One of the things that really got me into cooking more–other than necessity and needing something to distract me from law school–was getting more into meal prep. First let me say that I am nowhere near as intense about my meal prep as people on Pinterest or Instagram. I don’t prep every single meal for my entire week because I get bored easily and want some choices and because I’d rather cook when I can. But it is super helpful for making the mornings easier, to save money by not eating out for lunch during work days, and because Brandon has night classes three times a week.
Meal prep is something that definitely intimidated me at first because I’d heard about it on social media and it seemed like everyone was prepping their entire week of meals–21 meals!!!–all at once and then eating the same three meals over and over again for the entire week. I did try this for like a week or two but it definitely wasn’t for me. While some people might find this helpful or easier I just found it boring and it didn’t make me excited to eat (if you know me, you’ll know that means something was seriously wrong–I love eating). So I found a balance that works for me. One that lets me prepare for the week ahead but still enjoy my meals and make time to cook fresh meals during the week as well.
Most Sundays I’ll prep lunches for the week as well as three dinners for Brandon to take with him on days he has his classes. As strange as it seems, this is actually (usually) a thing that I enjoy doing and is shockingly relaxing. Cooking is a way for me to stop thinking about other things and just focus on making something that tastes good. Usually I’ll make at least two different dishes so that we’re not eating the same thing all week (this stops me from getting bored and deciding to eat out anyway), but occasionally I’ll make one huge batch of a dish if it’s easy and still yummy. I have a few go-to meal prep dishes for lunches and separate them into Tupperware to save in the fridge until they’re needed. Hot tip: I bought a pack of glass Tupperware at Costco for a steal for this very purpose.
My go-to lunches (and dinners for Brandon) are:
- My TITM pasta
- Rainbow pasta with sun-dried tomatoes, pesto, and chicken sausage
- Salad with roasted chicken (either a bag salad from Trader Joe’s or a homemade one of what’s in my fridge)
- Stir-fry–also from just whatever is in my fridge
- Roasted chicken and vegetables
- Burrito bowls
- Chicken puff pastry packets (more on this another time)
Chelsea recently taught me how to prep for morning smoothies by pre-cutting your fruits and vegetables and portioning them out into Tupperware or ziplocks and storing them in the fridge or freezer. This way you just have to add liquid (and your Apothekary powders) and the packet into a blender and you’re good to go! No time sent figuring out what to add or cutting up ingredients in the morning. It’s seriously so easy and I’m surprised it didn’t occur to me earlier!
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