Top Tips for Healthy Meal Prepping
Are you looking to take your health and fitness to the next level in 2021? After the challenges of the previous 12 months, many of us are looking to use this year to increase our fitness and improve our mental and physical wellness.
Keeping your body fuelled with the right ingredients is essential to ensuring that you are able to maximize these benefits. However, in the hustle and bustle of modern life, finding the time to make yourself healthy food every day can be a challenge, and it is all too easy to buy yourself food on the go.
Not only does buying food on the go mean you are not able to eat as healthily as you would like, but it can also be incredibly costly. For many people, meal prepping is a great alternative to buying food on the go, helping them to eat healthily and save money.
What is meal prepping?
Meal prepping is exactly as it sounds. It is the process of creating a clear meal plan and then preparing a range of dishes that you can then use later in the week. Meal prepping can come in a range of methods, from batch cooking and freezing large meals such as chili con carne to creating individual meals or even just preparing certain ingredients for use later.
This is a great way of helping you to eat more healthily, lose weight and save more money. Alongside that, meal prepping can also help to save you time as well, which in the hustle and bustle of modern life can be a big benefit. Eating healthily can be a challenge, and working out what to eat every day can be overwhelming at times, which is why meal prepping can also help to reduce the stress and worry of finding a nutritious meal.
Top tips for meal prepping
If you are looking to get started with meal prepping but are not sure where to begin, then we have put together our top tips:
- Start small
Before jumping straight into meal prepping, one of the best things to do is to start small. Meal prepping can be a little daunting, so develop a small plan for just a few meals for the upcoming week to ensure you can understand what is required and what strategies work best for you.
- Plan your meals
No matter how many meals you are considering prepping, making sure you plan your meals to ensure they incorporate every food group is essential. A healthy diet should consist of a wide range of ingredients, including fruits, vegetables, protein, healthy fats, and grains, so it is crucial your meal prepping recipes cover all of these.
- Choose the right containers
When it comes to meal prepping, ensuring you are using the very best containers possible will help you to keep your food as fresh as possible. Depending on the meals you are making, you might find that certain containers work better; for example, soups should be stored in a different style than a salad might be.
Whichever options you choose, make sure that your containers are both dishwasher safe and can be used in the microwave. You should also make sure that they are fully sealed to stop any spillages and prevent aromas from filling up your fridge.
- Keep stocked
Meal prepping is a weekly process, so ensuring you keep your kitchen well stocked is essential. You should maintain a consistent level of key ingredients such as whole grains, oils, baking essentials, and canned goods.
Not only will this ensure you can prep whatever meals you fancy for that week, but it can also help you to just focus on the fresh ingredients when it comes to your weekly grocery shop.
- Spice things up!
Unless you are a professional chef with an abundance of recipes, meal prepping can become a little repetitive. Make sure you keep a range of spices on the go to help you take your recipes to the next level.
However, spice does not just transform the flavor of your meals; it can also provide a range of health benefits. The use of spices and certain herbs have been shown to help in the reduction of cellular damage as well as helping with inflammation.
- Give yourself enough time
Effective food prepping requires time, so make sure you set yourself a few hours each week to create the dishes you want to make. Some meals, such as a salad, will be much quicker to prepare compared to more substantial meals.
One of the best things to do is to use the same day each week to create your meals, ideally on a day when you have more time, such as the weekend.
- Create a detailed shopping list
When you are meal prepping, make sure you keep a detailed shopping list of everything you need. This will ensure you do not end up getting to the point of creating your weekly meals only to find that you have accidentally forgotten a key ingredient.
One of the most effective ways of doing this is to record exactly what you have taken from your stock as you use it, allowing you to then purchase what you have used. When you do go shopping, try to avoid doing so while you are hungry as you will be more tempted to make impulse purchases.
- Experiment
After a while, meal prepping can become very repetitive, so do not be afraid to experiment with new dishes and flavors. Not only can this help you to improve your culinary skills, but it will also stop you from getting bored with the process.
Make sure you keep track of those recipes you enjoy the most so you can keep a record of meals to try throughout the year.
Don’t have time to cook?
There can be no denying the many benefits that meal prepping brings, but for many of us, finding the time to cook these meals in between our work and personal commitments is a challenge. That is why here at Cali Grill Meal Prep, we take that stress out of your hands by delivering high-quality meals direct to you.
Unlike other meal prep companies that send microwaved meals to you, we only deliver the very best meals that have been created using the freshest and healthiest ingredients possible. Eating healthily does not mean having to sacrifice on flavor, so whether you are looking for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, our chefs guarantee the tastiest meal possible.
With years of experience, our team has been helping Americans transform their lives and discover the many benefits that meal prepping can bring. We pride ourselves on the quality of our food, and we utilize innovative packaging to ensure that your food remains as fresh as it would had it been prepared directly in front of you!
Each week, you can choose from over twenty unique meals that have been produced by our professional dieticians, and our gourmet chefs will then start prepping and cooking each dish just for you. All of our meals are then delivered fresh to you, not frozen, so you can simply heat them in boiling water and enjoy a delicious meal.
Want to find out more? Get in touch today!