Food Prep 101

I’ve said before that the easiest way to eat healthy is to plan, plan, plan! One of my favorite sayings is “If you fail to plan, then you can plan to fail.” With myself being a full time student, a part time bartender, a mother to 3 and 6 year old little girls, and a wife to a law enforcement officer who works crazy hours (which means I do all of the grocery shopping and most of his cooking and meal prepping as well) means that if I didn’t plan food ahead of time, my family would likely thrive on fast food and take out! That’s why once or twice a week I try to pre-cook meals for me and my husband, and for my kids I do some of their meals. but mostly healthy snacks. This is a general breakdown of how this routine goes:

1.       Decide what food you want to cook and how much of it you need. Determine how many ounces of fish, chicken, etc you will need for the upcoming days/week. This may require some math in order to know what to buy at the store. The good news is that this only has to be done one time because once you know how much food you need, that same grocery list will simply repeat itself next time.

2.       Buy your groceries in bulk if possible. I buy as many of my groceries at Sam’s as possible. Costco would be another good resource for bulk shopping. Meat (namely chicken and steak) is the best bargain to purchase at Sam’s, as is frozen and fresh fruit and veggies. However, frozen fish and potatoes are a better deal at Wal-Mart or your neighborhood grocer.

 

3.       When cooking, prep your meats first as they usually take longer to cook. While my fish/ chicken/ steaks are cooking, I will have my sweet potatoes in the oven baking and my steamer bag of rice in the microwave cooking. Basically every space, burner and countertop I have is being used to cook my food (as pictured below). Once it’s all cooked, I portion the meals using a digital food scale and LOTS OF TUPPERWARE!!!

Sirloin, tilapia and swai

4.       Besides meals I also portion snacks. This idea of food prepping doesn’t have to be limited to full meals. I also pre-cut apples for my kids and put them in containers. (Hint: lemon juice on a sliced apple keeps it from turning brown.) ANYTHING can be pre-prepared! Cottage cheese, carrots, egg whites, oats, salad mix, salad dressing, almonds or nuts… anything. By doing this, you are measuring ahead of time to see exactly how big of a portion you need of a certain food. When you’re running out the door to a meeting or to an appointment, you can grab a bag of almonds and a container of cottage cheese. This will prevent you from getting too hungry and looking for fast food later in the day.

 

My oats portioned

These are examples of some of the food I prepare for myself:

Breakfast= 1  Eggs/4 egg whites put into small Tupperware
¼ cup of dry quick oats, one package of stevia and cinnamon all put into a Tupperware container and put into my pantry
 

Lunch= Frozen chicken strips or baked chicken breasts

Boiled or baked eggs
This chicken and eggs will be made into salads later so nothing else is prepped for this meal. If I were taking this lunch to an office to eat I could pre-make the whole salad except for the dressing which I could put into a separate smaller container on the side to avoid making the lettuce wilted.)

OR

Tilapia (or any white fish) sautéed and served in 4-5 oz portions

white rice, ¼ cup rice
green beans or asparagus , ½ cup

 

Dinner= Sirloins grilled and pre-cut into 4-5 oz portions

Sweet potatoes baked , 4 oz portions
Green beans or asparagus , ½ cup portions
This meal is all put into a container together and put in the fridge.

Various meals and grilled chicken strips prepared

Now, I know this all may sound like a lot of work, but by doing this you’re actually SAVING time! It’s a little time consuming at first, but soon you will get a system down that works for you. For example, I know on one particular day of food prepping, I cooked 15 meals for myself in an hour. Those meals probably lasted me about 4 days. You're also saving time in sitting a drive through line, you’re saving money on eating out, and you’re getting healthier all at the same time!

 If you have any further questions please comment on Facebook @ House of Glutes or message me directly @ Annie McDonald.