Meal Prep Like a Champ
When your week is busy with work, school, kids, home life, relationships, and running errands, often, the last thing that you want to do is prepare meals each evening. To make your life much easier, you can prepare your meals ahead of time. Making a large batch of food will allow you to reheat the items you want whenever you want them. If you’re going to meal prep like a champ, there are some secrets that will help you with quick, easy, and healthy meal prepping.
BEFORE YOU START COOKING
Before you begin the process of preparing food, you’ll want to come up with a meal plan a few days before you prep. Create a grocery list, writing down all of the items you’ll need to buy at the store. You can even include the containers that you will need to store everything in the fridge or freezer for a few days. Make sure that you get quality containers and that you know where all of the lids are so you aren’t trying to find them when you start prepping. Successful meal prep should be done systematically so that you don’t spend any more time than you need to in the kitchen.
WHILE YOU COOK
When done well, meal prepping can be done quickly, but that doesn’t mean that you should be carelessly hasty about it. For the best and safest meal prepping experience, there are a couple of things you should pay attention to while you cook. Meal prepping can be a little overwhelming, so it’s important to keep an eye on everything in order to avoid causing grease fires, thermal burns and scalds, or other serious problems. Don’t take your attention too far away from the stove. Do all of your cutting and washing prior to warming up the oven or stove. This will allow you to focus on one thing at a time and will allow you to still save time while prepping. It’s nice to get your meal prepping done quickly, but following these tips will help make sure that you don’t go so quickly that you sacrifice your safety.
AFTER YOU’RE DONE COOKING
Before you pack your items into containers for storage in the fridge, you’ll want to leave everything out to cool. If you pack everything away while it’s hot, condensation will occur inside of the containers. This can cause the food to become mushy or otherwise change the consistency. Pack items into large containers with tight-fitting lids. You can stack them up in the fridge, removing them as needed. Scoop some of the food you want onto a plate and reheat it in the microwave. You can also warm it in a pan on the top of the stove with a little bit of olive oil.
Meal prepping is a great way to provide your family with healthy and nutritious meals. It just requires a little bit of planning ahead of time. It might seem like you’re spending more time in the kitchen while you prep everything, but you’ll save a lot of time throughout the course of the week.
Here’s another article you might enjoy: How to Preserve Food for Longer Storage