How To: Meal Prep
How To: Meal Prep
A beginners guide to meal prep!
Here we explore what meal prep is, the benefits and how to get started.
What is Meal Prep?
Meal prepping is used often for health reasons, to save money or to save time. It is the concept of preparing whole meals or dishes way ahead of schedule to better organise your meals for the week.
What are the Benefits to Meal Prep?
Meal prepping can help with organisation and is commonly used by busy people as it saves a lot of time. Your prepared meals for the week can be brought to work or eaten on the go.
Meal prepping can also help if you're looking to eat healthier, as having pre-prepared meals on hand can reduce portion size and can help you reach nutritional and fitness goals.
How do I Get Started?
There a multiple different ways to meal prep, such as:
- Full meals cooked in advance which can be put in the fridge and reheated at meal time
- Making large batches of a specific recipe, splitting them into individual portions and freezing them to be consumed over the next few months
- Prepping ready to cook ingredients required for planned meals ahead of time
When planning your meals for the week, make a food checklist of what you'll need. This saves a bunch of time and you'll know exactly what you need whilst shopping for ingredients ahead of time - make sure to buy lots of food storage containers to keep all your meals separated and organised for the week ahead.
Once you've rounded everything up, pick a day which works best for you to make your prepared meals.
Food Ideas For Meal Prep
Best Foods for meal prep:
- Lean Protein: Frozen or canned seafood, salmon, eggs, Greek yoghurt, feta cheese, shredded cheese, tofu, chicken, turkey, beef and pork
- Vegetables: Peas, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli, parsnip, potato, sweet potato, squash, peppers, celery, cucumber, carrots and cabbage
- Sturdy greens: Spinach, green leaf and romaine
- Whole Grains: Oats, quinoa, and barley
- Pasta and Rice
- Nuts and Seeds: Almonds, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and chia
- Pulses: Chickpeas, lentils, beans and peas
- Fruits: Apples, bananas, oranges, plums, peaches and pears
Easy Meal Ideas for prep:
- Pasta Dishes using vegetables and lean protein
- Stir Fry using peppers, carrots, broccoli and lean protein
- Homemade Soup using some of your favourite veg
- Salads using leafy greens, vegetables of your choice and lean protein
- Meat/Seafood with Veggies and Rice
Top tip: Follow Meal Prep influencers on social media for inspiration, or research tasty meal prep ideas to make at home!
How Can The Skinny Food Co Help with Meal Prep
Spice up your meal prep with The Skinny Food Co!
By incorporating our low sugar Sauces, you can easily add delicious flavour to your meal prep dishes without adding high amounts of calories, fat or sugar which will keep your meal prep dishes healthy and tasty.
If you're meal prepping for breakfast, why not add one of our sugar free Syrups to your dish? All our syrups are zero calorie, sugar free and most of all - delicious.
Meal Prep Influencers
Lifting with Laura
Laura, known as the Meal Prep Queen, balances her fitness lifestyle whilst being a full time registered nurse.
@lifting.with.laura has lost a total of 2 stone since her weight loss journey and uses her platforms to inspire others and share her daily meal preparation.
The Meal Prep King
Sunday Times Best Selling Author and as seen on the BBC - John Clark, also known as @themealprepking on Instagram is one of the number one UK influencers and inspirations for fitness and meal prepping.
After a combined weight-loss of 15 stone, John shares tips, meal prepping hacks and weight loss motivation posts.
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