I’ve already shared how I eat using intermittent fasting, but now I wanted to share how I use meal prep to keep myself on track for the week! I’ve also talked a lot about how much I love food and eating, so this is not me trying to restrict my eating, but simply me trying to make my life easier and healthier.
So basically it all starts with a big shopping trip. While stores like Whole Foods or Publix are usually best for a weekly grocery run, when I do meal prep I like to buy a lot at once. If you have a Costco membership, shop there. If you’re lucky like I am at home in New Jersey, shop at Produce Junction. Here at school, I usually go to Walmart or Target to buy my supplies because they’re cheaper and pretty decent quality.
Buy whatever vegetables you like, but allow yourself some variety. I choose a few different greens, some sweet potatoes, peppers and onions, really whatever I feel like and whatever looks best at the store. Try to start thinking of how you’re going to prepare each one while you’re buying them, and remember you can always prepare one vegetable multiple ways!
After I’ve purchased tons of vegetables, I head to Publix to pick up two pre-made rotisserie chickens. For a lot of people, figuring out the main protein for your meal preps can be a pain because protein can be the most labor intensive part. This is where the rotisserie chickens help out! They’re precooked, pretty cheap, and I find that two of them is the perfect amount for making my approximately 10 meal preps.
Once I bring my haul home, I get cooking. I put a pot on the stove for quinoa and/or rice to use as a base carb. I preheat the oven and then get started chopping everything up and cooking.
These are how I prepare my own veggies, which I keep all pretty simple, but obviously cook them however you want and whatever way you like best. For me, I like to stick with the very basic sautéing the vegetables in olive oil and garlic so that once I come to eat each meal prep, I can maybe add some new spices or sauces while heating it up and create some new flavors so I don’t get bored of the same meals.
Sweet Potatoes 2 Ways: With the oven preheated to about 360°, I chop up one or two sweet potatoes into cubes, drizzle them with olive oil and salt, and let them bake on a baking sheet for 15-20 minutes, or until they’re soft on the inside. I also usually have one or two baked full sweet potato. Either of these preparations can be used as a substitute for the rice/quinoa carb base, I do half of each.
Peppers and Onions: I cut them both into strips and sauté them in a pan with olive oil and garlic until they’re nice and soft, sometimes I let them get a little charred too. These are easy because you can let them cook while you make a bunch of other vegetables. They also go well with everything.
Mushrooms: I’ve recently really started to love mushrooms and have turned a lot of people onto the way I like to make them, so this may be something you want to try yourself! I cut the mushrooms into perfectly even slices by using a hard boiled egg slicer! My favorite cooking hack of ALL TIME. Remove the stem and wipe each one with a damp paper towel to clean it, and put it right in the slicer and you’ll get perfect easy slices every time.
To prepare them, I melt butter in a pan with some minced garlic, I add all the mushrooms and sauté them for a bit before adding a splash of soy sauce and some chicken (or vegetable) broth and then I let it all reduce for a bit until the sauce is a bit thicker. Once again this is easy to leave going on the burner while you get other items ready to be cooked.
Broccoli: I chop up a head or two of broccoli, season with salt, pepper, red chili flakes, garlic, and olive oil, and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes or until they’re kind of soft and crispy on the tips.
Carrots: With this particular veggie I like to sometimes be a little experimental with seasoning. I start out by chopping full carrots into wedge-like sticks and seasoning with salt and olive oil. Sometimes I go a sweeter route and season with a little brown sugar and ginger, other times I add rosemary and white pepper. Carrots are pretty fun to try different spices and flavors, and just bake them in the oven until they’re as soft as you’d like!
Green Beans: Once again I keep the preparation pretty simple and sauté the green beans with garlic and olive oil, sometimes adding in some fresh chopped tomato or other spices.
Spinach: Yup, you guessed it! I sauté a whole lot of spinach with olive oil, garlic and a splash of lemon juice. I try to use a huge pan and put as much spinach in there as I can (literally at least half of the 2 pound bag I get from Costco) because we all know how much spinach will shrink.
For the rotisserie chickens, I cut them up and use my hands to rip all of the quality meat off. Don’t throw away any of the carcasses or stray pieces of dark meat, we’ll recycle all of that later.
After everything is done being cooked or prepared, I lay it all out on my counter with about ten small-to-medium-sized Tupperware containers. First I go and distribute the rice/quinoa mixture into about half of the containers, only about a couple spoonfuls or whatever you feel is an appropriate amount. For the rest of them I add sweet potatoes.
Next I divvy up the chicken, trying my best to add an equal amount to each container. (If you don’t eat meat you can always substitute beans or more veggies, and you can always choose to make your own protein too).
The most fun part is getting ~creative~ and splitting up all of the veggies into each container. I mix and match everything, putting at least two different colors or types of vegetables into each. Once they’re cool enough to be closed up, I put the lids on all of them and stack them in my fridge.
Now you’re ready to grab a meal and go! This is perfect for me and a lot of other college students because I can spend a whole afternoon cooking a bunch, but then for the next two weeks I have a bunch of fresh, ready-made meals that take less than 2 minutes in the microwave to prepare. I can bring them to campus, eat them on the go, or even while sitting on my couch too lazy to cook a whole meal.
I like to use them for lunch mostly because I usually have more time to make dinner unless I’m in a pinch, but you can obviously eat them however you want.
NO FOOD LEFT BEHIND!
Remember when I told you not to throw away the chicken scraps? This is why! Using my mom’s recipe for chicken soup, I make a giant pot using my leftovers from meal prep! It’s super easy.
Chop up some celery, carrots, and onions, and use the celery tops too, but they don’t have to be chopped pretty or anything because they’ll come out later. Add all of those plus a full clove or two of garlic to a large pot with the chicken carcasses, fill the pot with water like 85% if the way to the top, and simmer for a few hours. The longer the better but leave it for as long as you can! If that’s only an hour that’s fine too!
Once you feel like it’s all been boiling together nicely, strain it (using another pot to catch all the broth!!!) and let it cool for a minute. When it’s no longer scalding to the touch, sort through the strainer for the good pieces of chicken and the good celery and carrot chunks. Add those to the broth and simmer it all again, this time adding rice, quinoa, or pasta to cook in the broth.
When the rice or pasta is done, so is your soup! Refrigerate it and heat up portions whenever you want. It sure seems to help cure those nasty winter colds and it'll taste just like your mom used to make!
I hope I helped fill you in on an easy and cost-effective way to prep your meals!
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