When it comes to adding the practice of food preparation to your life, there are countless benefits, and there are zero drawbacks.
We all know what it’s like to come home after a long day, and feel too tired to cook a nutritious meal. It can be hard muster up the energy to pay attention to the nutritional value of what you’re preparing and prepare a complete, nutritious meal. You’re trying to get dinner dealt with, so you can finally sit down and relax. You’ve got to eat, though. Your family has to eat. What a lot of people do these days is order food. Pick up pizza on the way home. Pick up fast food. Reach for the frozen, processed foods.
There can be a time to do each of these, sure, but there is a better way to make sure that your family has nutritious food to eat all week long and save yourself some time! That is to do food prep! When you do need to make a stop to pick something up on the way home, try to make sure that stop is to pick up a whole cooked chicken and some salad, rather than a pizza or fast food. You can take a day each week to pick up something prepared and still make healthier choices.
Everyone will have their way that they best like to do food prep. What I like to do on a Thursday or Friday is take a look at what I’ve got in the freezer and make a trip to the grocery store if I need to, with a list, before the weekend. Preferably not on a Friday evening after work lol. I’ll pick up 4 or 5 days worth of protein, ie. chicken breast, salmon, thin steak for stir fry, shrimp for pasta.
I look at each of these items, take a look at what appliances I have, and given the items on hand, decide how I can best cook everything at the same time. Then I let them cool so I can safely freeze or refrigerate them afterwards (in glass containers – please try to avoid plastic whenever possible), for the week to come. You can also, absolutely, do your sides at the same time (remember your food combining).
When you’re done, you can then freeze/refrigerate your meals how you like. As a single person, I like to use single serving containers with a meal in each, including some extra that I will have prepared for my lunches for the week – or I’ll make my lunch with any leftovers from dinner. Yes, you can absolutely do both at the same time. I never eat out at lunch. I take my prepped lunch down to the lake every day, and enjoy it while I stare at beautiful Lake Huron.
The bottom line? Food prep is not nearly as daunting as it seems and once you become efficient with it, you will actually start looking forward to it. It is a time saver, a nutrition companion, and it makes you feel fantastic - both because you’ve accomplished something so important and incredibly helpful, and because eating your healthy meals throughout the week will actually make you and your family feel fantastic! All it takes is a couple extra hours, one day a week, and you’ll save much more time the following week.
If you want help and suggestions on how you can do this, I want to meet you! Whether you’re a grocery shopper or a gardener who wants to use their own home grown food, I do both, so I can help you and I’m genuinely excited to! Vegetarian or vegan? I can help you, too! Click here to book your intake appointment! Let’s find out what your nutritional needs are, and let’s get you food prepping!
*Source: Melissa Baumgaertner
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