Meal prep can be a lot of fun, especially if you are doing it for the first time. But there are so many things to consider before you start meal prepping that it can become overwhelming. And then there is how to meal prep – what to do and what not to do. This article will help with both. Here’s everything you need to know about meal prepping for beginners.
What Is Meal Prepping?
The meal prepping basics are simple. All you need to do is to have a plan of what you will be eating for the next few days. So that everything can be prepared in advance and stored accordingly. Some people say they don’t have time, but it only takes one hour every weekend. From then on all your meals are ready. Alternatively, you can look for a delivery service nearby. For instance, search for healthy prepared meals in Broward County or something to check meal preps online.
For example, if usually eat lunch at work or college, get up an hour earlier on Sunday morning and prepare it. Chop vegetables, cook proteins, etc. Store them separately (to avoid mixing flavors) and voila! You’re done with healthy lunches for the whole week ahead. Now let’s look into how to meal prep step by step.
Basic Meal Prep Tips for Beginners
Do Your Meal Prep on Sunday
The best day to do it is a weekend because you have ample time. Even if it takes an hour, start this new healthy habit right now. You can always divide the tasks into smaller chunks. And complete them over several days too. Just make sure that you are doing all of these steps every week at some point.
Plan What You Will Be Eating Beforehand
This doesn’t need any explanation as we already mentioned why planning ahead is important for meal prepping. That way you won’t stop in between or forget something crucial while cooking. This might ruin everything else later on, leading to wastage of food items, etc. Allocate half an hour each day during the busy weekday mornings just to plan out your meals for the next day.
Create a Grocery List with All the Ingredients You Need
Writing down everything beforehand is important while cooking. Also, it keeps things accurate in the future too. Save yourself from going back and forth every time when you run out of something during the food preparation process. For that reason, create a separate grocery list. It should contain all those items which are required for preparing your meal recipes. And don’t forget about the seasoning either. Because many times we fail to add salt or pepper at appropriate quantity – leading to bland taste on our part. Also be sure not to miss anything else like oil, etc., whether they kitchen staples or fresh produce you’ll be using.
Set Up a Proper Storage
After forming up all these lists – organize them properly so that things will flow smoothly during food preparation time without any glitch at all. Make yourself comfortable with everything around before starting off this process of food preparation. Because once you get started with ideas about how much recipe is enough for a particular day’s dinner – then dishes might pile up faster than expected. This can make you feel overwhelmed immediately after starting out from scratch. Avoid such circumstances by calculating every ounce of ingredients carefully beforehand.
The Benefits of Meal Prepping
Meal prep is advantageous for many reasons. First and foremost, meal prepping means you are highly prepared for the upcoming day’s healthy meals. You can come up with a plan of your breakfast, lunch, or dinner in advance before starting out anything at all. This way you will have an idea about what to eat during certain periods of time when hunger strikes along unexpectedly. It is actually one of the best ways to deal with any kind of unexpected changes that might occur throughout your working hours. Make it personal or professional life.
Another benefit of meal prepping is saving money. Meal prepping is a great way to plan your meals in advance. It is essential for people who want to save money on groceries. You will know how much food you need for the upcoming days and buy everything accordingly. This means no more buying too many or not enough of certain items. As it might get wasted later which also saves time spent at grocery shops frequently.
It proves helpful when trying out new recipes without worrying about cooking something elaborate every day. You can experiment by using leftovers from other dishes throughout the week. With these meal prep tips, one can easily come up with tasty yet healthy meals daily. While saving some extra cash by avoiding expensive restaurant dinners.
Conclusion
Meal prepping is getting popular around the globe. It can help to lose weight or gain mass. However, it is not as simple as cooking a dish and storing the leftovers. But there are various meal prep tips for beginners to make this process easier. These can be used by those who lack the time or have disabilities that prevent them from cooking every day. This way they will still eat healthy food which also saves money spent on groceries.