Meal prep might be a buzzword today, but if you’ve grown up in a food-obsessed family like I have, you probably have a lot of internalized phobias with regards to foods that aren’t prepared fresh from scratch at home. In my grandmother’s kitchen, not just the meals, everything from ghee to pickles to potato chips was made at home. Even now, she flat out refuses to eat anything that hasn’t been freshly prepared, and scowls at the things we eat out of a packet.

Times obviously have changed. We don’t all have the luxury of house help or large families where people take turns cooking or help one another out. I’m just one little person who’s working full-time and trying her level best to eat the healthiest she possibly can. If that means preparing some parts of my meals for the week on the weekend over ordering every single meal during the week, I’ll take it.

I’ve already covered why I meal prep (and you should too) in a previous post. Today, I talk about the four things you need to think about while you’re getting started with your meal prep journey.

1. Unpack, Unlearn, and Relearn

This is the most important thing to do. You have to begin by unpacking all the things your nani and dadi, and even your mum might have to say about “old food”. Yes, meal prepping will mean you’re not eating 100% freshly made food every single day, but it will also mean you’re getting a healthyish home-cooked meal most of the time without tiring yourself out on an already exhausting week-day. And to me, that’s a good enough compromise.

Start by doing your research. The internet is teeming with information that will help you figure out your meal prep style. Figure out what kinds of foods you love to eat, what you can prepare ahead, and up to what stage. Understand that it doesn’t necessarily mean preparing whole meals and freezing them. It could just mean chopping or half-cooking something over the weekend and finishing it off when you’re ready to eat. Find the kind of meal prep that works for you.

2. Planning Your Week

How many days do you work? Which meals are the toughest for you to cook for? Do have tentative plans with friends in the middle of the week? Think about all these things and plan your meal prep around it. I started with just meal prepping breakfast because I’ve always had a tough time functioning in the morning. I’d end up eating cheese sandwiches or instant noodles or cereal everyday out of sheer lack of energy. So when I made the base for my upma ahead, for instance, I minimized the effort I’d have to put in in the morning, and that changed my life.

When you’re planning your week, the biggest piece of advice I can give you is to give yourself some flexibility. This will let you make impromptu plans with friends, or to order your favourite takeout – whatever you regular week entails. Planning every single meal and then worrying about finishing up the food in your fridge is unnecessary stress. Try it for a few weeks, you’ll figure out what works best for you.

3. Smarter Grocery Shopping

One thing I love about meal prep is that it’s teaching me how to shop smart, use up perishables faster, and reduce wastage. Everyone has things they buy every weekend thinking they’ll cook it during the week, then forgetting about it and having to throw it out later. For me it’s usually mushrooms and basil. I keep thinking I’ll make pesto, but then forget and end up having to throw out black basil and soggy mushrooms. Once you’ve sort of planned your week, shop for it, and start off with cooking and consuming the perishables first.

If the quantity is too much for one meal, see how you can use the same ingredient in another. Coconut for instance. I’d always have too much on hand and not to know what to do with it, and end up freezing it. (I still do, sometimes). Now I use half for a chutney and half for a korma or a stew. Yay, no more wastage!

4. How to Store Raw and Cooked Foods

When you’re cooking ahead, think about storing so your food doesn’t spoil over the course of the week. Look up tips on how to store your raw ingredients so they last longer. I’d always have trouble with my herbs. I realised they got soggy and limp. So when I saw a hack about storing herbs in paper towels, I knew it would help me. And it did! My herbs now last much longer. I also store ginger and chillies in paper towel-lined boxes so they’ll last longer.

When storing cooked food, avoid using containers that are too large for the quantity of food you’re storing. Your container should ideally be almost full of food, to reduce the amount of air in the box that can ruin the food. Also, store it in the coldest sections of your fridge. Not your freezer, but the refrigerator. Last, try to store it where you can see it. If you hide it in a corner of your fridge you rarely look at, odds are you’re going to forget about it. I still do sometimes and it frustrates me to no end to find a box of nicely chopped veggies that I forgot to use.

Are you ready to get started with your meal prep journey? Begin your research and planning, just go for it. If you have any questions at all, feel free to reach out to me, and I’ll do my best to answer it for you. Happy meal prepping!