Do you know the moment when you want to eat a delicious and healthy meal during your lunch break, but you don't have enough time? - Or you have to go shopping thirty times a week because you are always short of food? So that unhealthy food doesn't become a stopgap and you can use your time wisely, we recommend you try Meal Prep. If you want to know what this food trend is all about and how you can easily implement it, this article is just right for you.
What exactly is Meal Prep?
"Meal prep" is the abbreviation for the English term "meal preparation". This means that you think in advance about what you want to eat in the coming week. This means that you can make a bulk purchase and then either prepare a whole lunch from the food you have bought or just prepare individual ingredients that you can then combine in different ways later. Depending on how far in advance you cook the meal, you can either store it in the fridge or freeze it.
Why Meal Prep is worth it - 2 advantages
Save time & money
Since you only shop once a week for all days, you avoid impulse buying, save on trips and generally spend less time in the supermarket. The cooking process is also quicker in the long run because you chop, cook & clean up on one day and only have to assemble or heat your food on the other six days. On top of that, you don't waste time thinking about what you want to eat 😉 You don't have to cook the same food every day.
Easier implementation of a healthy diet
You decide what and how much you pre-cook. This means you always have a healthy meal on hand and don't eat more than that. This way you avoid spontaneously resorting to unhealthy snacks and ready-made meals that may contain additives, flavour enhancers, unnecessary fat or sugar.
Create your favourite lunch
The combination of colourful vegetables, high-quality protein and healthy carbohydrates ensures that you stay full for a long time. Sauces and dips are always that little bit extra, don't you think? That's why we can't do without them. We've put together a list of our favourites, where you can choose one ingredient from each category (you can choose more from the vegetables and toppings). Let yourself be inspired by the season. Your lunchbox will consist of a balanced meal and snack.
Vegetables:
Tomato
Cucumber
Carrot
Pumpkin
Olives
Avocado
Beetroot
Pakrika
Radish
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Sugar snap peas
Salads
Courgette
Maize
High-quality proteins:
Legumes (chickpeas, lentils, beans, peas)
Tofu, seitan etc.
Falafel
Try our sprouted falafel mix now!
Healthy carbohydrates:
Sprouted rice
Sprouted noodles
Quinoa (also contains a lot of protein)
Couscous
Bulgur
Sweet potatoes
Potatoes
Sprouted oat flakes
Germinated buckwheat
Millet
Toppings:
Nuts (walnuts, almonds, peanuts, Cedar nuts)
Seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, cashews)
Seeds (linseed, sesame seed)
Sauces & Dips:
Hummus
Pesto
Soy sauce
Wacker Mousse
Nut puree
Blueberry-banana sauce
Homemade dressing
(Dried) fruit & other snacks:
Banana
Pomegranate
(Puffed) Mango
(Puffed) Pineapple
Berries
(Puffed) apple
Pear
Cherries
Kiwi
Mandarins
Plums
Grapes
Dates
Apricots
Fruit bar
Dried fruit with Cedar nut puree
9 tips for implementation with ease
- Check that you have the necessary meal prep utensils. If you don't already have them in the house, get some transport-proof tins with dividers and wooden cutlery. Upcycled jars, like our washed soup jars, are also great.
- Create a weekly plan & write your ingredients list. Find your favourite recipes beforehand and think about how many days you want to prepare the food for. Then you can write a list in your notes on your mobile phone, for example, so that you don't forget anything.
- It is better to use fewer ingredients in a varied way. Pick recipes for the week where vegetables and grains are similar so you can use them more than once. For example, you can make oatmeal into granola, oat biscuits, savoury patties and porridge. This way you don't have to buy completely different ingredients that you can't use up in the end.
- Saturday food shopping, Sunday prepping. Since many of you probably have the weekend off, Saturday is a good day to do the bulk shopping. You can also easily order some ingredients from us on a working day during the week and have them delivered to your home. You can then use Sunday to start the meal-prep action.
- Start small at first. Maybe you don't want to prepare all your meals, but just your lunch or save a little time in preparation. For example, you can peel carrots, cut them into small pieces and store them in a little water in the fridge. You can wash lettuce, dry it, cut it into small pieces and wrap it in a damp tea towel and put it in the fridge. Pulses, quinoa, rice, cereals and pseudo cereals can be pre-cooked and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
- Have Sauces & Dips in stock. Do you have that one sauce that you eat with most dishes? Ideally, you'll have that favourite sauce on hand for your Meal Prep week, right? So prepare a bottle for the whole week instead of mixing it every day.
- Spice up food with toppings, herbs & spices. Spices, herbs and toppings can give dishes a completely different flavour. You can make an Ayurvedic porridge from breakfast oatmeal by combining it with turmeric, cardamom, black pepper, ginger and cinnamon. By adding other ingredients such as cocoa and peanuts, oatmeal becomes a completely different taste experience.
- Clever layering. If you are using a jar or tin without dividers, it makes most sense to either store sauces separately or to put them at the bottom of the jar. Foods that get soggy quickly (such as fruit and salads) are best added to the top of the jar.
- Freezer or fridge? If you decide to cook ahead for more than three days, you can better store the food in the freezer to make sure it stays fresh. Stews, soups & curries are best for this.
Order your Meal Prep basics like rice, pasta or our falafel mix today!
Image Meal Prep: Adobe Stock, fahrwasser, #204149555
Prepare lunchbox image: Adobe Stock, fortyforks, #294539308
Image Dried fruit & nuts: Adobe Stock, craevschii, #96062032
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