Batch, please.
10 tips to help make meal prep easy
Imagine a food delivery service that saves you money and reduces food waste. Even better, it’s ready to eat in the time it takes to pick a movie and put your comfy clothes on. Well this could be reality, if your fridge/freezer is loaded up with meal prep. Here are our top tips for meal prepping like a pro - the simple way.
1. Pick your dishes carefully
Look to pick dishes that have common ingredients so that your shopping list doesn’t become too long, and choose meals that lend themselves to freezing and cooking in bulk well. Here’s a few of our favourites:
Cauliflower & chickpea curry
Italian soup with pearl barley
Three bean Mexican chilli
2. Cook creatively
Get creative if you are missing something, and identify another ingredient you do have that could offer a similar texture, flavour or nutrition profile.
3. Cook once, eat twice
Instead of cooking daily, you can set aside a few hours to prepare meals for the entire week or even the month ahead. This frees up time and energy on busy weeknights.
4. Cheating is ok
Frozen vegetables, ready-made pastes and delicious jar sauces can all save you time. Check out 15 freezer friendly foods that you can have on hand, & there are plenty more.
5. Mass chop
Garlic, onions and some other vegetables will feature across each of your dishes. Work out how much you need in total, then ready, steady, chop!
6. Healthy options
When you batch cook, you choose all the ingredients and preparation methods. This makes it easier to control portion sizes and ensure you are eating nutritious, balanced meals rich in vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins.
7. Be ready to change it up
It might seem obvious but cooking several recipes together is a bit different to cooking one. Cook in a way that suits you and your abilities, if you can cook two dishes at once, then great, that will save time.
8. Tupperware at the ready
Make sure you have enough containers for everything you are going to cook. Tupperware is great, but so are old ice cream containers and take away tubs – just make sure they have a tight seal if they’re going in the freezer.
9. Make room
Make sure you have enough space for your tasty meals in your fridge or freezer, as food in the freezer will keep for much longer.
10. Dinner in 5!
With pre-cooked meals ready in the fridge or freezer, you can have a homemade dinner on the table in minutes by simply reheating or combining pre-prepped ingredients.
Forgot to batch cook?
Try our 10 easy lunch recipes for those times you haven’t got anything pre-prepared!
