Let’s Talk About Meal Prepping!

So what comes to mind when you think about Meal Prepping? What I imagine when I hear that term is a body builder carefully chopping and weighing his Broccoli and Chicken and putting them into little glass containers for him to eat the same meal for the next two weeks, anyone else get a similar image??? This is NOT what I mean when I say Meal Prep. Meal Prepping to me is simply a way to save yourself some time during the busy weeks, I am not prepping full meals I am just prepping certain ingredients so when it comes time to actually make meals, the first few steps are already done. This takes minimal time, I am talking around 30 minutes just one day a week, I usually do this right when I get home from the grocery store then I feel so prepared for the week and I am sure you will feel the same. Keep reading to hear how I prep foods for my little guy AND for myself.

One of my favorite things to prep which saves me SO MUCH TIME during the week is my veggies and this is what I always start with. My diet is very vegetable heavy and I try to incorporate veggies as much as possible into Bennett’s meals so we buy a lot of produce. I would say a good 80% of our groceries every week is just fruits and veggies. So taking the time when I get home from the grocery store to wash and chop my vegetables means that when it’s actually time to eat them I just need to steam them or toss them in a pan to cook.

TIP! When you are prepping vegetables like carrots or celery, the best way to keep them fresh for a long time is to put them in a glass container with some water at the bottom. I also find these last even longer when I squeeze just a little bit of lemon juice on top.

It can be a little more tricky to prep fruit especially things like Apples which you can’t cut ahead of time but I still like to get them all washed so they are ready to grab and eat, it may not seem like much but I love having plenty of options in my fridge that are ready to eat, it is especially handy when I am running late and need to grab something on my way out the door (this seems to happen way too often with my busy schedule).

I’m sure it must seem like I do a TON of cooking, but in all honesty, I am really only cooking once or twice a week usually on the weekends. When I do cook I almost always make a double batch of whatever I am making and save most of it in the freezer to last throughout the week and even longer. Majority of my recipes are freezer safe (aside from the obvious ones like Hummus and Chia Seed Pudding) so I highly recommend saving yourself sometime later and if you are already cooking, just double all of the ingredients and make extra for your freezer stash, future you will appreciate it!

I hope that this was helpful, “Meal Prepping” can seem intimidating and time consuming but it can just be a simple way to save yourself time in the future. I think as parents, all of us could afford to save ourselves some time and this is one of my favorite ways to save time during the busy work weeks.