Meal Prep 101

I'm a teacher. Anyone in the same profession can tell you that one of the quotes we see and hear the most is: 

Failing to plan is planning to fail. 

Preparation is key in the classroom. If you show up with half-baked lesson plans, the children will smell your lack of preparation, realize they outnumber you, and eat you alive. If you have well-thought-out plans, however, and you have all of your materials ready to go, things (usually) go smoothly. 

The same is true for sticking to healthy eating. I know the two things seem unrelated, but stick with me here. If you're trying to make better food choices and your only plan is to depend on your so-far-unreliable willpower, the likelihood of you succeeding is slim to none. On the other hand, if you pre-plan and prepare your meals, you'll always have something on hand when you get hungry and you'll be more likely to turn down the donuts, cookies, and fun-sized candy bars waiting in the teachers' lounge. 

The question I get the most is how do you meal prep? It's usually followed by questions like: Don't you get tired of eating the same thing over and over again? Do you cook everything all at once? How do you know how much groceries to buy? Does your family eat the food you prep, too? So I thought I'd make this post to break down the process of meal-prepping, for those of you who want to try it but aren't sure where to start. 

1. Choose your recipes. Choose 2-3 recipes that you like and double up on the ingredients to make larger batches. This past week I chose these: 

-Green beans, chicken and tomatoes in pesto sauce

-Chicken alfredo with broccoli 

-Flank steak with roasted sweet potatoes

2. Bust out your tools. You'll need:
-Cutting boards
-Mixing bowls
-Cooking appliances (Instant Pot, Rice Cooker, etc.)
-Lots and lots of storage containers

3. Set aside a day/time to batch cook. Personally, I prep my meals once a week and make enough for 3-4 days of lunches and dinners. Like I said, I'm a teacher and I have two very busy children of my own, so cooking throughout the week isn't realistic for me. I set aside about 2 hours each Sunday morning to prep the food and pack it in containers.

4. Cook the meats first. This is the part that takes the longest. I made chicken breasts for my recipes in my Instant Pot and cooked the flank steak on the stovetop.



5. Chop the veggies. While the meat is cooking, chop all of the vegetables that you're going to use and set them in separate bowls.

6. Prepare the remaining ingredients. Once you're finished chopping the vegetables, make whatever is left. This week I had to boil pasta and make a pot of rice for my husband who absolutely can not survive on meat and vegetables alone.


7. Put your ingredients together.  If you planned for a specific recipe, now is the time to throw it together. What I often do, however, is make a lot of veggies, meats, and whatever carb I choose and then mix and match them together so that I'm not eating the same exact thing over and over.

8. Serve your portions in the storage containers. Once everything is cooked, serve your desired portions into your containers. Make sure to let the food cool a little before you put the lid on. Otherwise the containers might not shut properly, and it will make labeling difficult because the steam buildup will wipe away anything you try to write. Which brings me to the next step:

9. Bust out your label-maker! Or in my case, masking tape and a sharpie. I like to label my containers by name and day. Since I meal prep for two, and what my husband and I eat is completely different, I grab small pieces of masking tape and write "Monday Lunch" or "Tuesday Dinner" along with our names.This is not an absolutely necessary step, but for me, I like to take any and all thinking out of the equation. I want to literally grab and go.

10. Set your containers in the fridge in the order that you're going to use them. As if labeling weren't enough, I also like to have my containers easily accessible. I don't want to have to dig through the refrigerator to find what I'm looking for.

There is no exact science to this. The important thing is to choose foods you like, cook in large batches, and have enough storage containers to put all of the food in. It is a lot of work up front, but so worth it in the long run. The time and money you will save during the week is heaven!