What Is Meal Prep?
Who else, who less, has ever found himself eating a sandwich in front of the computer or has come home late and unwilling to prepare dinner. Busy schedules and lack of planning are two reasons why people eat poorly nutritious food on a regular basis. The meal prep has arrived to solve this.
Well, there is a different scenario in which you can eat container every day with healthy and tasty menus. Or you can have a homemade dinner in time to get home and put it to heat. Below we detail more about this method and we tell you how to start it.
The meal prep: what does it consist of?
Literally and translated from English, meal prep means ‘to prepare meals’. Although this concept is very broad, it is specifically about planning and preparing weekly menus to be able to eat in a healthy and balanced way without having to cook daily.
But it is not just a culinary technique or a way to organize yourself in the kitchen. Beyond the preparation of the dishes, it also involves planning the menus, the purchase of all the ingredients and as a last step, preparing the recipes and storing them.
The reality is that today there is little time to think about what to eat and also cook it. Consequently, there is a high tendency to consume products already commercially prepared, as well as to order food at home or to pick at the first thing that is in the fridge.
For all these reasons, meal prep is a method that can be interesting for many people and even entire families:
- It is very useful for those who eat out every day and want to save money and eat healthier.
- It serves to be able to plan all the weekly menus of the family and not have to decide on the fly.
- It helps all those people who have little time in the day to day to dedicate it to the kitchen.
Its health benefits
It has already been seen that the main strengths of meal prep, on a practical level, are the ability to organize and save time in the kitchen. All this while betting on a healthier and more balanced diet. But it is that, in addition, it can be said that it is also a way of investing in health.
The investigations are recent, but they already provide some data. In France, a study carried out with a large sample of adults concluded that people who planned their meals had a better quality of diet, greater adherence to the guidelines given by nutritionists and an increase in the variety of products they ate.
It was also possible to verify the association between meal planning and a lower presence of obesity among the participants. Although more research is needed to affirm that causality exists, there is a potential interest in promoting planning as a strategy to prevent this health problem.
What is being studied are the negative effects of poor eating habits and processed food. This includes fast food dishes, sweets and also snacks . All of them can be substituted for healthy foods with methods such as meal prep .
Putting the meal prep into practice
Perhaps the idea of cooking an entire healthy weekly menu in a few hours may seem a bit overwhelming. So the first tip is to take it easy and learn from your own mistakes and experiences. The most basic meal prep steps follow a basic structure that is important to keep in mind.
1. Buy and organize the necessary containers
This is one of the first requirements to organize, since they will be needed in a large quantity. It is best to have suitable jars, tins or bags of different sizes on hand that also allow you to carry the mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack .
The most suitable are the glass ones. They allow to preserve and heat without any problem and avoid the passage of odors towards the food. If you opt for plastic or bags, you have to watch that they are BPA-free. There are also options with sections, which allows you to place different preparations without mixing their contents.
2. Do the planning
Once the material is available, you can start planning what to eat. It is best to think about 5 days, since some ingredients lose quality and safety for longer. It is It is positive to involve the whole family as a way to instill healthy eating habits in the little ones.
A balanced ration has to have a good portion of vegetables, either cooked or in a salad. Also a part of carbohydrates (rice, couscous, pasta, moniato) and another of proteins (eggs, tofu, legumes, meat or fish). For dessert, a yogurt or a piece of fresh fruit is always advisable.
3. Make the shopping list
Based on the menus that have been planned, the list of everything that needs to be bought is prepared. By purchasing food at the same rate as meal prep , fresher ingredients are available, food waste is avoided, and money is saved by buying only what is necessary.
4. Cooking the dishes
Now it is time to get down to work and spend a few hours in a row preparing what is designed. It is good to choose a day a week in which you have the time to do it. There are several tips that allow you to save moments:
- Use the oven to roast several vegetables at the same time, while cooking a meat or fish dish.
- Leave a broth, a vegetable cream or a vegetable stew cooking while you do other tasks.
- Wash and cut fresh vegetables to be used raw.
- You can have some ready-made ingredients, such as cooked legumes, frozen vegetables, or canned fish.
- Use a good variety of herbs, spices and seasonings, as cooking in advance does not have to be at odds with the variety and pleasure of food.
The most important thing is not to get very elaborate dishes, but preparations that are part of the tastes and the usual routine. Once prepared, it is stored in the appropriate containers and stored in the refrigerator or freezer.
Latest recommendations to start the meal prep
Applying this method of preparing and cooking food is highly recommended, as it allows you to eat healthily, save time and money. Without considering the positive impact it can have on our health in the future.
Patience and positivity are necessary for the first few days or weeks. But the goal is worth the initial effort. You have to know that there is enough bibliography and resources in the networks that can be of great help.
A change in routine is always difficult to carry out, so it is preferable to start small. It can be planned for two or three days at the beginning and expand, depending on the experience of each person or family.
Finally, it is very important to take into account the transport, conservation and subsequent heating of the food. In this way, food safety is preserved, as well as the organoleptic quality of the planned menus.
