Meal Prepping Tips for Lunch at Home
Suddenly we are eating lunch at home. Every. Single. Day. Besides the onslaught of dishes ever present, this means we have to dig even deeper into our creativity and energy to eat during the hours most of us used to be out in the world. We thought a little refresher on meal prepping just might ease the lunch frustration. A few years back, our friend Abby took us into her kitchen as she learned to meal prep herself. We hope her tips will encourage you as you’re possibly spending more time eating in than ever before!
Meet Abby
Hi guys! My name is Abby and I'm a native Northeast Tennesseean (Tri-Cities represent!), wife to Stuart Jones, food blogger, wedding & commercial videographer, and dog mom to our goldendoodle, Jeff. I love cookies, pie, and cake (creating them AND eating them), but over the last few years I've also become super passionate about creating healthy dishes for my family and friends. Help You Dwell approached me recently to talk about something that has truly changed mine and my husband's lives for the better in recent months and I'm so excited to share it with all of you!
What is this life changing phenomenon? Meal prepping! I know a lot of you probably cringed when you read that. That's okay! I used to as well. In fact, not only would I cringe, but I would have closed my lap top, thrown it in the trash, and run in the other direction. The struggle was SO real.
How She Got Started
In the almost four years that my husband, Stuart, and I have been married, meal planning and prepping has been something that felt utterly impossible. It has only been in the last six months or so that it starting clicking.
About three months ago, I saw an old high school friend make a Facebook post about meal prepping. Whatever she was doing made me say, “I can so do that! She has a kid and all I have is a dog! I have no excuses.” That was for real my train of thought. So I thought about it a little more, and ran the idea by Stuart. He was in. The idea was to create, prep, and cook meals for a week's worth of lunches. I sat down for about an hour gathering recipe inspiration, the best freeze-proof portion containers, healthy spices, and Costco memberships. Once I felt like I did my due diligence, off to Costco we went. Stuart was overwhelmed, I was in heaven.
Tips for Successful Meal Prepping
That next week marked my first day of meal prepping. We are now going over two months strong, and I can truly say it's only getting better, taste wise and money wise. Here are a few tips/facts as to why meal prepping has been successful for us.
It is true “me” time. I am a hardcore introvert. I need alone time to thrive. Being in the kitchen for me is like therapy, so I made the decision to never make plans on the day that I prep our meals. I just turn on music, or Netflix (currently working through Dawson's Creek. Joey + Dawson 4-ever!), and cook to my heart's content! I've learned that it really helps to make meal prep something you look forward to, and it's never fun to feel rushed when you're cooking such large quantities.
Getting a Costco Membership Changes Lives. Okay, probably a bit dramatic, but it has definitely made a difference for us. We are also a part of a five night a week dinner sharing group with our neighbors, so buying in bulk just makes sense for us. Costco also has some of the best prices for organic produce and meats, and we've seen a huge difference in our budget since shopping there (like saving over $400 a month difference!).
Doing the work on the front end saves you time and money on the back end. This has been our biggest motivation of all. My husband and I are SUPER busy during the week. A lot of the time (read: ALL of the time), if we don't plan ahead, we end up spending money. My husband works next door to one of our favorite local places, so convenience will always win when we don't plan ahead. Since starting our meal prepping, there are multiple weeks where we spend zero money on restaurants during the week. If you know us, you know that is a huge win! It also feels so incredible to know all your lunch time meals are taken care of during the week. All I have to do is go home, pull out a container from the fridge, heat it up, and enjoy.
How to Meal Prep in One Day for a Week’s Worth of Food
Briefly, I would love to share my process for what a typical meal prep day looks like for me.
Since I meal prep on Mondays, I typically do my grocery shopping the weekend before. I also buy enough for two weeks, which also saves on time and gas. Going to the grocery store every week is definitely not my favorite thing.
First thing on Mondays, I pull out any meat that needs to thaw. I buy all my meat in bulk and portion it out when I buy, so I pull out the appropriate amount of each and place it in a bowl of cold water to spend a couple hours thawing.
