A Beginner's Guide To Once A Week Food Prep
Most of us are pretty busy in our day-to-day lives. This system is easy: you plan what you want to eat, you buy your ingredients, you prep the food and you enjoy a scrumptious lunch. Be sure to reheat to a cooking temperature of 165℉ when ready to serve. This is month number one for me and my cooking once a month freezer meals experiment.
Or, you may like to prepare elements of a meal, which you can use as the basis of preparing other meals, e.g. roasting a whole chicken, then using the breast shredded in a salad one day, and then the drumsticks, along some cooked potatoes and veggies, another day.
Any meals you plan to eat after the fourth day, simply place in your freezer. Take advantage of a day with some free time (likely over the weekend ), pull out your calendar and recipes, and plan accordingly. Once you get that started you can begin washing and cutting vegetables and preparing other portions of your meals.
Add the meatballs and cook, covered, turning the meatballs occasionally until browned on all sides and a thermometer inserted into the meatball reads 165°F, 15 to 18 minutes. These questions help you account for how many meals you need to prep, and you won't purchase excess food that eventually goes to waste.
If having control over what you eat, or maximizing your time or budget is more valuable to you than eating something different every single day, meal prepping is your ticket. Whether you just want to stay away from over-processed foods and eat healthy to build muscle, lose weight, or Intro to Meal Prep simply feel better, meal prep is a great idea.
Many of the recipes can be frozen after they are cooked so you can eat it at a later date. If you're someone with a hectic life that feels like you're shuffling between work, gym, and your kid's football practice whilst trying to squeeze in everything else, meal prep could be a great way to save time.
STORAGE: The longest I'll keep cooked chicken in my fridge is 5 days. Like I said previously on tip #1 always remember to try for one day's worth of meals first and then you can continue adding for 1 week. Writing out what meals you will need to provide yourself and what meals will be eaten out can help you decide how much food you need for the week.
To freeze, place the turkey meatballs and tomato sauce (without the Zucchini Noodles with Lemon Vinaigrette) in freezer-safe containers in the freezer for up to 2 months. One time when I did grocery shopping, I forgot my meal prep's list and try to shop with what's left on my thoughts and it ended with forgetting the most important thing.
Remember, anything you do ahead of time will help you during the week, so even a small amount of meal prep counts as a victory. Meal prepping makes it possible for you to have prepared meals on the ready while only cooking once or twice a week. Set aside one or two days to get all your meal prep done - try to keep it to 1 hour or less for each cooking session so you don't hate these days of actually cooking your meal prep recipes.
If using a freezer bag, make sure to squeeze out as much air as possible before placing your meal prep in the freezer. Essentially meal prepping is to assist you in saving time when meal time comes around and helping you achieve a healthy lifestyle. Based on which foods you purchased, start to break everything down into either breakfast, lunch or dinner for three days at a time.