Meal Prepping for Beginners: Save Time and Money

I'm sure by now most of you have seen or heard about meal prep/meal prepping. I've known about it for quite some time now, but I overlooked it. Well that was up until my schedule became quite hectic, and preparing healthy meals seemed all but impossible to do, and ordering takeout was becoming a nightly occurrence. Then I really started to think about trying it out, what would it entail, and how I could go about doing it. For those of you who have tried it with success or failure, good job either way. You tried something new and I'm sure you learned some things along the way, hopefully.

What is meal prepping? The name pretty much sums it up, it is prepping and planning your meals for the week (or a period of time in advance). You pick a day out of the week where your not busy, or to busy and cook/prep your weekly meals in advance. It is a great way to keep on top of things, especially if you eating healthy; even if your not it can help you to save time during the busy week when you have so little of it anyway. So now that you know what meal prepping is, how do you go about doing it? No worries I'll walk you through it.

First of all, Plan. 

Set aside some time to figure out what you'll be doing, and how you'll go about doing it. Trust me this step is crucial to a successful meal prepping session. Don't skip it. Figure out what meals you will be preparing in advance, it can be breakfast, lunch, dinner or even your snacks. You can plan to prepare the entire meal or just a few items before hand. For instance you can just cook your meat in advance, or just have your veggies sliced and ready to go for the week to use in soups,stir-fry's, or as snacks to eat with hummus.

Now that you know what you'll be prepping, make a grocery list of what you'll need to buy. If your use to taking a grocery list to the supermarket with you, great, if not you should try it. It'll help you remember what to get, and it'll save you from picking up items you don't need. Also don't forget to have enough bowls/containers to actually pack your food in. I picked up a 20 piece Rubbermaid set from Kmart for about $17 when it was on sale; I really like that these are stackable so they take up less space in my refrigerator. But use what ever you like to store your meals.

Then the next step is to, Prep. 

Pick a day where you devote a few hours to prepare your meals, preferably when your day off. You can either do your grocery shopping on this day or on another when you have time. Now that you have already planned and bought the items you will need you can being cooking components of your meal or the entire meal. If you are prepping snacks you can portion them out into the neccesary containers. 

Meal prepping saves you time during the week to focus on other things. It's a lot easier when you don't have to figure out at last minute what you will be making. Not only does it save you time, but in the long run you'll save money. Having food handy in the fridge will save you from having to pick up fast food, and buying quick calorie packed meals when your out. 

Tips for if your just starting out:

Try to avoid prepping all your meals, it can get overwhelming.

Don't try new recipes you aren't sure about, especially if you don't know how well they will last in the fridge or freezer. 

 

Whatever happens just remember to have fun and enjoy the experience. I'd love to know how your meal prep goes, so please comment or tag me and let me know how it turns out. #naturalnickel