Save money with meal prepping
Meal prep literally means preparing food. Can you still be found in the supermarket every day after work, to buy that day’s dinner? Then there is a good chance that you spend more money than people who plan their meals a bit more. After all, you visit the supermarket more often, which means that you also buy products that you do not actually need.
In addition, making meal prep is cheaper, because you can buy products in bulk. Consider, for example, a portion of chicken fillet: 300 grams of chicken fillet is relatively more expensive than a kilo of chicken fillet. The same goes for fresh vegetables, kilo bags of pasta and rice, dairy … and all those little bits, ultimately provide more room in your shopping budget.
Suitable dishes for a meal prep
Not all dishes are suitable for meal prep. For example, (fried) potatoes often become soggy when you heat them up, and you do not want to leave dishes with raw fish such as a poké bowl in the fridge for too long. Also a sunny side up egg is not suitable for long storage in the refrigerator. Hard-boiled eggs are fine, as long as you don’t reheat them. For each product, it is wise to check whether the dish quickly becomes soggy (like an avocado) or brown (like pieces of apple). This requires some research in the beginning.
Which dishes are suitable? Think of dishes with rice, pastas and soups. We put some of our colleagues on it Culy for you among yourselves:
Some dishes, such as the Thai pad krapow, can use something extra after heating. Think of a handful of chopped nuts or a fried egg. While you are heating the dish, fry an egg or chop some fresh herbs. This way your heated meal will taste farm fresh again.
Looking for new dishes? Search for ‘meal prep recipes’ or ‘freezer meal’. The internet is full of meals you can make in bulk.
Dinner, lunch and breakfast
Dinner and lunch are meals that can often be prepared, but did you know that breakfast is also excellent for meal prep? For example, make overnight oats for three days, and put them in the fridge. In the morning you mash in a fresh banana, and you have a delicious breakfast. That again saves time.
Breakfasts such as yogurt (with honey and frozen fruit) and chia pudding are also ideal to keep in the fridge. Often sweet cravings? Bake banana bread muffins over the weekend, and store them in the freezer. Take one out of the freezer in the morning, and enjoy a delicious muffin in the afternoon.
How to reheat your meals
The easiest way to reheat your meals is with the microwave. Often a minute or three is sufficient. Not a fan of the microwave? Then warm up your meal in the pan. Add a little olive oil and cook your meal over medium heat. This works especially well with stews like pasta and meals with rice.
Some meals are also excellent to be heated in the oven, such as a quiche or lasagna. This works best on a low oven setting, such as 150 degrees Celsius. Often 10 minutes of heating is sufficient.
5 meal prep tips for beginners
Do you also want to start meal prepping after reading this article? Then keep the tips below in mind:
- Invest in good containers. This is especially important if you are preparing your lunch for the office. Nobody wants to find spaghetti sauce in their bag after a long train or car ride.
- Plan, plan, plan. Are you eating out twice this week? Then of course you don’t have to do any shopping for those days. This prevents you from having food left over at the end of the week, which often expires and therefore ends up in the trash.
- Start small. You don’t have to spend all Sunday in the kitchen for meal prep. Start making a double portion of dinner. This will not cost you any extra time, but it will save you time. You don’t have to prepare tomorrow’s dinner (or lunch, of course) the next day.
- Let the meals cool down before putting them in the fridge . Otherwise it will cost your refrigerator a lot of effort to get the dish cold, and that is a waste for your energy bill.
- Label your meals especially when they go into the freezer. This way you know exactly which dish it is, and on which date you made it.