Healthy Habits for Busy Lives: Five Meal Prep Tips To Get You Ready for Fall
by Alexandra Liles, CHOP5 Wellness Blogger
With back-to-school upon us and folks moving back into their Fall routines, focusing on nutrition can get moved to the back burner. For me, positive lifestyle changes have always felt more accessible when I think of them as process goals rather than outcome goals. Meal prepping is a great example; for me, meal prepping is a process. It is more of a way of thinking about food and eating, rather than just a single task to be added to my growing to-do list. When I give myself time to think through meals for the week and adequately prepare, I end up saving time and money while also cutting down on stress, food waste and unwanted junk food and empty calories throughout the week. A little planning truly goes a long way.
I will never be the home cook who stacks and stores piles of perfectly portioned Tupperware for an entire week as part of my meal prep. I will; however, always aim to work smarter not harder when it comes to meal prepping and planning for the week. Here are a few of my meal prep tips to help you do the same this fall:
- Think of Themes: When I take a moment to write out a meal plan for the week, I find it easiest to start by picking a theme or two for the week. Maybe this week I’ll focus on trying some new Mediterranean recipes, or perhaps I’ll give some Asian-inspired dishes a try? If you don’t have a personal preference, pick themes at random and let the tastes and flavors of it guide you through your meal prep. Rouxbe Online Cooking School has a great cheat sheet for culturally inspired spice combinations that I reference all the time for help with this. When the possibilities have parameters, it makes meal prep and planning so much easier. My favorite part of thinking in themes when it comes to meal prep is the opportunity for cross utilization of ingredients throughout the week. The pesto you’re planning to put on your pasta on Wednesday night, why not double it up, store it in an air-tight container, then use it as a spread on a grilled tomato and mozzarella cheese sandwich on Thursday? Finding ways to creatively reuse ingredients from one day to the next will keep things interesting while helping to get more bang for your buck for each meal. Who doesn’t love saving money and reducing food waste in the process?
- Rethink Leftovers: Creatively reusing leftover sauces and base ingredients is one way to rethink leftovers, but it doesn’t stop there. Rather than storing leftover food as individual servings of the same meal, try storing like items together so you can get more use out of the individual ingredient. Think of leftovers as future ingredients you’ve already prepped rather than additional helpings of the same meal. For example, if I end up with leftover mashed potatoes one night, I will store this item by itself so I can easily use the mash to make something else entirely later in the week. Mashed potatoes are the precursor to potato croquettes or could be used as a creamy thickener in a veggie stew. You could try reusing leftover roasted veggies to fill your hummus and pita wraps or toss them into a stir fry or pasta bake. Rethinking leftovers cuts down on cooking time for each meal– you’ve already done part of the work!
- Batch Basic Ingredients: Finding creative ways to use leftovers will naturally lead you to start bulk preparing more ingredients each time you cook. Making rice for dinner tonight? Why not double the servings? It takes just as long and you won’t have to spend time cooking another batch later in the week. Cutting up veggies for a stir fry? Go ahead and cut more than you need for dinner, and bam– you’ve prepared a healthy snack for tomorrow’s lunch.
- Get Friendly With the Freezer: I am a big believer in thinking of frozen fruits and veggies as fast food. Rather than succumbing to the allure of the convenient fast-food drive through, grab a bag of mixed fruit from the freezer section to have on hand to blend up a quick smoothie when you are pressed for time or too hungry to think about what to eat. Smoothies make for a great fast breakfast option if you are running late in the morning, too. My go-to breakfast smoothie is super simple: frozen bananas, leftover coffee from the day before (yes, this counts as meal prep), and your milk of choice. Add chia seeds for an added protein and fiber boost to keep you full all morning. Look for your favorite veggies and even grains, like rice and quinoa in the frozen section to set you up for a quick and easy well-rounded meal when you’re pressed for time.
5. Make a List and Keep It!: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into the grocery store and completely forgot what I came in to get. With so much on our minds, it can be difficult to focus on healthy food. Keeping a note in my phone with my “basic staples grocery list” has saved me countless times. I add to this “basic staples“ list every time I meal plan for the week and add any additional items I’ll need. I have found it can be helpful to keep a record of my lists so I can use less brain power next time I sit down to plan out my meals. Most phones will allow you to copy and paste the text of an image directly into the Notes app, too. So next time you find a recipe that piques your interest, snap a screenshot and copy and paste your ingredients list right into your shopping list so you won’t even have to think about it when you get to the store!
