If you only eat small portions and don’t like spending time in the kitchen if you can avoid it, you can turn this to your advantage. Simply pick a time to cook a larger amount and store individual portions in the fridge or freezer. This works particularly well with soups, sauces and dishes like ratatouille, for example. Once a common practice known as pre-cooking, it now carries the trendier name “meal prep”. This new old trend offers a host of advantages, allowing you to use produce while it’s still fresh from the market and store it until you want to eat it.
Home-made is healthier and tastier.
Shopping consciously and choosing seasonal produce means you can cook with fresh produce. It also means avoiding processed ready meals. One advantage of meal prep is the certainty of knowing you have delicious, home-made meals waiting for you for the next few days, or even the entire week. But that’s not all: home-made food can often be healthier and tastier, too. Cooking for yourself means you are in control of all the ingredients, that end up on your plate, or in your resealable containers and lunch boxes.
Meal preppers are aware of what they eat.
Cook once and enjoy it for several days. Meal prepping is an ideal solution, especially when you arrive home exhausted after a day at work and would otherwise mindlessly choose pasta with ready-made sauce or a frozen pizza. This is one way meal prepping can help to eat more healthy. After all, if you’re more aware of your food and portion size, you’ll notice sooner when you’re full.
Meal prep prevents food waste.
So, meal prep helps you to save time and eat more healthily. More than that, though, it allows you to do your bit to fight food waste. If you cook two or three portions in advance, there usually won’t be any half-used ingredients left over. Instead, you might even be able to freeze a little stockpile for those hectic, stressful days.
Meal prep saves money and packaging.
Meal prep is also more cost-effective. If you buy lunch from a café or get it delivered, you’ll end up paying much more. And, if you order a takeaway or opt for convenience food, you’ll also have to contend with far more packaging. The example of meal prep shows that, by taking even small steps, you can live more sustainably and prevent waste from leftover food and packaging.
Make space
Create the storage space you need.
Space is an important factor when it comes to meal prepping. If you’re sharing a small fridge and a tiny freezer compartment with your flatmate and only have a tiny food shelf, you might face some difficulties. Cooking ahead for the entire week? Out of the question! Consider how and where you can store your prepped meals before you make them. For example, a cellar could be a good solution.
Basics
Make sure you have the basic meal prep equipment.
Good preparation includes having a good stock of food in tins, resealable containers or glass jars. We recommend keeping a stock of rice, pasta, millet, porridge oats, cous cous, bulgur, onions, garlic, nuts, quality oils, a range of spices, mustard and soy sauce.
Planning
Organise your week and find recipes.
Something else worth mentioning when it comes to preparation: consider what you want to eat that week before you storm the supermarket. Flick through your cookbooks or browse the internet; check out the Braun recipe library to find some inspiration. Ideally, you should plan your week so that you can make full use of any leftovers. For example, you might plan two rice-based dishes so you only have to cook rice once. Checking your calendar might help, too. Have you agreed to go out for dinner at all this week?
Shopping
Choosing food more carefully.
Another upside to meal prep is, that if you take the time to focus on planning, shopping and meal prepping, you’ll automatically give your food the attention it deserves. Instead of just picking up the first thing you see, you can focus more on carefully selecting food that’s fresh, organic and local. This way, you’ll only buy what you really need and end up reducing or even eliminating food waste. Plus, shopping like this is far more pleasant than rushing through the aisles at the end of the day.
Cooking
Schedule a fixed cooking session each week.
So, how long does it take to cook meals for several days? Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take more than 2-3 hours per week. It’s best to give your meal prep session a fixed slot in your weekly schedule. This makes it easier to get into a routine that you might even enjoy or find relaxing. Only having to wash up once will save you a heap of time, too. Ideally, you should cook dishes with shared preparation steps. For example, if you need potatoes for different meals, you could cook them all together in a big pot. This will also save energy. If you want to use tomatoes in several dishes, simply distribute them across your various lunch boxes or containers.
