages to meal prepping, including:
- It saves you time. You can cook all your meals in one day or even one sitting and then have them ready to eat for the rest of the week. This means you won’t have to spend time cooking every day.
- It saves you money. Cooking at home is cheaper than eating out, and meal prepping can help you to avoid wasting food.
- It’s healthy. You can control what goes into your nutritious meals when you cook at home, and meal prepping lets you make healthy choices in advance. Which is particularly important for athletes who are looking to maximize their athletic performance.
- It’s convenient. Having ready-to-eat meals on hand means you don’t have to worry about what you’re going to eat or how you’re going to cook it.
Meal Prepping Tips for Beginners
If you’re new to meal prepping, here are a few tips to get you started:
- Start small. Don’t try to meal prep all your meals for the week at once. Start with one or two prepped meals and work your way up.
- Meal prep on the weekends. Use Sundays as your meal prep day, so you have food ready for the week ahead.
- Make it easy. Choose simple recipes that don’t require a lot of ingredients or time to prepare.
- Be organized. Plan thoroughly what you’re going to make and how you’re going to store it before you start cooking.
What You Need to Start Meal Prepping
To start meal prepping, you’ll need:
- Containers. You’ll need containers to store your food in. Glass jars or Tupperware are both good options.
- A meal plan. Think in advance about what meals you want to prep and make a list of the ingredients you’ll need.
- A grocery list. Once you compile your meal plan, make a list of the ingredients you’ll need to buy.
- Time. On the weekend, allocate some time to prep your meals. An hour or two should be enough time to get everything done.
Now that you know what meal prepping is and why it’s so beneficial, give it a try! You’ll probably need a week or fortnight to get used to it, but once you get into the habit, it’ll be a breeze.
The Different Ways of Prepping Meals
Meal prepping can be done in a few ways. You can meal prep by cooking all your meals for the week in one day. This is called batch cooking. Another way to meal prep is to cook some meals and then portion them out into individual servings. This is an ace choice if you want to have more variety in your meal preps.
You can also meal prep by making a big batch of something and then eating it throughout the week. This could be a big pot of soup or chili, a tray of roasted vegetables, or a solid batch of grains like quinoa or rice.
Meal Prepping and Plant-Based Lifestyle
There is a myriad of delicious and easy vegan meal prep recipes out there. With a little planning and effort, you can make vegan meal prepping work for you.
Here are a few tips to help you get started:
- Make sure to include a batch of protein-rich foods in your meal plan. Beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, and quinoa are all great options.
- Incorporate a wide variety of veggies and fruits into your meal prep recipes. This will help ensure that you’re getting all the nutrients you need.
- Get creative with your meal prep recipes. There are tons of great vegan cookbooks and websites that can provide inspiration.
- Plan ahead and give yourself enough time to meal prep. This will help make the prepping process less overwhelming.
How to Store Meal Preps Properly?
Prepared food can be stored in the fridge for up to four days. If you’re meal prepping for a longer period of time, you can store your meal preps in the freezer. Merely make sure to thaw them out properly before eating.
Use glass containers or freezer bags to store your meals. This will help prevent freezer burn.
Label your meal preps with the name of the dish and the date it was made. So you can track what you have and when it was made.
Make sure the containers you’re using are BPA-free and food-safe.
When preparing meals in advance, it’s important to make sure you’re using fresh ingredients. This will help ensure that your prepped meals are healthy and delicious so you can avoid food poisoning.
Conclusion
Meal prepping can be a top-notch way to save time and money. It can also help you eat healthier by allowing you to control what goes into your meals. If you’re interested in trying meal prepping, be sure to follow the tips above.
Thomas Brown
Thomas is a passionate writer who is into strength training and horse riding. He is a contributor writer at the equestrian blog Horsezz where he loves sharing his riding experience. Thomas is into sharing his knowledge with others as he believes that sharing means caring. Caring for our dearest and nearest is a crucial role in our society.
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