Chef’s Tips: Easy Meal Preparation, for Busy Days.
When you take time to plan, meal preps take no time at all! It’s simple, there’s no need to get too technical about meal prep, by strategically filling your kitchen and doing a little bit of effort ahead of time, you’ll be able to enjoy homecooked meals throughout the week with minimal work.
1. Fresh Herbs? Wash ASAP!
Wash herbs as soon as you get them from the grocery shop: At the end of cooking, right before serving, when you’re rushing to get to the table, fresh herbs are frequently used. A fantastic way to save time is to grab pre-washed herbs and quickly chop them.
2. Stock Your Grains & Beans
Stock up quick cooking grains and canned beans: When combined with a protein or one of your freezer sauces, quick-cooking grains like rice, quinoa, and couscous may be the foundation of healthful, filling meals. Adding the canned beans is also a wonderful side that gives colour to your dish and balances your meal.
3- Pre-Chop Your Veggies!
Pre-shop the vegetables you use frequently and store them in containers or plastic bags in the refrigerator until ready to use.
4- Spice Up Your Pantry: Grab Mix Blends!
Stock up mixed spice blends: It takes time to measure out the spices for your favourite recipes. Measure out the spices you’ll need ahead of time if you have a few on hand. You may even make spice blends ahead of time and keep them in containers or jars for three to six months.
5- The Best Hack For Maximum Flavor
Pre-marinate your chicken: Add a chicken breast, spices, salt, and a little olive oil or the pre-made dressing to a plastic bag with one of your stocked up spice blends or pre-bottled dressing. Massage the spices and oil into the bag, then place it in the freezer for up to three months. When you’re ready to cook the chicken, simply take it out from the freezer and put it on the grill or in the oven.
6- Pre-Shred Some Cheese!
Pre-shred some cheese: For extremely busy weeknights, having some shredded cheese on hand is a lifesaver. You could buy pre-shredded cheese; however, the convenience food is frequently more expensive than whole block of cheese. As an alternative, you can purchase a block of cheese, shred it yourself, and store it in airtight containers or plastic bags for quick usage.
Finally, Meal prepping is very popular these days for a good reason, it’s one of the simplest ways to fit healthy eating into a busy week while also saving time. If the idea of meal prep makes you think of it as spending most of your weekend in the kitchen, chef’s here to change that idea. You can meal-prep a week’s worth of lunches in as little as 20 minutes with the use of a few healthy grocery store convenience products, canned beans and corn, grains, frozen protein, and bottled dressing.
