Become the meal prepper you hate

You scroll through Instagram only to be bombarded with incredibly muscular and fit men and women who have a few things in common: 1) they are all gorgeous, 2) they all seem to own a plethora of trendy workout clothes, 3) the way they squat and lift just slightly crosses the line into soft porn, and 4) they meal prep like crazy.

The only thing I have in common with these people is the meal prepping. The seemingly time-consuming nature of meal prepping leads people to purchase pricey meal prep plans, subscription services such as Hello Fresh (read my review of it here), or spend their money on frozen meals or takeout. Personally, meal prepping did not begin for me as a health tactic. When I moved to San Diego, I found out that my teaching shift was going to be 11-7pm (the nature of my work is a whole different conversation). While sleeping in is wonderful, I was upset because it meant that either I was coming straight home to cook and wouldn't eat dinner until 8pm or Joe had to be in charge of dinner, which meant we would be eating cereal. (I love him, but he can't cook)

Thus, meal prepping began. There are many different types of meal preppers and it is up to you to find your groove.

Meal Prepper 1 - The Working Family: These meal preppers are people who simply prep the ingredients at the start of the week and then throw it together each night. This can be paralleled with the concept behind Hello Fresh; you select your meals and ingredients, wash, chop, and portion so it comes together quickly the night that you want it. For some reason I imagine this meal prep occurring at homes where both partners may work, but one is home early enough to pull out the prepped ingredients to create the planned meal. This type of meal prepping may work for people who still get home with enough time to spend 20 minutes in the kitchen and are not hangry, but, alas, this is not me.

Meal Prepper 2 - The Container-Happy One: These are the meal preppers you probably follow on Instagram, the ones with a full table covered in various sizes of containers full of every single particle of food they will eat for the week. These people are very likely fitspo people who are incredibly organized and may sell their meal preps or meal prep plans. These people often take pictures of their clean and organized fridges with breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner all labeled. This type of meal prepping is meant for people who have a strict diet, have the money to spend on meal prep containers, have the time and patience to clean all the containers at the end of the week, and possibly don't care about their excess use of plastic bags (I'm truly concerned about the economical and environmental impact of these meal preps). I am TRYING to do something like this for at least my lunches, but I don't really have the desire to do a full day of packaged meals quite yet.

Meal Prepper 3 - The "Just-pop-it-in-the-oven" One: This is my wonderful Aunt Candy and her family, and the first person who ever introduced me to the concept of make-ahead meals for the week. My Aunt Candy and Uncle Doug are both lawyers who are both frugal, busy, and champions at time management. Aunt Candy preps the full meals on Sunday and puts them in oven-proof cookware. Then, on the weekdays, Uncle Doug (who gets home first) pops the defrosted dish in the oven. By the time Aunt Candy gets home, the dish is cooked and is on the table with a few sides. These meal preppers are the type of people who make bulk dishes like eggplant or chicken Parmesan, casseroles, large salads, etc. This meal prepping is ideal for hot and ready dinners that result in leftovers for lunch or next day's dinner. This is the base foundation for how I meal prep.

As stated above, I am a combination of Meal Prepper #2 and #3. I don't really have the patience or the desire to put all of my meals in specific containers; however, this is incredibly useful for lunches. I don't have to worry about putting my lunch together the night before work or the morning of, and it actually maximizes space in my fridge because I do not have every single ingredient in a separate container. When it comes to dinner, I am a #3. A lot of people do not meal prep because they are worried about getting tired of eating the same thing. My answer to that is, suck it up! I'm kinda kidding and kinda not. Here's my real solution: 1) Make at least two dishes with opposite flavor profiles (ie: coconut curry and lasagna); 2) Embrace side dishes! I always make rice, quinoa, baked potatoes, roasted veggies, salad, etc. The more sides the better; 3) If you're craving a burrito or a burger, go get a burrito or a burger. Meal prepping makes your meals more consistent and eliminates the "I'M HUNGRY BUT HAVE NO FOOD!" conundrum, but you're allowed to eat other things (it's okay I swear; you won't be shunned from the meal prep community); 4) Dedicate one night to eating out. For us, it's Friday, because usually by then the food is gone and so we turn it into a date night.

Being a "meal prepper" is not as daunting or time consuming as it may sound; in reality, it saves you time, money, and may help you adopt a healthier lifestyle (so long as your not simply meal prepping pizza). For me, it has allowed me to continue doing what I love, cooking, with the little time that I have. It definitely takes some time and practice, but in the long run it will make your weeks easier and your daily runs to Starbucks or Chipotle less frequent.

Below is my schedule and a few examples of my meal preps.

Saturday:

Audit my refrigerator and pantry to see what I have and what needs to be used.

Make a grocery list based on my food cravings and ingredients I have at home.

Saturday or Sunday:

Either day, I will do my grocery shop. I organize my grocery list by the layout of my grocery store (starting from produce and ending in wine). I usually keep my list on my phone so that I can give each item a bright green check mark once it is my cart. ALWAYS bring reusable tote bags and mesh laundry bags for produce.

Sunday, meal prep day:

Keep things simple! Roasting, boiling, and sauteing are the main cooking skills you should master in order to produce a variety of foods.

Reuse pots/pans; wash dishes as you go so your sink doesn't pile up; wash chop and prep all ingredients at the beginning; get your containers ready to go so you can portion your meals out or wrap and freeze the entrees immediately to avoid counter clutter.

Enjoy it! Turn on Netflix or some music, pour a glass (or bottle) of wine, and get to cooking!

Top-Down

Examples of Prepped and Portioned Lunches:

Roasted sweet potatoes and red onion topped with chimichurri sauce; roasted asparagus topped with cucumber and red cabbage salad; rice with onion, garlic, black beans, and mushrooms topped with kiwi pico de gallo.

Trader Joe's harvest grains blend mixed with tabouli; baked red potato topped with harissa-spiced roasted chickpeas; garlicky rice topped with toasted pecans, celery, red cabbage, red onion, and mushrooms; roasted broccolini.

Examples of Bulk/Prepped Dinners:

Vegan red lentil dal to be served with rice and salad; gluten-free vegan lasagna with Kite Hill ricotta and a mushroom, zuchinni, onion, and carrot filling.

Glass noodles with red cabbage, sliced green onion, carrots, roasted red and orange bell peppers, and mushrooms and seasoned with a garlic, ginger, liquid amino, and rice vinegar dressing; gluten-free "cheesy" pasta with nutritional yeast, portobello mushrooms, lemon, garlic, and shallots.