Whether you are tossing around the idea of meal prepping for health or simplifying your daily routines ahead of a baby's arrival, meal prepping can save you time, money, and possibly your mind. If you have not meal prepped before, starting ahead of your baby's arrival will get you into the habit of preparing your meals in advance. Additionally, if you have the opportunity to prepare meals ahead of your delivery date, you could save yourself the headache of taking care of a newborn and preparing healthy meals simultaneously.
The Kitchn's Annalise Mabe found meal prepping ahead of her due date beneficial for a number of reasons. She wrote, "I thought it would be a foolproof way to keep me busy in the last few weeks of pregnancy, while also stocking our freezer so we wouldn’t need to leave the house once our own baby girl arrived." And if you are looking to get into the habit of meal prepping ahead of a pregnancy, preparing proportioned, healthy meals can help you reach or maintain a healthy pre-pregnancy weight. This is important as the Mayo Clinic suggests, "Having a high body mass index (BMI) during pregnancy can have a major impact on your health and your baby's health." It is important to consider "meal prepping" as two separate things for you to consider in your life: meal preparation and ingredient preparation.
Meal preparation
Meal prepping is the preparation of entire meals that are readily available for consumption. When meal prepping, you will need a number of microwave-safe containers to put your individual meals into. If you are new to meal prepping, you might want to prepare one meal, ideally, lunch or dinner, to be consumed over the course of a few days and see how you like it. The concept of meal prepping can be overwhelming at first, but if you slowly introduce it into your routine it can be easier to conquer.
If you are going to dive right into meal prepping, select one day to prepare your meals for the week ahead. Meal Prep Haven recommends, "In the beginning though, you don’t want to prepare meals for the whole week. You want to start off with no more than three meals." You might also want to select ingredients that can be used in a variety of ways to save your wallet and save time spent roaming the aisles of your grocery store.
Ingredient preparation
Meal prepping can also be considered the act of preparing your ingredients for simplified cooking. You will see this happen in professional kitchens and you can easily incorporate this into your kitchen routine. If you find yourself cooking with a lot of whole carrots, you can peel and chop them in your favorite orientation en mass. If you use a lot of sliced onions in your recipes, cut them in advance and save yourself some time. If you enjoy a lot of garlic in your dishes, dice your cloves ahead of time (or buy the pre-diced garlic at the grocery).
Meal Prepping For Different Meals
Here are a few opportunities for you to incorporate meal prep (big or small) into your life.
Breakfast
When planning your breakfast options, take into consideration your lifestyle. Are you going to be consuming your breakfast on your morning commute? Are you working from a home office? Or are you going to have your hands full with a screaming baby or two?
Breakfast is an ideal opportunity for you to kick off your day with ease and meal prepping can facilitate that. You can meal prep your favorite breakfast dishes like a yogurt parfait or a breakfast sandwich. Or you can have prepped ingredients like frozen fruits that you can throw into your blender for a quick breakfast smoothie.
Lunch
Lunch is a tempting meal to eat outside of your office or home, so having a prepared lunch option can save you a ton of money. Consider meal prepping a couple of meals to choose from to add more variety to your lunch routine. And remember to cross-cook with similar ingredients to save time and money. For example, you can meal prep a large batch of vegetable chilli with most of the same ingredients as a vegetable stir-fry.
Dinner
Dinner is an excellent opportunity for you to save time and energy for yourself through meal prepping. The meal at the end of your day should be a time for you to catch up with your family or give you a moment to relax. Consider what you or your family like to eat during the weekdays for dinner and evaluate opportunities to either meal or ingredient prep. If you often have a salad or an appetizer with dinner, you can easily prepare these items several days in advance. If you have have a staple side like roasted potatoes or a vegetable, consider making a large batch and make your main item fresh.
Snacks
Preparing snacks for your home or office is a strategic opportunity for you to keep your diet in check and avoid energy crashes throughout your day. Snack calories, or grazing calories, can easily sneak up on you and your family. By preparing healthy snacks for your home or office, you are giving yourself a diet hack. Consider preparing a fruit or vegetable tray that you can lay out an graze on when you are feeling peckish.
Sources: The Kitchn, The Mayo Clinic, Meal Prep Haven