Meal Prep Hacks for a Stress-Free Week

*Collaborative Post

Meal prepping may be a trending topic on social media. However, it is a great way to save time, effort, and money in the kitchen while still guaranteeing tasty, convenient, and healthy meals, regardless of how busy your schedule may become. 

It is a fantastic tool for dramatically reducing the time you spend in the kitchen each week while ensuring you always have a delicious and nutritious meal to enjoy with a crisp, cold Tooheys beer at the end of a long day. 

Planning is Key

If you are new to meal prepping or cannot stomach the idea of eating the same meal five days in a row, start slow by prepping for two or three days at a time, or focus on preparing all your snacks for the week. This will help you ease into the new habit and allow you to gain a better idea of how long you are willing to eat repeated meals. 

Furthermore, don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to prep every meal every day. Instead, choose one or two meals to prepare based on your daily schedule and the meals you want to prioritise. The point of meal prepping is to have healthy and convenient meals ready to eat with little to no effort, and this can apply to any meal of the day. 

Additionally, take some time at the start of your week to create a meal plan, clearly listing the dishes you want to eat and the ingredients you will need. This will simplify the shopping process, prevent you from forgetting or over-purchasing things you will need and help you better plan where and how your base component can be used. 

Convenient Appliances

The convenience and versatility of an air fryer can not be stated enough. This incredible kitchen appliance can cook just about anything you can in the oven in less time and with far less cleanup. From meat, pizza, fish, and potatoes to a wide range of delicious desserts, the options are endless. 

Alternatively, if you enjoy cooking large batches of food, slow cookers are the ideal kitchen appliance. These hearty, delicious and easy meals can be quickly assembled before you leave in the morning and left to cook throughout the day, requiring no extra work from you. 

Perfect Base Recipe

A common misconception about meal prepping is that you need to make a large amount of completed meals to have on hand whenever you need them. But this often means that a large part of your freezer is taken over by containers, and you have to eat the same meal multiple days in a row. 

If meal repetition doesn’t appeal to you, focus on perfecting a primary base component that can be slightly altered to create different meals or served alongside various side dishes. This means you will only have to prep and cook the bulk of your food once while still being able to create and serve a variety of different meals. Traditional, vegetarian, or vegan Bolognese sauce is a fantastic example of this. 

Save Time With Shortcuts

Common kitchen ingredients can help cut down your time in the kitchen without compromising on flavour or nutrition. Using frozen or tinned vegetables and fruits is a fantastic budget shortcut that enables you to skip any peeling or chopping and prevents any food from going bad if you don’t end up using it as planned. 

Furthermore, premade sofrito, a traditional mix of chopped carrot, celery, and onion, can be found in many frozen sections of large supermarkets. This killer combination of ingredients forms the base of most stews and soups and can give you a headstart when bulk-prepping pot pies, comforting soups, and hearty winter stews, which can be stored in the freezer. 

Use Multi-Purpose Ingredients

The key to making meal prepping simple and delicious is to avoid buying and prepping a long list of ingredients. Not only can it quickly become a costly shopping trip, but it significantly increases the amount of time you have to spend in the kitchen and can often leave you with an array of ingredients you may not have any other use for. 

Instead, shop smart and purchase storecupboard staples that can deliver the perfect flavour bomb to an array of dishes. Harssa paste provides the perfect spicy kick of aromatics, ideal for stews, burgers and pastries. Miso is the ultimate umami ingredient, while various nut butters can add delicious depth and creaminess to sauces, both hot and cold. 

Freezer-Friendly

Consider cooking extra base recipes to store in the freezer for quick and easy meals on busy days without having to make another trip to the grocery store. Homemade pasta sauces, meatballs, stews, curries, soups, vegetables, rice, and even potatoes can be safely stored in the freezer. 

Store the leftovers in small portions in freezer-safe containers and storage bags to ensure the taste stays fresh and the food is protected from freezer burn. Depending on the ingredients used, these portions can be kept in the freezer for three to twelve months, by which time you are likely ready to eat them all over again. 

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.