Member Article

Five essential tips for meal prepping

For those of you that know me, I love meal prep and batch cooking! It’s amazing for so many reasons. It saves us money, helps us eat more healthy and nutritious foods, you know exactly what’s in it, you can freeze it and save it for a rainy day, you can make it just as you like it, the list goes on. Whether you’re a prepping newbie or prepping pro here are my top 5 meal prep tips.

1. Balance it out

One of the main reasons to meal prep is to make sure we’re getting the right nutrients and essential vitamins and minerals (micronutrients). So take the big three food groups carbohydrates, protein and fat (macronutrients) and make sure you have some of each. Include starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes, wholegrain rice or pasta. Leave the skin on the spuds and go for whole grain versions of rice, pasta, bread, wraps etc for extra fibre. Make sure you get some protein in there, whether this be meat, fish or beans and lentils. If you’re having meat, try and keep it lean to reduce the saturated fat value. Turkey, chicken and fish are all great sources. Fat is also important, aim for a good amount of unsaturated fats such as avos, nuts and seeds, olive oil, oily fish counts too! Have a look at the Eatwell Guide for an idea of roughly how much we should be eating of certain foods.

2. Eat your veggies

Add as much veg as you can. It’s estimated that only 1/3 of adults in the UK reach the 5 a day recommendation. The other 2/3 are really missing out because vegetables contain lots of vitamins and minerals and are essential to having a healthy, balanced diet. If you wanted to get your 5 a day in each portion, you will need to add 80g of 5 different veg per portion. For instance, if you are making 4 portions, you will need 80g x 4 of each veg. You don’t have to get fresh veg either, frozen is just as good and often a cheaper alternative.

3. Make more than you think you need

Generally what I have found with prepping is the ingredients I have don’t make as much as I thought they would, so make extra then box it up into portions so you know how much you have left. Anything left over you can freeze for a rainy day (don’t forget to portion before you freeze otherwise you have to defrost the whole batch!)… and let’s face it there is nothing better than not having food in the house and remembering you have some homemade goodness in the freezer.

4. Keep it simple

There’s no need to over complicate meal prep by spending loads of time on it, the key is for it to be quick, easy, stress-free and it only take up a small part of your day. Chunky soups, stews, casseroles and curries are all super easy to prep and cook. Once everything is in the pan you can put it in the oven or leave it on the hob for it to cook. You could even put it all in a slow cooker and leave it for longer. You don’t have to do it all on a Sunday either, it can be done each night instead. For instance, instead of cooking dinner for two on a Monday night, make it for four, box up the extra and then you have lunch ready and waiting for the next day.

5. Experiment with flavours

Once you get the hang of prepping, there may come a time when you start making the same thing every week and eventually you get bored of eating it. To make sure this doesn’t happen, experiment with different flavours and try some different herbs and spices. Here’s a guide to different herbs and spices and how to use them by Kitchn.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ailsa Brogan-Hewitt .