There's so much buzz around meal prepping and also a lot of misconceptions. Social Media will have you believe that you should be prepping and batch cooking 10 meals a week in matching, aesthetic, stackable containers for either your fridge or your freezer. I do not need to spend 4 hours every weekend batch cooking everything I'm going to eat throughout the coming week. And neither do you. Instead, I do simple things that do not take a lot of time to ensure that I set myself up for food success for the week that I want to share with you.
Before I go into that, let me explain what I mean by "food success." I'm just talking about being able to eat what I choose that makes me feel good in my body. It's a positive statement rather than the overused "stick to my diet," or "eat in a calorie deficit," or "eat clean," which while all may be true within food success, they can often feel restrictive or like we are lacking in the enjoyment. You can eat delicious and enjoyable foods while still maintaining health and wellness. That's food success to me.
Things you can do to set yourself up for food success
MAKE EXTRA PROTEIN
When making a main protein, I will throw in an extra serving or two while I am cooking. An extra steak, depending on size, can be divided into two servings to turn into steak salads (romaine, cukes, radish, blue cheese crumbles, blue cheese dressing - yum). Extra chicken, breasts or thighs, can be cut up and thrown on top of a green salad, cut up into a wrap, added to a blended soup (like butternut squash), made into chicken salad (with non seed oil mayo), or just eaten on its own with your choice of condiments and a side salad. If you make tacos, make 2lbs instead of 1 and have tacos or taco salad for a day or two after. The possibilities are really endless if you think about it. Cooking extra servings takes no additional time or effort and sets you up with multiple meal options on hand. Talk about food success!
MAKE A BATCH OF SOUP OR A ONE-POT MEAL
I love soup so I will spend an hour making a big pot of healthy, high protein soup that I divide into 2 cup containers and freeze to have on hand when I need a quick meal. I will usually pair the soup with an arugula salad. Depending on the soup and ingredients, it usually yields 4-6 servings. Because I'm a soup fanatic, I will make a different soup each week and I usually have enough on hand to rotate for variety. This is done with meals beyond the coming week in mind, because you may not want soup every day. It's in the freezer so none goes to waste but also allows flexibility to choose what you're in the mood for. Not a big soup fan? That's OK, this can work for any one-pot meal that freezes easily, like a chicken and rice dish or chili or whatever meals set you up for food success. "This sounds like meal prepping, Lauren!" It's just a mini version that isn't making 10 meals for the week and shouldn't take hours.
UTILIZE "OUTSOURCED" FOOD
I believe there are two distinct categories of processed food. The bad kind that is filled with chemicals, additives, dyes, corn syrup, and all the stuff you're warned about when eating a diet of processed food. That kind is what I call BASTARDIZED FOOD. They took something that could be food and mucked it all up to make it frankenfood wreaking havoc on your body. But, the other kind of processed food I want to talk about is the kind that's literally just prepped for you. Beets that are already roasted and peeled. Onions and peppers that are pre-chopped. A salad kit (minus the dressing) that has all the ingredients you wouldn't individually buy and chop up. That's the kind of processed food that I call OUTSOURCED FOOD. You're paying a little extra for the work to be done for you. It's not filled with additives and toxins, it's just that someone did the prep work, which saves you time. My favorite way of using prepped food is to grab a salad kit - I love the ones with Kale and Brussels sprouts and cabbage that are all shredded in, which I wouldn't ever do at home even though I love all those things. Then I add some pre-cooked chicken, some pitted olives, roasted pumpkin seeds, and a seed oil free dressing (store bought or homemade). 100% outsourced food that takes no time to throw together into a healthy salad. We could argue about the loss of freshness and nutrients from outsourced food, but we could also argue that it's a much better option than having nothing on hand and having to hit up a drive thru.
PLAN YOUR MEALS
I meal plan every week. Not every single meal, but I will make sure I know what is for dinner each night (leaving some room for change of plans) and ensure that we all have enough on hand for breakfast and lunch - which includes food from the above three tips! I use my meal plan to grocery shop for specifically what we need. I hate to waste food so unless something is on sale and I can freeze it, I'm not buying random packs of meat or veg that aren't part of the meal plan, hoping culinary inspiration will strike in the middle of a busy Wednesday. This planning requires rapt attention to the kids' activities and some mental gymnastics, but I'm thankful when that busy Wednesday hits that I have a meal in mind and the ingredients to make it.
INVENTORY YOUR FOOD
I have a deep freezer and I keep an inventory of everything in it on my phone. Every time I take something out, I quickly update my inventory. I re-inventory once every couple of months or so because sometimes I miss noting when I put something in or take something out, but it's a fairly accurate view of what we have available. If I can't get to the store or something in the fridge went bad, this inventory list allows me to quickly know what I have available to put together a healthy meal rather than giving up and ordering out. It lets me know exactly how many bags of turkey meat and cups of turkey stock I have left from Thanksgiving to make turkey and wild rice soup with throughout the year. It also allows me to make my grocery list without having to run to the basement to see if we have enough chicken breasts for the meals I'm planning on making. Keeping track of what you have on hand makes it easier for you to plan, prep, and shop for your food. It saves you money when you're not overbuying on something you didn't realize you already had. It saves you time by you not having to keep digging into the freezer/fridge/pantry to see what's there. It also saves you from the dreaded "Oops, I could have SWORN we had a box of chicken burgers in here but we must have used it and now I have nothing to make!" All that savings equals massive food success.
I know that some of those tips SEEM like they would take a lot of time and, at first, they might. However, if you start to incorporate these methods into your weekly routine, you'll find that the more you do it, the less time it will take. I much prefer doing all of this instead of meal prepping because it sets you up for a nice variety in your diet while still allowing you to stay on track for your particular goals and not spending hours upon hours batch cooking in the kitchen!