Meal Prepping 101

3 minute read

As people of productivity, we tend to try and maximize our efficiency in every aspect of our lives. In the kitchen, it is easier to prepare our meals a few days in advance to keep a well-balanced routine. Meal prepping leads to eating healthier, saving time, and more customization over your food. I will share a few of my favorite recipes but it is important never to over-prep.

Eating Healthier

Meal prepping tends to lead to healthier diet plans because you are less tempted to eat junk food and can better portion your food sizes.

Prepping out your food removes the feelings of boredom and confusion when picking out your next meal. Have you ever been staring at your pantry for 10 minutes straight just go decide to go get fast food? That will never happen again. Furthermore, you won’t be tempted to repeat the same meals over and over again so things will not get repetitive. Sometimes, this feeling leads to poor diet plans, and prepping your food out will ensure a solid three-meal schedule. Ultimately, removing the humdrum of picking out food at the moment, is incredibly significant.

As you start partitioning your food, it is a lot easier to portion sizes. Many recipes come with calorie counts and other nutritional information perfect for adjusting the size of your meals. Although this can always be done without food prepping, it is good to plan out your calorie intake ahead of time.

Saving Time

The ability to prep your food saves a tremendous amount of time and effort every day. Instead of staring at your pantry, picking your ingredients, and then cooking your meal, you are readily available to eat with little to no preparation. For example, if I use an overnight oats recipe (stated below) the night before school. I can wake up in the morning and take it right out of the fridge without needing to cook the oats. It is a well-balanced breakfast, tasty, and it took no effort because it was prepared the night before.

Customization

Since food prepping is planned out in advance, recipes can be more thoughtfully reviewed before baking. You will not be placed under the pressure of using whatever is in your pantry. Therefore, you can go to the store and pick out everything you want to eat for the next few days. I will share a few of my favorite recipes, so you guys can prep your food. These are mainly breakfast items; which I think have the most benefit from food prepping.

Overnight Oats
  • 1/3 cup oats
  • 1/3 cup yogurt
  • 1/3 cup milk (I use oatmilk)
  • 1 tablespoon of brown sugar (I add more)
  • Leave overnight in refrigerator
Yogurt Parfait

recipes comes from gatheringdreams.com

  • 2-3 tablespoons of yogurt
  • layer of berries ( I like strawberries or blueberries )
  • Another layer of yogurt
  • Another layer of berries
  • Granola and maple syrup ( You can also add honey )

Don’t Overprep

Over prepping is when you try to over-plan your entire week out, and end up with food waste. Usually, I only prep for breakfast a night or two before; this way nothing goes to waste and I am still benefiting from the meal. However, people will prep 21 meals a week, then throw out 12 of them because the food went bad, or they just did not want it. If you are going to plan out more of your meals, just make sure it is only 3 days in advance, and you know you will not waste it. This tends to be the biggest problem with food prepping because so much goes to waste that it discourages the benefits.

Conclusion

Food prepping is the process of planning out your foods in advance to save time, eat healthier, and customize your diet plan. I implement this during breakfast, so I do not have to wake up so early before I go to school. As a runner, I need three meals a day with a lot of carbohydrates, so food prepping helps me A LOT. I recommend you all to try the recipes above, and let me know how you like them. If you have any recipes feel free to email them to me!