Meal Plan/Prep Ritual

Meal prep is a saving grace in our house so today I’m going to share some of my top tips for my meal prep routine.

First of all, I’ve used meal prep in various ways over the years but it has evolved as my life has changed so the most important part of meal prep is to find what fits into your lifestyle. Throughout my University and College days I used leftovers as a form of meal prep pretty regularly. For some people eating the same thing every day of the week bothers them but I never minded so big batches was a frequent go to of mine, especially considering I was cooking for one person. I also often cook extras for dinner as well and use this for leftovers for lunches the next day so I still do this in some ways.

Nowadays I typically do a large meal prep about once a month and then may do the occasional smaller prep throughout the weeks (this is often for lunches for the week).

First I take an inventory of what I have. I jot down what meals I stillhave in my freezer that haven’t been eaten yet and add those to my list. Then I look at what I’m going to make this month. I start by jotting down the meals that I will be prepping for the month and what ingredients are needed for each of those meals. Typcially i make 2-4 different dishes at a time depending on what I need. Once I’ve made that list I will go through my cupboards/freezer and cross anything off that I already have. This leaves me with a list of the things that I need to add to my grocery list for the meal prep.

Depending on the week, I will break up the prep in a couple of different ways. If I have the time on the weekend I need to do the prep I will typically just do it all in one day. Sometimes I find that chopping some of the vegetables during the week or the day before can make the process seem less overwhelming they day of, but choose an option that works for you. It’s completely okay to break your meal prep up over several days instead of cramming it all into on day if that works for you.

When I’m ready to start my prep I pull out the large Ziploc bags and start by labelling each of the bags with the meals that I’m going to be putting together. You can see how if you are breaking your prep up over few days how this could be useful. Then you can toss these bags into the fridge and pull them out when your ready. I then wash the vegetables and start chopping. I used to chop all of my vegetables by hand, but have since invested in a relatively inexpensive chopper from Amazon and I will tell you that it’s been worth every penny. There is still a bit of pre-chopping required, but it still saves so much time and it’s super easy to dump everything into the Ziploc bags which is an added bonus.

Once I have all the vegetables chopped I will move on to any meats. If they need to be cut up I will do that first and then I will cook and season the meats as recipes call for. Add the vegetables and cook lightly. Once everything is cooked I will then add it to my foil pans. I label each pan with what is in it as well as the date and if there are any special instructions when cooking. Typically I try to use all the meals within 3 months or so. When you add these meals to the freezer rotate so that your older stuff is on top and used first.

The next question I often get is what do I make? What freezes well? One of my favourite things to prep and freeze is different stir fry type meals. I prep the meat and veggies and usually add some sauce (sometimes you do need to add a bit more sauce when you heat it up so you can choose to add the sauce at time of eating if you prefer). When you pull this meal out of the freezer it’s easy to cook up some pasta or some rice while you warm the meal up in the oven and throw it on tip. My other favourite meal to pre (and my freezer never runs out of) is my breakfast mix. This one consists of your favourite veggies, hashbrowns and your meat of choice (I’ve used both sausage and bacon in the past). Pull it out of the freezer, toss it in the frying pan and add some eggs in the mornings and you’ve got yourself a super simple breakfast that packs protein and veggies in only 10 minutes. Meatloaf, lasagna, shepherd’s pie and casseroles also typically prep well ahead of time and freeze well.

Prepping meals ahead of time can help save you time during the week and in our house they come in clutch on those nights when we just don’t want to cook. Do you have a favourite meal to prep> Share it in the comments!