Meal prep is a new way of thinking about and preparing your meals in advance. It can include planning your grocery list based on the meals and snacks you plan to make or it can mean actually prepping parts of those upcoming meals.
Its benefits are said to include sticking to your food budget, helping you eat the foods you buy (fewer gross leafy greens in the back of the crisper drawer) and taking some of the stress out of the weekday mealtimes.
People use meal prepping to build up a new food habit, like including protein at lunchtime, and having it prepared and ready to go may help them achieve that. For many of us it may help meet that longtime goal of “being better organized this year” as the September energy gets flowing.
The first step of meal planning is finding your food inspiration. Many people are finding their meal ideas online. Instagram has a wealth of recipes in the form of reels demonstrating ways to make use of a new ingredient or to revamp an old recipe. As well, a quick Google of “meal prep” brings up numerous cookbooks designed with weekend meal-prepping in mind.
You can use any recipe or favourite food in your meal planning, of course, and you don’t need to have five, cute, matching glass containers to put your five matching salads in either. One cookbook that has both great recipes and is cost-effective is Leeann Brown’s 'Good and Cheap' or her follow-up cookbook 'Good Enough.'
Planning your weekly meals can be as simple as having specific food nights like the well-known 'meatless Monday” or 'taco Tuesday.' Knowing it’s
pasta night may be all you need to ensure you have ingredients on hand for family’s favourite pasta with Alfredo sauce and broccoli.
However, you might be meal planning in an effort to try out a new pasta and your meal planning may require having the recipe handy and the new ingredients on the grocery list. If it’s a complicated dish, you might even need to prep some or all of the dish in advance, especially if you’re serving it on a busy weeknight.
Planning and preparing your food at home does not exclude you from the joy of take-out food.
In fact, planning for take-out night can help with the cost. By being intentional in food planning you can include the joy of intentional take out in your budget. Several agencies in Guelph are offering delicious take-out meals that help our whole community. Consider picking up dinner from FEWD (Food Equity with Dignity). They serve two nights a week in various locations around Guelph.
Food is available free or at a pay-hat-you-can price. Check them out to find their locations at www.FEWD.ca
Similarly, the Better Food Company provides a restaurant-quality meal produced by a local chef in conjunction with Hope House’s community chef, Kay Miller, and her volunteers. Most recently, chef Victoria Blow from Tempo prepared Japanese curry and sticky rice. With the option to order meals for yourself and also community members is brilliant.
Enjoy these offerings as a way to include a treat in your meal planning while sharing good food with your fellow Guelphites.
