What is Meal Prepping?

You often hear it coming by, meal prepping. It is especially popular in the sports world. This will be a familiar concept for many. Not for you yet? Then we are happy to explain this to you. Meal prepping can make life a lot easier!

Let’s start at the beginning. Because what exactly is meal prepping? Meal prepping is all about preparing meals for one or more days in advance. This can be a healthy evening meal, a tasty lunch or maybe even a nutritious breakfast, such as overnight oats. With meal prepping you can choose to spend one day fanatically in the kitchen and immediately prepare all meals for the whole week. Or you can take it a little easier and prepare part of a meal, such as a tasty pasta sauce. After all, you can approach meal prepping completely, the way you want it.

The benefits of meal prepping

If you ask us, meal prepping only offers benefits. Have you not started preparing your meals in advance? Then read on to find out more about the benefits of meal prepping, but especially for our handy tips!

1. You save time

The biggest advantage of meal prepping is the time it saves. Work, sports, hobbies, fun outings and other obligations: a week is often so full. Shopping and cooking do not fit well into the schedule on many days. Meal prepping prevents this problem. This way you can enjoy a healthy meal quickly and easily after a busy day. You no longer have to choose between exercising or preparing a healthy meal, but you can do both!

In this case, you should of course take extra time once or twice a week to prepare the meals. But trust us, once this is in your system, you will benefit from it for the rest of the week!

2. You eat healthier

Meal prepping also makes it easier to eat healthy. Because healthy meals are waiting for you in the fridge or freezer, there is less temptation to go for something easy at the last minute, such as quickly ordering a pizza in the oven or an unhealthy meal. In addition, you can no longer use the excuse that you are missing oneingredient, which prevents you from preparing that one healthy meal. Everything is ready for you and all you need to do is warm up. Meal prepping is also the ideal tool for those who are on a diet to combat tasty temptations!

3. You save money

In addition to time, you also save money. As we said before, the temptation to order food is less. This can save you a lot of money. In addition, many of the people with meal prepping prepare a meal for several people and then divide it into containers for several days that can go into the freezer. This allows you to buy everything in larger quantities and easily save a few euros per week!

4. Do it the way you want it

Meal prepping can be done in different ways. You can only prepare your lunch or dinner for the next two days, but you can also choose to prepare all meals for the coming week every Sunday. You can also prepare part of the meal. For example, only prepare the sauce in advance and cook or bake the vegetables, pasta or rice on the day itself. In short, meal prepping can be done entirely according to your wishes. This will probably take some getting used to in the beginning, but you will find your way here!

Our tips for meal prepping

If you are just starting meal prepping, we are happy to help you on your way! Therefore, our most important tips for meal prepping at a glance:

#1 Use stickers

When you take up meal prepping fanatically, you will (most likely) automatically come to the next question: how do you recognize that one meal in that overflowing freezer and which meals are still in the freezer at all? A meal frozen in a container is slightly less easy to recognize. Our tip? Use stickers, post-its or other types of labels. Here you enter the date of freezing and the name of the dish or ingredient. This way you never get the wrong thing and you always know how long the dish has been in the freezer.

#2 Not too long outside the fridge

Do not leave the meals you have just prepared out of the refrigerator for too long. To minimize the chance of bacteria, a good rule of thumb is a maximum of two hours outside the refrigerator. Is your food still too warm to put in the fridge at that moment? Then you can speed up the cooling process by placing the container in cold water.

#3 Make use of the freezer

Does it take longer than two days to eat the meal? Then it is best to store your meal prep in the freezer. This way the food stays good and tasty for longer! Then take the food out of the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge. That way it will be thawed again by the time you want to heat it up. Did you forget to take the meal out of the freezer? Then you can of course also use the defrost setting on the microwave. Then heat the meal well in a pan or the microwave and enjoy a healthy meal quickly and easily. Enjoy your meal!