For lots of people, one of the biggest budget busters is food. Whether it’s because you’re busy or because you’re a little lazy, it’s just so much easier to pay someone to cook for you than it is to head into the kitchen after a long day at work to try to make some culinary magic happen.
Or is it? If you haven’t gotten on the meal prep train, you might be spending more than you need to for convenience, when instead you could be making your own prepackaged meals that are ready to go whenever you need them. Meal prep — also known as food prep, or perhaps just really good planning — is a trend that’s all over the internet right now, and it’s definitely possible to use it to your advantage to save money on food instead of blowing it on restaurants and takeout.
Here’s what you need to know.
Food Prep Defined
If the word “prep” here has you thinking that food prep is about stockpiling enough canned goods to ride out the Apocalypse, that’s not true at all. Food prep is just a system of planning and preparing meals ahead of time. Most food prep plans are designed to frontload the cooking into a weekend day so that the rest of the week is freed up to just do the eating.
The Benefits of Food Prep
The beauty of food prep is three-fold. First, you’ll almost certainly save money because you’ll cook your own meals instead of paying someone for their labor in making that sandwich at the deli — or worse, for the privilege of being served in a fancy restaurant. Even if you almost never enjoy white linen tablecloths when you go out, fast food and even prepared foods from the grocery store are still more expensive than just buying ingredients and cooking on your own. Restaurant prices are rising at a rate that’s nearly double that of inflation, so you can do your wallet a real favor by laying off the meals away from home.
Second, you’ll save time during the week by making your food ahead of time on the weekends. To be sure, food prep does require work, but overall you’ll use your time more efficiently by cooking everything at once instead of having to dirty up a bunch of pots and pans only to wash them again every night. One of the reasons food prep really works is that you can happily skip the drive-thru because you know that you already have a meal waiting for you in the fridge or freezer: All you have to do is heat it up.
Finally, meal prep can help you live a healthier lifestyle. It goes without saying that just about anything you make for yourself out of whole-food ingredients like vegetables, meat and grains will be better for you than a fast-food meal, and many people find that they cut way back on calorie intake when they eat in. That’s also because even healthy restaurant options are just too big to eat in one sitting. Meal prep gives you an easy way to control your portion sizes if you parcel out meals into single servings ahead of time.
How to Get Started With Food Prep
Ready to give food prep a try? It’s a good idea to take things slowly by choosing just one meal to work on: breakfast, lunch or dinner. As you get better at organizing and planning, you can tackle all of the week’s meals if you like. Pick a meal to start with and a day to do your shopping and cooking — most people like to prep on the weekends so they have a fridge full of homemade MREs all week long.
Plan Your Menu and Shopping Trip
Meal planning and shopping go hand and hand if you’re trying to save money, because you’ll definitely want to know your grocery store’s weekly specials to take advantage of the deals. For example, if you can get chicken thighs for 89 cents a pound, go for it — and plan to have a few chicken dishes that you can prep that week.
Once you have a few ingredients you know you want, pick the recipes you’d like to try for the week and make a list of the ingredients you’ll need to get the job done. With your list in hand, hit the store — and don’t be tempted to buy a bunch of extra treats and snacks, because you already have your meals planned.
Pro Tip: List each day’s meals on a menu card that you can hang on the fridge to remind you what your choices are. This lets your family know what to expect and can make the early days of the week more fun as you can choose your meal based on your mood.
Choose the Right Cooking Techniques
For beginners, the easiest meals to make ahead of time are one-pot wonders like lasagna, casseroles and slow cooker recipes. Once you make them, these are easy to store in their cooking dishes or in Tupperware containers for individual portions for reheating.
For breakfasts and lunches, you can also pre-cut fruits and vegetables for healthy snacks and side dishes. Quiche is another easy choice that can be served warm or cold. If you want to pre-pack these meals to control portion sizes or make the portable, try divided containers or Bento boxes with separate compartments to maintain crispness.
Pro Tip: Double up on recipes that freeze well, and you’ll always have an extra meal or two in reserve to cover unexpected guests or get you through an illness or other event that keeps you from cooking.
Plan Your Cooking Attack
Cooking five to seven meals at once is a big challenge if you’ve never done it before, so it’s a good idea to plan your time in the kitchen so you don’t get frustrated. Start by preparing the “bases” of your meals: cooking plain pasta or rice, sautéing chicken breasts or steaming vegetables.
Next, use these ingredients to prepare meals by combining them in different ways and dressing them with different sauces or seasonings. You can also prep a slower cooker meal and bake a lasagna at the same time.
Once things are cooking, use the down time to prepare fresh ingredients you’ll eat cold: chop veggies for salads, make fruit cups with grapes and berries, and prepare baggies of crackers and cheese slices for lunches. It’s also a good idea to clean up while food is still in the oven to keep your kitchen manageable.
Pro Tip: Allow hot food to rest before placing it into containers and popping it in the fridge. This will keep your plastic lids from warping and keep your fridge from working overtime to chill hot food.
Are you ready to give food prep a try? Got any tips? Share your best ideas in the comments!
