Hi Guys! If you’re like me and super busy during the week, it can be hard to find the time to cook healthy nourishing meals from scratch. What I do instead is meal prep at the weekend. So whether you’re a beginner at meal prepping or just looking for some tips then you have come to the right place! Here are my top 10 tips for meal prepping success.
1. Plan your meals
So every week before I go shopping, I sit down and decide what I’m going to eat for the following week for work and evening meals. Planning is so important to make sure you get all the ingredients that you need. I also tend to make four person portions of all my food, so I can mix and match through the week.
2. Make time in your schedule
So my meal prep usually takes me about 2-3 hours depending on how much I’m cooking. So I make sure I blot this time out in my diary and commit to this. I like to plan my weekends now so that if I’m going out on Saturday, I’ll stay in on Sunday and visa versa just so I have time to prep but also some valuable me time 🙂
3. Start with a clean kitchen
So anyone who has seen my kitchen knows how I do not have a lot of counter space for meal prep, so I always start my meal prep after I’ve cleaned and de-cluttered the kitchen as much as possible so it doesn’t slow me down once I’ve started prepping.
4. Bring in the slow cooker/ other kitchen gadgets
When I’m meal prepping I will always try to get something in the slow cooker, and it will tend to be some sort of bolognese or chilli that I can eat that evening. This just means that I have less hands on time for one of the dishes and helps speed stuff along. I eat A LOT of rice, so I bought a cheap rice cooker from Argos and I have never looked back! I got a great guide with it, so I can just set it up and go, and it will automatically switch to warm mode when the rice is done, so it’s one less thing to worry about on the hob.
5. Have a bitchin’ playlist
One of the reasons I love meal prepping so much is that I get to listen to my meal prep playlist. At the moment, this consists of Steps, Blazin’ Squad and a lot of other noughties pop/RnB classics. This music makes me so upbeat and I feel I am actually working a lot quicker, it makes my time so much more enjoyable as well. It’s also an excuse to have a massive singsong in the kitchen (as if I needed one!).
6. Make the meal that will take the longest first
So for me, when I am making a simple chicken and rice for my work meals, I tend to use frozen chicken, which takes about 45-60min to cook. So I will always cook this meal first because it takes the most amount of time. It also means while this is cooking I can start set up the rice cooker and chopping my veg for the other meals I’m going to make, saving me some time further down the road.
7. Use a timer
As you will be cooking multiple things at a time, it might be best to use a timer so you can keep track of what needs to come out at what time. I tend to use a timer more when I’m putting stuff in the oven, after I accidentally turned my chicken into charcoal because I forgot it was in there… I’m sure we’ve all done this once or twice, am I right?
8. Wash up as you go along
Sometimes during my meal preps I find myself with a 5-10 minute gaps while I’m waiting for the pasta to cook or for the sauce to simmer etc….So I use these to wash the pots as I go along, and then when you finish meal prepping, there won’t be as may to do. Win!
9. Make sure you have enough containers/freezer space
This has caught me out so many times when doing my meal preps! So just double check that you have enough containers, and enough space in the fridge/freezer to store all your food. The last thing you want to do is go through all this effort and have nowhere to put all that wonderful food.
10. Practise makes perfect
Like anything, meal prepping will take you a few times to get a handle of the timings, and to generally see which way works best for you. For instance, you may find that chopping all your veg before hand is better for you before you start prepping anything, and that is absolutely fine, if that works for you then go with it! Once you get your head around it, it is well worth it if you really don’t want to spend your weekday evenings cooking.
So here are my top 10 tips, I hope you find them useful. As always, please feel free to leave any feedback.
Don’t forget to tag me in your instagram pictures @growwelleatwell
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