The first time I came across this idea of pre-cooking meals for the week was while watching BuzzFeed Tasty videos. In principle, meal prep seems like a great idea: prepare all your meals for the week in one large batch so you don’t have to worry about what to eat the rest of the week? Count me in! But here’s the thing: as a fidgety creature that relies on her food for comfort, the thought of eating the same thing every day isn’t that exciting. I struggle to eat the same thing two meals in a row, often reaching to something processed and sugary later to satisfy my taste-buds. Kind of counter-productive, no?

That said, I still am a huge fan of meal prepping. I do some almost every weekend. When I started, it was because I was tired of eating bread and 2 minute noodles type breakfasts every morning. I am not a morning person at all, so I started prepping ahead for breakfast – usually the night before. But work means that sometimes I’m too exhausted to cook dinner, let alone breakfast for the next morning. This is where meal prep over the weekends has really helped me.

In this article, I cover the whys of meal prepping, and the basics on how to get started in small, simple ways so you can eventually go on to make it a regular habit.

First, why even bother? 

Honestly, do you even need to? It isn’t that difficult to find food these days. Offices provide lunches (a lot of them for free), there are enough food delivery apps to give you more options than you’ll have the time to even think about, a ton of healthy food services and diet-friendly services have popped up so even if you’re on a strict regimen like Keto, that’s taken care of. So, why meal prep?

For me, it was a mix of multiple reasons:

1. I love to cook, and I’ll take any excuse to do it. 
2. I’m not too keen on hiring a cook. Just the thought of having to deal with one causes me so much anxiety, it’s seriously a lot easier for me to just cook for myself. Plus I enjoy it anyway and I’d probably be a lousy employer, poking my nose in everything they did. 
3. I want to try and keep the bahar-ka-khana consumption to a minimal. Mainly because I don’t know what all has gone into the food, and I like having that control over what I’m eating. 
4. Ordering in can get mentally exhausting. This might sound like a first-world problem, but trying to figure out what to order when a deadline is looming is too much effort – something I could avoid if I have my lunch happily sitting on my desk. 
5. It’s waaaay cheaper than ordering in all the time. 

Before you jump onto the meal prep bandwagon, think about why you want to meal prep. Are you on a fitness regime? Would you like to save up for an upcoming large expense? Are you just tired of crappy, processed food? Any reason is a good reason.

And I promise you, you don’t have to stick to eating the same food every day. Here, I’ve put down a few ideas that could help make it fun for you, like it is for me. I still can’t claim that I meal prep every single meal I consume. But in the almost two years that I’ve been handling my own kitchen, I can tell you that meal prepping has changed my life and has helped me make my time in the kitchen more efficient.

Tip 1: Mix and Match 

Remember the videos in which they basically make one large batch of a meal and eat the same thing all week? Yeah, not happening. Not only is this boring for your tastebuds, it’s also not the most nutritious thing to be eating say a pasta salad every day of the week. I’d suggest make larger portions of food that you can later on mix-n-match for slightly different meals. Simple cooked chicken for instance can go in a salad one day and a wrap on another. Just make more than you would normally and you can use your base protein for two meals.

Tip 2: Meal prep doesn’t just mean cooking 

Chopping veggies is a great idea of meal prep that isn’t cooking. Sometimes when the chopping board is out, I’ll chop extras of some veggies and pack them in boxes so I can use them for another meal. For instance, when I’m chopping onions and carrots for dinner anyway, I’ll chop a little extra along with say bell peppers or tomatoes, and pack it away for a side salad or to make a veggie omelette the next morning. This task that took me 10 extra minutes chopping tonight will save me time in the morning, plus ensure I don’t just fry eggs again out of sheer laziness.

Tip 3: Plan for 3-4 meals in advance 

You don’t have to plan your entire week, although that would be the absolute ideal scenario. Give yourself the flexibility to make dinner plans with your friends, or order pizza one night just because. I’ve made the mistake of cooking too much and then being stressed about finishing it all before it goes bad. So, now I prep around 3-4 meals on the weekend, and then prep smaller batches during the week. This also ensures that I don’t spend my ENTIRE Sunday in the kitchen, and ensures I’m eating something freshly prepared even towards the end of the week.

Tip 4: Start small, and evolve constantly

Deciding to meal prep all 20 meals for your next work week on a Sunday is ambitious to say the least, and a surefire way to feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and just chuck the idea out the window. Start small. Pick the meal that’s toughest for you to figure out during the week, and start with meal prepping that. For me it was breakfast, because I cannot function in the AM. Over months of meal prepping my breakfasts, it became more intuitive for me, so I could start preparing for other meals. I now meal prep breakfast and some dinners on Sundays, and am on my way to lunches. I will get there, and so will you.

Tip 5: Don’t over-complicate

Keep the fancy food experiments out of your meal prepping, at least when you start off. Remember, the objective of this exercise is to have as many meals as you can ready for the week so you don’t have to stress about what to eat next. Salads and stir fries are great ideas. They don’t take too long to put together, yet can be wholesome and delicious. I also like to prepare the base for some dishes like upma, or pulav ahead, so I just need to throw in the final ingredient (rava or rice), add water, and cook it when I need to. This makes mealtime feel like I’m making 2-minute noodles and I love it!

I love meal prep, and I will vouch for it all the time. I’ve even managed to convince my mum and sister to try it out and they’re enjoying the freedom it gives them. I hope these tips will help you plan your upcoming meals. If you have any questions or want some more details, feel free to reach out to me. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.