Meal prep HAS to change every week to ensure your family eats the healthy foods that you’re cooking.
If you don’t change it up…
Your kids will get bored eating the same foods
You’ll get bored as well
And your feeling of satisfaction from making these healthy foods will go down.
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Anyway, last week (here’s the blog post) we went over some basics of Meal prep, but in a recent meal prep for myself I changed it up.
Tip 1: Rotate Your Proteins
You can’t just cook chicken and ground beef every week. Even with new spices and cooking styles, you will start to hate chicken and hamburgers all the time.
For my meal prep day (usually Sundays) I bought meats people don’t usually get.
(And with the market SWAMPED with customers, it can make your life easier)
The two proteins I got were:
Pork chop (lean, healthy and full of protein, like chicken breast)
Flanks Steak (so so tasty and quite lean for steak vs rib eye or NY cuts)
Other proteins I could have gotten include:
Ground turkey (makes great turkey meatballs)
Salmon (nice flavor difference, especially with a teriyaki sauce)
And other proteins could be (for vegetarians)
Falafel (Ground chick peas with herbs that are lightly baked)
Tofu (really good with a teriyaki glaze)
Get creative with your proteins!
Tip 2: Combine cooking style at the same time to increase efficiency
If you JUST cook on the stovetop, you’ll take up a lot of space.
But what if you added your own, grill and even a rice cooker?
Cooking strategically makes your life easier!
Here’s how I did it a few days ago.
Grill: Lots of sliced zucchinis
Pan: Bell peppers and onions cooking together
Oven: Roasting cauliflower
It was a little tricky, tracking it all, but with multiple timers nothing got overcooked
Imagine if I tried to use the stovetop to make everything, it’d take forever!
Tip 3: You don’t need to cook your carbs
In a meal prep session, if I have more time, I’ll cook a variety of carbs
These include:
Wild rice with garlic in a pot
Roasted russet potato fries
Grilled, crusty bread with a bit of olive oil
However when I’m in a time crunch, and just have 1 hour, I skip the carbs.
Why?
Just use storebought carbs like:
- Sliced Bread, to make sandwiches
- Tortillas, to make quesadillas
- Pita, to make wraps with a bit of tzatziki
- Sourdough loaves, to slice and broil for a quick garlic bread (just put fresh garlic and a bit of cheese, so good and easy!)
During my most recent meal prep, my family had FOOD for the week that was done in 1 hour.
I did it by myself (but got help with the cleanup 🙂 and it didn’t take long.
However I was strategic, and that made all the difference.
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Eat well,
Chef Eric
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