Article by: Samreen Ayesha
People nowadays are switching to healthy eating and when you talk about healthy eating, there’s one strategy that works every time and that is ‘planning ahead’. Therefore, meal preps in one way that saves your time and energy during the day.
People usually do meal prep a little bit differently. Instead of preparing the same meals for five days of the week, it’s better to prepare individual ingredients all at once. Then, you can use it for the rest of the week. This saves you a heap of time in the kitchen for the entire week and yet gives you far more variety to eat healthy and delicious at the same time.
However, that’s not the only way. If you want to save more energy and time, then another option is to get ‘Dinnerly Promo Codes’ – affordable yet healthy meal kits that only charge you for the meal preps they would do for you.
With plenty of ingredients placed in your fridge, all it takes is a little creativity to combine them with fresh produce or items that you have in your pantry for healthy meals that take less than five minutes in your day to prepare. Using this way to meal prep will have greater variety, your tummy will be happy and you will still save time in the kitchen. So, let’s dive in.
Planning Before You Start…
Instead of directly starting on your Sunday, do your homework first. This includes getting all the ingredients out and ready and jotting down a few notes like what you plan to make, any appliances you will need and how long will it take to prepare or gather the ingredients. This can also help you if you have missed out on any item, you can get it beforehand.
1. Roasted Veggies
It’s too easy to toss a bunch of veggies into a baking tray and cook them. Roasting vegetables is easy but you need to choose the veggies that take the same amount of time to cook. The popular that usually people add on their list and you can too be onions, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels, sprouts, carrots, beets, potatoes/sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and mushrooms. It takes about 25-35 minutes at 425 Fahrenheit degrees in an oven.
By Ella Olsson
Once everything is sliced into evenly sliced pieces, drizzle with a little olive oil or avocado oil while seasoning with salt n pepper and giving it a good toss. Transfer these veggies to storage containers and keep them in the fridge.
2. Gluten-Free Sweet Potato
Photo by Anastasia Belousova
This is the best alternatives if you want to add some gluten-free ingredients to your diet. Slice sweet potatoes and bake them for 45 minutes in the oven. Once baked, make sure they are cool before transferring them to the air-tight container as they will have quite a bit of moisture and you don’t want it to get too soggy. To absorb any excess moisture, you can add a paper towel at the bottom of the container. However, the simple matter to this ingredient is that sweet potatoes will be soft once you reheat them. so, make sure you are okay with that before you add it to your ultimate ingredient list.
3. Herb Baked Protein
After vitamins are sourced from vegetables, it’s essential to get some protein into your daily diet. When it comes to easy yet delicious cooking, this should be one of your go-to options. Since it takes less time and gives you great flavors in your chicken.
Photo by Alleksana
Coat both sides of the chicken with avocado oil and season with pepper and salt. Sprinkle in your favorite herbs and spices that could include oregano, rosemary, thyme, basil, and of course parsley for garnishing. This whole mix of herbs gives your chicken great flavors and you can enjoy this with veggies during the whole week. However, feel free to get creative. Once the chicken is done, place the chicken in a glass bowl container in the desired pieces that you have cut.
4. White Rice Starch
Photo by Alesia Kozik
In terms of starch or grain, you can use white rice or even brown rice depending on your digestive system. As a substitute, you can always use brown rice, quinoa, lentils, etc. boil the rice as how you like to make it.
5. Eggs on the Go
Photo by Karolina Grabowska
The next ingredient is a great source of protein is eggs and this should be a must on your list. Since egg contains all essential and non-essential proteins, therefore, eating the whole egg without removing egg yolk or white from it is one ingredient that should be on your meal prep list. It’s up to you whether you want to peel the eggs now or leave them for later. Keep it in a glass lock container so that it remains fresh for the rest of the week.
6. Almond Butter
Photo by Marta Branco
Rest four cups of almonds for 10 minutes, letting them cool and blending them high for one minute. If you do that, you will have ultra-creamy smooth homemade butter. If you are still not able to get that creamy texture, you can add half a tablespoon of almond oil and blend it again. This will definitely give you a creamy texture and you can keep it in an airtight jar and use it any time of the week.
7. Homemade Hummus
Photo by Naim Benjelloun
You can also get the peas into the grinder and make fresh homemade hummus. Hummus already has its flavor so you do not need to add major flavors. All you need to do is to add garlic powder, salt n pepper. Be ready to get creative with it. Keep it in an airtight container, as well.
8. Carrots and Celery Sticks
Photo by Polina Tankilevitch
One of the best things to scoop up hummus is celery and carrot sticks. It’s easy and efficient to chop a bunch of celery and carrot sticks and keep them inside the jar. You can even eat this in a combination of peanut butter. If you store them in a jar with cold water, they will also stay fresh for 7 days, if not longer.
9. Zucchini Noodles
They are so versatile and can be used as the main ingredient with a Bolognese sauce or as a salad with light cucumber sauce. They also stay fresh for up to five days in a sealed container.
Cheers to the winning combination of healthy ingredients that we have learned so far. Hope it’s useful to you!
Article by: Samreen Ayesha
