10 Easy Tips For Meal Prepping

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you have an awesome holiday filled with great company and delicious foods! This is one of my favorite holidays of the year, and I promise it’s not just because of the amazing food! I think it’s really important to be grateful for everything we’ve been blessed with in life and to find joy in the little things. <3 I’m spending my holiday weekend (Radiology gave me most of the week off!) over at Please Save A Cat since I can’t go home for the holidays.

I’ve been incredibly blessed with absolutely amazing people in my life. <3 Eight different families extended invitations to me to spend Thanksgiving with them because they knew home for me was back in California, and that I wouldn’t be flying home this year. So as cliched as it may sound, I am most thankful for the people in my life. :] They make it wonderful! <3

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that there will probably be leftovers at Thanksgiving dinners all around tonight, so what better time is there to do a meal prep guide?!

While I don’t consider myself a true expert in the realms of meal prepping, I have been packing all my own [healthy + homemade] meals since 2008. (It goes farther back if you take out the “healthy/homemade” part, because 2008 is around the time I first started learning how to cook. My neighbor called me the “bag lady” throughout my first two years of med school because I’d always have a ginormous bag of food with me wherever I went.

I usually spend anywhere between $25-100 per month on food/groceries, and planning everything out is a huge part of why/how that’s possible. (>$50 is when I’m splurging.)

I should probably also throw in a disclaimer that every now and then, the hospital/clinic or drug reps will feed me, and my church also feeds me once a week, but other than that, it’s all about the meal prep! I used to regularly pull 16-hour days on campus for both undergrad and med school, so having a day’s worth of food with me was a must!

Please note that this can, of course, be easily adapted to what works for you. I generally cook in bulk once a week so that I’ll have meals to last me through the rest of the week. If you have more or less time, tailor it accordingly!

1. Have a list of what you want/need to get from the grocery store!
   I don’t care if it’s written out on a piece of paper or into the “Reminders/To Do” list on your phone. It’s just nice to have since it cuts down on impulse buys and/or having to make extra trips because you forgot something!
2. Pick out a couple recipes that you want to make/try/eat for the week.
   I usually go with 4-5, since I can then cycle my meals throughout the week and not have to be eating the same thing every day. Set aside one day in the week to make it all, you won’t have to worry for the rest of the week!
3. If you’re not a fan of #2, you can also just cut up all your vegetables and cook all your meats (if you’re not vegetarian/vegan) in one day. (Same goes for rice/quinoa/etc.!)
   This makes it so that when you get home from school/work/etc., all you’ll need to do is throw it all together! Change up the spices and seasonings for more variety! If you’re vegetarian/vegan, cook all your beans/lentils/chickpeas/etc.! You can even freeze em’ for later! (Thanks for that tip, Jess!)
4. Have a really awesome stockpile of Tupperware containers (make sure they have lids) + perhaps also an insulated lunchbag/cooler.
   You will most definitely need this if you’re planning on prepping all your meals, as you’re going to need someplace to store all the food you’ll be making! Make sure that they don’t leak and that they’re not really weirdly-shaped. Stackable ones are awesome. The insulated lunchbag/cooler is mostly for if you’re typically gone for the entire day, without regular access to a refrigerator.
5. If you have a friend/significant other/spouse/etc. who needs to eat as well, have them contribute!
   If we’re mutually free, I frequently get together with my friend to meal prep for the week, since it cuts down on the cost of groceries, as well as the prep and cleaning time. This also enables us to make more food, which equates to more variety throughout the week!

Other pointers I’d like to add:

Portable foods are awesome.

• Hard- or softboiled eggs are simple and convenient. I’ll usually make a batch at the beginning of the week and have them as a snack or dice it up to throw into a salad.
• Apples, bananas, pears, oranges, and clementines are also super easy and portable. You can also cut up the less travel-friendly ones in advance and put them in tupperwares for easy transport!
• Sandwiches. ‘Nuff said.
• Greek yogurt with your own add-ins!

Make your own snacks/trail mixes!

• I buy nuts in bulk at Costco and often throw them together with some dried/dehydrated fruit. The sky’s the limit with this one though! You can add shredded coconut, chocolate chips, yogurt chips…
• Fruits are awesome snacks, just sayin’. <3
• This cuts down on trips to the vending machine and/or reaching unhealthy snacks.

Crockpots / Rice Cookers are/can be your best friends.

• They make cooking in bulk much, much easier, and it’s especially helpful that you can just throw all the ingredients in and work on other things while it cooks everything up for you!
• Here are crockpot recipes I’ve made…and things I’ve made in my rice cooker!

Freezer-friendly meals make life a billion times easier.

• Sadly, I haven’t actually started with that because I need to eat everything I already have first. I’m referring you to pinterest!

That’s all I have for now! Since today’s Elf 4 Health challenge is to share a book/blog/etc., I’m directing you to several other posts out in the blogosphere that have also covered meal prepping!

• Food Prep, at The Lean Green Bean
• 100 Meal Prep Ideas, at Thirty Handmade Days
• Meal Prep for Beginners, at Eats and Exercises by Amber
• Meal Prepping Tips, at Ripped Recipes
• Tips for Freezer Meal Preparation, at The Kitchn