Once I do that, I put my two bases for my meals: Brown Rice & Quinoa on the stove. I cook for three people, and do 12 meals per week (Tuesday-Friday). That means I make about 2 cups of (dried) brown rice and 1 cup of (dried) quinoa. Then, after they finish cooking, I portion about ¼ cup into each meal container.
While my rice and quinoa boil, I start prepping veggies. I switch this up on the regular, based on whatever is available at Costco and whatever is cheapest and what I want to make. I love carrots and buy a huge 5 lb bag of them at Costco. For six meals, I will roast about two cups of carrots and two cups of another veggie (brussels and green beans are currently my jam). For the other six meals, I typically saute three bell peppers, half of a sweet onion (all of those finely chopped), and two ears of corn (cut off the cob). I season all my veggies with a little bit of kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, Old Bay Seasoning, and Flavor God Seasonings (linked above!) and I saute them in about a tablespoon of coconut oil.
Typically by the time I'm done with prepping and roasting the veggies, my quinoa and brown rice will be done. At this time, with my ¼ measuring cup, I'll divide those into my FitPacker containers. As my veggies finish cooking, I add those into each packer as well.
Now on to the meats! My meat switches every day. This is just preference because Stuart needs variety in his lunch. If you'd rather keep it simple, you can absolutely alternate between just a couple different proteins. I buy the following at Costco in bulk:
Chicken Breasts (12-pack; I use two chicken breast per week)
Ground Beef (4-1.5 lb packs; I use only half of one of these per week)
Wild Caught Shrimp (3 lb bag-about 70-90 shrimp; I use 8 shrimp per person per week)
Thick Cut Bacon (2 lb pack; I use three strips per week)
Spinach Florentine Chicken Sausage (12-pack; I use three sausages per week)
Each of these represents one day a week of meat with the exception of the shrimp and bacon. I combine those together. Shrimp and bacon is ALWAYS a winning combo. Stuart gets visibly excited for shrimp and bacon day.
I season each of these similarly to my veggies.
As each of my meats finishes cooking, I divide them into their containers and place them in the freezer. The night before each day I've prepped, I pull out my lunches for that day and place them in the fridge overnight to start thawing. This way they aren't completely frozen by the time you're ready to enjoy them.
Finally, I prep a few fresh snacks to have during the day. My current go-to's are Watermelon, Baby Bell Cheeses, Pistachios, and Cucumbers. I alternate between these during the week. Along with that, I have been shredding cabbage to add into each meal for a little fresh crunch.
I have also been super into making a sauce to have for each meal. My current favorite recipe is a cilantro dill sauce that I'll include here at the end! Stuart is a sauce FANATIC so this makes him pumped like crazy for lunch time. I also love the organic salsa at Costco, so I'll switch between those. To save on even more time, I buy little 2 oz ramekins from Kroger and divide the sauce up so we can grab and go. So easy and mess free!
You Can Do It!
And that's it! I know this is quite a bit of work on the front end, but trust me when I say that the rest of your week is a BREEZE. One morning/afternoon of prepping for an entire week's worth of meals has been more than worth it for us. If prepping for a week seems too overwhelming for you, I encourage you to try a number of days that is doable for you. Maybe that means only three days. Or maybe you feel so pumped after reading this that you're ready to take on the world of meal prepping and cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a month!! Whichever you decide, I believe in you.
As promised, I will leave you with a recipe to my magic sauce, aka: Cilantro Dill deliciousness. We use this on EVERYTHING and it is truly a magical experience. Enjoy!
Magical Herb Sauce Recipe
Ingredients:
½ cup oil
½ cup water
1 cup chopped green onions
1 cup cilantro leaves
1 cup fresh dill
2-4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black peppermint
½ teaspoon old bay seasoning (optional, but delicious)
juice of 4 limes
½ of one sweet onion, roughly chopped
1 cup greek yogurt
Instructions:
Add all ingredients into a food processor. Pulse until thoroughly blended. Transfer into a sealable bowl or divide into 2 oz ramekins. Store in the fridge. The mix will stay good for up to 2 weeks if refrigerated.
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