We all feel the same way when we are told to eat better by our physicians. “It's too expensive” and “I don’t have time for that” are two of the most common responses when I have asked people about their barriers to eating better. These two answers are some of the most discouraging to our journey and our self-esteem because when we fail we tend to take it out on ourselves, the cost at the store, or even the people who are succeeding at what we are trying to do. So here I am as a mom of two, a wife, a caregiver who works out of the house, and family members in my home with specific dietary restrictions to tell you, it's OK. You can do it. In the last 10 years of trying to meal prep (sometimes unsuccessfully) and in the 5 years of consistent meal prepping (minus a day or week where I’m just not feeling into it) I’ve learned these 6 tips.
- Tip 1: Save money while prepping the basics. When you do your grocery shopping, take a look at the staple items that are in our lives, most people use beans, legumes, rice, and other dry foods yet we tend to go to the canned version of a lot of those things. I’ve done that too, opted for the can of pintos at 88c for 2 cups(which would be .44 cents a cup) when I can get a 1-pound bag of pinto beans for $1.68 and it will yield about 6 cups of cooked beans for .31 cents a cup. That alone saves you .13 cents a serving. That may not seem like a lot at first although that .13 cents will add up over the year. For example, if you bought a bag of beans every other week for a year (52 weeks in a year, so 26 weeks ) that would mean paying $22.88 for cans vs $8.06 for the dry, saving you $14.82 on a staple that is pinto beans. When you think of what you can make with pinto beans the possibilities are endless and they are a great source of fiber in our diets.
- Tip 2: Have your menu ready, and prep what you like to eat. Sit down with your family and find out what you want to eat. Seems straightforward yet it can be complex. What I like to do is write down what we eat. When you start your meal-prepping journey, take the week or month before you start and just go ahead and jot down what your family eats, whether you get burgers or tacos or Asian cuisine. Write it down. Then when you go to create a menu you have a base of at least 3 things to plug in on days you want to plug them in. For example, you usually get tacos on Tuesday and burgers on a Thursday and go out to an Asian buffet on a Saturday. Put those on your calendar and work around those favorites. Then you can figure out what to do for the other half of the week and not have that “AAAHHHH I don’t know what to make!” moment we all have. It's easy to put in a lasagna soup (crock pot or instant pot style of set and forget) on Monday and bring out that frozen bag of spaghetti sauce to go with a quick meatball on Friday night.
- Tip 3: Have your containers ready. Ones that fit in your lunch box and fit in your life. This seems easy enough, yet at the moment it’s a bit of a kerfuffle to find the right container for the right thing. We have several different types and styles of containers that work for our meals. A salad can have a bigger bowl-style container and a small container for dressing and toppers for the side. Tacos with sides, we have a long divided container that will keep your pieces together yet separated so as to not get mushy. Spaghetti and meatballs, same large container and a smaller container on the side for the protein until you need to heat it. You don’t need to have a different style container for everything, heck I use a Stasher Bowl for half of my prep, especially my yogurt and oats. Why? Because it works, it fits in my small container without opening and it also fits around my main containers since it’s a reusable bag. Flexibility is key in my lunch box. Think about the things that need to work in your lunch bag and start from there. You will be amazed at the different types of containers that exist and also how many “trendy” containers end up at the Goodwill.
- Tip 4: Pick a day to get things done all at once. Fix dinner at the same time as your fixing lunch for the week. Why not go ahead and chop three onions at once rather than chopping an onion and having to go and chop another one tomorrow? One onion when chopped and stored in an airtight bag (insert stasher bowl again) can last 7-10 days in the fridge, raw chopped onions can last up to 8 months in the freezer, and cooked onions (like sauteed) can last 4 days in the refrigerator and up to 3 months in the freezer. The big thing here is your container is airtight and the cooked versions need to fully cool before freezing. You can also freeze in commonly used increments like 1 cup and 2 cups by using a silicone freezer tray and then popping them into your long-term storage bag.
- Tip 5: Multi-prep works. Freeze for later. We already touched on freezing, however, you can freeze so many things! Did you know you can freeze cooked eggs like in a breakfast burrito or breakfast casserole? How about freezing fresh herbs in oil or butter to make your next meal that much easier? We use Amish Butter or we go to the local dairy to get fresh butter, not the processed stuff in the tub because that stuff is not as great for you as the real stuff. We usually will take extra rosemary or dill and pop it in an ice cube tray with some room temperature butter to freeze, the next time you're making a rue or a dish that involves those two as a base just take a cube and pop it in your warming pan or bring it back to room temperature before using it.
- Tip 6: Have fun. That’s the biggest thing, if you're having fun you're going to associate meal prepping with a good time. If you're dreading the task as a chore you're going to fall off, you're going to be like “Well it's too late to make my breakfast I’ll just stop at the cafeteria in the morning!” and then all your work goes downhill. If you make it a fun family affair it makes the process much more fun. My kids have their own knives (Montessori wooden knives) and are able to help chop certain things, we also have a mandolin which my oldest daughter is learning how to use to help prep veggies (she likes slicing cucumbers and making zoodles) and we talk about getting a noodle attachment for our decades old kitchen aid mixer. The new recipes we try help keep them excited and learning to enjoy good things, like sweet potato gnocchi and pumpkin ravioli. Get the kids involved and they will eat it!
This is just a simple list of things I’ve learned in the last few years of meal prepping. Other tips I’ve learned are to have the right tools, try dehydrating, look for inspiration online, and remember to not compare yourself to others. I also mentioned that I do meal prep with my kids. It's been said that when kids help make their meals or are involved in picking out what the meal will be they are more willing to eat it. And that goes for almost anything in my experience. As mentioned above, meal prepping saves you money in the long run, if you're able to prep that taco night or your favorite burger bar not only are you getting what you like, you are saving money by preparing from $40 of store-bought items rather than buying $18 meals for each member of your family.
So why not give it a shot? Start slow, maybe by preparing dinner first for a week, take those leftovers, and make your lunch for the next day. Then add in the meals that are needed when prepping. One Step At A Time.
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