Ingrédients
Des repas variés
Légumes de saison. Parmi les options idéales : carottes (par exemple en crudités), potirons (cuits avec de l'huile et des épices), courgettes (rôties), tomates (tomates cerises à grignoter), aubergines (rôties), brocolis (cuits à la vapeur), poivrons (crus ou rôtis) et avocats.
Les glucides fournissent de l'énergie. Parmi les sources savoureuses : les pommes de terre, les patates douces, le riz, les pâtes (idéalement complètes), le millet, le quinoa, la graine de couscous et le boulgour.
Les protéines constituent un élément important de tout repas et vous aident à rester rassasié. Vous les trouverez : la viande, le poisson, le tofu, les légumes secs, le fromage blanc, le yaourt et les œufs cuits.
Des dips/sauces pour donner une touche de saveur supplémentaire à vos repas préparés. Nous vous recommandons : la sauce tomate ou le ketchup, la sauce avec des herbes, le pesto, le houmous et le guacamole.
Les glucides fournissent de l'énergie. Parmi les sources savoureuses : les pommes de terre, les patates douces, le riz, les pâtes (idéalement complètes), le millet, le quinoa, la graine de couscous et le boulgour.
Les protéines constituent un élément important de tout repas et vous aident à rester rassasié. Vous les trouverez : la viande, le poisson, le tofu, les légumes secs, le fromage blanc, le yaourt et les œufs cuits.
Des dips/sauces pour donner une touche de saveur supplémentaire à vos repas préparés. Nous vous recommandons : la sauce tomate ou le ketchup, la sauce avec des herbes, le pesto, le houmous et le guacamole.
Contenants et boîtes
Des moyens pratiques de conserver vos repas préparés.
Après la cuisson, vous devez répartir vos portions dans différents récipients refermables, boîtes et bocaux en verre. Dans la mesure du possible, utilisez des récipients allant au micro-ondes afin de ne pas avoir à transvaser les aliments pour les réchauffer. Optimisez le rangement malin en empilant les récipients et les ranger de manière pratique dans votre réfrigérateur et votre congélateur. Il existe également de nombreux moyens de transporter vos aliments en toute sécurité, comme des bocaux en verre aux boîtes à lunch ultra-pratiques avec des sections individuelles, ou encore des bouteilles Thermos pour garder votre soupe au chaud.
Vinaigrettes et sauces
Superposez bien vos ingrédients pour plus de saveurs.
L'idéal est de conserver les sauces à salade dans un récipient séparé ou dans un petit bocal. Vous éviterez ainsi que la vinaigrette n'imbibe les feuilles de salade. Les dips et autres sauces sont également plus savoureux lorsqu'ils sont ajoutés au reste du plat juste avant la dégustation. De plus, nous vous conseillons de placer les fruits frais, les feuilles de salade et les légumes en haut.
Préparez vos repas : Réjouissez-vous de rentrer à la maison.
Il est facile de préparer de grandes quantités de soupes et de ragoûts. Ils se congèlent très bien, ce qui vous évite de manger le même repas toute la semaine. De plus, en ajoutant divers ingrédients et garnitures tels que des croûtons, des graines ou de la crème fraîche, vous pouvez préparer plusieurs versions différentes de soupes ou de salades en un rien de temps. Vous en verrez les avantages lorsque vous rentrerez chez vous le soir suivant et que vous aurez déjà un repas sain et fait maison prêt à être consommé. Il en va de même pour vos pauses déjeuner au travail.
Did you know?
Isn’t meal prep just a fancy name for an old idea? After all, our parents and grandparents planned meals in advance and cooked ahead. The new aspect of this food trend, which originated in the USA, is the holistic approach to nutrition and sustainability in relation to food. However, meal prepping originated on the fitness scene. It was created as a means of keeping tracking of exactly what a person was eating and in what quantities.
Our recipes and the Braun MQ series makes it all easier.
Want to become a meal prepper? Maybe you’re already experienced with meal prep but are looking for the right recipes? Well, how about a red lentil soup? You can find many more recipes in our recipe database. And, to help make meal prep even more fun and get all the peeling, stirring and mixing done in no time at all, check out the MQ series from Braun. Find out more.
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