Not Your Traditional Meal Prepping

It is 7 a.m., I roll over in my sleep, lazily press snooze and contemplate if I want to have the time to eat breakfast or make lunch. Usually it’s neither and I sleep the extra 10 minutes and starve myself until lunch, which was usually unhealthy, greasy, and overly expensive take-out.

Initially, it was nice, being able to just walk a few steps down the block from my work and get Chipotle or Naf Naf. But slowly, I noticed the extra pounds and not to mention the dent in my wallet. There had to be a better way, especially since I’m a young professional, fresh out of college, and still very much broke.

I had heard about meal prepping and honestly I had my reservations. I enjoy eating freshly cooked meals rather than the ones that were prepped on a Sunday night and then reheated throughout the week. I did some research, and while the general meal prepping “guide” talked about prepping on Sunday, I customized the way I would approach it and broke down meal prepping on a Sunday night to meal prepping on a weeknight basis. I know what you’re thinking… that defeats the purpose. The whole point of meal prepping is so that you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the week.

You’re not wrong.

But let me tell you why I do what I do and why it works for me. If your household is very much like mine where you have traditional Indian meals 2/3 times a week and mixed cuisines the rest of the week, then you will find this extremely doable. You will also find this doable if you’re in college and have access to a kitchen. You will also find this doable if you’re tired of eating take-out and have about 20-25 minutes (if even that) to spare each night. You will find this doable even if you don’t consider yourself a cook. Bottom line is, this is very doable, and believing that you can is honestly more than half the battle.

Here’s what I do:

Sunday Mornings

On Sunday mornings, I sit down and make a list of all the goals I have for the week when it comes to food. This usually means, reflecting on my previous week. If I felt that I was low in energy, overly tired, or just not my usual upbeat self, I know I missed out on the nutrients and didn’t eat right. Then, I do some quick research, like, what kind of foods energize vs weigh you down, or what kind of foods promote healthy menstrual health, etc. Next, I make a list of those ingredients and then work recipes around them.

Approx. Time: 10 minutes

Sunday Afternoons

This is where I do most of my planning and shopping. I aim to make 4 solid lunch meals and different snacks to sustain me in between meal periods. Most of my recipes come from searching the ingredients. For example, if I am trying to eat more spinach or chickpeas, I will look up “recipes with spinach+chickpeas” and from there decide on an option that suits my time frame and food preference. Both my parents are also diabetic, so I try to be conscious of finding recipes that don’t require extra sugar or sweeteners. This is the easy (and fun!) part. I always find myself inspired looking at the different pictures and reviews on a recipe, which automatically motivates me to make these recipes and eat clean.

I also make a shopping list on what I need to buy. This part is completely optional, but I have also recently started to budget a bit better. On an average week, when I used to eat out which was almost every day, I was spending close to $45-50 a week. My logic was that if I am planning my meals ahead of time, then I could at least cut costs in half. My budget for the week in grocery shopping is usually to keep everything under $25. This averages to about $6.25 per meal, but since I usually also make food for my mom as well, it’s really only just a little over $3 per serving. Sorry, math nerd moment.

Approx. Time: 1.5 hours (depending on how fast/slow your shopping trips are)

(30 mins on recipe hunting; an hour to shop)

Here is this week’s meal prep plan:

Note: This is super brief, I will do an in-depth recipe post as well. I wanted you all to see the overall prep plan first.

Sunday Evenings

I really use Sunday evenings to just plan my weeknight tasks. The only food I’ll actually cook on Sundays depends on if I can justify it not being “more” fresh the night before. For example, for black beans I know that I’ll be opening a can and warming it up, therefore, whether I make it on Sunday or the night before I am planning on taking it will really make no difference. However, I never pre-cut vegetables on a Sunday evening. I will always do it the night before. I know that a lot of people will pre-cut veggies and store it in freezer bags and use it as needed, but I just prefer to have them freshly cut! Do whichever works for you, there is no “right” way, as long as you’re eating the veggies, it really doesn’t matter.

The reason why I don’t just cook/pre-cut everything on Sunday nights is because I’d much rather spend my Sundays hanging with my family and friends versus spending the entire day in the kitchen. I also just never really like eating food that’s older than a day. Hence, I’d much rather spend about 20-30 minutes a night prepping fresh foods than reheat meals from a few days ago. Not to mention, I can be a very picky eater sometimes, I always fear that cooking too ahead of time will backfire and that I won’t want to eat it on the actual day.

Meal prepping isn’t really about prepping the food ahead of time, I think it’s more about planning how your week is going to go in terms of meals and being conscious of what you’re eating and when. When I was in college, I ate either when I was hungry or bored, but now with meal prepping, I am eating at times and moments when my body needs the energy to sustain a rough work day or a tough work out session. Also with meal prepping comes discipline. It’s being conscious and disciplined about how much to eat and definitely saves from overeating or under-eating. If you noticed, I didn’t include a breakfast meal, this is because I don’t normally eat before 10 am and also after 7 pm. Not only is it important to watch what you eat, but also when! This can help you maximize the calorie intake while also being mindful of your body’s processes. I know it seems daunting at first, but give it a try, start by meal planning for a a few days a week then, slowly transition into the entire week.

P.S. This was a guide on meal planning, I will be including all these recipes next, don’t worry I gotchu! 😊

I hope this was helpful and informative, please feel to reach out to me If you have questions or comments! I’d love to hear from you :)