Meal preparation, or meal prepping as it is most commonly known, is a way to ensure you get proper nutrition from all the main food groups in your meals. I find it better to have thought of better choices before my stomach is grumbling and I just want to eat whatever is quickest. I will admit, I am not a continuous meal preppper yet, but I’m getting there by learning from others along the way.
I want to share three pieces of advice that I have thought about most in my transition to food preparation. The first being that green smoothies, in the morning, are the easiest way to get your greens and vegetables in. Green smoothies made with ingredients such as kale, spinach, celery, and avocado are all flavors disguised when something like frozen mango or pineapple is added to the mix. Drinking smoothies like this, first thing in the day, are a great way to get a ton of vegetables in, so when it comes to lunch, a time when things might be stressful with school or work, you do not have to think about getting some veggies in your meal!
The second piece of advice I will share is to prepare your grocery lists. This may seem obvious, but I mean prepare in a certain way. It is easy to choose maybe three or four recipes to eat that week, buy the ingredients, and eat the leftovers. However, in my experience, that tends to accumulate a lot of waste. If I were to buy a can of soup, but only use half of it once and then move on to another recipe, that is wasting the rest of the soup. So, when I prepare my grocery list, I choose recipes that share common ingredients. This way, I can use the entirety of what I bought instead of throwing out container after container of half-full food at the end of the week.
The last piece of advice is to choose a day of the week to sit down and make your grocery list and go to the store. This may seem extra, but it is better to stick to a day to get groceries rather than wait for a Monday night and realize your fridge is empty. It is something I like to do on Sunday mornings. I browse online for simple recipes, make my list and head to the store. It makes being at the store more efficient and I tend to spend less money because I use what I bought rather than getting something and having it sit in the pantry for weeks.
Meal preparation can seem daunting, but there are different levels to it. There are beginner steps, such as the ones I wrote about above, and there are others that require making entire entree plates and storing them in the fridge. Whatever steps you take, you have to make sure they work for your lifestyle!
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