Meal Prep 101
Meal Prep in 3 Steps
Evaluate your current habits!
Track what you eat for a few days and your overall hunger throughout the day. This will help you identify whether you’re eating enough, overeating at certain points or using food to cope with other things in life.
Ask yourself the following: When do I get hungry throughout the day? How many meals and snacks do I typically eat? What foods do I really enjoy? What time of day is most challenging when it comes to fueling my body?
Survey your pantry and kitchen
What do you have on hand right now and what do you need to buy? Having a stocked pantry is key to a successful meal prep. This includes things like spices, grains and pasta, canned beans and frozen vegetables and proteins. Produce is something that you can get week to week based on what you’re making but having the basics on hand are key to setting you up for success!
Once way to keep your pantry stocked is to keep a par-stock. This means that you will always have a certain number of each item in your pantry. For example, when you can have a par stock of 3 for beans so when you use a can for meal prep at dinner you can make sure to add it to your grocery list for next week to bring your pantry back to par. This prevents your pantry from becoming empty.
Here are a few key items to have on hand:
Fruits and Vegetables — choose produce that is hardy like potatoes, carrots or apples and oranges. You want things that won’t go bad within a week and can hang around in your fridge or on the kitchen counter for a bit!
Canned Beans (no salt added or low sodium) — having these on hand is a great way to add more sustainable, plant-based options into your routine!
Grains — try to make 1/2 your grains, whole grains! Whole grains are higher in fiber and nutrient dense, meaning they really pack a punch! Here are a few examples:
Brown Rice
Whole Wheat Pasta
Quinoa (a great plant-based protein with all the essential amino acids!)
Farro
Frozen Foods — frozen at their peak ripeness, vegetables and fruits can be convenient options when fresh produce is limited! It’s hard to skip vegetables at dinner when you have it sitting right in your freezer!
2-3 vegetables (stir fry blend, broccoli, etc.)
Proteins of choice - chicken, fish, shrimp, beef (have a few on hand so you can pull them out when you don’t have time to shop at the store!)
Spices — the key to making food taste good; spices can change the flavor profile and the overall eating experience!
Salt and Pepper
Cinnamon
Taco Seasoning
Italian Seasoning Blend
Pantry — from ingredient staples to cooking oils and sauces, these staples are key to changing the flavor profile of a meal!
Onions and Garlic
Unsaturated, “heart” healthy oils - canola, avocado, olive, etc.
Teriyaki Sauce
BBQ Sauce
1-2 Salad Dressings
Salsa
Instant Pot - yes this is an appliance but so worth it! Our RD uses her’s every week and finds it cuts her meal prep time in half!
Create a game plan for the week
Once you’ve identified your eating patterns you can plan out what you want to make for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Most people plan out lunch and dinner but forget about breakfast and snacks which leads them to grab something on the way to work or overeat later because they went too long without a snack.
Just like when we created snack options and paired two macronutrients together. Meals can be created in just the same way except with 3 macronutrients! Pairing a protein, carb and fat together makes a balanced meal that will last for several hours! Don’t forget about vegetables too! High in fiber, vitamins and minerals, vegetables add nutrient-density to meals.
