Meal preparation can be daunting if you’ve never tried it before, or if you are just too tired from a hard day at work. From knowing the best recipes to the amount of food you need to last the week, it can be difficult to know where to start.
But, if you’re not yet at the level of a Domestic Diva, these top 10 tips for meal prep in the gallery below will soon have you on your way.
Text: Claudia Poposki/The Australian Women’s Weekly / Photos: Pixabay, 123rf.com
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So it’s Sunday afternoon and you usually can’t be bothered to do anything. Monday is so close and you want to bask in your laziness before a week of being flat out at work.
But, if you plan your meals accordingly, you can be that lazy every night.
Preparing ten full meals can take as little as two hours. What’s two hours in the grand scheme of things?
If you know for a fact that on a Thursday night, you and your colleagues go out for dinner to your favourite restaurant or pub, don’t make a meal for Thursday night.
It’s just wasteful.
If you can’t be bothered preparing for the whole week, just double what you make every night.
Leftovers almost always taste better, anyway, and you’ll be the envy of the office with your fragrant dinner-turned-lunch.
Super complicated dishes are definitely a no-go, because after two weeks you’ll be over it and drop your meal prep plans in a heartbeat.
Simple is always best.
Life happens. You have late nights at the office, or you have a couple of social functions one week and you mightn’t be home often enough to eat the delicious meals you made.
If you don’t want your efforts to go to waste, so try and go for some freezer-friendly dishes!
Instead of creating a rigid meal plan, why not create components that you can throw together to create new meals each night?
You’d cook and store the component – things like protein, carbs or brown rice and veggies – separately, and then decide which combo you’d like that night!
It is the only way to keep an eye on what is and isn’t working for you.
If you’re meal prepping for weight loss, keep a diary of what you consume. That way, you can see what is missing from your meal prep and what you need to get more of in your diet.
Sometimes the point of meal prep is to save money, and sometimes a cook book can give you some pretty pricey meals. The cost will add up and simply isn’t worth it.
If you really want to follow one, try a low budget cook book. Or try our collection of recipes here on our website!
Food is supposed to be something we have a healthy relationship with, so whatever reason you’re taking on meal prep for, have some fun with it!