Here is How to Prep An Entire Week Worth of Meals
Let me ask you something: Are you interested in preparing your meals for the entire week ahead of time? That’s fantastic.
Only there is a problem: Doing it is easier said than done. What meals should you prepare? How do you keep them relatively fresh? Is that even a good idea? A thousand questions arise. So, if you feel eager, but a bit overwhelmed, read on. Today, we’ll go over everything you need to know about your next weekly meal prep. Let’s dive in.
Meal Plan (But Keep It Simple)
Look: It can be easy to think about all the delicious (and complicated) meals you can prepare for the upcoming week. And you might even make some of these. Later. One of the best things you can do is keep things simple in the early days.
Focus on easy meals that don’t take much effort or expertise to put together:
- Chicken with rice
- Potatoes with pork
Simple, delicious, nutritious.
I recommend starting with your lunch and dinner meals, but you can plan out breakfasts and snacks, too. I prefer having the same thing for all my lunches and dinners since I don’t mind eating the same thing a few days in a row.
Make a Grocery List And Get The Products
There is nothing more disheartening than going to the grocery store, getting everything, going back home, and discovering a key ingredient is missing. So, take the time to think carefully about all the ingredients you’ll need for your planned meals — spices, oils, condiments, additions, sides, and so on.
Look at each meal and consider what ingredients you’ll need for preparing it.
Typical grocery items include:
- Poultry
- Meat
- Fish
- Veggies (for fresh or mason jar salads)
- Oats, milk, cinnamon, frozen berries, and similar (for breakfasts)
- Eggs (boiling them as an addition to meals or for snacks)
- Nuts, seeds, cheese, and hummus (for snacks)
To make your nutrition more enjoyable, you can get two kinds of meats for your lunches and dinners, and mix both with different sides — for example, pork with beans and chicken with rice.
Set Aside Two to Three Hours
Once you know what meals you want to prepare and have gotten the ingredients, it’s time to roll up the sleeves and get to work. You should set aside at least three hours to prepare your meals, distribute them into different containers, and clean up afterward.
It will undoubtedly get easier and quicker as you become more skilled. But give yourself enough time in the beginning.
For instance, a good time to do this is on Sunday afternoon. This is typically the time when most people are free, impending interruptions are rare, and you get to prepare fresh meals for the new weeks.
You can also leave some elements of your meals to prepare just before you’re about to eat. For example, you can cut fresh veggies and add them to your meals instead of preparing them ahead of time. You can also prepare taco meat ahead of time and use it once it’s time to wrap the tacos.
Once you’re done with the above steps, it’s time to distribute your meals into containers (such as mason jars and Tupperware), let them cool (if they are hot, to begin with), seal them up, and pop them in the fridge.
Done! You now have meals for a whole week. How liberating is that?
