Are you tired of coming home from work and staring into your fridge wondering what you can throw together that’s somewhat healthy for dinner? Or maybe you’re struggling to find time to make breakfast and find yourself grabbing that same chocolate chip muffin from the coffee shop down the street from your office. I’m going to take you on a little trip to the amazing world of.... meal prepping!
Now I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t even have time to make a quick breakfast, let alone cook for 7 hours” Well let me tell you, it absolutely does not take as long as you think it does!! Let me walk you through the steps to setting up your week for success and helping you reach your goals.
1.Think and plan meals ahead of time.
Pinterest is my #1 go-to for recipes. There’s thousand of awesome meals to choose from and you can get very specific in what you want. If you eat gluten free, vegan, dairy free, paleo, vegetarian, you name it, Pinterest will have recipes for you.
Now, Pinterest can be kind of overwhelming. There are so many things on there that it’s hard to choose. To make it simple, type in the search bar exactly what you’re looking for. Say you have chicken breast, broccoli and rice. Type in those three ingredients with “recipe” after and you will get exactly that. You don’t have to be that specific if you don’t want to be either. You could just type in “burger recipe” or “baked chicken” and you’ll get a lot of different options to choose from. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a serious life saver.
2. Strip down your process.
If you know you can barely make pasta, don’t make it harder on yourself by choosing recipes that have 25 ingredients, 12 cooking tools and require 4 hours to make. If you want to be adventurous and try it out then hey, more power to you! But for meal prepping, we want this to be as stress-free and go as smooth as possible. Pick recipes based on what you’re comfortable doing and what equipment you have in your kitchen.
3. Shop in your pantry first, then make a grocery list.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to make a list of everything you need, but to first check out what you have at home. 99% of the time, you’re already going to have a lot of the ingredients that you need. I’m guilty of going into a grocery store and saying “I know I just need these 4 things” but then I see 7 things on sale and my 1 bag of groceries turns into 5. I’m not saying if something is on sale you shouldn’t buy it, I’m all about a good sale. But if you really don’t need it, don’t get it. Not only is this list going to keep you on track but it’s going to make your wallet happy too.
4. Get Naked once a week so you have more time to get naked later.
I hope you all have the same sense of humour I do because that line above is hilarious to me, but totally relevant and true! This day for me is usually a Sunday or Monday. I like starting my week knowing I have meals ready when I get home. I love cooking, but sometimes that’s the last thing I want to do after a long day. Everyone’s grocery shopping and cooking abilities are different, but I recommend setting aside two hours on whichever day you choose to do this. I totally understand that for some, two hours is a lot of time. But I want you to think of how much time you’re saving during the week when you’re not standing in the kitchen scratching your head because all you have is spaghetti and broccoli and don’t know what to do with it.
Hopefully after reading this, you feel like you can take on the task of meal prepping and understand how it can help you reach your goals. Starting small is key and eventually hopefully you’ll love doing it! It can be quite therapeutic to cook and can give you a greater connection to your body and mind when you see how you can nourish it with all these great whole foods. Stay tuned for meal suggestions and snack ideas! Enjoy and happy meal prepping!
-xo Samantha
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