5 Helpful Tips for Meal Prep Beginners

Print blog View comments (0)

Meal prep is a way of preparing and serving food that saves anyone a lot of time. The meals are cooked in advance, served in containers, put in the fridge, and reheated for when you want them.

It is a convenient process that can be done with nearly any food you like. Want to try meal prepping? Here are some tips to get you started.

Get the Right Equipment

There are no specific tools one uses for meal prepping. This depends on your desired meals and how many portions and servings you prepare. However, there are still items you must have when preparing several servings to last you a week or two.

The best examples are lunchboxes or similarly sized containers. This is, of course, where you can store your portioned meals. You can also opt for aluminum wraps. Bigger pots and pans are also a must-have if you want to practice meal prepping for the long term. If you are particular about portions, you can, for instance, get a scale to ensure decent portions of ingredients.

You can even use less common kitchen tools or even non-kitchen tools that you have as well, as long as it helps. Items like steamers, food storage freezers, or even an industrial scale (if you want to try prepping for a big family) could work, whichever your situation calls for.

Ultimately, getting the best items for your prepping depends on your preference and which one you find most convenient. Moreover, it is with good technique that you can effectively utilize your tools well.

Be Familiar With The Procedures and Techniques

Before you start meal prepping, you must learn how to do it. There is more than one way to prepare and store your meals due to the variety of dishes. And depending on the food, you will have to take into account how to cook it, where you can store it, and for how long it can be kept.

So if you want to know how to start meal prepping, the internet is your friend. Many websites provide tutorials on meal prep and even recipes for different kinds of food, perhaps even your favorite ones.

Learn Safe Food Handling

Preparing your food ahead of time for a couple of days sounds easy to do, but one should always still exercise caution. A crucial component any meal prepper should look out for is the quality of the meal. Certain foods may not last long, even in the fridge, so it helps to know how you can safely handle your ingredients.

Again, you can always find pointers on safe food handling online. Many verified sites have safety tips to ensure your food is safe to consume within days.

Plan Out Your Meals

There is a lot more planning in meal prep than you’d expect. One doesn’t just immediately cook large portions of food to save for days. You have to decide what dishes you would like to cook and have for the next few days. This makes for an overall efficient meal prep process.

Besides what dishes you want to have, you also need to determine a schedule. How many days would you want to prep for? How many dishes will there be? Which dishes will be consumed on which day? How many portions of food will you be storing?

Once you’ve planned out, you can then purchase the ingredients if you haven’t and start cooking them. This is especially true if you cook for two or more days’ worth and if the meal prep is for more than one person.

Start Small

If you’re starting on meal prep, take the easy way first. Don’t go all-out the first time; you can try prepping minimally, like cooking for a day or two’s worth. Begin trying if you could prepare for a day’s worth, and then try for another day. If you successfully manage this and think you can go for a few more days, you can extend the number of days for your meal prep.