Prep Healthy Meals- Daily Health Quest #4
There are so many great reasons to prep healthy meals!
Why meal prep healthy meals?
Save time
Just heat/cook it without any additional prep time the day of! No messy kitchen or dishes to clean up after each meal!
Save money
Buy ingredients in bulk + no more throwing out ingredients that have gone bad because you forgot about them!
Eat a lot healthier
You will be less likely to eat unhealthy/prepackaged/fast food if you have something healthy, delicious, and super easy to warm up/cook waiting for you! Eat REAL ingredients rather than chemicals.
Feel satisfied
These meals are low calorie/high volume, so you will feel full longer on less calories. Feel free to compare the volume of these meals to store bought freezer meals... homemade ones are more filling and taste better!
5 Methods for Preparing Healthy Meals
1. Cook the meat ahead of time and store it in the fridge or freezer until you are ready to use it.
Great for: making healthy salads, tacos, burritos, or anything else that might get soggy or wilt if you make the whole meal ahead of time.
I personally love to precook taco meat and chicken breasts and store it in individual sized portions in the freezer in glass containers, that way I can just move it from the freezer into the microwave. If I know I'll eat the precooked meat before it goes bad, I'll keep it in the fridge.
Recommended: To store the meat, I like to use 1 cup glass cups with lids that are freezer and microwave safe, on Amazon here. For huge salads, I like to use 2 quart bowls, on Amazon here.
Recipe:
Recipe ideas:
2. Batch make a meal to eat everyday for lunch that week.
Great for: cooked fish or chicken and steamed veggies, casseroles, and soup.
I personally think this is a great way to get started with preparing healthy meals- you only need to worry about shopping for a few ingredients for one meal, you make a large batch on Sunday, and you eat off it for the rest of the week.
It works great if you aren't going to get tired of eating that meal before you eat it all. I usually prefer to not eat the same thing everyday.
Recommended: Glass meal prep containers with lids that are microwave safe, on Amazon here.
Recipe ideas:
3. Batch make different types of individually portioned meals to cook in the oven.
Great for: very quick meal prep - meals can be assembled using raw and frozen ingredients, and cooked right when you want to eat it, so I think this method produces better tasting meals, and it's perfect if you just want to cook a meal for one person.
This method can be a bit overwhelming to a beginner because there are more ingredients to purchase and you need to have more focus when you are assembling 3+ meals at the same time.
This method gives you a variety of meals to choose from when you are ready to eat. You need to use an oven which can be inconvenient for some people.
Recommended: 9" pie tins, on Amazon here.
Recipe ideas:
Meal Prep 16 Healthy Low-Calorie Meals
4. Batch make a variety of soups to store in cubes in the freezer
Great for: when you get sick, when you don't have a ton of freezer space, when you sometimes like to eat soup, but not enough to eat the same kind everyday
With this method, you would freeze soup made with less liquid in large ice cube trays. After the soup is frozen, you remove the soup from the trays and store in a freezer bag in the freezer. To heat, you would add water to the cubes and heat on the stove or microwave.
Recommended: large silicone ice cube trays, available on Amazon here.
Recipe ideas:
Freezer Chili
Freezer Thai Chicken Soup
5. Batch make a variety of meals to cook in the slow cooker
Great for: when you are cooking for several people and want the food ready to eat when you get home
This method uses raw meat, so prepping the meals to keep in the freezer is really quick and easy. Instead of cooking the food right away in the slow cooker, the food gets stored in a gallon-sized freezer bag until you want to cook it. Then you just dump the frozen mass of food into the slow cooker and cook it for the day (usually 4-5 hours on low or 6-8 hours on high).
Recommended: slow cooker, available on Amazon here.
Recipe ideas:
Comments
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving a comment!