HOW DO I EVEN BEGIN TO MEAL PREP?
I know I had this question months back before I started my prepping ritual. Back in April I purchased a meal plan from the amazing Shawn Wolfe and I had NO idea what I was doing going into it. All I knew was that he had a specific plan for me to follow and that I had a lot of stuff to cook everyday. Lol. I'd heard about people meal-prepping, but I never thought that it would be necessary for me to do.
Well, my first week into that meal plan, I realized that I desperately needed to have a plan. Lol. The one thing I know about every week in the life is that its going to be busy! If I'm not wasting my life away sitting in Tampa traffic, I'm either at work or I'm at home spending the small amount of time that I do have there cooking dinner and getting ready for the next day. So that doesn't leave me a whole lot of time. And the last thing I want to do is spend an hour cooking after I get home following am hour-long drive.
So if you're anything like me, your time is valuable. So I quickly discovered that my life would DEFINITELY be easier if I could have stuff ready to go for the week! My plan won't be like everyone's plan, but I hope that through this post I can give some direction and ideas to someone wondering where to start and what to do!
Here is the first thing to keep in mind, at each meal you want the essential things: carbs, protein, and veggies! So what does this mean? It means that you need to have all of these things on hand for every meal! So this is what I do:
I prep all three. Being a vegetarian my options will differ from someone who isn't a vegetarian. These are my staples; what I cook for my week.
CARBS
Quinoa, brown rice, black rice, and baked sweet potato coins are all staples for me in my carb category. I usually make about 5 servings of each and throw them into the fridge in tupperwares. Thar way, when it's time to either pack my lunch or make dinner, I can just pull them out, measure away, warm them up, and I'm good to go!
PROTEIN
Black beans, tofu, and quorn chick'n cutlets are all staples that I have during the week. I try to shoot for about 4-6 oz of protein at each meal. (Side note:by yourself a good scale, they work wonders!)
VEGGIES
For veggies one can always use the easy go to of a salad, but I like variety. So I usually find myself making a couple of things. Brussel sprouts and green beans are my favorites to make. I'll usually have a tupperware of each in the fridge after my meal prepping. I also really like the steamfresh frozen veggies because they're easy and still healthy. So I have a nice variety of those in my freezer! And then of course I always have my bagged mixed salad on hand!
SNACKS
Snacks are a bit easier because there usually isn't a lot of prep involved. One thing that I do recommend though is to portion out your snacks. For example, when I buy my big bag of almonds from Walmart, as soon as I get home, I count out 24 almonds and individually bag them into snack baggies. That way I can just grab a baggie in the morning to throw into my purse and I already know the calorie count on it. I also LOVE having hard-boiled eggs! So I'll always have some of those on hand in the fridge so that I can easily grab one to throw in my lunch bag to take to work with me! That obviously involves a little bit of prep, so that's another one on the list on my meal-prep days!
Overall, meal prepping is a great way to give yourself more time during the week. We all live busy lives and we can all stand to give ourselves some ease. So do yourself a favor and take an hour or two on Sunday afternoons to set yourself up for the win during the week! You'll Thank yourself once you do it! Trust me!
If you have any questions about what I do to make my life easier through meal-prepping, just ask!
