Last week, we wrote about the benefits of preparing meals in advance for the week and how it can be a great way to save time and ensure that you are eating in a healthy and nutritious way. This week, we promised to let you in on how we meal prep and what it takes to get your meals done ahead of time. With that, here are some of the basic steps that you can follow when preparing your meals:
1. The first step is to plan your meals. Decide on the number of meals you want to prepare and the quantity of each ingredient you will need. Try to be as basic as you can when starting your meal prep. Pick recipes that are very simple and do not require a lot of ingredients. An example would be grilled chicken. The only thing you would need for that is some spices to add flavor to the chicken.
2. Cook the protein portion of your meal: Cook the chicken, beef, fish, or other protein source, in a way that you enjoy, such as grilling, baking, or air frying. You can season it with your favorite spices or herbs to add flavor.
3. Cook the carbohydrate portion of your meals, such as rice and/or potatoes. Make enough servings of rice to cover half of your meals for the week and then bake several potatoes as another option for meals, so you have some variation to your carbohydrates.
4. Choose fresh vegetables to roast or steam. Cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces. You can use a variety of vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, bell peppers, or zucchini. Lay these out on a baking tray, spray lightly with avocado oil spray, and season. Roast the veggies in the oven until done. This can be anywhere from 15 - 25 minutes depending on the vegetable but typically, 20 minutes at 375 degrees will roast most of the above-suggested vegetables perfectly.
5. Assemble the meals: Divide the cooked protein, the rice or potato, and about a cup and a half of roasted vegetables into individual containers. You can use meal prep containers or any airtight container that will fit in your fridge. If you are counting your macros and tracking your food, be sure to weigh out the items before adding them to the containers.
6. Store the containers in the fridge and grab one or two in the morning on your way out, depending on if you will need lunch and dinner before coming home again.
By following these steps, you can prepare your meals in advance and have them ready to go for the week. This will save you time and ensure that you are eating healthy and nutritious meals throughout the week.
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