Introduction
Sadly, 70% of fitness is nutrition and diet. Which means at some point in your fitness journey, you will find yourself meal prepping. Now, this isn’t going to be a blog full of meal prep ideas, we will create a follow-up blog with ideas for meal prep. This is going to be an article about how you can make meal prep a lot easier. Covering everything from meal prep containers, to how to make meal prep almost happen itself (the last tip is so obvious but overlooked).
These tips are just something that we do and have learnt over the years of fitness. They help us meal prep so we think they will help you all meal prep. If you use or have any tips of your own, please get in touch either on our contact page here or over on our Instagram or Facebook page. We would love to hear what you all do to make meal prep easier. However, let’s get into the first tip.
Tip 1: Bulk Cook
Our first tip, of many Meal prep ideas, will save you so much time not only cooking but also prepping meals. That is to bulk cook your Carbs, foods like Pasta and Rice can be cooked in huge bulk, very simply and relatively quickly. You can cook up a big batch of Pasta, Store it in some large Meal prep containers, keep it in the fridge and use it when required. Always have a carb source on hand.
This doesn’t just apply to your carb source. You can also cook up proteins, like chicken, Turkey Mince and also Minced beef. Having these on hands will be a lifesaver when meal prepping. Having these items on hand so easily will help you eat healthier and stick to your diet.
Tip 2: Plan then Buy
Having a plan of what you are going to cook will not only make your Meal prep easier but also make your shopping trip easier and cheaper. Knowing what you are going to need, means you know what to buy, therefore, tend to stray away from, shall we say the “unwanted items?”
Plan your meals and what you will need to make them, and then when you go shopping it will speed things up. Also, when it comes to meal prep itself, you can guarantee you have all the ingredients needed. You will also find that a lot of your meals will need the same ingredients therefore using the first tip you can speed it up even further. Planning your meals and Planning your shop will cut down on the stress and time!
Tip 3: Set and Leave Meals
These are my favourite kind of meal prep ideas. As we said in the introduction, the perfect meal prep is one that cooks itself. We, that doe exist. Using Sets and leave meals, tray bakes, or even slow cooker meals you can set your food cooking, leave it, then just return to put it into your meal prep containers. How perfect dow that sound!
Traybake’s are amazing, throw all your protein and Veg on a tray, place in the oven and leave for an hour or so and return to your meal complete. You could do this two or three times and your meal prep will be complete. You might be thinking “That’s 2 or 3 hours cooking”. However, you only have to put the food in the oven, then get it out and put it into its Meal prep containers. So you aren’t prepping for much time at all. Great for busy parents, new mums or if you just don’t have time to stand around a stove cooking.
The same rule applies to slow cookers, except you can leave them even longer and also, depending on the size of your slow cooker, make larger meals. Cooking is best when it does it for you. Give them a go and see how simple it is.
Tip 4: Break up the Cooking
The mistake most people make when meal prepping is to try to cook a whole week worth at once. I have tried this, and hate it. In fact, I never do it anymore! At most I cook 3 days worth of meals, and do you know what? It is so much easier!
No need to stand in the kitchen for hours cooking, prepping, cutting and putting it into Tupperware’s. 3 meals at a time are so much more simple and hassle-free. If you combine it with the tips above, Traybake’s and bulk cook your carbs, it’s a breeze. The tray goes into the oven, 1 or so hours later, it’s all done.
After doing this for a few weeks, I couldn’t think of anything worse than standing in a hot kitchen cooking food for several days. Do you know the best bit? You get fresher meals! Nicer food that you actually want to it. Give it a go, Cook less at once. Split it up and see what you think!
Tip 5: K.I.S.S
The last tip, and like we said at the start, one that is so simple yet so overlooked. KISS! Keep it Simple Stupid! I see all these recipes of meal preps all over facebook, and some of them are so complicated, take hours of prep, hours to cook, and dozens of ingredients. They are recipes that you do now and then, but if you start doing them every day, you will soon get fed up with all the, well, hassle!
Remember at the heart of it all, all you need is a protein, a carb and fat and some veg. So many simple meals out there that use very few ingredients and take no time to cook. So remember, don’t overcomplicate it, keep it simple and easy. Like it should be.
Conclusion
As you can see there are a few things you can do to help make your meal prep easier and more simple. Try a few of these out and let us know how you get on. Meal prep shouldn’t be a chore, shouldn’t be hard. Should be simple, easier and fun.
We mentioned Meal prep containers in this post, we highly recommend glass Meal prep containers. A bit more costly, but will last a lot longer and are also easier to clean and better for the planet. Have a look around on Amazon to see what you can find in your price point.
Remember if you have your tips and tricks please get in touch either on our contact page here or over on our Instagram or Facebook page. We would love to hear what you all do to make meal prep easier. However, let’s get into the first tip.
Written by Kieran Blacker
Kieran is the CEO and Founder of Sets & Reps. He decided to make an application that helped people get a gym workout when not at the gym. He designed, Coded and built the application himself.