The Meal Prep, or how to organize the meals of the week on the weekend
During the week there never seems to be enough time (and desire) to cook, especially when temperatures are high. Fortunately, there is a method that helps a lot in organizing meals: with Meal Prep you organize yourself over the weekend and until Friday you have everything ready! Read our article and watch the video to find out which foods should never be missing on our tables for a "healthy and balanced diet."
Meal Prep, what it means to make a meal plan
Meal Prep is a method much appreciated by those who work, because it allows you to divide and prepare the meals of the week in advance. Not only that, it allows you to do it in a balanced, organized and fast way; this way you don't stay too long in the kitchen when it's so hot outside! The "only" effort is to spend about 2-3 hours in the kitchen during the weekend, but after that you will have 10 ready meals: 5 lunches and 5 dinners already prepared and boxed, to eat from Monday to Friday.
Meal Prep derives from the "English" Meal Preparation "and literally means preparing meals or making a meal plan. Thanks to this method which has become very popular in recent years, it is possible to plan and prepare the basics of meals for a" whole week. work: the main objective is to save time and effort until Friday, have fun in the kitchen when you have time and above all fight food waste. Through these preparations you rationalize food in an optimal way, buy and consume only what you really need. The Meal Prep is good for those who follow it and the environment! It is an ideal practice to eat varied, without giving up something good that we have made with our hands! Also perfect for dieters who need help staying focused on their goal.
The advantages of Meal Prep
What benefits can you get by starting to follow this methodology in the kitchen? Certainly the main advantages are the organization of meals, the saving of energy during the week and the optimization of one's time. But there are others you may not have thought of, here are:
- Meal Prep is useful not only for yourself, but for the whole family. By drafting weekly meal plans you guarantee a "healthier diet for young and old, and avoid resorting to unhealthy last second solutions;
- every week you can have a more varied and balanced menu;
- increase the consumption of seasonal ingredients;
- spend less time in the kitchen from Monday to Friday, rediscovering the fun part of being in the kitchen when you have less stress;
- as a result you are less overburdened at home and can have more quality time to spend with your family;
- you have fewer pans to wash during the week !;
- eliminate food waste;
- make a more conscious shopping, also obtaining a good economic saving;
- the fridge and pantry are visually more organized.
How Meal Prep works
In practice, the Meal Prep is really very simple to make: you dedicate a few hours of your time over the weekend to the preparation of the basics of the meals, which will go and be consumed in the following days. Go and keep your food ready in the fridge or freezer, the important thing is that all foods are organized in airtight containers (preferably glass) and as a final step there is the composition of your lunch box: take the bases you want and you start putting them together to make your fantastic lunch, your balanced dinner and if you are well organized even breakfast.
The Meal Prep was born as an idea to help workers optimize their time and not go wrong with snacks that are too greasy or otherwise unhealthy. In fact, once you get into the habit of organizing your diet for weeks, you can apply this methodology for when it suits you best. Think about when you are about to leave for vacation, and you have to eat the dishes left in the fridge. : with the help of a good meal plan designed in advance, you arrive a day before leaving with everything already consumed!
Did we make you want to try? Read on to discover the 3 main rules of Meal Prep and an example of a weekly menu to make.
Planning, cooking and storing: the main rules
To plan
Take some time once a week to mentally plan the next week's meals. Throw your ideas on a sheet of paper, think about what ingredients they can serve, for when and for what meals. For the first approaches we recommend that you plan for the first 2 or 3 days, not a whole week. Not all recipes are ideally suited for a weekly meal plan, so try to consider those whose ingredients can be pre-cooked and stored for several days. Opt for foods that can be prepared at the same time and use the same ingredient in multiple preparations for the same week.
Also write down the various preparation steps listed in the recipes and for a chef's organization, order them according to the time required and the cooking methods. The goal of planning the week's menu in advance is to get ahead with the work.
Then go shopping, which over time will become an almost weekly habit and no longer every 2 or 3 days to make small refills. Buy what you need and buy nothing else, so you avoid the risk of having to throw away some food that you won't need it.
The shopping list will have to be reasoned, to make you feel more serene and organized; once back home you can start cooking.
Cooked
Cooking the ingredients will take 2 to 3 hours in total. Thanks to the roadmap you already know what to do, when, where and how to cook everything. Only in this way can you optimize the cooking times, yours and those of the different foods. If you are not alone in the house try to involve your partner, or even the children. Making meals with someone is more fun and time goes by faster!
Keep
When you have cooked all the bases for your future dishes, you can store your creations in special containers, for the refrigerator or for the freezer (it depends on when you need to eat them). We recommend buying those airtight resealable containers for your meal plan - they're stackable and go straight into the microwave. Alternatively, glass jars are also fine.
When planning, you must also keep in mind the storage period of the different foods. To give you an example, fish and meat are foods to eat at the beginning of the week or to freeze.
Write on the outside of the containers what they contain and the estimated expiration date; you can use sticky paper tape or a label to make an immediate visual impact of what you need to eat day in and day out.
This Set of 10 Airtight Food Containers, Suitable for Microwaves, Freezers and Dishwashers can be purchased on Amazon for € 17.95
Meal prep: example of a vegetarian weekly menu
Where to start if you are a beginner? Here are some practical tips and examples of Meal Prep menus for you. Surely a good strategy is to prepare legumes, vegetables and cereals in advance, or all those bases that are longer to cook and that often end up skipping during the week, but which turn out to be the most veg and healthy! If you don't go well the first few times, let's not take it, start with little and only do a few days to see how you manage between home, work and food preparation.
Having taken these initial precautions, are you short of inspiration? Read this example of a vegetarian weekly Meal Prep, to be spread on 5 dinners and 5 lunches (nothing prevents you from including it with breakfast!):
- cereals, for example spelled and quinoa
- a legume, such as chickpeas or lentils
- two / three vegetables, such as steamed broccoli, kale and potatoes
- carrots in a jar for snacks and salads
- a vegetable pie or croquettes and meatballs
- green salad ready and washed
- a sauce, from pesto to tomato
- a dessert like a super quick cake or a plum cake
From these ingredients you can easily get legume salads, delicious vegetable side dishes, a pie with vegetables, pasta with pesto, pasta with tomato sauce, hummus, risotto and some summer side dish with potatoes!
If you want to learn more about this topic, on Amazon you can also find the book "The gluttonous healthy eating. Recipes, tricks and secrets for organizing vegetarian menus for the whole week" for € 16.05
