(7 mins read)
How are you adjusting to your fall routine? Is it a struggle for you to think of what you want to eat after a long day of work or school? It is extremely easy for us to lean towards going to restaurants, ordering take-out or even make packaged foods that requires little to no effort to make. Although it doesn’t hurt to have these foods once in a while, eating them too often won’t be good for your health because these foods tend to be higher in salt, fat and added sugart. Not only is it not good for your health, consuming these foods often can also hurt your wallet! t So howdo we step away from this habit? For starters, you need to start with something called meal prepping.
What is Meal Prepping
Meal prepping is when you prepare multiple meals in a single setting. This can vary from making meals for 2 days or even up to a week.
Planning is Key
Before we get carried away and start cooking up a bunch of foods, we need to plan what we want to make. This is a crucial step to meal prepping because it will save you time and money. Money is saved because you will only buy what you are using, which means limiting on food waste! .Time is saved because you don’t need to constantly think aboutwhat you want to eat right before every single meal. Below are the 5 steps on how you can plan your meals.
- Decide on which meals you want to plan for. Start small and plan for 2-3 meals initially, andthen add more mealswhen you are ready to take on the challenge. Try to incorporate a protein, a healthy grain, and at least one type of fruit or vegetable with every meal.
- Be realistic — we all have weeks when we have a lot on our plates. Theseare the days when reheating previously prepared meals can be time saving.
- Be mindful of who you will be eating with — make something that everyone will most likely enjoy.
- Make a grocery list to ensure you get everything that you need at the grocery storet. Also consider choosing recipes that share the same ingredients to save on your cost.
- The last thing you need is preparation time. Try to set aside a block of time each week to get the meals prepared.
