Amidst busy lives it can be challenging to find the time to plan and prepare a weeks’ worth of meals. Smart meal planning will save you time, energy and money while also improving your nutritional intake. Here are the simple steps to ace meal planning.
Steps To Prep:
Make time when you know you can do it: The best time to meal prep is on the day you do your grocery shopping so everything is in front of you. This way you can prepare food before you pack everything away, again making the shopping and food-prep process a lot more efficient.
Cook once, eat twice: Cooking smart and always making a recipe work across at least two meals is extremely time efficient. Whether you make pasta or pulav, all you need to do is cook larger portions and freeze to use the following week.
Start with your proteins: The protein-rich foods we base our meals around can easily direct our meal prep efforts. Whether you have lean meat, chicken, fish, eggs or legumes on hand, you can work out your meal.
Keep a range of vegetables handy: Fresh, frozen and canned vegetables all play critical roles in meal planning. These can be used to bulk up soups, curries and act as a side dish to proteins or as staple meals and frozen to prevent food waste.
Consider lunch: You can use leftovers from meals and pack them immediately after dinner so you always have lunch ready to go. Or, you can keep a supply of tinned fish, hard-boiled eggs or cooked chicken breast to add to salads, soups or sandwiches.
Build your supplies: It may sound ridiculously simple, but it’s best to set aside some time to clear space in your fridge and freezer, and to clearly label your meals and invest in containers to store the foods you prepare.
By Certified Nutritionist Soumya Kumar
