Food Prepping, How and Why I Do It!

Today I want to talk a bit about Food Prepping, how and why I do it.

Why do I do it?
For me, I like to set myself up for success at the beginning of the week, if I know I have the majority/all of my meals organised/prepped in advance, so I know what I’m doing in advance, I feel I am more than half way there to succeeding. And I find, if my nutrition is on point from the moment I get up, other healthy choices, eg. Exercising and self-care. It seems everything else falls into place for the rest of the day/week.

Preparation for me is the Key to Success!
So how do I do it?
On a Sunday, my only actual day off from work, I like to sit down with my recipe books and work out what recipes I want for the week ahead.

– I also go through fridge/freezer, to find out what I have left from previous weeks shopping, to prevent waste and will use that up first, add to this weeks’ food prep.
Anyway I’m waffling, I like to pick 1 main breakfast for the week that can be prepped in advance and will last all week, eg, Overnight Oats and another breakfast I can make fresh, like Banana Pancakes, then I select a couple of green smoothie recipes for the week, a couple of snacks, could be trail mix and fruit, for example. I’ll also pick out 3-4 main courses that I can have for lunches and dinners and choose some carb sides and veg or salad side options to go with the mains and carbs.
Then I will write a shopping list, listing down absolutely every ingredient needed for my prep, again, I’ll see what I have left in house that can be used, eg, herbs and spices, oats, etc.
Then I will go to the shop and get all the groceries I need to do my prep.
Most weeks, I like to prep the majority in one go. For things like fish, I prefer to cook fresh, so I would freeze fresh fish until the night before needing and defrost and cook when needed.

You will need lots of airtight containers to store your prepped food in, and also zip-lok bags are great for storing and freezing food in. Also means you can portion food up into individual servings, saves waste.
Get the oven pre heated and think about the order to cook things in to maximise time and space and get the best out of your prep. Its shouldn’t take all day, the first few times trying out prepping it can take a long time, especially if you aren’t used to cooking, my advice to you would be, pick out a couple of main courses and carb sides and a snack, prep those and then you can do the rest as you go along. But at least you have some healthier choices, ready and available for you.

-I like to chop up fruit and veg ready to go too and store in zip lok bags, in the fridge, for salad leaves I like to add a piece of kitchen towel, in the bag just to absorb excess moisture and stop salad from going soggy. It works! Fresh leaves all week washed and ready to go!
So do you do Food Prepping? If so I love to hear how you make it work for you, everyone does things differently and we can all learn something new by sharing with others. So I’d love to hear from you my Flawsome friend.