Meal Prep Guide! – Part I

I recently started meal prepping for the week. I was a little hesitant at first because of two things. The first being my aversion to frozen food and the second being that all videos, blogs etc. I saw prepped for two recipes for the week. That meant I would be eating the same food every day of the week. That was not something I was okay with. However, when I looked at recipes and methods of freezing, I found that most cooked things could be frozen for at least three months. I also realized that my aversion to frozen food comes from the fact that I enjoy hot food. If I stick to food that can be heated, I should be fine.

Since I have a handle on the whole process now, I am writing a sort of guide to meal prep. Now, this is not a full-fledged meal prep blog and this is not a full-fledged guide. It’s something that can help you start and guide you to better resources. For this post, I am focusing on planning the meal prep itself.

First things first, you need to have the right equipment to meal prep. While some people use disposable containers, I prefer using things I can wash and reuse. It is also always better to have multiple boxes so you can freeze portioned meals. I would also suggest buying labels for the containers. Here’s a picture of the containers I use.

Other staple equipment includes usual material like aluminum foil, plastic wrap etc. We also own a 3.5 L Chefman air fryer, which is extremely handy in multi-tasking and produces healthy food! We got ours during Black Friday at Best Buy, but it is available on Amazon too.

Another important thing is to prep with the quantity, quality and diversity of the meals in mind. The key to this is planning the week ahead of time. I have a template that I use to list the menu for each week, list recipe ingredients and then create a shopping list from it. This link: https://everything-nothing.home.blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/mealplantemplate.docx has the format I use in Microsoft word. You are welcome to use it. Please let me know if it works for you! I usually fill it in every Saturday morning. If we are planning to go somewhere on a weekend, I prep for that week the week before.

Here’s an example of a week.

Recipe vise Ingredient List

1. Cauliflower curry: cauliflower (1 medium floret), onion
2. Soup: Thick loaf bread, mushrooms (2 packs), small cream/milk, garlic, butter, parsley, cheese, onion
3. Cumin potato curry: Potatoes (9 medium), cumin, chili
4. Cabbage curry: 1 medium head of cabbage
5. Egg muffins: eggs, milk, cheese, salt, pepper, broccoli, bell pepper, mushrooms
6. Banana muffins: egg, banana (2), Choco chips, salt, baking powder and soda, flour, honey, applesauce, mini liners (check)
7. Wraps: wrap, broccoli, mushrooms, bell pepper, onion, eggs, milk, salt, pepper, garlic powder
8. Lasagna: lasagna noodles, egg, ricotta cheese, parsley, garlic, tomato paste/tomatoes, onion, yellow squash, bell pepper
9. Meatballs: Ground turkey, parsley, tomato paste, garlic, spices, angel hair pasta, breadcrumbs, egg
10. Waffles: onion, cheese, chili, garlic powder, eggs, milk, vinegar, baking soda, baking powder, flour
11. Pav bhaji: potatoes (6 medium), tomatoes (3), cauliflower (1/4 head), bell pepper, spices, garlic, onion, unsalted butter, cilantro, pav buns (not sweet)

Shopping list

You might notice my ingredient list does not include weekend recipes. This is because I include the weekend in next week’s prep. Another thing you might notice is that I have written check in front of some ingredients. This is because I want to check if I have them before buying more.

Make sure you set aside at least 4 hours each weekend for prepping excluding grocery runs and menu planning. This reminds me that meal prep is an excellent activity to do with your partner. More people working means less work for one person and you get to spend time together!